It ran fine on Linux with Wine, though... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The good olde UFO Afterlight works perfectly without Steamclient.
Just find the EXE in the Steam install and create a link.

Dungeons of Hell

https://store.steampowered.com/app/722990/Dungeons_of_Hell/

and Iesabel

https://store.steampowered.com/app/248710/Iesabel/

are completely free of Steam contamination.

Windows7-32 as always.

Distrust can be played without Steam using the Steam_appid.txt (635200) trick.

Savegames and multi language working fine. Tested on Win7/64.

Aaand another breaking news.

Depths of Fear: Knossos

https://store.steampowered.com/app/252570/Depths_of_Fear__Knossos/

FIVE: Guardians of David

https://store.steampowered.com/app/387010/FIVE_Guardians_of_David/

and FIVE: Champions of Canaan

https://store.steampowered.com/app/492870/FIVE_Champions_of_Canaan/

are completely free of Steam contamination and work out of the box.


Windows7-32 as always.

It seems that both Silent Storm and Silent Storm Sentinels can run without the Steam client. Tested on WinXP/32 (Yeah, Steam’s gonna lock me out of my Steam library very soon, because I can’t afford a new PC for newer OS, sigh...)

First post here (and very likely the last, since...sorry, something just got into my eye). Hope I didn’t do it wrong.

EDIT: just remember, all titles from the Commandos series, except Commandos: Beyond the Call of Duty, include a legacy version which can be run without Steam client.

Okay, we're all updated again! A huge thanks to muntdefems for adding all of the Linux stuff to the wiki as it was found; that made things a lot easier. Also, yes, please continue to post those finding here, as well, so we know what's been added and when.

I know that Valve is dropping support for Windows XP, but no matter what they say, I can't see the client just completely ceasing to work on the OS. Even if they release an update that kills the client on XP, you can still back up an Offline Mode-enabled client to keep it working; that's what I've done with my Steam client, just so I know that I'll be able to play games that require Steam in the future, regardless of the initial online requirements. That said, it is really ridiculous that they'd do any of this in the first place, though; drop support, fine, but there's no reason to just kill your entire library.

I've posted the methods I use to play Steam games offline here:
https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=60670&hilit=steam&start=120#p716765

This currently covers almost all of my Steam games except for a few I haven't tested yet.

Indeed, guys, I also feel that dropping support is one thing while cutting the access to your whole library is totally another.

And yeah, I've been trying to find a way to at least keep all the games that I've already owned working, but I have no clue as to how to back up an archived version of the client. My plan was just to download the "most important" games, and then when 2019 comes, cut the internet before opening the client and then switch it to offline mode. It's probably too stupid, but I knew no better way by my own.

Thank you guys again, I will try the methods you suggest.

EDIT: checked the link, and it's somewhat comforting to find out there are still people like me who care about the incident. Previously, when I was looking for a solution, what I found was mostly indifferent statements like "Oh, I'm surprised Steam haven't done it yet. They really should've done it years ago." (Well, not that it's super evil for them to say that or so, but indeed it doesn't feel so cool replying with something like this to an OP that cares about this incident)

Backing up the Steam client is pretty easy, because it's actually completely portable: You literally need to just zip the entire installation folder. Yeah, that's honestly it. Any games that you want to keep that don't have extra DRM (Denuvo, Uplay, etc.) will all work as long as they've been downloaded and run at least one time each; if Steam shows that the games are installed, then you're golden. You can even copy/paste it to another machine with the same OS, and it'll work.

If you don't want to put in your email and password every time you start it, put it into Offline Mode before you back it up, and also back up HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Valve\Steam\AutoLoginUser and HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Valve\Steam\RememberPassword from your Windows registry; run a Steam client backup, cancel out at the login screen, make sure it's totally gone in Task Manager, and add the registry keys back to re-enable Offline Mode, and no password will be necessary anymore (all of your login info is stored locally in the Steam installation folder that you will have backed up).

Thanks a lot! I'll try it.

I have found one problem with that, especially in terms of portability. I have found that games like Shenmue and Race Driver (I'm sure there are more games) require .DLL files that are on the computer (syswow64?) rather than in the Steam installation folder. I am experimenting with copying them over and seeing whether they play nice and I'm hoping this is remedied by simply installing the visual studio c++ files again along with Direct X files but installing games from their installs is the best way to go about it, but unfortunately, Steam fails to provide those as its backup solutions are entirely dependent upon installing the client as well. This will definitely work for a lot of games, it's just a problem that I've run into and is notable.

Sigh...if only they just provide us a legacy version or so...

Smartsteamemu and similar is the best you're going to get: https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=60670&p=716765#p716765

Valve, Publishers and devs already have your money.