You know how games use to come on a dvd or a big brick called a cartridge… Can i do something like that but in modern day. I have a bunch of blank dvd and cds collecting dust and linux os’s but could i put game son them on installers and give them some cool art? Is there a better way to do this? This would also be for personal use cases.
Im just not sure how well save files would be handled, or if this is worth doing.
Get your games as GOG Offline Installers. Burn them onto M-Disc Media. Supposed to last 1000 years. Terribly slow to burn at the suggested x4 speed but after it’s done you got it forever! Then if you’re really serious, use the 3-2-1 rule with 3 copies, on at least 2 different media, and with 1 stored off-site.
Not all games work without DRM, but some do, for example you can find your Stardew Valley files and just copy the folder onto anywhere else, and run the executable from another device, and it just works.
I don’t know if it is what you’re asking, but you just made me think of a bootable DVD or USB with a linux distro with the bare minimum to run well the one game installed.
That would be cool.
Okay, that’s legitimately one of the best ideas I’ve ever heard online.
Not exactly bare minimum but something like Recalbox?
No, I was thinking about a bootable USB stick with a linux distro like those you use to try the distro before installation but with wine/proton and one game preinstalled. Everything non essential for the game stripped away. You could even make the game to start right away to make it feel like plugging a cartridge in a console.
Oh, I see. That sounds great, and fun (preparing the distro part). And it will probably be future-proof as well since it will be intact for the game.
I like this idea.
You can use brasso to burn ISO’s of the games.
Steam used to have a game backup function. Not sure if its there anymore or if it would even work without steam.
Steam’s backup option is still there, and it can break the game files up into CD or DVD sized chunks for this exact purpose.
You do need to have Steam installed for the discs to work later.
Good to know that the info I gave was correct. Thanks for the confirmation!
I miss the cartridge days too but this is not so practical anymore. Also you’ll get the best results with DRM-free games, whatever you decide.
What I would do is, buying a big HDD and fill it with installers. You can put cover images on/as folders if you want.
For save files, build a sync structure on a server (local one would be more feasible with something like syncthing). You can do that with Nextcloud or Dropbox etc. as well.
Modern games are far too large to fit onto CDs and DVDs. The Witcher 3 was released on DVD and there were over 10 DVDs in the case.
On Blu-Ray you have a better chance, but that’s a lot more expensive.
If you stick to smaller games you can make it work, and just write a simple batch/bash script to auto-launch the installer.
There’s also a good chance those old Discs you have laying around won’t actually work anymore. Discs rot even in an un-burned state.
Should also mention that some games stream assets from the drive they’re installed on and will perform much worse if they’re being streamed from a disk. Also if you have it installed on read only media you’re kind of fucked once you need to update.
If your collection is in GOG or itch.io, yes you can do that. But I don’t think there’s a good practical way to do it with Steam games.
Jc141 does compress games in a wine wrapper for ready use on Linux using dwarFS. I could see those working for this is it’s a steam only release. So if you put in the work yourself to do something similar then maybe so. I think must be including Goldberg emulator or something in there to keep them running without steam.
It’s the same thing as before. You copy the files onto the floppy/cd/dvd/bluray/thumbdrive/external hard drive, etc.
You need to preserve the file structure. So the game will look in the same place for save files. Be it on your computer or somewhere else.
I think the easiest way to do this is to download pirate version of game even if you have it in Steam or wherever, because pirated version is by design will be a standalone installer that works without any kind of platform originally used for game’s distribution. If there is no pirate version, if this is some lesser known indie game from itch, perhaps even a free one, that comes as an archive with exectutable. And you want to spice things up still, by creating installer with art or whatever, you might look into installer creation tools like innosetup for example.
