Doom and Steam

If I buy Doom or Doom 2 with Steam, is there a port sold with it? Can I run another port? Can I play with PWADs? Do I download the IWAD?

Sorry, I posted this in the wrong forum. Can a moderator move it? thanks.

No, yes, yes, yes.

Thank you.

ZDoom (and derived: GZDoom, Skulltag) can find the various Doom/Heretic/Hexen iwads in their Steam folders, so you don't even need to install the port in the Steam directory, or copy/move the iwads. I don't know if other ports do that as well.

Make sure to copy the iwads. Make backups on flashdrive or something. And make them all read-only.

Catoptromancy said:

Make sure to copy the iwads. Make backups on flashdrive or something. And make them all read-only.

Afraid Steam will delete them automatically?

I don't have Steam and I do that :p

It just ensures that the IWADs won't be altered in any way by any app, such as the XWE beta, without disabling a nasty feature it has, those old add-ons that try to modify the IWAD, or one's own careless meddling.

On the rare occasions I need to modify an IWAD, I make a copy to edit, where I remove the attribute.

Gez said:

ZDoom (and derived: GZDoom, Skulltag) can find the various Doom/Heretic/Hexen iwads in their Steam folders, so you don't even need to install the port in the Steam directory, or copy/move the iwads. I don't know if other ports do that as well.

Chocolate Doom does this as well; it will also find IWADs installed from the CD versions.

Gez said:

Afraid Steam will delete them automatically?

It's a perfectly reasonable paranoia. Although it's most likely that if Steam is taken down, you'll get an advance warning so you backup your games, Valve has no obligation to do any such thing and if Steam does go down without notice... you'll find yourself without your games if you didn't take a proactive backup measure.

I have my id games from Steam backed up to a DVD-R :-)

They can't delete stuff outside their own (Steam) folders, so putting copies elsewhere should be enough as far as that paranoia is concerned.

Why should they want to take it down? If they would do this, they will never have a customer again. As long as they have paying customers, I don't see this happen anytime soon.

myk said:

They can't delete stuff outside their own (Steam) folders, so putting copies elsewhere should be enough as far as that paranoia is concerned.

Since they can update the Steam software anytime, they basically could do anything they want with your computer. But I don't think they would for the same reason as they don't take Steam down.

Steam certainly isn't my first choice, due to DRM applied to most of the software, but they do have some hard to get titles for little money.
The best download platform is GOG, imho. A pity the list of available game is still rather short compared to the competitors.

LogicDeLuxe said:

Why should they want to take it down? If they would do this, they will never have a customer again.

Continuing the analogy I started here - Steam might be Jack's Poland. :-)

Wasn't really implying that Valve would shut Steam down by their own will (with the possible exception of rolling over a newer content delivery/DRM system, in which case I'd expect them to transfer all your existing games to the new system...), but more on the idea of Valve going bankrupt. We are in a recession you know, and while I don't really have an idea of how well off Valve is financially, if they are going down, Steam is with it. (and it's not exactly like they're quick about making new games... except for Left 4 Dead 2 (heh, an entirely brand new series coming up in the time since Half Life 2 Ep 2 and still waiting on Ep 3....))

LogicDeLuxe said:

Since they can update the Steam software anytime

Provided the Steam client is running.

LogicDeLuxe said:

they basically could do anything they want with your computer.

Only in directories where the Steam client has write access. The much-maligned UAC in Vista would prevent them from affecting any other Program Files\ subdirectory.

Steam engines with red hot pollution may make some good dooming collision actually...

If Steam was suddenly shut down by any means, they won't find the time to delete anything, nor would they have any reason to.
And any company which cares for customers would offer patches which enables you to play their games without Steam (not for Doom, but DRM infected titles, that is). The companies selling their games via Steam would be annoyed just as much as the consumers if it went down, and they certainly will look for a solution. Not that I expect such a scenario anytime soon.

I guess, Steam is Valves most important income since many companies are using it. Valves own games are probably only a tiny fraction of their business. Thus, I really don't care if there will be another Half-Life or anything.

LogicDeLuxe said:
Since they can update the Steam software anytime, they basically could do anything they want with your computer. But I don't think they would for the same reason as they don't take Steam down.

Technically, of course, at least without considering what Gez noted, but I'm talking about what companies do not do to avoid the possibility of being sued by users or by the developers of other products running on users' computers. The usual policy is to avoid touching anything outside the folders of their product, or any things they didn't add to system folders or files. Anti-virus or anti-malware products excepted, naturally, as long as their deletions are security-related.

LogicDeLuxe said:

And any company which cares for customers would offer patches which enables you to play their games without Steam (not for Doom, but DRM infected titles, that is). The companies selling their games via Steam would be annoyed just as much as the consumers if it went down, and they certainly will look for a solution.

No, most of them wouldn't. Offering patches takes money, which for many developers is a scarce resource, not to mention that often patches need to be ran through publisher Q&A and I'm sure most publishers wouldn't be symphatetic to wasting money on providing Steam-free patches for old games. What there might be is under the radar released unofficial cracks from the developers, but even that is unlikely and shouldn't be taken for granted.

But Steam isn't going to close, unless there'll be a really bad PC video game crash in the future. Digital distribution is really making money, and Steam is the most recognized brand for digital distribution. Unless a really huge, steamy and hot piece of shit hits the fan, they're here to stay.

Jodwin said:

What there might be is under the radar released unofficial cracks from the developers, but even that is unlikely and shouldn't be taken for granted.

Usually, if it comes from 3rd party developers, people call it a crack, but if it comes from the original developer, it is suddenly a patch. Technically, it is really the same thing, isn't it?

One way or the other, the consumers will find ways to prevent their purchases from being rendered useless. That's for sure.

Question for steam customers. If you purchase an old game from them, like X-Com, for example, is the game only playable through the steam client, or can I simply run the game as normal?

Depends on how old the game is. Any DOS game, you can be sure it doesn't require the client, as they just use DOSBox for it.

Gez said:

Depends on how old the game is. Any DOS game, you can be sure it doesn't require the client, as they just use DOSBox for it.

Well that's what I need to know before buying a game from them. I'd like to be able to play the game if my internet is down, or maybe in another ten years when Steam might not even be around anymore.

For the umpteenth time, Steam doesn't require an internet connection. I should carve that into all of your fucking foreheads.

Well that is a bit of a misnomer, but what Bucket means is that you don't need an internet connection to play a game purchased on steam. I actually edited the config file for steam so that it launches chocolate doom instead of DOSbox, so when I play Doom on steam, it automatically plays choco doom.

Bucket said:

For the umpteenth time, Steam doesn't require an internet connection. I should carve that into all of your fucking foreheads.

Yeah, thanks.