The Steam Client Beta has been updated with the following changes: General The Steam client is now 64-bit on Windows 11 and Windows 10 64-bit. Systems running 32-bit versions of Windows will continue receiving updates to the 32-bit Steam client until January 1, 2026. Game Recording Fixed errors copying to clipboard or exporting H265 videos on systems with a NVIDIA 50xx series gpu.
Sucks for retro systems. Without the steam client you can’t install, for example, Zanzarrah, which is pretty hard to get running on a modern PC, but runs flawlessly on a XP machine. What to do? Download illegal copies?
Steam should maintain at least legacy systems or make the installer available for download.
This is one of the things I really like about using steam with Linux. For some of the old windows games I’ve tried they actually run better under proton than on modern windows. It helps you can easily swap to other compatibility tools like proton GE or Luxtorpeda.
GTA4 (with fusion fix) is a great example of this. Runs like dogshit on my system with Windows 11, runs butter smooth on the same hardware running Fedora 43.
I feel like this is a good argument for drm-free games and stores like GOG. Not that you as a consumer can always choose that, as many games don’t offer that option, but for the ones that do, there’s less barriers towards playing it in the future or in environments where it’s not originally intended.
There is steamcmd, an official command-line tool— I’ve only used it for game servers, and I don’t know if it includes the Steam runtime/resources, but I know it lets you download games.
You could look at Goldberg Emulator too. I know it’s used often for piracy, but idk about its legality on its own.
Since you mentioned GOG, another relevant thing about them is their game preservation initiatives. Games that get the Good Old Game stamp from them get some engineering effort to be packaged in a runnable way.
Sucks for retro systems. Without the steam client you can’t install, for example, Zanzarrah, which is pretty hard to get running on a modern PC, but runs flawlessly on a XP machine. What to do? Download illegal copies?
Steam should maintain at least legacy systems or make the installer available for download.
This is one of the things I really like about using steam with Linux. For some of the old windows games I’ve tried they actually run better under proton than on modern windows. It helps you can easily swap to other compatibility tools like proton GE or Luxtorpeda.
GTA4 (with fusion fix) is a great example of this. Runs like dogshit on my system with Windows 11, runs butter smooth on the same hardware running Fedora 43.
Win XP has a 64bit edition, it was just never the default.
That abomination should not have been made.
It’s not illegal if you’ve bought it.
Does it use steamworks drm? You could download it on a new PC and move it over if not.
It probably still works in a VM on under compatibility layers like Linux with Wine/proton/whatever, too.
I feel like this is a good argument for drm-free games and stores like GOG. Not that you as a consumer can always choose that, as many games don’t offer that option, but for the ones that do, there’s less barriers towards playing it in the future or in environments where it’s not originally intended.
There is steamcmd, an official command-line tool— I’ve only used it for game servers, and I don’t know if it includes the Steam runtime/resources, but I know it lets you download games.
You could look at Goldberg Emulator too. I know it’s used often for piracy, but idk about its legality on its own.
Since you mentioned GOG, another relevant thing about them is their game preservation initiatives. Games that get the Good Old Game stamp from them get some engineering effort to be packaged in a runnable way.
I don’t know if it is a real solution but can 64-bit be emulated on a 32-bit system?
Probably not with any usable level of performance. It’s not just about address width but CPU instruction set, too.
Maybe 32-bit builds of steamcmd will still be available for 32-bit systems? If I had one, I would look in to that.