Playing a game in almost any modern game is wonderful. Distribution platforms like Steam and Epic have made things so much easier for us. Most of the effort is reduced to choose, buy, download and start playinga mechanic that we also find in the application stores (Microsoft Store, Apple Store, Play Store), and that is further simplified if we decide to play in the cloud.
If you are a digital old man (we have a dedicated post for you to evaluate your symptoms and self-diagnose yourself) you may remember that immersing yourself in your favorite game was not so easy, at least on PC. You had to go to the store, buy the game, go back home, install it… Although that procedure is now a thing of the past, as our fellow 3D Games collectbut YouTube user nicl83 wanted to revive them.
Install ‘Half-Life 2’ in cloud game times and app stores
The game chosen for this time travel?: ‘half life 2‘, a title released almost 20 years ago. Now, what technically could have been reduced to a set of steps well known by a veteran PC userand possibly complicated for some teenagers today who are not too fond of computers, it became a true odyssey that involved time, tests and a lot of patience.
What we will do next is count the steps that nicl83 has followed to try to run the game on his computer with Windows XP (as he explains, he tried other operating systems without success). If you are ready to immerse yourself in this adventure, we begin…
The aforementioned youtuber wanted to make ‘Half-Life 2’ work from the original disc he bought in 2004, but installing it on his computer would have been easier due to a small detail: the game needed steam to activate. As this was a fundamental requirement, copies of the title included a Steam installer, which nicl83 tried to install, and we say tried, because that’s where the odyssey began.
The installation of that primitive version of the platform was successful, but for it to start working, and for it to connect to the servers to activate the game, it had to be up to date. The software, in its old military green interface, tried to update without success. After several attempts and restarting the computer, there was little progress. The update box adopted the style of Windows XP.
The process progressed well, the updated software was downloaded and unpacked successfully, but when the installation started, the warning message appeared: “Steam is no longer compatible with your operating system version”. The idea of this enthusiastic user? Resorting to a virtual machine with Windows 7, a system that had previously been tested with the installer from the ‘Half-Life 2’ disc without success.
The technique consisted of moving the files in the Valve folder from Program Files in Windows XP to Program Files in Windows 7 and running Steam. Fortunately, after several hours of waiting, things worked as expected and the updated Steam managed to install, but the problems did not end there. When running the program, it could not start.
As explained by nicl83, he made some changes in the Compatibility section of the executable. He had touched this section before and he is not quite sure what happened. In any case, after these changes that We can see in detail in the videothe new Steam booted up and managed to login with your credentials. All ready to finally install and start enjoying ‘Half-Life 2’!
Images: Valve | Screenshots nicl83
