Like many people, I’ve been thinking about physical media lately, and how our entertainment items – movies, albums, books – used to be things that sat on a shelf that someone else could see and say, “Hey I like this thing on your shelf.”
PC games were one of those things, once. I have a few. And I’ve scrounged them up from their various moving boxes and parents’ houses to see if they still work.
Does anyone here still play a game from an optical drive? A game where your regularly-played copy isn’t the Steam version?
For me, Morrowind was the last game that I was still playing on a disc. I have newer games on discs, but just played those once or twice and then put them back on the shelf. But I was still playing Morrowind from a CD up until 2023, when it went on sale on Steam for $1, so I bought it. I almost didn’t get it, since I liked the fact that I was still playing a game on a CD.
I plan on taking inventory of which games still work and what it takes to install them today.
Not sure what the last one was, but the last couple PC games I bought physical copies of could be installed from the disc, but also had Steam keys in the box and then didn’t require the disc to play.
The most recent ones I’ve bought were only a Steam key in the box, and the DVD simply had a Steam installer on it. Nice that some have both, I haven’t actually seen one of those.
I buy and play a bunch of old games from an EBay seller who sends both the original disc and a disc with a copy of the game that loads dosbox stuff or whatever else to make it work easily on a modern system without fiddling around. It’s pretty great.
The last time I played a PC game on a physical disc? Can I cheat a little bit here? I found a self burned CD from old early 2008 or earlier days. There were a few RPG Maker 2000 games on it, which I downloaded from internet cafes, such as Vampires Dawn (back then, when only a German version was available for the first game in series). And I played a few of them last year with an open source RPG Maker player called EasyRPG, but with RetroArch.
So yes, I played PC games in 2024 from a physical disc. But I leave it to you, if you count that. :D
The last game that I remember that needed a disc to play was Battlefield 1942 and I made a virtual drive with an ISO so I didn’t need to put the stupid disc in every time and listen to it spin up. Current PC doesn’t have a drive at all.
While I think a lot of the old box art was neat and all, I don’t miss the physical requirements that took up space and all the manual updates and whatnot. Absolutely love steam’s digital store and if that ever shits the bed and there isn’t an alternate I will just stop PC gaming because the effort to manage all that stuff isn’t worth it any more. Music and movies are the same, the physical media was nice for its time but I don’t need to interact with it to use it anymore.
I’ve been wanting to do this, too, for games that I bought on Steam. Like, make a bootable Linux DVD that has Steam and the game preinstalled on it, with Steam already logged in as my account.
Some Steam games can be played without Steam. Some require more and others less or none work to achieve that. GOG is the better choice for this task, but if you already have Steam game that could work for this, maybe no need to rebuy it on GOG. I was thinking of doing something similar to archive what can be archived, but never got around doing it. Here some resources:
There were special long lived BlueRay format https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-DISC . I was thinking of getting into, but they were expensive when I looked at it years ago. With 100 GB per disc, this might be a good solution for longtime archive (but you need the reader too…).
As for the CDs and DVDs, the longevity also highly depends on the burner, the blank disc and maybe the software and settings you used at that time. A pressed CD that you buy and its not burned can hold data for very long time, and is much more durable than your burned ones. At least compared to a mechanical hard drive you don’t need to reuse (rewrite) to not loose data. But a hard drive can hold so much data.
I remember finally building a new PC that was halfway decent and wanting to play some quake 3 mods. So this would have been around 2005??
Broadband was here so I wanted to take advantage of that sweet low ping but needed a physical copy of the game for the mods to work.
Even then it was hard to source a game disc but I got it and had a few years of fun playing urban terror… I can’t really be bothered with online shooters now but back then it was simple, quick and fun. There’s too much going on in things like Apex and Overwatch for me.
Also my PC basically has a console setup in the living room and I play with a switch controller, so I’d get destroyed anyway!
My last physical media was the PC version of Titanfall, played in 2022 or so via USB disc drive. was surprised to find the entire game actually on the disc. Was pretty cool.
I literally cannot remember the last time. This PC doesn’t have any optical drives and I’ve had it for like 7 years now. I did use a USB optical drive once to install a driver for something. I can’t even remember the last game I purchased that had a physical disc, honestly. I haven’t bought a game requiring a disc since living in Japan so that’s definitely a decade. Probably around 15 years, if I had to guess, and maybe even longer than that.
I still have some floppies in working order, even.
But no, I don’t play them regularly. It’s just easier to make a backup that doesn’t need a disk in the drive. Even most of my retro PCs these days run out of a large-ish hard drive replacement, so keeping games outside their unreliable original media and the original media elsewhere is a better alternative.
It’s a bit different on consoles where carts are harder to duplicate and ingest, as well as being more reliable and loading faster. Floppies and optical media, particularly when you can access the files, less so.
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I have some small games on hard drive storage, do hard drive platters count as discs?
Not sure what the last one was, but the last couple PC games I bought physical copies of could be installed from the disc, but also had Steam keys in the box and then didn’t require the disc to play.
The most recent ones I’ve bought were only a Steam key in the box, and the DVD simply had a Steam installer on it. Nice that some have both, I haven’t actually seen one of those.
I buy and play a bunch of old games from an EBay seller who sends both the original disc and a disc with a copy of the game that loads dosbox stuff or whatever else to make it work easily on a modern system without fiddling around. It’s pretty great.
I have a bunch of strategy and sim games.
The last time I played a PC game on a physical disc? Can I cheat a little bit here? I found a self burned CD from old early 2008 or earlier days. There were a few RPG Maker 2000 games on it, which I downloaded from internet cafes, such as Vampires Dawn (back then, when only a German version was available for the first game in series). And I played a few of them last year with an open source RPG Maker player called EasyRPG, but with RetroArch.
So yes, I played PC games in 2024 from a physical disc. But I leave it to you, if you count that. :D
I’d say that absolutely counts!
The last game that I remember that needed a disc to play was Battlefield 1942 and I made a virtual drive with an ISO so I didn’t need to put the stupid disc in every time and listen to it spin up. Current PC doesn’t have a drive at all.
While I think a lot of the old box art was neat and all, I don’t miss the physical requirements that took up space and all the manual updates and whatnot. Absolutely love steam’s digital store and if that ever shits the bed and there isn’t an alternate I will just stop PC gaming because the effort to manage all that stuff isn’t worth it any more. Music and movies are the same, the physical media was nice for its time but I don’t need to interact with it to use it anymore.
Eragon
Half Life orange box, the last physical media I ever bought. 2009-10 ish. Still have the cosmetics for tf2
Very few games were playable from a CD (thrash loading speed).Usually the CD was required after install for DRM purposes only.
Now I want to install a game to a disk and run it from the disk drive, my dad’s old desktop has a drive. I wonder if it can burn dvds.
Maybe I could install stardew valley to the disk.
I’ve been wanting to do this, too, for games that I bought on Steam. Like, make a bootable Linux DVD that has Steam and the game preinstalled on it, with Steam already logged in as my account.
I was thinking it would be easier with gog games.
You can just burn the install directory to a disk and then insert the disk and launch the game without launchers
Some Steam games can be played without Steam. Some require more and others less or none work to achieve that. GOG is the better choice for this task, but if you already have Steam game that could work for this, maybe no need to rebuy it on GOG. I was thinking of doing something similar to archive what can be archived, but never got around doing it. Here some resources:
I don’t think cds and dvds hold data for too long. I guess it’s better than a hard drive.
There were special long lived BlueRay format https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-DISC . I was thinking of getting into, but they were expensive when I looked at it years ago. With 100 GB per disc, this might be a good solution for longtime archive (but you need the reader too…).
As for the CDs and DVDs, the longevity also highly depends on the burner, the blank disc and maybe the software and settings you used at that time. A pressed CD that you buy and its not burned can hold data for very long time, and is much more durable than your burned ones. At least compared to a mechanical hard drive you don’t need to reuse (rewrite) to not loose data. But a hard drive can hold so much data.
Oh dang, that is a good idea.
I remember finally building a new PC that was halfway decent and wanting to play some quake 3 mods. So this would have been around 2005??
Broadband was here so I wanted to take advantage of that sweet low ping but needed a physical copy of the game for the mods to work.
Even then it was hard to source a game disc but I got it and had a few years of fun playing urban terror… I can’t really be bothered with online shooters now but back then it was simple, quick and fun. There’s too much going on in things like Apex and Overwatch for me.
Also my PC basically has a console setup in the living room and I play with a switch controller, so I’d get destroyed anyway!
Probably Crysis.
Long enough ago that my DVD drive had sealed shut since then and I had to use a paperclip to open it.
Nice. I had borrowed a friend’s physical copy of Crysis, and that’s how I played it back in the day.
My last physical media was the PC version of Titanfall, played in 2022 or so via USB disc drive. was surprised to find the entire game actually on the disc. Was pretty cool.
I think it might be Star Craft for me.
I literally cannot remember the last time. This PC doesn’t have any optical drives and I’ve had it for like 7 years now. I did use a USB optical drive once to install a driver for something. I can’t even remember the last game I purchased that had a physical disc, honestly. I haven’t bought a game requiring a disc since living in Japan so that’s definitely a decade. Probably around 15 years, if I had to guess, and maybe even longer than that.
I still have some floppies in working order, even.
But no, I don’t play them regularly. It’s just easier to make a backup that doesn’t need a disk in the drive. Even most of my retro PCs these days run out of a large-ish hard drive replacement, so keeping games outside their unreliable original media and the original media elsewhere is a better alternative.
It’s a bit different on consoles where carts are harder to duplicate and ingest, as well as being more reliable and loading faster. Floppies and optical media, particularly when you can access the files, less so.