Steam on Win98

[SharkVader66]

Is it possible to use steam on windows 98, what kernelex dll’s are required, what steam files?

[jumper]

No. Only XP and lower apps are usable now.

 

[SharkVader66]

2 hours ago, jumper said:

No. Only XP and lower apps are usable now.

 

steam works on windows xp, maybe I should set it up on xp then copy it to windows 98 and try with kernelex 

[Wunderbar98]

Hi SharkVader66. AFAIK Steam dropped Windows XP support some time ago. Just pasting something i posted on another thread below. Seems your only (every slight) chance of making this work in Windows 98 would be to try this version of Steam and correctly troubleshoot what KernelEx settings may work.

If anyone is interested there is an archived Steam release at archive[dot]org that is the last version of Steam that ran in Windows XP before they dropped XP support. Can't remember exactly, think it prevented auto-update so you could finish your old games without having to upgrade. Worked well and allowed me to finally finish my whopping $10 Half-Life Anthology purchase, including Half-Life original, Opposing Force and Blue Shift. Never bothered with Team Fortress Classic.

[SharkVader66]

3 hours ago, Wunderbar98 said:

Hi SharkVader66. AFAIK Steam dropped Windows XP support some time ago. Just pasting something i posted on another thread below. Seems your only (every slight) chance of making this work in Windows 98 would be to try this version of Steam and correctly troubleshoot what KernelEx settings may work.

If anyone is interested there is an archived Steam release at archive[dot]org that is the last version of Steam that ran in Windows XP before they dropped XP support. Can't remember exactly, think it prevented auto-update so you could finish your old games without having to upgrade. Worked well and allowed me to finally finish my whopping $10 Half-Life Anthology purchase, including Half-Life original, Opposing Force and Blue Shift. Never bothered with Team Fortress Classic.

My idea is to install steam on windows xp, add the files from archive.org and then copy the directory to windows 98

[jumper]

If the XP version does not access the net, that improves its chances of working on 9x.

 

[ABCDEFG]

Steam is needed for Half-Life 2, and there is no legal way to play it without Steam.

But Steam is not necessary for Half-Life (1),  Blue Shift and Opposing Force, you just need to find the retail CD, search for Sierra Half-Life BestSeller Series

or Sierra Half-Life Generation Bundle...

Edited April 17, 2020 by ABCDEFG

[SharkVader66]

19 hours ago, jumper said:

If the XP version does not access the net, that improves its chances of working on 9x.

 

the xp version of steam fully works including the store 

[SharkVader66]

2 hours ago, ABCDEFG said:

Steam is needed for Half-Life 2, and there is no legal way to play it without Steam.

But Steam is not necessary for Half-Life (1),  Blue Shift and Opposing Force, you just need to find the retail CD, search for Sierra Half-Life BestSeller Series

or Sierra Half-Life Generation Bundle...

I have a cd of the first half life 

[DosFreak]

Why do you want to bother with Steam on 9x? What games on 9x actually need it?

Steam is only needed for Half-Life 2 builds older than v5135, any build after and you can use the command line switches to run without Steam

For the builds older than v5135 you have to use an old steam emulator that is revolutionary that I can't mention here

For the Steam builds of Half-Life 1 builds >v4554 require SDL2 and can be used with two recent steam emulators that are smart and full of gold.
For the Steam builds of Half-Life 1 builds <=v4554 you have to use an old steam emulator that is revolutionary that I can't mention here.
Builds of Half-Life >=v4554 require KernelEX on 9x but earlier builds should work fine without it but you're better off with Retail half-life with the unofficial patch on vanilla 9x.

Edited April 17, 2020 by DosFreak

[Wunderbar98]

Half-Life WAS my issue, not OP SharkVader66. As mentioned i finished the game, don't intend to replay. Upon purchasing Half-Life 1 Anthology years ago, system requirements did not mention Steam but small print indicated 'product subject to acceptance of Steam subscriber agreement'. Didn't know back then what Steam was, thought this just meant email activation or registration. Felt duped and put the game away for a long time. Upon resuming gaming, Steam's Windows XP support officially ended so the archive[dot]org release helped me out. Will never personally install Steam again or send more money Valve's way, to each their own. Pretty good game.

SharkVader66 did you get Steam running on Windows 98? Since you have XP, why not just keep using that, unless just trying to stretch Windows 98's legs, cool. Most major GNU/Linux distributions can run Steam if this is an option.

Edited April 18, 2020 by Wunderbar98

[TheQuantumMadness]

I wonder if we got Steam on Windows 98, we could get TF2 to also work on Windows 98 as well, TF2 does support down to DirectX 8

[SharkVader66]

On 4/18/2020 at 8:20 AM, TheQuantumMadness said:

I wonder if we got Steam on Windows 98, we could get TF2 to also work on Windows 98 as well, TF2 does support down to DirectX 8

windows 98 supports up to directx 9 so in theory if may be possible

[SharkVader66]

On 4/18/2020 at 6:18 AM, Wunderbar98 said:

Half-Life WAS my issue, not OP SharkVader66. As mentioned i finished the game, don't intend to replay. Upon purchasing Half-Life 1 Anthology years ago, system requirements did not mention Steam but small print indicated 'product subject to acceptance of Steam subscriber agreement'. Didn't know back then what Steam was, thought this just meant email activation or registration. Felt duped and put the game away for a long time. Upon resuming gaming, Steam's Windows XP support officially ended so the archive[dot]org release helped me out. Will never personally install Steam again or send more money Valve's way, to each their own. Pretty good game.

SharkVader66 did you get Steam running on Windows 98? Since you have XP, why not just keep using that, unless just trying to stretch Windows 98's legs, cool. Most major GNU/Linux distributions can run Steam if this is an option.

Yeah I have 2 retro machines one with xp and one with 98, I might try steamcmd in case it works

[Goodmaneuver]

Do not start Steam or exit out of it. Find out which games run with Steam offline. Best to test if games use some Steam modules by testing on machine without Steam or temporally rename Steam install directory. Transfer/plugin SteamApps\Common or Steam drive to 98/ME machine. Paragon NTFS for 98 is probably required to run games directly from a Steam USB drive. Any game that has a InstallScript.vdf usually requires some registry settings. Open file with text editor and see the Registry settings then manually install the registry settings. Manually type in full path of install directory instead of %INSTALLDIR% and new Key for any \\ folders after that. For String make new String in Regedit, for Dword make new Dword in Regedit. Copy what is inside quotations on left as the name of the String or Dword and whats in quotation on the right as the Modify Edit Sting or Modify Edit Dword Value. For old games it may be necessary to change some files to that of the OS like Win32.dll to Winmm.dll. (Some Win32.dll files if checking with Depends have DLL forwarding and this is why they do not work)

Many have kv signatures, an install script, but I do not know what to do here, There is some info here but not enough https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/sdk/installscripts. KV signatures are on the VCredist so may not count for anything.

Edited April 23, 2020 by Goodmaneuver