Bypassing steam on games I already own

[WaltonSimons]

Originally Posted by Sith Lord

I am trying to make backups of my favorite games, drm free backups because I don't trust steam or the cloud.

The only way to be sure. (I remember that being said about nuking things from orbit, but removing DRM fits that criteria given topic of discussion.

Originally Posted by Sith Lord

The last game on my list is fallout 4, how do I modify the game to bypass steam drm.

You try two things. Firstly, you apply a properly configured Steam Emulator (like Goldberg's, mentioned below), secondly, if that doesn't work entirely, you try Steamless on all of the game's executables.

By properly configured, I mean having the steam_appid.txt and DLC.txt prepared based on Fallout 4's Steam data (see SteamDB.info for easy access to these).

And is there a universal tool I can use to bypass steam on all/most games?[/QUOTE]

Originally Posted by Joe Forster/STA

I don't think so. You could try a Steam emulator - there are quite a few available - but I'm not sure how well they remove the copy protection, if they try at all. A cleaner solution is to get the cracks (can't call them no-CD/DVD patches ad there's no physical media) for those games. The cleanest solution is to buy their DRM-free version from GOG.com but that doubles your spendings.

Actually:

1. YES. A Steam Emulator is an almost universal tool to bypass Steam DRM. If exe is protected, Steamless works 99% of the time.

2. Steamless removes the additional layer of the protection if it's needed. A Steam Emulator itself does nothing to remove it, but rather completely circumvent it, making a game run without Steam even installed, let alone running.

3. Cracks aren't a "cleaner" solution for Steam games since they are in 99% cases just preconfigured Steam Emulators. If exe is included, that's because SteamStub was present and it needed to be patched out. So, they're basically a preconfigured variant of what you'd prepare yourself as described in point 2.

4. GOG.com aren't always textbook DRM-FREE, but more like DRM-CIRCUMVENTED. The number of times I saw a steam_api/steam_api64.dll in the GOG game files proves just that. So, if that's present, you can pretty much safely assume that DRM was merely circumvented, not entirely removed. However, whatever they do in any case, it's usually foolproof so in case of trouble, it's always best to go for GOG files.

Originally Posted by Sith Lord

I tried some older methods and scripts but it must have been patched a while ago.

Older methods don't always work for more recent games. That is because the steam API evolves and therefore emulator authors need to be constantly following it. If you use an outdated emulator, it may work erratically or not at all.

Originally Posted by Flzzy

And also https://gitlab.com/Mr_Goldberg/goldberg_emulator may be useful.

Originally Posted by Mentor505

If they are only using basic Steam DRM, I'd recommend this: https://github.com/atom0s/Steamless

Linked above are two items which are the basics of cracking Steam games nowadays. Bookmark 'em. Always keep 'em updated. And learn how to use them.

Also, there are certain steam underground communities which focus on dealing with digital DRMs such as Steam API, Orbit/UPlay, Origin and UWP. This forum is, to my knowledge, still focused on the physical media based backups.

Naturally, as you can see on GCW main site, cracks for digital distros are present aplenty. However, I don't think you'll find a lot of experts here to deal with cracking those. Hell, the forum rules disallow this, so like I said, seek out steam underground communities if you need help with that.

You can PM me if needed.