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Do you still play any PC games on a physical disc? Or, when did you last do that? (feddit.online)

submitted 1 week ago by tuckerm@feddit.online to c/pcgaming@lemmy.ca

63 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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.

What were (are?) some of your favorites?

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[–] Sendpicsofsandwiches@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 week ago

The last time i used physical media for apc game would have probably been to install WoW back in like 2012

[–] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

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.

[–] thingsiplay@beehaw.org 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

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

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[–] freeman@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 week ago

Very few games were playable from a CD (thrash loading speed).Usually the CD was required after install for DRM purposes only.

[–] Zefirpo@feddit.it 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Last one was oblivion in 2011. New home no internet and the pc towen on the lunch table. Good memories

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[–] Hexarei@beehaw.org 1 points 1 week ago

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.

[–] Rocketpoweredgorilla@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 week ago

I dusted off my old xbox 360 a month ago and played a few games on it. Aside from that, not for quite a few years now.

[–] SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 week ago

Street Sweeper Simulator 2011

[–] Whostosay@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Diablo 2 battle chest

[–] tuckerm@feddit.online 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I should still have that somewhere as well. That was one I didn't find, but it should be around.

Do you need a battle.net account to play Diablo 2, or can you just install and play offline if you only want to play singleplayer? I haven't been able to find a clear answer about this, since everyone talking about it these days is talking about the download-only version.

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