You may wonder where exactly digital games go when they die. The thing is, most of them don’t actually go anywhere at all. There are hundreds of games fully available on Steam‘s servers but no longer listed on the store – theoretically completely inaccessible. In some cases however, particularly with games that were once listed as free, it is possible to take a shot at download them following the guide below.

So why would you actually want to download unlisted Steam games? Although most the titles below are mostly just defunct free-to-play games with their servers shut down there are a couple of single-player gems in there. Some of the online-only titles, such as the failed Age of Empires Online, have even been brought back to life through fan revival projects and thus fully playable.

If you’re interested in maybe uncovering a hidden gem, or just curious about games long past, we’ve put together this handy guide to walk you through the process of getting lost games.

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1: The games themselves

Here is a list of all the games that we’ve found that can be downloaded by this method. Notice links to the right of the title and take note of the URLs which correspond to the games you want to try – you will be needing them for the next step.

Age of Empires online - steam://install/105430
Arcane Saga Online - steam://install/238110
Arctic Combat - steam://install/212370
Arma 2:free version - steam://install/107400
Battle for Graxia - steam://install/90530
Brawl Busters - steam://install/109410
Bullet Run - steam://install/211880
Codename Gordon - steam://install/92
District 187 - steam://install/221080
Dungeon Fighter Online - steam://install/212220
F.E.A.R. Online - steam://install/223650
FNaF world - steam://install/427920
Haunted Memories - steam://install/241640
Maple Story(US-version) - steam://install/216150
Pandora Saga - steam://install/106010
Renaissance Heroes - steam://install/221790
Rusty Hearts - steam://install/36630
Spacewar - steam://install/480
TERA - steam://install/389300
TERA EU - steam://install/323370
Vanguard: Saga of Heroes F2P - steam://install/218210
Wizardry Online - steam://install/22136
Forge - steam://install/223390
Warface - steam://install/291480
Vindictus - steam://install/212160
Bullet Run - steam://install/211880
Dirty Bomb - steam://install/333930
Dragon Nest - steam://install/11610
Arctic Combat - steam://install/212370
Metro Conflict - steam://install/356640
F.E.A.R. Online - steam://install/223650
Brick-Force - steam://install/272490
Fiesta Online NA - steam://install/300970
Atlantica Online - steam://install/212240
Sin of a Dark Age - steam://install/223390
DC Universe Online - steam://install/24200
Arcane Saga Online - steam://install/238110
Chaos Heroes Online - steam://install/290830
Quantum Rush Online - steam://install/304890
Rise of Incarnates - steam://install/258160
Dragon's Prophet - steam://install/259020
Age of Empires Online - steam://install/105430
Dead Island: Epidemic - steam://install/222900/
Dungeon Fighter Online - steam://install/212220
Zombies Monsters Robots - steam://install/306830
Heroes and Titans: Online - steam://install/407090
Ragnarok Online - steam://install/2507400

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2: Opening Windows Run and downloading your game

Ensure Steam is open. Once you have Steam open, press the ‘Windows’ key and the ‘R’ key at the same time (⊞ Win + r). This will prompt the “Run” dialogue box, as pictured above, to open.

The next step is very simple. Copy the URL of the game you want from the list at the start of this guide, and paste it into the text input of the “Run” dialogue box . Finally, press “ok”. For the example pictured above we have chosen Codename Gordon a delightful little 2.5D Half-Life clone.

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3: Enjoy your free games!

After pressing “ok”, Steam should open the normal dialogue boxes associated with downloading a game. Click through them and voila! You have your game! To get more games, simply repeat steps 1-3 with a different URL.

Our list of available games isn’t exhaustive either, if you find any other games that can be downloaded through this method make sure to comment them here and we’ll add them to our list!