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.
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
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.
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!
