Can we put downloaded games into Steam?

[Naku-chan 10]

What I mean is, is there a way to take the files of games we downloaded on Eroge games and put them in our steam files to make Steam think we bought the game? I was curious because I see many of the files with steam related things in them still and also if it was possible, I would like to get the achievements that are only exclusive to Steam. I hope that makes sense. Any ideas?

[Outpost Omega J 45]

While I have no idea how to do that, I'm not sure you should even if you could. We are technically stealing from services like to Steam, not to mention the game creators. Do you really want to run the risk of bringing your self to the attention of the police if Steam realizes your using a pirated version of the game? After all, there is logical disconnect between the fact you have achievements for a game and that your account has no purchase record for that game, so how are you playing it to gain the achievements?

 

All the police would have to do is get your billing address from steam to start the process of hunting you down. They might not even need to a court issued warrant since I'm sure Steam would be eager to see you caught and there for fully cooperate on their own initiative.

[Naku-chan 10]

Okay, okay! I was just honestly curious if that was a mechanic since I would occasionally see files that said "steam_api" and didn't know if that was left over from when it was uploaded or for it to be used for something. It is a good point you made though I didn't think that far with that.

[Ivan 165]

Those "leftover" steam files you're seeing are specially prepared versions of official libraries that trick the game into thinking that steam is running and game was purchased by logged in account - normally when you open a game you bought on steam, a series of checks if performed to verify that you're authorized to run the game in question (If you want to check it out in practice, copy game files from your friend who bought any game to your PC and try starting it - it will simply open game's store page instead in most cases) - games downloaded from here don't interact with Steam servers at all - while it's possible to emulate certain parts of steam functionality (including achievements) locally, it's kinda pointless, since it'll be limited to your PC only ("If you got an achievement, but your Steam friends can't see it, did it really happen?" - asked wise Zen master) - you can't make them visible globally.

[Naku-chan 10]

Thank you Ivan. That was very helpful!