• The Era of 64-Bit Gaming Is Officially Here

    From Spalls Hurgenson@spallshurgenson@gmail.com to comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action on Fri Sep 19 11:11:39 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action


    Oh sure, we've all been running 64-bit executables on 64-bit operating
    systems made for 64-bit processors for years now... but only now can
    we call it for 32-bit gaming. Why? Because Steam has announced that it
    is dropping support for 32-bit operating systems.*

    (And yes, I'm being a bit tongue-in-cheek here. Still, the
    announcement is genuine, and where goes Valve, so goes the
    rest of the PC gaming industry usually, so it's not a
    completely inaccurate take on the issue)

    I, of course, get grumpy about this sort of thing, because it does cut
    off access to my games on a number of older computers. I understand
    their logic --most gamers don't have a herd of old PCs running old
    versions of the OS and supporting the tiny percentage of weirdos who
    DO doesn't really make financial sense. Still, I wish there was an way
    to allow people like me to still access their games on Steam on these
    older machines

    (And don't say 'install Linux' ;-)

    Anyway, it's not as if you'll immediately lose access to your games if
    you're still running Windows 10 32-bit; the current client will
    continue to work and there won't be an immediate push to force
    Win10-32 users to upgrade. But they've made it clear that it will
    happen eventually: "We strongly encourage all 32-bit Windows users to
    update [their OS] sooner rather than later."





    * Valve's announcement: https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/49A1-B944-48B8-FF00
    (and technically, it's only 32-bit Windows, not 32-bit operating
    systems, but let's be frank: that's pretty much ALL of 32-bit
    operating systems).


    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From sion F2@sionf2@drum.cc to comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action on Fri Sep 19 13:33:18 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

    Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

    Oh sure, we've all been running 64-bit executables on 64-bit operating systems made for 64-bit processors for years now... but only now can
    we call it for 32-bit gaming. Why? Because Steam has announced that it
    is dropping support for 32-bit operating systems.*

    (And yes, I'm being a bit tongue-in-cheek here. Still, the
    announcement is genuine, and where goes Valve, so goes the
    rest of the PC gaming industry usually, so it's not a
    completely inaccurate take on the issue)

    I, of course, get grumpy about this sort of thing, because it does cut
    off access to my games on a number of older computers. I understand
    their logic --most gamers don't have a herd of old PCs running old
    versions of the OS and supporting the tiny percentage of weirdos who
    DO doesn't really make financial sense. Still, I wish there was an way
    to allow people like me to still access their games on Steam on these
    older machines

    (And don't say 'install Linux' ;-)

    Anyway, it's not as if you'll immediately lose access to your games if
    you're still running Windows 10 32-bit; the current client will
    continue to work and there won't be an immediate push to force
    Win10-32 users to upgrade. But they've made it clear that it will
    happen eventually: "We strongly encourage all 32-bit Windows users to
    update [their OS] sooner rather than later."





    * Valve's announcement: https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/49A1-B944-48B8-FF00
    (and technically, it's only 32-bit Windows, not 32-bit operating
    systems, but let's be frank: that's pretty much ALL of 32-bit
    operating systems).



    I'll just say that supporting 32-bit is the opposite of paving the way
    for new hard drive memory increases to the tune of 10 TeraBytes. To me, anything to make that memory increase come sooner will be gravy. Are we running calculators?
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Dimensional Traveler@dtravel@sonic.net to comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action on Fri Sep 19 12:55:46 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

    On 9/19/2025 11:33 AM, sion F2 wrote:
    Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

    Oh sure, we've all been running 64-bit executables on 64-bit operating
    systems made for 64-bit processors for years now... but only now can
    we call it for 32-bit gaming. Why? Because Steam has announced that it
    is dropping support for 32-bit operating systems.*

         (And yes, I'm being a bit tongue-in-cheek here. Still, the
          announcement is genuine, and where goes Valve, so goes the
          rest of the PC gaming industry usually, so it's not a
          completely inaccurate take on the issue)

    I, of course, get grumpy about this sort of thing, because it does cut
    off access to my games on a number of older computers. I understand
    their logic --most gamers don't have a herd of old PCs running old
    versions of the OS and supporting the tiny percentage of weirdos who
    DO doesn't really make financial sense. Still, I wish there was an way
    to allow people like me to still access their games on Steam on these
    older machines

         (And don't say 'install Linux' ;-)

    Anyway, it's not as if you'll immediately lose access to your games if
    you're still running Windows 10 32-bit; the current client will
    continue to work and there won't be an immediate push to force
    Win10-32 users to upgrade. But they've made it clear that it will
    happen eventually: "We strongly encourage all 32-bit Windows users to
    update [their OS] sooner rather than later."





    * Valve's announcement:
    https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/49A1-B944-48B8-FF00
    (and technically, it's only 32-bit Windows, not 32-bit operating
    systems, but let's be frank: that's pretty much ALL of 32-bit
    operating systems).



    I'll just say that supporting 32-bit is the opposite of paving the way
    for new hard drive memory increases to the tune of 10 TeraBytes.  To me, anything to make that memory increase come sooner will be gravy.  Are we running calculators?

    Massively super over-powered calculators, yes.
    --
    I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
    dirty old man.
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2