Are you launching the games at least once before moving it? This kinda finalizes the installation.

So, I just moved The Messenger to a computer that's never had Steam installed on it, and I got the same message that you did, which I'd never seen before. Let me play with it for a bit and see what I can find.

EDIT: In my original test, I tried the game in a Virtualbox virtual machine, and I got the message that you did. I tried moving The Messenger to a laptop that did have Steam installed, but after uninstalling Steam and cleaning all traces of it from the registry, The Messenger still ran. Are you trying it on an actual machine, or a virtual machine?

I'd really like to know what this problem is, because it's the first time I've ever encountered it.

EDIT 2: Okay, the steam_appid.txt trick works with 764790. I got the Steam link popup to stop me, and after making steam_appid.txt, it ran. I'll update the wiki.

EDIT 3: An unfortunate discovery found during all of this testing: The free Picnic Panic DLC will NOT be available if Steam is not running; only the base game is playable DRM-free.

Make sure you have all the requires components installed on your computer, suff like C++ Redistributables and DirectX versions. Otherwise you'll get some "random" dll errors and Applications that simply won't launch.

I've posted this recently on another thread, you can grab all those components on your Steam folder -> steamapps\common\Steamworks Shared\_CommonRedist.

I can't say much about the Grandia 2 on Steam, but the first one needs Steam to start up. This is with trying the "steam_appid.txt" trick.

Desperados - Wanted Dead or Alive

Tested on Windows 10 64-bit.

I'm trying on an actual machine, a computer that was bought recently.

About the steam_appid.txt, I'll try and see if it works with the games I had the "Steam link" issue

And, regarding the DLC, perhaps it also needs a steam_appid.txt file, considering each DLC has an unique ID?

That's definitely an idea, but I don't know where the second steam_appid.txt would even go. In fact, for this game in particular, I can't even figure out where the Picnic Panic DLC installs in the first place. The Epic store version has a separate .dlc file in the root of the installation folder, and the DLC DOES work offline with that version, but that file doesn't exist in the Steam version, so I don't even know where the data is.

This info also helps, as it's about another Grandia game - in this case, the original game's HD version - on Steam. Thanks for that info!

So, anyone else got info on Grandia II HD Remaster and Grandia II: Anniversary Editions on Steam? Are those protected by CEG? Denuvo? Any other DRM crap? Or are they DRM-FREE?

I'm almost sure I did at least twice for each game, but having what seems like a somewhat mild undiagnozed attention deficit doesn't help much.
I did the tests again, now with steam_appid.txt present in every situation (also changing the ID for every game). All tests were done in a computer with Windows 10 64 bit and that never had and still doesn't have Steam installed:

3dsen PC (app ID 1147940): same error as before, but it erases the steam_appid.txt file if it is present; also, the argument -nosteam doesn't work

Crown Trick Demo (app ID 1000010; from the Steam Festival that ended on 22/6): Now it shows a screen with the game's logo and saying "error (3064079, 0, 0) Initialization failed, please try again or restart" with two buttons in the corner, saying "Retry" and "Exit", respectively; also, the argument -nosteam doesn't work

Death end re;Quest (app ID 990050): Already comes with steam_appid.txt; the argument -nosteam doesn't change anything

Figment - Creed Valley Demo (app ID 1085220; from the Steam Festival that ended on 22/6): Opens but gets stuck in the initial screen when starting a new game

Final Fantasy VII (app ID 39140): Still doesn't open, but gives no errors

FIREWORK (app ID 974870): Doesn't open and gives no errors; also no change when using the -nosteam argument

Flower (app ID 9667330): Already comes with the steam_appid.txt file; using the -nosteam argument still gives the Steam link error

Garden Story Demo (app ID 1062140; from the Steam Festival that ended on 22/6): Doesn't open and gives no errors; also no change when using the -nosteam argument

Haven Demo (app ID 983970; from the Steam Festival that ended on 22/6): It appears to open normally now that it has the steam_appid.txt file

Hellblade - Senua's Sacrifice (app ID 414340): Still says it's a Steam link with both the steam_appid.txt file and the -nosteam argument

Journey (app ID 638230): Already comes with the steam_appid.txt file; using the -nosteam argument still gives the Steam link error

LiEat (app ID 373770): Still gives the Steam link error with both steam_appid.txt and the -nosteam argument

One Way Heroics (app ID 266210): Still gives the Steam link error with both steam_appid.txt and the -nosteam argument

Tengami (app ID 299680): Says "Failed to initialize Steam" if steam_appid.txt and the needed .dll files are present; same thing with the -nosteam argument

The Deed (app ID 420740): Crashes without errors with either steam_appid.txt, -nosteam argument or without either

The Messenger (app ID 764790): I can confirm this game works with steam_appid.txt; I just don't know how to check the DLC previously mentioned, as I'm not sure when or how it gets unlocked (plus, I only played the tutorial so far)

The Stillness of the Wind (app ID 828900): Appears to work with steam_appid.txt

Touhou Luna Nights (app ID 851100): Doesn't open but gives no errors if steam_appid.txt is present

I just found a game called CortexGear: AngryDroids (app ID 375620).

I haven't tested this game yet, nor do I own it, but it says in the store page that it is DRM free.

Stumbled on that pcgamingwiki page, that has at least several first titles in misc section not mentioned on steam wikia.

James Peris: No Licence Nor Control (or James Peris: Sin licencia ni control as it is listed on Steam) seems to be DRM-free as is, with no tweaking needed.

It is also possible to download a development version of ScummVM that has work-in-progress Wintermute support and play it with that. The official future ScummVM versions are probably going to support it without any issues, I haven't encountered any issues with the development version so far.

Using ScummVM is actually recommended, as the game itself doesn't seem to allow windowed modes for some reason, but with ScummVM playing windowed with possible scalers and all works just fine.

Tested on Windows 10 machine.

I got some bad news. SUPERHOT cannot be played without the client anymore (at least I was unable to do soo even though it did run before). This also seems to be intended since when I created a steam_appid.txt file to see if this would work, the game actually deleted it again when I tried to start the executable.

The newly-released Half-Life: Alyx - Final Hours is DRM-free.

I can confirm this, unfortunately. I have no idea why they would have done that, but here we are.

Also in case you did not know. Steam recently even killed the possibility to download old versions of Steam games (good to get the latest still DRM-free version i.e.) using the console. However with the help of a tool called "cheat machine" (it's free just google) you can easily revert this by simply changing some bytes in memory.

"1. Run Cheat Engine.
2. File -> Open Process -> Steam
3. Set the right-hand settings to the following:
- "Memory Scan Options": steamclient.dll (just keep pressing S when the drop-down is open to iterate through each and find it quicker)
- "Value Type": Array of byte
- "Hex": checked
- "Writable": unchecked (!)
- "Array of byte": D0 84 C0 0F 85 2E FF FF FF
4. Click "First Scan". You should get a single Address and the searched Value next to it.
5. Right-click the Value -> Change value of selected address(es)
6. Enter new value: D0 84 C0 E9 2F FF FF FF 90
7. Click OK. Done. You can now exit Cheat Engine and are able to downgrade games without the "Manifest not available" error, until you exit Steam. Continue through the guide as before.
You will have to do this every time Steam is (re)started."