Yes, it is possible to create portable games.
Yes, it is possible to create portable games.
I've been gathering old id games like Doom and Quake over the past while. They work well on any device, which is really convenient. I can change everything I want and just move the folder anywhere—even to another computer if needed. No need to reinstall or reconfigure everything. I could copy them over easily. I'm thinking about adding Doom 3, Quake 4 and Wolfenstein 9 to this set, but those newer titles can be tricky to manage. Would it help if I could make them all portable into one file? This would also be super useful for Skyrim. I understand the DRM makes copying harder, but these games often need careful setup. Any suggestions?
I own these titles on a CD from earlier. They’re not from Steam. While Steam games are somewhat portable, it’s still a hassle trying to collect everything from the Steam folder plus random files in My Documents and AppData, then moving them all back together. You’re looking for a single folder that contains just the game files so you can easily drag and drop it.
Very few individuals here possess advanced technical knowledge; most are just casual computer users beyond the modding community. For in-depth information, check ArsTechnica.
Not very simple, just need genuine copies of the games. There are mods to bypass DRM, but it’s essentially piracy. For pirated titles, you can relocate them wherever you like. USB drives or folders work well—just paste back and save where needed. If you’ve owned the game before, I’m not sure if that affects the issue.
It's becoming less frequent but some titles need a registered library. If you relocate the files, they may fail to locate the correct files. I know a few games that depend on C++ libraries—installing them to another machine won't work unless you manually set up the C++ environment. The actual folder can be placed anywhere, but it must be installed somewhere else on the system that isn't the game directory.
Accessing files in your user directory will likely cause issues since games often write there automatically. Even if you're the sole user, developers prefer backing up data to that folder. You might try creating symbolic links to direct the game's writes to a location matching your installation, but you'll need to adjust this for each operating system version.
I haven't attempted this before, so I'm unfamiliar with it. However, you could develop a custom installer to run the game with mods or even a standalone installer that applies all the patches.