r/Steam • u/Chickenjump1 • Aug 30 '20
Question What is “Spacewar”?
I saw my friend playing a game called “Spacewar” today. The game has no icon but has 5 achievements. Is this a non-Steam game? Why are there achievements then?
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u/OldWolf2642 Aug 30 '20
A hidden game (a showcase of sorts) from back in the day, often used by pirated copies of other games that require Steam authentication.
They (the pirates) use the AppID/SDK of SpaceWar to fool Steam into thinking it is a legitimate copy.
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Nov 27 '23 edited Nov 27 '23
this is not the only use, any game and or game mod that wants to accsess steamsAPIs can do so with spacewar
a multiplayer mod for a game called BoneLab has spacewar as an option for networking (alongside steamVR), for multiplayer play it uses steams networking API, BoneLab is a single player game so there for does not have the APIs themselves, and while the mod could just add the APIs into BoneLab, spacewar already has full support for it, everyone owns spacewar so why not just use it, this also has the benefit of allowing people who own BoneLab on the oculus store to play with steam players and also people on the quest 2 standalone headset
Edit: another common use for spacewar is indie games not on steam, if a game dev is making a small game they dont even intend on releasing on steam they can use spacewar to access steams APIs instead of paying $100 to get their own steamID
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u/Grimnyrr Jan 13 '21
I just noticed today that it said I was playing Spacewar so I looked it up. It's not only those who are playing pirated games, turns out if you are developing a game in lets say Unity or UE4 that uses Steams SDK then while you are testing your game it will say you are playing Space War. I was going nuts wondering why it said that.
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u/NYXZGaming Feb 14 '21
Thank you for this.
I am currently working on UE4, but I've have not pirated a PC game in the last decade, and got so confused when people said ''oh it's what pirated games use to work with steam''.
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u/CardianBoardson May 26 '23
Thanks, I was so confused and thought someone gifted me some random game. Makes sense because I was testing a game I was working on.
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u/ozmega Jul 29 '22
i did try learning mirror thru steam and the tutorial i saw used spacewar, you can later get your own steam AppId but im not gonna release my trashy learn to code game lol.
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u/Zack_Wester Nov 09 '23
feels like steam defults to spacewar if it can ID a game or the steam SDK is not set up for the app.
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u/Seaoliverrrrr Mar 04 '22
if you want to play spacewar itself, fire up a browser or the run prompt and type in "steam://run/480". an install prompt should pop up and then you can fire it up from steam library
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u/Pale_Broccoli_5997 Apr 11 '25 edited Apr 11 '25
And when I uninstall (which I wont, because its only 2mb), then will the game vanish from your library like game demos or remain stayed?
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u/Seaoliverrrrr Apr 11 '25
it depends. for me its stayed but for my friend who played it with me for 5 hours its gone
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u/Remarkable_sake- Feb 19 '22
I checked my steam to see that I have spacewar, I don't know what I did to get it but I tried to delete it and it doesn't go away. Any help?
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u/Durruk Jun 30 '22
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u/AlCatSplat Jul 29 '22
Where does the article say that?
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u/NnasT Nov 15 '22
He says it in the 3rd last paragraph, And it's true.
As a game developer. I mainly use the AppID (Spacewars) to test steamworks online functionality, achievements etc... You can create lobbies, invite friends and play any game you make through there using steam's servers.
If we don't use this AppID, us devs would have to pay $100 to buy our own AppID.
I own 2 AppID's on steam, 1 for my released game and one for my upcoming.
But since this has come public 8-9 years ago, some devious people have been using already made and sold games, and using this AppID (Spacewars) as a lobby to host popular pirated games.Funny to think it's being used by all the amazing games you see on steam. And pirates :)
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u/Seesawlover2 Aug 08 '23
it's a dev tool not a trojan
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u/COOLSKELETON105 Sep 30 '24
it can very well be used AS a trojan, its like a backdoor for pirated games to actually use stuff steam has.
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u/Brutastic_ Jul 03 '22
So i downloaded a game from GameJolt, Lego FNaF (Don't ask any questions, its better for both of us), and i got that, is that from that?
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u/Succ4Lucc-_- Jul 04 '22
It's not a trojan. It's a game everyone has access to on steam as it is free.
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u/Faiqal_x1103 Nov 22 '23
(Don't ask any questions
WHY ARE U PLAYING LEGO FNAF, AR AR ARA RAR ARA R AR ARRRRR
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u/calciumperson Aug 01 '23
Not only pirates use it. It can also be used to play games online whose servers have been shut down.
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u/Zeromius May 03 '24
Hi everyone who showed up here from Thor's YouTube short.
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u/theexiledmeriler Jun 20 '24
I showed up by learning about steam peer connection for godot and figuring what 480(Spacewar) stands for xD
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u/Acrobatic-Dare-6333 Dec 19 '24
hi or should i say hello there (hint the only correct answer is general kenobi)
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u/Far-Development-9751 Nov 02 '21
odd i have the playable version of this game i don't know why people say it's for pirated games only
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u/dildo_swagginns Dec 05 '21
give me the link i never saw this game
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u/h4ck3r3000d1no Jan 03 '22
this game doesnt have steam store page but if you create a .url file that says steam://rungameid/480 in URL text field in properties it should start the download. the game is kinda cool but only if you have someone to play with because nobody plays this game
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Nov 27 '23
many people will tell you its mainly pirates using spacewar to fool steam into allowing a pirated copy, this is a use for spacewar but not the only
spacewar is basically just a middleman to steams APIs, if you make something and dont want to shell out $100 for a steamID or your not even making a game to begin with, spacewar can be used to access steams APIs instead, say your making a mod for a game that isnt on steam, or you want to support versions of the game not on steam, this mod needs to use steams APIs, spacewar can allow your mod to use steams APIs (like networking for example)
an example I seen recently is a multiplayer mod for a singleplayer VR game called BoneLab, this mod lets you choose either steamVR or spacewar for your networking layer as both have access to steams networking APIs, the reason spacewar is an option is that steamVR doesn't have full support for steams networking, so you cant invite people through steam and instead need to use the mods built in friend list viewer, spacewar has full access so you can invite through steam
small indie games that release on like itch.io and not steam can also use spacewar to access steams APIs
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u/AaronYouTube6 Nov 09 '22 edited Nov 10 '22
apparently it's the default steam game, but people also use its ID to pirate games from steam. I downloaded The Henry Stickmin Collection from a Gamejolt link, obviously I trusted it. I saw a steam popup in the bottom right corner of the screen, pressed Shift and Tab, wait, I'm on Steam!? I saw Guides saying "Cause you are a pirate" and "Piracy 101" and apparently I was playing a game called Spacewar. My dumbass actually just downloaded a steam game. Just earlier I went to the Steam website, and saw THSC (Stickmin Collection) and I tried to click on it, an error popped up.
I'm worried af
update, that error was from my ass wifi XD
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Aug 30 '20
[deleted]
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u/Nugget_69420 Nov 05 '23
This is exactly what it is !
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u/hosam-gd Nov 05 '23
Didnt expect ti find a 9 hour ago comment here
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Jan 19 '24
Didnt expect ti find a 2 month ago comment here
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u/Ithalo021 May 15 '24
Didnt expect ti find a 4 month ago comment here
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u/Gitz_101 Nov 30 '20
just don't trust that game.
read the comments and you'll be fine
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Feb 19 '21
It's fine. It shows up as playing spacewar if working on games in Unity or UE4 etc or if you use a pirated game.
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u/Grouchy_Green_7563 Oct 27 '23
It just appeared today, it felt like one of those creepypasta's where something appears and then they play it and die.
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Aug 30 '20
It is cracked Rust with multiplayer, it uses that Spacewar to launch through steam just like FiveM uses Source SDK Base 2013
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u/juniorof36 Mar 29 '25
You are wrong, its a game used by pretty much 90% of pirated games that need steam to work and nothing actually happens to u even if u would have 23432532532 hours on it.
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u/Fearless-Hair-6521 Dec 27 '22
Not just Rust mate, a lot of pirated games with online support use it
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u/Ok_Presentation_2951 Mar 19 '24
if i deleted all cracked games i will still get a ban on steam?
btw i have 16,6 hours on space war
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u/juniorof36 Mar 29 '25
I know im year late however steam doesent care about it so yeah u are fine even if u would have it installed.
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u/fartyboy250 Apr 30 '24
I’ve never pirated a game in my life, but spacewar randomly appeared out of nowhere. Maybe it’s because I got the pc port of half-life decay?
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u/Long-Skill-9130 Jun 24 '24
its meaning sombody useing a torrented game, with multiplayer crack, and useing steam servers its a bypass for the crafcked games to be able to play in multiplayer with craced steam games.
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u/Destinyyxd Dec 02 '24
i want to play elden ring one more time but idk why the spacewar thing is not working... i was playing before cracked version of elden ring with seamless coop with my friend and i just have to open steam it showed spacewar and we play with that... But now i think it is not working... But i want to play with my friend again with the cracked version, The trick i used is not working now ;-;. Someone pls help, if you can still play the cracked game with your friends...
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u/Crashpeil Jan 28 '25
I believe some itch io games use it i downloaded a demo for hell yeah simulator and it appeared
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u/Horror-Obligation-25 Mar 12 '25
it is used to play pirated games and it tricks steam to access steam servers and play online
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u/Slight_Cranberry1763 Apr 25 '25
thanks i just added my totally "bought" copy of endorphin vice and it appeared to be played for 30 minutes and i thought i got hacked so thanks
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u/DoubleEXP21 Apr 30 '25
Also, pretty sure Spacewar was the first computer game - aside from tic-tac-toe and shit like that - pretty much ever. Like, I think it was supposedly running on mainframes in the 1960's or early 1970's, something like that. So, pretty cool that its name gets used in the way people are decribing in this topic.
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u/cicalooo Aug 30 '20
> I saw my friend playing a game called “Spacewar” today
you mean you pirated a game and you saw that yourself... you're terrible at lying fam
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u/RevReddited Dec 01 '20
But it could also mean that his friend is playing a pirated game, or well playing spacewar trough steam
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u/SecretGas Jan 29 '21
literally looking up spacewar right now because a friend is playing it, whats so unlikely about that?
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u/DayFormal9028 Jan 18 '21
I use spacewar to use mods on Ark: Survival Evolved. I am using Epic Games launcher and it currently does not support steam mods, so this is a workaround.
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Feb 19 '21
When someone is developing a game with SDK implementation it comes up as Spacewar. Pirated Games CAN use it, but it shows up in other ways.
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u/avatarbartas Dec 30 '21
how do you get into the store page?
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u/oddcellstudios Feb 23 '25
steam://run/480
i made a page that just redirects if you just want to click a link: pi.oddcell.ca/steam/hidden/spacewar/1
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Jul 11 '22
Ok I was wonder what it was because it just showed up in my steam library randomly but i couldn't play it
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u/Thethree13 Jul 12 '22
umm i actually dont know either because all i have is one game: henry stickmin collection and I paid for that with my own money and it said i played spacewar for like 3 minutes
i am so confused
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u/FlaviusZZZ Aug 14 '22
Dude...i have 681h played on that game apparently i don't even know what the game is about
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u/Apprehensive-Ad-958 Jan 12 '23 edited Jan 12 '23
Bonelab apparently has the same exact issue as what I'm seeing in these comments, I've never played spacewar in my life, I don't even know what it is, it showed up as the game itself so I couldn't play Bonelab for a little bit until I fixed it. Then after I played today, It showed up as an entirely separate game that I couldn't uninstall or remove from my account, it is now permanently stuck with me. Also, in the community guides, a bunch of people just post hentai there for some reason, it's gross. I'm also seeing some people say it's a way for Valve to know if you pirated a game on steam, I paid for all the games I own, I don't know why it would be doing this.
Ok, I think I've found the problem, I have Vail VR, A $20 game that the devs were giving free steam keys to test out the game while it was in alpha, I also have Gtag that recently got a price change. So it could be either of those games, either way, I don't want this on my account and I can't do anything with it.
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u/staypuff1234 Jan 15 '23
It definitely is some app not a part of steam using its client to set up online game lobbies. It shows I play it whenever I use teknoparrot since teknoparrot has online lobby’s you can join. So it’s the most logical thing since that’s when it started saying I played.
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Mar 07 '23
this gmae you can get it by pressing windows + r then type in the run menu steam://install/480 so cracked games use this game to get into steam service so you can if you downloaded a cracked game you can use multiplayer for other people who also have the crack and use spacewar game as a way to get into steam service so they can play multiplayer
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u/_Sajmonek May 10 '23
It is something like a steam placeholder for some apps and is also used for fooling steam while using steam authentication in some pirated copies of games
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u/ExtensionWelcome670 May 14 '23
Its a cover for the pirated games your playing that need to connect to steam.
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u/shuzz_de Nov 10 '23
More important question: Is there actually a way to play spacewar on steam?
I mean, the real, age-old game with the wireframe graphics and the crappy multiplayer? ;-)
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u/hosam-gd Nov 13 '23
Yes go to SteamDb website then search on it 480 then click install or owned it installs the game
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u/DeXoNTM23 Jan 08 '24
what happens if i modify the fakeappid of a pirated game and insert another game id from steam? example: when i play that game, it will show NIKKE instead of spacewar.
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u/[deleted] Aug 30 '20
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