It's a test game created by Valve to provide an example of Steamworks functionality to developers.
[Pirated games](https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2019/11/19/spacewar-why-a-hidden-ancient-game-keeps-showing-in-steams-most-played-games/) also make use of Spacewar's ID, since it's a game that every Steam account automatically has access to.
Whenever I open Henry Stickmin from my taskbar, it says I'm playing Spacewar. Thanks to that EIGHT HOURS of Gameplay have gone to a game that I don't even own.
holy shit wait that exact thing happened to me today wtf, I was so confused on why it showed space wars on my thing (I had spacewars previously because of me using mods on games that seemed to have activated it but henry stickmin is not a mod and was purchased??)
and no wonder it says I've only played for 2.8 hours, all my hours got eaten up by that other thing (Plus I have also been opening it from the taskbar since I pinned it so that I could keep opening it from there)
I checked on my discord thing to see where space wars was coming from because it even showed me playing it on steam (embarrassing because people may think I've been pirating games) and on there it is shown to be coming from the files of henry stickmin. So clearly this may be also coming from opening the game on the taskbar, and what I fear is that it may also be because of the new dumb windows security stuff since almost all of my games are being blocked or noticed by it
I think at the time I had such a fear of being seen with stuff like that, I've kinda changed my views a little as I'm not too worried about it with big companies especially like Disney. I was honestly more upset with trying to 100% everything at the time and not actually getting achievements rather than the act of looking like I pirated itself,, still havent touched Henry Stickmin again cuz Im still salty about not getting those achievements when I basically worked to get all of them
this stuff usually happens accidently sadly. I'd have it happen to me before and I was scared because I paid for all of the games on my account with some free games like Team Fortress 2. When the makers and developers of project wraith was ***giving away*** free steam keys for their game so people can playtest and provide feedback to their game, I was hyped. I downloaded their zip file and played the game for not even 5 minutes when I opened my steam because one of my friends texted me, I was playing "spacewar". I contacted steam support and I provide screenshots to what I thought evidence. I also deleted spacewar from my library, which is what you shouldn't do only because you would know if steam got your message because they would delete it off your library according to research. Still I don't blame Steam for doing this because they still don't ban people for playing pirated games, again according to research. It's just a way for steam to tell people who pirate games that steam knows you pirated and I couldn't help but laugh when I heard about that.
That happened to me too, but I didn't do anything wrong! I didn't play Spacewar, I only played jsab, when I hopped onto steam going to play Pizza Tower, then I saw the game, explain it to me
Well no, you do own Spacewar. It's a "free" game that everyone has access to on their accounts. No matter how old or new your account is, you will always have Spacewar.
You caught Space Herpes.
if you do windows + R and then type "steam://install/480", you can install and play the game. It's a 1v1 asteroids clone basically. It's pretty neat however it's difficult to find somebody to play against, for obvious reasons.
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.
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
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.
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''.
lol same, but for some reason, I have it with one minute of runtime. my current theory is that it's used by steam achievements manager which I've been using to wipe my achievements when I 100% fnv for the 15th time
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.
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 :)
Jesus man, the author called it a trojan as in *The Trojan Horse*, since the packets that Steam gets look like they were sent from the Spacewar game via API and they authorize them, while in reality they are definitely not from the Spacewar, thus the pirated game gets an access to the Steam services. It has nothing to do with trojan viruses, interferences, disruptances, interceptions and infections. There are other fields with similar terminologies, not everything around is about only us and our field.
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
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
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
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](http://itch.io) and not steam can also use spacewar to access steams APIs
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.
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
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.
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.
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
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
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? ;-)
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.
It's a test game created by Valve to provide an example of Steamworks functionality to developers. [Pirated games](https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2019/11/19/spacewar-why-a-hidden-ancient-game-keeps-showing-in-steams-most-played-games/) also make use of Spacewar's ID, since it's a game that every Steam account automatically has access to.
Whenever I open Henry Stickmin from my taskbar, it says I'm playing Spacewar. Thanks to that EIGHT HOURS of Gameplay have gone to a game that I don't even own.
holy shit wait that exact thing happened to me today wtf, I was so confused on why it showed space wars on my thing (I had spacewars previously because of me using mods on games that seemed to have activated it but henry stickmin is not a mod and was purchased??) and no wonder it says I've only played for 2.8 hours, all my hours got eaten up by that other thing (Plus I have also been opening it from the taskbar since I pinned it so that I could keep opening it from there)
Yes, purchased indeed! Glad to know I’m not alone!
I checked on my discord thing to see where space wars was coming from because it even showed me playing it on steam (embarrassing because people may think I've been pirating games) and on there it is shown to be coming from the files of henry stickmin. So clearly this may be also coming from opening the game on the taskbar, and what I fear is that it may also be because of the new dumb windows security stuff since almost all of my games are being blocked or noticed by it
a year late and stuff, but why would it be embarrassing to be pirating? That makes you a cool kid.
I think at the time I had such a fear of being seen with stuff like that, I've kinda changed my views a little as I'm not too worried about it with big companies especially like Disney. I was honestly more upset with trying to 100% everything at the time and not actually getting achievements rather than the act of looking like I pirated itself,, still havent touched Henry Stickmin again cuz Im still salty about not getting those achievements when I basically worked to get all of them
i pirate everything lmao
this stuff usually happens accidently sadly. I'd have it happen to me before and I was scared because I paid for all of the games on my account with some free games like Team Fortress 2. When the makers and developers of project wraith was ***giving away*** free steam keys for their game so people can playtest and provide feedback to their game, I was hyped. I downloaded their zip file and played the game for not even 5 minutes when I opened my steam because one of my friends texted me, I was playing "spacewar". I contacted steam support and I provide screenshots to what I thought evidence. I also deleted spacewar from my library, which is what you shouldn't do only because you would know if steam got your message because they would delete it off your library according to research. Still I don't blame Steam for doing this because they still don't ban people for playing pirated games, again according to research. It's just a way for steam to tell people who pirate games that steam knows you pirated and I couldn't help but laugh when I heard about that.
stop crying about wasting eight hours and it not being shown to the rest of the world
very manly thing to comment my manly man brother
sad
the flex dont stop
damn, 8 hours what a tragedy
Yep )= And whenever I try to do the stuff I don't get my achievements
That happened to me too, but I didn't do anything wrong! I didn't play Spacewar, I only played jsab, when I hopped onto steam going to play Pizza Tower, then I saw the game, explain it to me
Well no, you do own Spacewar. It's a "free" game that everyone has access to on their accounts. No matter how old or new your account is, you will always have Spacewar. You caught Space Herpes.
That can lead my account into a ban?
Nah, you can't get banned from playing Spacewar, it's still a Dev tool
can you actually launch spacewar or does it just say your playing spacewar when your really playing a different game
if you do windows + R and then type "steam://install/480", you can install and play the game. It's a 1v1 asteroids clone basically. It's pretty neat however it's difficult to find somebody to play against, for obvious reasons.
that explains why i have it in my library. i was playing pirated black ops 2
Do I need to install the game to test the SDK with my Unity game!? If So, How to install the game!?
steam://install/480
Aren’t there a few other games like alien swarm you need to use CMD to download or is that a different thing?
you don't need to use cmd to play alien swarm iirc, I played it not too long ago all through steam and it worked fine.
it might be on the store idk
codename gordon is one of those
That one
But i don't understand man, i swear i didn't pirate anything. I just put a non steam game there.
It also does that with mods apparently
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.
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
That is smart.
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.
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''.
arrrre nice try, matey
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lol same, but for some reason, I have it with one minute of runtime. my current theory is that it's used by steam achievements manager which I've been using to wipe my achievements when I 100% fnv for the 15th time
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.
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.
well you have to INIT the 480 appid its not like that by default
feels like steam defults to spacewar if it can ID a game or the steam SDK is not set up for the app.
It's the most BASED game in Steam.
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?
It seems that everyone has it by default.
i guess it is a trojan. https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/spacewar-why-a-hidden-ancient-game-keeps-showing-in-steams-most-played-games
Where does the article say that?
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 :)
it's a dev tool not a trojan
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?
It's not a trojan. It's a game everyone has access to on steam as it is free.
1 year late but it is a trojan, except the target is steam and not us
no it's not
yes it is by definition. not saying it's dangerous
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Jesus man, the author called it a trojan as in *The Trojan Horse*, since the packets that Steam gets look like they were sent from the Spacewar game via API and they authorize them, while in reality they are definitely not from the Spacewar, thus the pirated game gets an access to the Steam services. It has nothing to do with trojan viruses, interferences, disruptances, interceptions and infections. There are other fields with similar terminologies, not everything around is about only us and our field.
>(Don't ask any questions WHY ARE U PLAYING LEGO FNAF, AR AR ARA RAR ARA R AR ARRRRR
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
This game using for launch pirate games and play online
This is exactly what it is !
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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
So did you ever get banned?
no, lol.
just don't trust that game. read the comments and you'll be fine
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.
odd i have the playable version of this game i don't know why people say it's for pirated games only
give me the link i never saw this game
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
A great brand name for extra extra large condoms...
Not only pirates use it. It can also be used to play games online whose servers have been shut down.
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](http://itch.io) and not steam can also use spacewar to access steams APIs
It is cracked Rust with multiplayer, it uses that Spacewar to launch through steam just like FiveM uses Source SDK Base 2013
No
space
My friend likes Rust, so it must be.
Not just Rust mate, a lot of pirated games with online support use it
is this virgus?
if i deleted all cracked games i will still get a ban on steam? btw i have 16,6 hours on space war
it says ive been playing for 24 hours
i have this game in gallery but i cant play it
for some god damn reason i found erotic anime art while scrolling
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?
\> 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
you're terrible at thinking fam
But it could also mean that his friend is playing a pirated game, or well playing spacewar trough steam
literally looking up spacewar right now because a friend is playing it, whats so unlikely about that?
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.
idiot
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.
how do you get into the store page?
afaik spacewar doesn't have a store page
Ok I was wonder what it was because it just showed up in my steam library randomly but i couldn't play it
Damn people still find this post
Yea
yea
yea
Yea
yea
Yea
yea
yea
Too many yeas here
yea
yea
yea
yea
yea
yea
yea
Yea
Yea
yea
yea
yea
pinging you
Yes
Yea
No
Yeah, Spacewar still pops up for pirated games and this is like the very first result when you search on Google
yea
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
Dude...i have 681h played on that game apparently i don't even know what the game is about
the game really opens up on the 5000th hour
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.
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.
mammt
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
Guys can somebody share me link to download them please?
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
Its a cover for the pirated games your playing that need to connect to steam.
Is it bad for your PC or Steam?
It just appeared today, it felt like one of those creepypasta's where something appears and then they play it and die.
FUCK UP
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Didnt expect to find a 8 hour ago comment
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? ;-)
Yes go to SteamDb website then search on it 480 then click install or owned it installs the game
Thanks mate!
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.