Steam Removed Game Scanner
Steam Removed Game Scanner is a web application written in PHP that uses the Steam Web API to scan Steam profiles for ownership of removed games. Users can log in to scan their own profile, administrators can additionally view past scans or initiate new ones.
| Tags | Steam, PHP 7, JavaScript |
|---|---|
| Project started | December 2016 |
| Status | Active |
| Open source | Yes, GPL 3.0+ |
Description
The digital game sales platform Steam operated by Valve Corporation is by far the biggest player on the market at the time of writing. For a variety of reasons, games get removed from sale on Steam all the time, and a community of enthusiasts about collecting and tracking these removed games has established itself over the years.
Since the number of removed games is now rather large, it can be useful to have a digital tool to keep track of what removed games you own. There are various websites that fulfill this purpose. Steam Removed Game Scanner is one such website – to my knowledge, the first one to be made publically available and self-hostable as free and open source software.
UI Demo
While there is no fully functional demo instance of the Steam Removed Game Scanner, you can at least try out what it feels like to use it for yourself. Below is what the scanner looks like after you have logged in. You can also switch between the normal user view and the admin view to get a glimpse of what the system looks like behind the scenes. Please note that the user names, game titles and everything else you can see in this demo are all fictitious.
Welcome to the Steam Removed Game Scanner!
This is a visual demo of the scanner's user interface, specifically the way a non-admin user would experience it. This is the view that you would get right after signing in with your Steam account. You can see “your” name and avatar near the top, which are retrieved from your Steam profile using the Steam Web API after you've signed in.
In a real installation, here is likely where you would be informed about the scanning process and the privacy policy regarding the retention of your profile data. Since this is just a mock-up though, you get to click the button without a worry in the world.
Above this text you can see “your” scan result, showing some profile metadata as well as the list of the removed games “you” own. In a real scanner instance, you would be able to come back from time to time to perform a new scan and update your list. Each instance can be freely configured regarding its mandatory wait time between scans and its scan data retention policies.
Steam Profile Scan Summary
Profile name:
Profile URL: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/
Ban status: No bans on record
Total number of games: 523
Number of removed games: 17
The Steam Removed Game Scanner features a color scheme that is very easy for website operators to customize. Here is a selection of just a few possibilities. This makes it possible to quickly integrate the Steam Removed Game Scanner with your existing design and branding.
Project Perspective
This project is in active use and I intend to maintain it for the foreseeable future. The features as somewhat geared toward my own needs, but I believe the software is in a state where it can be deployed and used by others with reasonable effort. (Installation instructions come with the project files in the repository’s README.) Currently I have no pressing issues with it that would require significant additions.
If anyone ends up installing this for themselves, I’d be happy to hear about it. Since other public trackers with the same functionality exist, I’m not certain there is much of a market. Maybe I’ll be proven wrong.