I have a physical copy of Heavy Gear 2 native for Linux. Tried getting it to work some time during late Covid era and just gave up and pirated the windows copy to run through Lutris.

Going forward I think that flatpaks can be great to keep things running in the future, or app images or bottles.

Just, something that installs a specific version of the libraries it needs for that game only separate from the rest of the system

Just containerize native linux games.

Looked it up and someone had it running via a steam deck so looks like you’re set.

And it gets worse, through system updates there are old native games that no longer work on modern systems. Meanwhile I can grab a random windows game from the 90s or early 2000s and it’ll probably work via proton.