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.