Can my save games be salvaged?

Question

I've been away from Crusader Kings for a while, to focus on more important things in life (mainly Europa Universalis 4). I run my game through Steam, so it autoupdates even if I don't play it for a while. I thought that was pretty smart, but when I boot up the game now, I get this sad screen:

There is no "load" button, and clicking the game slot does nothing. It seems my old save is no longer compatible with my game.

I've invested 80 hours in this save, and have worked my way up from lowly duke to triple-king on the brink of conquering my fourth kingdom and becoming an emperor.

Is there any possible way to salvage my savegame?

Can I convert it to a newer version?
Can I create a new game based exactly on my old save?

Surely Paradox didn't just corrupt every game save for every player in a single update, so I guess it's because I am too many versions behind.

Can I install an older version of the game locally and gradually update the save along with the game?

Answer 1

After some research, I found a possible solution. Paradox has actually made older versions of the game available on steam as "beta versions". You can therefore "opt in" to an older version of the game.

By choosing the older version, Steam will re-download the game, and when you execute it, it will launch an older version and the save games will be available.