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GOG.com (Great Old Games) = Weeee!!

 
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ryan
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 11, 2008 2:30 pm    Post subject: GOG.com (Great Old Games) = Weeee!! Reply with quote

So CD Projekt announced GOG.com today. The service is similar to GameTap, Blizzard's service, and Steam in that it's a digital distribution system, but the difference is that it is completely DRM free and - what I dig the most - all games have been patched to run in XP and Vista. So far it's only PC games, but their library goes back to the '80s. You also get game guides, MP3 soundtracks, and other goodies when you buy the game. All of this is on the site, but I'm just psyched about it.

The games will run $5.99-9.99. So far deals with Interplay and Codemasters have been announced. That means the Fallout titles, the FreeSpace titles, etc. will be available at launch in September. Although the excellent FreeSpace Open already packages 1, 2, the best mods and all graphic/sound enhancements preinstalled (definitely check it out), this is still great.

Unlike GameTap, you don't need to be on any service or online to play the games. I really like GameTap, but sometimes I don't have an Internet connection and they also have that weird virtual hard drive deal that makes carrying over save files a bitch. But with GOG, you own the title outright, and you can redownload it at any time.

DOSbox was used for id's games on Steam, and it's handy in general, but I can never get the settings just right. Beyond that, I have to track down the games off of ebay. I've been buying a lot of older stuff off ebay and trading for it on goozex, but the packages tend to be banged to hell. The collector in me wants everything in mint shape, but I've all but given up on that recently, so I'm more inclined towards digital distribution these days. The fact that they are patched to run on newer machines is awesome - I get a lot of problems when I run in Vista. I hope they have something worked out for widescreen machines, maybe toggles for window mode or something.
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Patrick Alexander
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 11, 2008 9:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

This sounds great. I hate physical media, but I also hate DRM, so Steam for example shits me.

They need some old old games, though. For example Fallout, in my mind, is not that old.
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ryan
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 11, 2008 10:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

In the press release Tom mentions back to the 1980s, but at ShackNews he said they are working from getting the '90s down and moving on from there. He referenced Zork, but was quick to point out that they haven't made a deal regarding it yet. I'd think that a company like Interplay would be happy to have all of their older stuff on there - Dragon Wars and whatnot. I'm assuming they are going for the more recent titles because Fallout (especially Fallout with 3 coming out) is more recognizable - and not just to get attention but also so they can get their hands on a lot of the original material for it as well. The interview also mentions possibly selling boxed copies at some point. I think that might be too hard to do, but I would love to have a copy of Castles II on my shelf again.
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aderack
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 11, 2008 11:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yeah, this sounds really promising. If they can get Sierra and LucasArts on there, they're halfway to gold.

Origin would be perfect, if a bit trickier maybe. Who knows what EA has to say about anything.
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PostPosted: Sat Jul 12, 2008 1:24 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

saw this the other day. i like physical media, but the migration to digital distribution and emulation means our games will have life beyond the life of their original platforms (see also the virtual console, gametap), which is critical to the preservation of works in this medium. plus it's just nice to have options, and the way these folks are going about it seems really well-considered.
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PostPosted: Sat Jul 12, 2008 4:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

neat.

origin would be nice, but i'd be very surprised to see any of the classics up there. i'd like to be surprised.
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ryan
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PostPosted: Sat Jul 12, 2008 6:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

LucasArts and Origin were mentioned in the interview, but I think it's law that they are mentioned when talking about PC gaming pre 1998.

EA released all of the Ultimas on GameTap a while back, which had some nice retrospective pieces with each release, so I could see an Ultima Collection going up at some point.

I'm not sure how far the deal with Interplay extends, but I have the 15th Anniversary collection and it's packed with great games: Castles II, Dragon Wars, Fallout, Battle Chess, Shattered Steel, Descent, Conquest of the New World, Virtual Pool (still awesome), and Lost Vikings. There are others, but I don't care so much for them. If they can get those on the channel, that covers all the way from early '80s to about 1998. FreeSpace and Sacrifice are 1999. That's a decent range.

EA would really fill in the library: Origin, Bullfrog, and WestWood. Eidos would be a good partner as well, with most (all) of the interesting stuff coming from Looking Glass and Crystal Dynamics.

CD Projekt has a good deal of clout, even more so after the success of The Witcher, so I can see them pulling a deal off with an EA or LucasArts.
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ryan
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 24, 2008 7:23 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I purchased Conquest of the New World and picked up Fallout 2 for free. The 2-for-1 deal is over, but the games are only $5.99 each. The process is easy, and they just added paypal support. After you purchase the game, you have the option of downloading the manual (pdf), soundtrack, and whatever other extras (Conquest came with wallpaper for current resolutions). The games use Dosbox, but you don't have to finagle anything - at least I didn't. I own Conquest but have never been able to get it stable on new systems, but this worked like a charm. I'm really enjoying the service.

I have a friend code for someone else to get into the beta. If you want it, just reply here or PM me.



The games run fullscreen or in a window.
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simplicio
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 24, 2008 9:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I just got into this with both Fallouts; no DRM makes me happy, running games from HDD makes me happy. I'm hoping these guys might take on Riven? Cause Gametap won't play nice on 64bit anything.
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ryan
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 24, 2008 1:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

simplicio wrote:
I just got into this with both Fallouts; no DRM makes me happy, running games from HDD makes me happy. I'm hoping these guys might take on Riven? Cause Gametap won't play nice on 64bit anything.


Yeah, the people behind it hate DRM. One of Projekt Red developers has had a small interview pop up recently where he rails against it. Tom, their PR and marketing head, has also recently said that it's been difficult trying to sign on publishers because of the company's stance on DRM. I hope most of them realize that their 10-year-old games aren't exactly Call of Duty 4 and that $2 or whatever they get from the $5.99 is better than the nothing they're getting from Underdogs.
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 7:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Beneath A Steel Sky GOG Download

Installing tonight.
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