New "Good Old Games" LEGAL Download service

The Grim Squeaker · Post by **The Grim Squeaker** » 2008-09-04 05:38am

Thislooks pretty awesome, it's a company offering old games (And games from the 90's, not just antiques) for purchase, legally for 5-10$, with no DRM and full compatability guaranteed.
They have some excellent offered games so far too, Sacrifice, Fallout, Giants, MDK, Freespace 2 [size=0][Yes, Yes, CEP and all that][/size]...
http://www.gog.com/en/intro - Good Old Games.

It's currently in the beta stage, although registering now before September 8 gets access.

I'd have killed for this back in the day when I was hunting for the Fallout games, (Let alone the other games that came out when I was still busy learning how to walk and talk) and if they have adventure games there (I'm still to find a working company of the Discworld games, and my disc of "The Neverhood" is dangerously scratched) then i'll be able to retire happily to that.
I assume that there are other fans of old, good games here

.

Oh, and all the games are guaranteed to work on windows XP and Vista.

Andrew_Fireborn · Post by **Andrew_Fireborn** » 2008-09-04 06:23am

Nice... Very nice.

Wonder if they managed to license Bullfrog games... I have the worst luck with Dungeon Keeper CDs... Lost four of them. (1 & 2)

Still, should be some interesting things there.

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2008-09-04 07:02am

Looks like it's just Codemasters and Interplay, from the covers. Normally I'd say this reeks and reeks bad, but the company behind it appears to be legit. If this is the real deal and not a poorly-disguised wArEz site, it certainly sounds like a very good initiative, especially if they mean the bit about ensuring the games work under modern operating systems.

ETA:

To eliminate compatibility issues, the team has source code access to most games and will be creating custom installers for each title.

If this is true, they must really mean business. One to keep an eye on.

Enigma · Post by **Enigma** » 2008-09-04 07:53am

Would they have a XP\Vista compatible Klingon Academy?

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2008-09-04 08:11am

Enigma wrote:Would they have a XP\Vista compatible Klingon Academy?

Licensed games are always tricky to reissue, so I wouldn't count on it.

Enigma · Post by **Enigma** » 2008-09-04 05:08pm

Bounty wrote:
Enigma wrote:Would they have a XP\Vista compatible Klingon Academy?
Licensed games are always tricky to reissue, so I wouldn't count on it.

You mentioned in another post that they have Codemaster and Interplay games so I thought since I think Interplay published Klingon Academy that this site might have it.

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2008-09-04 05:14pm

Enigma wrote:
Bounty wrote:
Enigma wrote:Would they have a XP\Vista compatible Klingon Academy?
Licensed games are always tricky to reissue, so I wouldn't count on it.
You mentioned in another post that they have Codemaster and Interplay games so I thought since I think Interplay published Klingon Academy that this site might have it.

I'm not at all familiar with licensing deals, but since Paramount owns the Star Trek trademark, I think they'd need to give permission for these games to be re-released. That might happen, but I seriously wouldn't count on it.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2008-09-04 05:17pm

Who has the classic Trek licence now? Activision? They'd probably be able to block any old Interplay releases.

If these guys could cook a new exe (not a given, since the real problems with KA are 3d-related not OS-related) and just 'give' it to people who 'already' own KA, that'd be pretty nice.

Molyneux · Post by **Molyneux** » 2008-09-04 08:01pm

If they've got Monkey Island, it's a guaranteed buy for me. I never got to play that game more than clicking around at a friend's house...I still remember MURRAY, though!

docfrance · Post by **docfrance** » 2008-09-04 08:05pm

Along similar lines, the entire X-COM series is now being sold via Steam, something like $15 for the whole bundle.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2008-09-04 08:43pm

Molyneux wrote:If they've got Monkey Island, it's a guaranteed buy for me. I never got to play that game more than clicking around at a friend's house...I still remember MURRAY, though!

SCUMMvm is way better than just playing it native. I'd be surprised if these guys throw in higher res and advanced graphics options, and SCUMMvm exists right now and will work with your existing shit.

Molyneux · Post by **Molyneux** » 2008-09-05 06:30am

Stark wrote:
Molyneux wrote:If they've got Monkey Island, it's a guaranteed buy for me. I never got to play that game more than clicking around at a friend's house...I still remember MURRAY, though!
SCUMMvm is way better than just playing it native. I'd be surprised if these guys throw in higher res and advanced graphics options, and SCUMMvm exists right now and will work with your existing shit.

Uh...what the heck is SCUMMvm?

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2008-09-05 06:37am

Molyneux wrote:
Stark wrote:
Molyneux wrote:If they've got Monkey Island, it's a guaranteed buy for me. I never got to play that game more than clicking around at a friend's house...I still remember MURRAY, though!
SCUMMvm is way better than just playing it native. I'd be surprised if these guys throw in higher res and advanced graphics options, and SCUMMvm exists right now and will work with your existing shit.
Uh...what the heck is SCUMMvm?

A virtual machine to run old adventure games based on the SCUMM engine.

dragon · Post by **dragon** » 2008-09-05 10:05am

Bounty wrote:
Enigma wrote:
Bounty wrote: Licensed games are always tricky to reissue, so I wouldn't count on it.
You mentioned in another post that they have Codemaster and Interplay games so I thought since I think Interplay published Klingon Academy that this site might have it.
I'm not at all familiar with licensing deals, but since Paramount owns the Star Trek trademark, I think they'd need to give permission for these games to be re-released. That might happen, but I seriously wouldn't count on it.

They might own the trademark but CBS Consumer Products was holding but now Bathesda bought the licensing agreements. At least thats what this article suggests.

Legacy and Tactical Assault to be Released on Next-Gen Consoles, Handhelds, and PC- Bethesda Softworks® has announced it has secured the rights from CBS Consumer Products to publish a series of Star Trek games on all gaming consoles, handhelds and PCs. Bethesda has two titles slated for release this year to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the epic series – Star Trek®: Legacy for Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PC, and Star Trek®: Tactical Assault for Nintendo DS™ and Sony PSP™ (PlayStation® Portable). Bethesda’s rights cover the entire Star Trek series and are exclusive to all consoles, handhelds, and the PC.
Snip..
About CBS Consumer Products
CBS Consumer Products, a unit of CBS Enterprises, manages the worldwide licensing, merchandising and video activities for a diverse slate of properties owned or controlled by the CBS Corporation. Additional information is available by visiting www.CBS.com.

link

Molyneux · Post by **Molyneux** » 2008-09-05 11:27am

Bounty wrote:
Molyneux wrote:
Stark wrote: SCUMMvm is way better than just playing it native. I'd be surprised if these guys throw in higher res and advanced graphics options, and SCUMMvm exists right now and will work with your existing shit.
Uh...what the heck is SCUMMvm?
A virtual machine to run old adventure games based on the SCUMM engine.

Thanks for the link, I will check it out when I get home!
I'd really rather have legal access to the game, though.

Post by **RogueIce** » 2008-09-05 11:48am

If they have the Quest for Glory series (1 through V, including the VGA remake of 1) and the original Sam and Max game, I'll be impressed.

Otherwise, I'm largely meh.

Stargate Nerd · Post by **Stargate Nerd** » 2008-09-05 06:04pm

Wow DRM free games and guaranteed compability with Vista/XP makes this awesome. There's many older games that I want to play but never got around to buying.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2008-09-06 12:13am

RogueIce wrote:If they have the Quest for Glory series (1 through V, including the VGA remake of 1) and the original Sam and Max game, I'll be impressed.

Otherwise, I'm largely meh.

Sam and Max ALSO works with SCUMMvm.

I think there's a similar project for Sierra's older games, but I'm not sure if QfG works with it.

Stargate Nerd, believe me that the number of games so old they don't work in XP/Vista and that are also still worth playing is very small. I grew up in the 90s and I've dug so far through back catalogs I'm playing board games, and aside from a few gems, such games are quite often already usable through frontends (or hackjobs, like The Dark Engine for Thief ans System Shock2). That said, a Fallout exe that runs fine in Vista would be pretty cool... but it's amusing they'd charge for it.

Rogue 9 · Post by **Rogue 9** » 2008-09-06 03:57am

I don't know why they're bothering with Freespace 2, what with the Open Source Project being free, but cool all the same.

starslayer · Post by **starslayer** » 2008-09-06 04:27am

Rogue 9 wrote:I don't know why they're bothering with Freespace 2, what with the Open Source Project being free, but cool all the same.

The game cannot obtained legally for free. Since the SCP requires some form of the retail data files to run, this is the only legal source offering the game besides Ebay and friends. Not that anyone much cares (there are tons of people offering the whole damned thing for download rather openly). The weird EULA (the one letting you make copies for your friends) is actually not the real EULA (the complete explanation is over at HLP).

Post by **RogueIce** » 2008-09-06 06:07pm

Stark wrote:
RogueIce wrote:If they have the Quest for Glory series (1 through V, including the VGA remake of 1) and the original Sam and Max game, I'll be impressed.

Otherwise, I'm largely meh.
Sam and Max ALSO works with SCUMMvm. I think there's a similar project for Sierra's older games, but I'm not sure if QfG works with it.

Yes, but I'd have to get a copy of Sam and Max in order to play it on SCUMMvm, wouldn't I? That presents a problem of sorts.

For QFG, I have I - IV on a Collection CD, though it'd be nice to get "real" bugfixes (although there are fan-made ones out there). I never got V though.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2008-09-06 07:11pm

Ha! I guess so. The lot of someone who both wants to play old games and isn't near a bargain bin or have a million games floating around their house is alien to me.

I hear QfG IV is full of game-killing bugs, but I'm pretty sure that'd be outside the scope of these guys to fix.

Post by **RogueIce** » 2008-09-06 07:27pm

Stark wrote:I hear QfG IV is full of game-killing bugs, but I'm pretty sure that'd be outside the scope of these guys to fix.

It is possible to finish it (I have as a Paladin) but you do need a few workarounds.

There's a fan patch out there that supposedly deals with it, but my use of some internal settings jiggering and moSlo (plus an older Win95 computer that's much slower) seemed to be enough so I never really tried it out.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2008-09-06 07:34pm

Isn't there a tree which, if looked at, crashes the game? One of my friends is a huge fan of these silly games, and claims the fix for this issue was 'don't look at the tree'.

Post by **RogueIce** » 2008-09-06 07:43pm

Stark wrote:Isn't there a tree which, if looked at, crashes the game? One of my friends is a huge fan of these silly games, and claims the fix for this issue was 'don't look at the tree'.

I don't know. I guess I never looked at that tree myself.

It could've been in QFG3 or QFG5 though. I never got much into 3 to really find the bugs (my sister did and beat it, so it's apparently doable) and I never had 5, so... 1 and 2 seemed pretty stable so far as I could tell.