GOG

[floppybootstomp]

It's a website and GOG stands for 'Good Old Games'. They sell DRM-free software at very economical prices that consist mostly of old games, here's a link to their site: GOG

They claim that most of the games they sell have been modified to work in more recent versions of Windows, including Win 7. I'd wondered what they were like and whether in fact these games would work in Win 7 so when they had a half price sale just before Christmas I decided to try and few and bought these:

Blood 2 The Chosen (Nightmare)
Moto Racer 2
Rayman 2
Legacy Of Kain - Blood Omen
Legacy Of Kain Soul Reaver
Land Of Lore III

Those six games cost me £12.38 in the sale. It's worth mentioning that they really are DRM-free, once purchased you can give away copies of the games to friends and install on as many machines as you like.

So how did I fare playing these games? I tried them all in a pair of modern machines, one using Win 7 Home Premium 64 Bit SP1 the other using Win XP 32 bit SP3.

Blood 2: Did not work at all in Win7. Worked fine in Win XP but crashed if video res set higher than 800 x 600. I remember loving this game first time around but unlike some oldies such as Half Life, this game has not aged well, seems older than it is.

Moto Racer 2: A motor cycle racing game. Worked in Win 7, recognised Xbox controller ok. Graphics dated (obviously). Quite difficult to play, I didn't enjoy it at all. In Win XP graphics were corrupted and thus the game wouldn't work in XP. Tried lowering desktop video res but still wouldn't work.

Rayman 2: Worked fine in both Win 7 and Win XP, graphics acceptable, was able to use Xbox controller in both setups. Good gameplay but not really my type of game, aimed at kids. Latest Rayman game (on both Xbox and PC) is a whole lot better, one for both grown-ups and kids. Still, if you liked Rayman 2 and want to play it again, this one works.

Legacy Of Kain Blood Omen. Works perfectly in both Win 7 and Win XP, good game imo, I played it all the way through in Win 98 the first time around. Obviously the graphics now look dated.

Legacy Of Kain Soul Reaver: Intro cut scene played but then it seized in both Win 7 and Win XP. Wouldn't work at all.

Land Of Lore III: This is the one I wanted to work the most as first time around I played through a lot of this game but it came on 4 CD's and you had to keep swapping CD's when moving from one area to another, very annoying so I was hoping this re-issue would work seamlesly. But it didn't, it wouldn't even load.

Clicked on exe file, install started but it said it couldn't find the other parts needed, both bin files. But they were there, in the specified folder so I don't understand why it wouldn't install in either OS.

I still have the original LOL3 game, all 4 CD's and I can get it to work in Win 98 if I lower desktop resolution, but the controls are awful, I don't know how I played this 1st time around, controls are very very awkward.

So, all in all - disappointed, if two games working well out of six in both Win 7 & XP is an average, I think it may be best to steer clear of GOG.

If anybody here has experience of product from this site, please share your experience(s) here.

 

[EvanDavis]

Did somebody not post a link to this before ?

 

[floppybootstomp]

Did somebody not post a link to this before ?

Yes. Possibly Abarbarian, but not sure.

 

[floppybootstomp]

I'm going to contact GOG the gaming site to see if they can offer a solution to get LOL3 running though I expect all I'll get in return is a stock software-generated reply, much like Steam do. We shall see.

 

[Ian]

Bit of a shame as there are some nice games on there - Fallout and Dungeon Keeper for starters .

Do they come via some Steam-esq client, or do you just download a package with the files in it?

 

[floppybootstomp]

You just download a folder, click on the exe file and away you go. Or away you don't go

I'm going to try the games I have that don't work within Win 98, just out of curiosity, though the initial attraction was that GOG claimed they worked in Win 7.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Tried loading these games in Win 98 (a 'real' Win 98 install, not a 'Virtual' Win 98) and none of them would load.

Received messages stating something like 'This application was expecting a newer Windows Operating system'.

So, looks like these games have been optimised to work in Windows OS's ranging from XP to Win 8. But if you look at my experience it would appear a great deal of them will not.

Disappointing

 

[floppybootstomp]

Something of a reapraisal, GOG have a 50% discount sale on for some games atm and me being a glutton for punishment, I bought four.

Here's my GOG catalogue:

Lands Of Lore 3
Descent 3 with expansion
Earthworm Jim 3D
Messiah
Redneck Rampage Collection
Blood 2 The Chosen
Legacy Of Kain Blood Omen
Legacy Of Kain Soul Reaver
Moto racer 2
Rayman 2

On the computer detailed in my forum spec (<< over there, under my avatar) all of these games now work with the exception of Rayman 2, which won't open at all.

Some games only worked at low res, typically 800 x 600; Lands Of Lore 3, which I had mentioned wouldn't work, I re-downloaded it and it installed ok, so original download was likely corrupted.

With Moto Racer 2, it was originally set on hard setting, now I've set it to Easy setting, it's actually quite enjoyable.

Redneck Rampage is quite good fun but actually quite difficult.

Blood 2 The Chosen was playing fine but it doesn't have a save function, it saves automatically at the end of each short level. Or so I thought. I played around six levels, very enjoyable indeed, but when I started it again - no saved games - back to the start. Frustrating.

And although all the others work, the archaic control settings tend to distract from the enjoyment. Some of them don't even have mouselook, makes me realise how far games have come on in 15 years.

I bought the original version of Messiah but gave up on it about a third of the way through cos it was too hard. Thought I'd try it again. Although it runs ok the controls are awful, imo it renders the game almost unplayable.

So, I'd reconsider my previous opinion and say go ahead and take a risk with these cheap old games, just remember you may have to run some at low res and be prepared for a Games culture shock when it comes to the conmtrols if you're used to modern day gameplay controls.

In short, I wouldn't recommend action games such as fps's but think GOG would be ok for rpg's and rts games. I recall Ian liked the old game Total Anihilation, now that may be well worth a purchase.

Of my list of Games, the only two that run perfectly for me are Legacy Of Kain Blood Omen and Moto Racer 2. Redneck Rampage is quite good but the controls are a bit shaky.

 

[EvanDavis]

I just registered on the site and come the end of the month when I have a few extra beer tokens in my bank I shall be purchasing a few games

 

[floppybootstomp]

First - I was wrong about Blood 2: The Chosen, there IS a save function, it was just hiding from me. Hit escape you expect a menu with a save heading right? Wrong. You have to hit 'Single Player' and then you get the Save function. Oh well, maybe I'm just a dufus. Really enjoyng the game but it's very dark, no gamma or brightness controls within the game. It will also crash randomly but apart from that... lol Have now completed 11 levels of first chapter but tbh it's beginning to get repetitive, running round like a headless chicken a lot of the time trying to find the next part of the level. And of course the graphics are rubbish compared to today's games. But probably worth $3.

As for Descent 3, crap graphics and even crappier controls, I won't be bothering with it. I do remember playing all 3 back in the day and enjoying them a lot.

All in all, as I said, if you're going for old games, I'd personally stick with role playing and strategy as most fps and action games have not aged well, imo.

 

[floppybootstomp]

An update, and this time on a positive note

Being a glutton for punishment, I bought a few more titles. I figured sooner or later I gotta strike lucky. I was right.

Ultima IX:Ascension. Played this back in the day, still have original CD, but paid about £1.59 to buy a Win 7 compatible version. And it works perfectly

It's dated but imo it's still good fun, bringing back some memories here for sure. For it's time this game was actually quite advanced. Originally I only got to about a quarter of the way through. Maybe now I'll see the rest of this game, I always wanted to.

Nox. Another game I played back then, enjoyed it a lot though as I remember it was a little repetitive. Works perfectly.

And this may be good news for Feckit:

Theme Hospital. Bought this for my daughter and it works perfectly on her Netbook within Win 7.

Clive Barker's Undying. Basically a fps, another game I played back then, I remember getting stuck trying to kill 2nd boss level (it may have been kill Ambrose) so we'll see if I can beat that part this time around. This game works perfectly in Win 7.

So, as you can see, choice of game is a little hit and miss. My advice is, unless you see a game you want really desperately, wait for their weekend sales and take a gamble on the cheap ones.