GOG's Preservation Program Is the DRM-Free Store Refocusing On the Classics (arstechnica.com)
- Reference: 0175465451
- News link: https://games.slashdot.org/story/24/11/13/2139229/gogs-preservation-program-is-the-drm-free-store-refocusing-on-the-classics
- Source link: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2024/11/gogs-preservation-program-is-the-drm-free-store-refocusing-on-the-classics/
> The classic PC games market is "in a sorry state," according to DRM-free and classic-minded storefront GOG. Small games that aren't currently selling get abandoned, and compatibility issues arise as technology moves forward or as one-off development ideas age like milk. Classic games are only 20 percent of GOG's catalog, and the firm hasn't actually called itself "Good Old Games" in 12 years. And yet, today, GOG announces that it is making "a significant commitment of resources" toward a new GOG Preservation Program. It starts with 100 games for which GOG's own developers are working to create current and future compatibility, [1]keeping them DRM-free and giving them ongoing tech support , along with granting them a "Good Old Game: Preserved by GOG" stamp.
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> GOG is not shifting its mission of providing a DRM-free alternative to Steam, Epic, and other PC storefronts, at least not entirely. But it is demonstrably excited about a new focus that ties back to its original name, inspired in some part by [2]its work on [3]Alpha Protocol . "We think we can significantly impact the classics industry by focusing our resources on it and creating superior products," writes Arthur Dejardin, head of sales and marketing at GOG. "If we wanted to spread the DRM-free gospel by focusing on getting new AAA games on GOG instead, we would make little progress with the same amount of effort and money (we've been trying various versions of that for the last 5 years)."
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> What kind of games? Scanning the list of Good Old Games, most of them are, by all accounts, both good and old. Personally, I'm glad to see the Jagged Alliance games, System Shock 2, Warcraft I & II, Dungeon Keeper Gold and Theme Park, SimCity 3000 Unlimited, and the Wing Commander series (particularly, personally, Privateer). Most of them are, understandably, Windows-only, though Mac support extends to 34 titles so far, and Linux may pick up many more through Proton compatibility, beyond the 19 native titles to date. [...] [I]f you see the shiny foil-ish GOG badge on a game, it's an assurance that GOG has done all it can to bring forward a classic title. It's important work, too. "Preserving" games doesn't just mean locking a stable media in a vault, but keeping games accessible, and playable.
[1] https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2024/11/gogs-preservation-program-is-the-drm-free-store-refocusing-on-the-classics/
[2] https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/5-years-after-it-was-yanked-off-stores-gogs-bringing-underrated-spy-rpg-alpha-protocol-in-from-the-cold-with-fewer-crashes-and-new-achievements/
[3] https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/5-years-after-it-was-yanked-off-stores-gogs-bringing-underrated-spy-rpg-alpha-protocol-in-from-the-cold-with-fewer-crashes-and-new-achievements/
Linux (Score:2)
> "and Linux may pick up many more through Proton compatibility, beyond the 19 native titles to date."
Hmm, I went there: [1]https://www.gog.com/en/games?s... [gog.com] and chose Linux and it showed me 2,379 Linux games. Granted some are duplicates, and others are "soundtracks." If I check the "Good Old Games" tickbox, then I see the "19" mentioned. So what are all the other thousands?
[1] https://www.gog.com/en/games?systems=linux&order=asc:title
Re: (Score:1)
Probably just the ones that haven't been personally verified by their staff, or have been checked and Proton bugs were found.
Wary of this (Score:2)
I'm wary of this. The last thing I want is my newly-compatibilised GOG game to run on Windows 10 but lose support for 7. What I want is GOG to spend equal effort getting the older titles running on their original target systems, then -XP or 7- specifically, with modern Windows support following naturally from those OSes. Some of the GOG titles like Jazz 2 won't install on their original destined OS (200 mhz pentium) because the GOG installer doesn't support Windows 98. That's not good.
And definitely they sh
Re: (Score:2)
If there's a version of software on GoG you want to preserve, grab it and archive it locally.
Maybe fix what you already have? (Score:1)
After a recent purchase, it would appear to me that they've already shifted their focus away from DRM-free. After going through the (significant)effort to download a purchase and finding out it will crash immediately without internet, I read the reviews which revealed I am not alone. Not only does the title not start if offline, the title is continually uploading "telemetry" as you play and the game will stop working if your connection drops. Now, on another title, I've found that they've dramatically chan
Re: (Score:2)
That's a publisher decision. Plus it's nearly impossible to get a Unity title without telemetry now. Though most of those titles should run without an Internet connection.
You can still store and copy offline backups, meaning no actual DRM is present.
Re: Maybe fix what you already have? (Score:1)
I can copy and store DRM-ridden steam titles. You might not know what DRM means in a practical sense. It's absolutely GOG's decision to list these games on a page on which it is stated that activation is not required and that DRM is not present.
Re: (Score:2)
No, you can't copy and store Denuvo or Steam guard titles. You at least need the Steam client software to run the stuff. Example: Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous has Unity telemetry (which I firewall) and you can run it without Galaxy or an Internet connection.
Not bad, but DOS/Windows games only, apparently. (Score:1)
I see they have what appears to be the DOS version of Ultima 6, but I would prefer the Amiga version of that one. There are several classic games of this era which had arguably better Amiga ports, and it would be nice to see some of the same preservation effort applied to them as well. Am I wrong, do they actually have some Amiga titles buried in this catalog too, or not?
Re: (Score:2)
I thought the Amiga port of U6 was the bad one?
Re: (Score:1)
Maybe that's a bad example, I don't recall clearly. In many cases it's highly subjective, like one of them will have better music but the other will have better graphics. In some cases there's a clearly superior one across the board though, and often it's the Amiga one, especially for the earlier titles.
Re: (Score:1)
Oh, you're probably thinking of the C64 port, which was significantly more stripped down than either of those two.
Re: (Score:2)
> I see they have what appears to be the DOS version of Ultima 6, but I would prefer the Amiga version of that one. There are several classic games of this era which had arguably better Amiga ports, and it would be nice to see some of the same preservation effort applied to them as well. Am I wrong, do they actually have some Amiga titles buried in this catalog too, or not?
1.) Is not only DOS/Windows, there are some Mac and Linux (even native linux) gam,es too.
2.) As for amiga, any games that use SCUMM VM can handle amiga games fine. If an amiga version of such a game is the superior one, there is no technicall limitation for GoG to use that version, perhaps licensing, but that is a whole other can of worms...