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DOOM seriesWhy are these games packaged for Windows only?(14 posts)(14 posts)
(14 posts)
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Posted September 29, 2015
Most (or all?) other games on this site using DOSBox provide Mac and Linux installers as well. Since Doom is being run with the vanilla engine through DOSBox, there shouldn't be any reason to restrict it to Windows, is there?

Since the Windows installers can always be downloaded, this can be only a small hurdle to some advanced users capable of using Wine or innoextract, but for a larger majority, it effectively cuts off the usability of this distribution when they don't run Windows. It makes it also difficult to write guides for newcomers to Doom when the official distribution channels are geared for Windows only. Just think of the difference between "Buy this, download, and install" and "Buy this, download, extract with this special program, download this other piece of software to port the game, find the *.wad from the extracted files, place it in this special directory, run the port..."

I love Doom and GOG.com, but the ball got dropped a bit on this release. It's still pretty fantastic from a Windows point of view, but it could be much more. I hope it is updated to resolve this oversight :-)
Post edited September 29, 2015 by chungy
Posted September 29, 2015
The same annoyance happens with the Steam release of Doom. Despite that DOSBox is available for Mac and Linux, Valve, id Software, Bethesda never bothered to include their respective versions, much less update them to v0.74 or include all of the necessary files like the SETUP.EXE file to change settings in Doom.
Posted September 29, 2015
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AmethystViper: The same annoyance happens with the Steam release of Doom. Despite that DOSBox is available for Mac and Linux, Valve, id Software, Bethesda never bothered to include their respective versions, much less update them to v0.74 or include all of the necessary files like the SETUP.EXE file to change settings in Doom.
At least the GOG.com release is better than that, it includes setup.exe and all the other files from the original installations.
Posted September 30, 2015
I contacted support about this, and I got a response commenting about technical work and licensing agreements. I would guess that in the case for these DOOM games, it is a matter of the latter.

If you want GOG.com to be aware that you want the game released on linux, contact them like I did a while ago. It can't hurt, right?
Posted October 02, 2015
Sounded like a good idea, I emailed... got a form letter back, same thing about technical work and licensing agreements, and comments about how they have plenty of other games. Well, that was disappointing.

The fact that they're just in DOSBox should make it rather trivial. I don't even know what kind of licensing agreements would prevent it. Would they really have an agreement that says "Thou shalt benefit Microsoft and none other"?
Posted October 13, 2015
I would be happy with an additional download file that wasn't a Windows executable, like a zip archive. That way non-Windows users wouldn't need Windows or Wine to get the game files for use with a locally installed Dosbox instance or one of the cross-platform source ports.
Posted October 14, 2015
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triplett: That way non-Windows users wouldn't need Windows or Wine to get the game files for use with a locally installed Dosbox instance or one of the cross-platform source ports.
innoextract
Posted October 14, 2015
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triplett: That way non-Windows users wouldn't need Windows or Wine to get the game files for use with a locally installed Dosbox instance or one of the cross-platform source ports.
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Gydion: innoextract
Yep. Forgot that one. Add it to the list of "not usually installed by default" tools needed to work with Windows-only installers on other platforms. The original point still stands - if GOG is legally obligated to offer games only for certain platforms (or doesn't want to support every platform available), it would still be nice to have a simple archive file available to fetch needed game assets.
Posted October 14, 2015
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triplett: The original point still stands - if GOG is legally obligated to offer games only for certain platforms (or doesn't want to support every platform available), it would still be nice to have a simple archive file available to fetch needed game assets.
If? It's part of their distribution agreements (at least that's standard for them). I believe people have been asking for ZIP archives from the beginning, but GOG isn't interested in offering or supporting them.
Posted October 14, 2015
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triplett: The original point still stands - if GOG is legally obligated to offer games only for certain platforms (or doesn't want to support every platform available), it would still be nice to have a simple archive file available to fetch needed game assets.
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Gydion: If? It's part of their distribution agreements (at least that's standard for them). I believe people have been asking for ZIP archives from the beginning, but GOG isn't interested in offering or supporting them.
I meant 'if' in the sense of a particular game/publisher. They aren't all the same, I"m sure.

I'm aware of people asking for zip archives from the beginning. That's why occasionally people state it would be nice to have them. Things can change, so why not politely discuss possibilities. Someone who can make the change might be reading.
Posted December 23, 2015
Thanks for the innoextract.
Didn't know that and it's saving me a lot of wine trouble :)
Posted December 24, 2015
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chungy: Most (or all?) other games on this site using DOSBox provide Mac and Linux installers as well. Since Doom is being run with the vanilla engine through DOSBox, there shouldn't be any reason to restrict it to Windows, is there?

Since the Windows installers can always be downloaded, this can be only a small hurdle to some advanced users capable of using Wine or innoextract, but for a larger majority, it effectively cuts off the usability of this distribution when they don't run Windows. It makes it also difficult to write guides for newcomers to Doom when the official distribution channels are geared for Windows only. Just think of the difference between "Buy this, download, and install" and "Buy this, download, extract with this special program, download this other piece of software to port the game, find the *.wad from the extracted files, place it in this special directory, run the port..."

I love Doom and GOG.com, but the ball got dropped a bit on this release. It's still pretty fantastic from a Windows point of view, but it could be much more. I hope it is updated to resolve this oversight :-)
DOOM actually had an official Linux release back in the day as well, id Software was always a big supporter of Linux and open source (hence, they released the source code of their games and had Linux versions released) Bethesda which now owns id does NOT support Linux and I assume will not allow GOG or any other retailer to release their products on Linux. :)
Posted December 25, 2015
If you install innoextract, you can just extract the installer and grab all the DOS files from there.
Posted January 01, 2016
Really sad that i cant play this game on my macbook :/ I thought all dosbox games would be available on Mac/Linux... Hope this is getting fixed
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Community
DOOM seriesWhy are these games packaged for Windows only?(14 posts)(14 posts)
(14 posts)