This is Good OLD Games! I never played the 'original' Skyrim back in the day.

Not looking to install the Special Edition and turn down the graphics. Or install a mod to de-Specialify it. Can I just play the version from 10+ years ago, somehow? It was still available on Steam last time I checked.

GOG doesn't have the Original Skyrim, or the Legendary version.

My passive GC is a bit on the old side and it runs the GoG Special Edition at max just fine.

It doesn't seem like they have any interest in bringing classic/Legendary to GOG. Yes, it's still available on Steam, but it's hidden from the search results - it can only be accessed by the url (steam... app/72850).

Anyway, there is a mod called "Skyrim Legendary Weathers" - it restores the original weathers~color palette, it can be interesting if you think that Special Edition is too "colorful":
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/16725

The SE edition looks rather earth tonal to me.

I have a new (Windows 11) and an old (Windows Vista) gaming rig.

It is really nice to start up my beauty to play some older games. Brings back memories.

Looking at the present there are two problems:
1. The old Skyrim version, which supported Vista is nowhere to be found.
2. Steam dropped the support for the OS years ago, so ALL my games I bought especially for my Vista-PC are gone.
Sure, I probably can play them on my newer system, but I don't want to. I want to play them with my oldschool PC, my oldschool Xbox 360 controller and so on.

This makes me absolutely furious!

At least gog offers options like The Witcher 3 CLASSIC as a download option, so I can at least choose to play it on my old reliable.
Hope Skyrim follows soon...

Thank you for including the wishlists!

Lol! Go buy Bethesda and do it yourself then. Bethesda is not going to waste its time on obsolete past editions.

There is a bug in the Skyrim GOG installer, the language seletor doesn't actually work - the installer will always install all audio files.

After installing, you can go to the game folder and remove all the audio you don't need (eg: Skyrim - Voices_es0.bsa; Skyrim - Voices_ja0.bsa ...)
When only 1 language is installed, GOG and Steam versions have the same installation size, 15gb (included with Saints; Fishing, Survival, etc).

That sounds more like something GOG should fix!

Use MODS to make this a problem no more.

It'll never happen because Bethesda has no interest in selling the old version anymore.

The Special Edition is actually not that special. They just changed the app from 32 bit to 64 bit which is nice because that lets you access much more RAM. but the truth is in gaming there are very few 64 bit instructions, so its not the most important update in the world.
They also add some nice lighting features but you cant really tell much of a difference from the original game.
Also, you don't need the original game. Just install the special edition and on the config page turn off any lighting effects you don't care for. Despite what they claim its not a whole new game nor does it require a much faster computer to play. It does however need new mods to play, so if you got attached to your old mods in the original game then you have to go look around and see if there's a new version. I really miss Skyrim Community College but that's a minor complaint.

Such mods I find are rarely accurate, the one that claims to restore arma 3's lighting for example is totally different from the actual original release (alpha or 1.0) version.