what's that?

That really depends on the case; your hardware, the game you're trying play, the program you are using to run the game, etc.

Some of these, or something else:

[url=http://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php/User_Manual/Appendix:_Graphic_filters]http://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php/User_Manual/Appendix:_Graphic_filters[/url]

http://www.dosbox.com/wiki/Scaler


The forum software doesn't like that ScummVM wiki link apparently, but hopefully it can be manually accessed...

No, it's not. At the time when the games originally came out, their graphics were cutting edge. Yet many years later, those same graphics have become vastly obsolete, and are therefore inherently immersion-breaking in ways that those same games never used to be years ago.

As for the OP's point: indeed GOG sells many games that are way overpriced given how obsolete they are.

You could buy a physical disc copy of Mafia 1 for $9.99 in the Walmart bargain bin over a decade before GOG released a far inferior butchered version for $14.99. No way is the butchered, digital version, 10+ years later, legitimately worth anywhere near as much as the uncut version from over 10 years ago was. It's priced like that now due to greed, not actual value.

I'm not saying that is how it is. Just my feeling. It would explain why some publishers have games priced higher than most here. I see no incentive on the GOG side why they would do such a thing.

In the Interplay's case, I would guess that their previous deal expired and while renewing the deal, Interplay said to increase the prices.

This. Steam pricing in action.

You play old games because of the gameplay, not the graphics. That is the reason I still play the original Doom regularly, not because of the amount of pixels the sprites have.

There's also inflation. The oldest games in GoG's catalogue are unlikely to decrease in price as there's a market for them. Typically, prices double every 20-25 years. Admittedly, 10 years is materially less than 20, but there are a couple of things to note:

- Interplay were on GoG very early on - I think they might have been the first publisher here.
- Interplay had significant financial difficulties in 2016

Both of these points would mean that it would be normal for them to review their pricing strategy here. You could also look at this from a sales price perspective (similar to the Telltale pricing strategy - go in with a high selling price, but offer big discounts to get a lot of sales in a short period of time).

Also, think of the sales price curve of games - they would have started around £44.99 back in the day, gone to budget sales initially at £14.99, then £9.99, then finally £4.99. When they went digital, they started around $5.99 - so a small discount to the final boxed price. However, they're nolonger on a downward price curve - they're riding a nostalgia wave and so prices are going up again.

Yes, it does depend on the buyer. Though when I first came here I bought some older games that I missed at initial market release, and they didn't suffer problems with aging. But that's subjective. Pricing was way low compared to the amount of enjoyment received, especially in light that newer, more costly games gave a similar amount of enjoyment.

Though I wonder why games seem to be an exception in the realm of entertainment, with movies maybe being another one. As mentioned, old books and music don't really get priced the same way. Shoot, board games - if anything - go UP in price over the years, even though they're the same old games as we always had. It's just odd to me: other stuff gets a pass but it's expected for PC games' prices to drop like a rock after a while.

Anyway, just something that puzzles me. And certainly the digital "inventory" matter plays into it (though, curiously, a lot of music seems to be immune to that same factor). My wallet doesn't mind, of course.

Computer games are always trial and error, possibly even more so the newer the games are.
Is your hardware compatible? Is there enough memory? Does the GPU work well with the game? Does the game have bugs and glitches?

With older games there are no questions about games themselves - they either have been fully patched, or they are known to be broken and left that way.

Also with newer games each game is a new challenge. With older games, it's different. If you find good settings for ScummVM and DosBox, they will work with possibly hundreds of games. This is why for instance in ScummVM there are global options, and game-specific options which override them. You can set some fancy scaler as a default setting, and if there's that one nasty game that doesn't work well with that, just use game-specific settings to override it.

It should also be noted that with older games you have countless of options to tinker with in general. Whereas a new game may not even run on your computer, older games played through a third party software can be run not only on your computer, but many other OS's as well, including one on your smartphone.

So in case that old game just doesn't run on your tabletop (unlikely, but theoretically possible), just try with your laptop, or play with your mobile. With newer games you have no option but wait for that Android port, which most likely isn't even included in the same price (few Humble Bundles being an exception).

At least for me, the older the game, the better for me.

Yes.

Gameplay gets old too, many old games that I found great time ago are now unbearably cluncky with outdated designs in my eyes, while I still love the old graphics.
I agree that old vanilla Doom has aged well, and I still play it, but it is always the case?

Definitely not, especially the early full 3D games. I just pointed out that the amount of old games I play because of the graphics is 0. It is for the gameplay 100% of the time. At least for me that is.

Can anyone confirm that this is only interplay games that have tripled in price

Ever played some of the 3D platformers in the late 90's when 3D graphics acceleration started to become common place? A lot of them were bad then and they are laughable now. The gameplay was always bad but early 3D graphics haven't held up as well over time.