I'm glad to see that you are once again making old games playable. However, ExoDos has been doing this for years and they do it for free. They have eXodos, eXowin3x, eXoScummVM, ect. Not sure why i would pay for something that is free (i do donate though).

so archive.org is piracy. better shut them down then. i know legalities. i don't pirate games (or if i do i use it as a demo since the games today are 90% woke crap. if i like it i delete the questionable game and purchase it). i buy games on GOG and Steam. it makes no sense to pirate games due to viruses and such. i don't want someone to work on something and not get paid for it. I think after 40 plus years, the games have pretty much paid for themselves and no one in their right mind will pay $10 for a dos game from the 90's (unless you're a collector). after 40 years, the company that published the game is probably out of business. so this is done to say "hey i remember i used to play this and now i can again". I didn't create this post to fight with people, just to make a statement. will i but games on gog. hell yes, because eXoDos probably won't support Win9x games (would be nice if they did). Will gog have everygame on eXoDos? Probably not since ExoDos has like 8k games. Sorry if my post rubbed you the wrong way, just stating my opinion.looking back at my original post, i can see how if was confrontational, my apologies.

That's the beauty about freedom of choice. We can pick were to get our games. EXodos is awesome but surely can't be legal. You have to remember GOG has hoops to go through when doing things.

Unfortunately some publishers have started to target archive.org aggressively hoping to get it labeled as such.

I was never a fan of physical media so I'm all in favor for any type of digital preservation.
Games are rarely consistent in quality to dedicate so much organization and labelling on my end.
I may as well get terabytes of videogames and take them wherever I please.

Sadly that's how rightsholders increasingly see it, and have taken action. Latest episode I'm aware of: https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/25/24279657/us-copyright-dmca-exception-extension-denied-remote-access

Archive.org is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organisation registered as a library. They have over the years done the work to achive the legal status and ability to do what they do, and no - that is not piracy,

fun fact - as they are a library they started out from archiving books, but then later on branched out to archive webpages, then other digital media,. They only offer books that are outisde copyright (i.e.e published before 1928) for free download, for books in copyright they do as all other libraries - let you borrow a copy..

They are an archive, in other words, they archive and preserve the work. That does not mean eveyone get unlimited access to everything - that is not what an archive is.

Well, going by my own experience, that's not entirely true.
I made use of their download function in the past...and not just for "books from before 1928, that are outside copyright".
Whether you believe me or not, is entirely up to you, of course - I have no intend, to go into the details here.

Do you remember that fad of large boxes for new games? Then it was all empty space except for a CD in its case and maybe a manual.

Game preservation thoughts

GOG are not really doing anything different to what they have been doing, at least game wise.

But yes, it is great they are doing the big promotional thing ... about time. That is different.

GOG enable preservation.

But I wish they would do more to encourage their customers to download the Offline Installers and back them up, which are the real preservation. GOG customers as a collective do the true preserving.

Doing the all-in-one download and install with Galaxy is not really game preservation.

A bit of a thought I had earlier is that it's pretty fucked up that "you own what you buy" is a selling point for GOG, and that this is somehow not a cynical marketing trick they're using, but it is literally their very existence - because other stores don't let you own what you "buy."

I always wonder how many gamers even think or care to back up the games they purchase. Positively, most Steam gamers think nothing of it or care. I do remember one guy saying Steam is not going anywhere, so why should I back up my games?
It was more frustrating when the biggest digital download store didn't even do a pushback to the new California law, making them say you don't own your game purchase on Steam. I understand why they did it because of the lawsuit, but come on, they're a multi-billion-dollar company. They could done a little pushback, or maybe not.

You're completely right.

Its absurd that we live in a day and age where we even can question if we really "own" what we "buy" - by the way, "buying" is the definition of, from that moment onward, "owning" what you just "bought"!

...Bizarre days we live in indeed!

The realization that every kind of content nowadays is digital makes you quite paranoid too. :P

Im in a point of downloading Youtube videos I find find somewhat special because I know, sometime, in the near future, all of them can be suddently deleted from the website.
Be it because its creator deleted his/her account, or because some company somewhere decided to flag 0:02 seconds of the video as "Their Content and therefore this video can't be live anymore until the 0:02 seconds content is removed, or all of the ad revenue comes to us!"... as it happened many times before.

I've seen those online and it doesn't make sense when its digital media. They're bulky and don't fit with many other mediums. Even as they came with intricate extras as was the case with early Interactive Fiction, but I digress. As for CD cases, they were easy to break. I do miss manuals. Guides as well, are a nice inclusion. Nintendo has a bunch up on their website.