Because we didn't get many games in 2024, or what do you mean?

Epic still have some games before Steam

Some people genuinely would rather games be lost to time, if the re-release is not identical to the original release, down to the last bit.
At least that's what I'm getting from comments here and in the announcement thread for the preservation program.


I'm sure they do try, but as already pointed out, you can only do so much when faced with:

- Expired (licensing) rights (AdLib, Roland, car brands/manufacturers, etc) that would need to renewed for a re-release
- No interest from the respective rights holders, if they can be tracked down in the first place

I think what they mean is, the whole GOG Preservation project thing is mostly a marketing thing advertising that fact the new program lets GOG patch games they already sell without needing the developer / publisher to rubber stamp every minor tweak (as they used to). For some bizarre reason, every time it gets mentioned people seem to incorrectly believe it will bring NOLF, Age of Empires, etc, and every other game they don't already have to the store, essentially treating it as a secondary community wishlist.

Nothing at all has changed legally though, GOG is a for-profit store that lacks the special status some museums gain in some countries (in being able to acquire and host media by default without needing to seek publisher permission as long as they don't redistribute them), and it wasn't the lack of a "preservation" program that was blocking wishlisted games from coming here in the past. For some games (NOLF) the unique legal challenges are no different now vs last year. For others though, eg, Age of Empires, Age of Mythology, Rise of Nations, etc, the originals will never, ever be "preserved" here because they'll never be sold here due to remakeitus (it's more profitable for Microsoft, etc, to throw old games away and keep remastering everything), at which point the average Joe who still has the disc is doing a better job 'preserving' them than an official preservation program run by a store which can't get permission to do, with GOG still lacking many titles like Gold Rush that Steam, even Fireflower Games has managed to get the rights to sell.

I think people are misreading intent there. Perfect example - GOG has "preserved" only approx 25 DOS games released between 1970-1995 (out of approx 400 DOS titles) here and for some of them have unnecessarily arbitrarily deleted the game's .exe which allow them to run under DOSBox just because they added ScummVM. Conversely, eXoDOS has preserved 7,666 DOS titles + related books, catalogues, magazines, soundtracks, of same era, etc), without butchering any DOSBox compatibility. "At least we can sell the game" vs "don't go artificially crippling DOSBox compatibility just because you added ScummVM" is not an "either-or" choice by any measure. I have games like Loom, Lure of The Temptress where I can play any combination of EGA / VGA or floppy vs CD variant under either DOSBox / ScummVM. "Unless you half-butcher the game so it runs under just one single source-port then it'll be lost to time" is a 100% false dilemma fallacy.

I may be wrong but I don't think that's what the poster who made that comment was referring to. I suspect they were referring to a number of DOS games which GOG has sold for a long time and which originally shipped with DOSBox but at some point were updated to instead use SCUMMVM. As part of that update, GOG removed some of the original game files that were not needed by SCUMMVM meaning that those games could no longer be run with DOSBox or on an original DOS PC or in an emulator like PCem running DOS.

Most people won't care about this as long as the game works on their current computer. But removing/destroying part of the original game can not be described as "preservation". I for one, and I know many others who've commented on this in the past, would like to have options for running our older games. If you don't like SCUMMVM or it stops being updated or doesn't work on a future OS that you choose to use, then those games will become inaccessible to you too. With the original files in tact, you still have options even if you have to do a bit of work.

Ultimately we all have to preserve our own copies of our games because one day GOG or Windows or SCUMMVM or DOSBox might not be around or at least not in a form that we're comfortable using.

I'd love to see more games from the 7th generation like Alpha protocol or MGS Revengeance here, a lot of those have PC ports so it would be a matter of talking with the publishers

One only has to look at Skyrim to see how brilliantly GoGs "Game Preservation" works!

Instead of providing Legendary edition, you know the first complete Skyrim edition! (because of course, why would anyone like to experience the original as it was, after all, we all bought it day one on Steam when it was released) They dumped only the SE, that, wait for it... has Alftand audio corruption (SE only, known since 2016, still unfixed) bug (that also completely freezes the game), that was non-existent in LE!

Like that wasn't bad enough, GoG ALLOWED bugthesda to finally kill the game!!! GoG could just say no to the update (like they are doing for fallout 4), but nooo they ALLOWED bugthesda to introduce what has to be one of the most horrible memory leaks in history (thank the gods i backed up just the bug-infested version and not the totally defective one)!
All that without as much as a changelog! Also by doing so, GoG introduced DRM, since now one has to go through Galaxy to un-broke the game, because of course, as always THERE IS NO PREVIOUS VERSION IN THE OFFLINE INSTALLERS!!!

I'm also in the "I wish there was a way to get the files in an original state" camp.

Because some source ports don't really like GOG's file extensions and modifications. A while ago I tried running OpenXCOM and it only worked with the Steam releases of the games because there the files are about as untouched as they can get.

Maybe OpenXCOM has been updated since to add compatibility (haven't played it in a good while as I'm still recovering from the PTSD as I went from the Firaxis games to the OGs) but still, it's something to consider when discussing games being in their original formats.

Also in my rather extremely niche case I enjoy running DOS titles in different systems like a PS3. Running Chip's Challenge or Full Tilt Pinball in one will never stop being amusing to me. The homebrew versions of DOSBox don't really like GOG's file formats for disc images and renaming them to BIN/CUE doesn't help. But again this is just a side thing. The source port issue is my main reason.
Ah, so that explains why the game running under Mint kept freezing at random. Though strangely enough the Steam version doesn't. I would assume both would be running the same busted version.

Though I am running things through WINE so that could be an issue in of itself.

You mean this MGS:R?
https://www.gog.com/en/game/metal_gear_rising_revengeance

Oh I misread it, whoops. My bad.

Thank you for clarifying and providing the information!
A hug! ;)

Thank you for confirming the information. Honestly, I wasn't very clear about it because at that time I was more focused on university than on this beautiful world of videogames (and, as I reiterate, I noticed that the game was free on GOG by other users of the shop). It's a pity that this game has passed me by. I hope it will be back in the GOG catalogue one day.
A hug! ;)

Edit.- Thanks for your feedback!

Love this video

Gold Rush is a very peculiar case. IIRC, it came out on Steam over 10 years ago, when gog had considerably more - shall we say - inflexible curation standards. I believe at the time Gold Rush was sold for 10 bucks, which was just completely insane for a 1988 EGA game that's not really all that great to begin with. It has accumulated a grand total of 70 reviews on Steam since then.

The base price has dropped to 2.99 and even the remakes sell for fairly reasonable prices (IIRC the remake released at $30 initially).

Long story short, I agree the Gold Rush games should be here, but I can also see why they were rejected at the time (and why no one bothered to bring them here after the fact).

Doesn't Epic buy games to be only on their store?

The crucial difference being that the eXoDOS project is non-commercial and the game files are - for the most part at least - provided entirely by the public.

While GOG, in order to being able to sell the games in the first place, has to comply and make do with what's provided to them either by the developers or the publishers. Which, unfortunately often seems to be "butchered" in some way or another, due to expired rights or something else. But again - as far as I'm concerned that's still better than not being able to offer and sell the games at all.

The switch to ScummVM versions without providing the classic DOS versions in some cases also could be something GOG just were forced to do?