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General discussionGreat games now available - GOG get busy! (21 posts)(21 posts)
(21 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted April 20, 2017
low rated
I was online looking for fun games that GOG has yet to make available. I found some websites where you can play some great old games GOG should have here for us. I do not understand why these cool games are available to play free on websites and not here.
These games were available at classicreload com

Heretic and Hexen
Command and Conquer / Red Alert
Warcraft I and II
Earthsiege. Mech Warrior (several versions)
TFX, US Navy Fighters, EF2000
Aces over the Pacific and Europe
Wizardry 1-7 (I know GOG has 6+7+8)
Stallar 7
and many more.

Why can't GOG put these out for us to buy?
I would buy most of these right now!
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Posted April 20, 2017
Because the site you mention distributes the games illegally.
Post edited April 20, 2017 by loki1985
Posted April 20, 2017
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Joeysan: I was online looking for fun games that GOG has yet to make available. I found some websites where you can play some great old games GOG should have here for us. I do not understand why these cool games are available to play free on websites and not here.
These games were available at classicreload com

Heretic and Hexen
Command and Conquer / Red Alert
Warcraft I and II
Earthsiege. Mech Warrior (several versions)
TFX, US Navy Fighters, EF2000
Aces over the Pacific and Europe
Wizardry 1-7 (I know GOG has 6+7+8)
Stallar 7
and many more.

Why can't GOG put these out for us to buy?
I would buy most of these right now!
Copyright issues largely I will try to explain as best as I can remember:

Heretic and Hexen as far as I know the IP is still with activision and probably they arent too eager to re-release them.

Command and Conquer / Red Alert C&C is owned by EA and while EA has released some of its classics here I dont know why C&C or RA is available here, but EA made the RA1 ISOs available just before Red Alert 3 came out, they also did the same for Tiberian Sun, but who knows they could come here in the future, but EA seems dedicated to just lazily releasing C&C once and a while on Origin.

Warcraft I and II Ask Blizzard.

Earthsiege. Mech Warrior (several versions) Earthseige used to be a Sierra IP, I do not know who are the current rights holders atm. The Mechwarrior IP I think is owned by Piranha games I am not 100 percent on that and I think the older games are in somesort of rights hell atm, I know the main Battletech IP is owned by Topps but I dont know how MW and BT interact thought they are the same universe.

The others except Stellar 7 I dont know about it, Stellar 7 was a Sierra game so maybe? dunno depends on the current rights holders.

GOG just cant package a game for release and start selling it.
Post edited April 20, 2017 by Lord_Kane
Posted April 20, 2017
lol Warcraft. Blizzard would murder GOG if they started selling it, cuz, well, it's Blizzard.
Posted April 20, 2017
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zeroxxx: lol Warcraft. Blizzard would murder GOG if they started selling it, cuz, well, it's Blizzard.
They'd kill anyone who started selling it.
It's one of the few places that won't even throw Steam a bone.
Posted April 20, 2017
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zeroxxx: lol Warcraft. Blizzard would murder GOG if they started selling it, cuz, well, it's Blizzard.
ANY Company would legally go after GOG is they sold a game without it's permission. There is a lot to criticize Blizzard for,but protecting it's copyrighted assets is not one of them.
And don't think that GOG's mother company would not go after a website that starting selling or giving away The Witcher games without permission.

Of the games listed by the OP, the only ones I think are legal are the two C and C games, since EA gives them away for free. All the rest, I think, are copyrighted.
BLizzard keeps on saying there will release the first two Warcraft games in a version to run on a modern computer, but so far that is all it is:talk.
But maybe the relasing of StarCraft indicates they are finally getting off their butts about releasing their classic games.

I also wonder why GOG, which does do business with EA,does not offer the first two C and C games as a freebie. I suspect they are waiting for for a deal to bring the whole C and C series to GOG, and if that happened will offer the first two C and C games as a freebie with a purchase of one of the other C and C games, the way they did with Arena and Daggerfall for the Elder Scrolls games.

And, of course, "Abandonware" is a very questionable concept. The vast majority of "Abandonware" games are still under copyright. Don't confuse "Out of Print" or "No Longer Made" for being "Out of Copyright". The first two are business decisions....that it is no longer profitable for a company to continue to print or manufacture something. They still hold the legal rights to it.
Post edited April 20, 2017 by dudalb
Posted April 20, 2017
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dudalb: Of the games listed by the OP, the only ones I think are legal are the two C and C games, since EA gives them away for free. All the rest, I think, are copyrighted.
argh@#$%&$^@^)*(@

They're still not "legal". Distributing a game without demanding payment doesn't make it free software, it's still EA's intellectual property. Even while C&C are "hur hur free", it's still illegal to host your own download, branded or not, and if they're ever taken down, it'll be illegal to offer them as a third-party download just because they used to be "free" in the past.

Post-googling addendum: in fact, the original download page has been taken down and replaced with an ad for their pay-to-win browser game. They're also a part of the Ultimate Collection, which costs money. So I can't find any confirmation they're "free" now.
Posted April 20, 2017
I know that giving away a copyrighted game for free is just as illegal as selling it.

I am standing firm that EA games has pretty much decided to give away the first two C and C games as a promotional gimmick for the series. Many C and C fansites have the games available for download, and EA seems not to give a damn. Also a few major sites like Cnet have the games for free download, and they would not put themselves in legal jeopardy. As for the Ulitmate collection, they are simply including the first tow games for the sake of completeness.

The absence of a download page just indicates that EA did not want to maintain a download page for the games, when so many sites mirror it.
Post edited April 20, 2017 by dudalb
Posted April 20, 2017
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Joeysan: I do not understand why these cool games are available to play free on websites and not here.
I do not understand why these cool games can't be bought here when it's so easy to pirate them. Wait what?
Posted April 20, 2017
Actually, the absence of Heretic and Hexen from GOG is something I have wondered about. Available on Steam, though.
Post edited April 20, 2017 by dudalb
Posted April 21, 2017
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Joeysan: Command and Conquer / Red Alert
These have been freeware for nearly 10 and 9 years, respectively.
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Starmaker: Post-googling addendum: in fact, the original download page has been taken down and replaced with an ad for their pay-to-win browser game. They're also a part of the Ultimate Collection, which costs money. So I can't find any confirmation they're "free" now.
That's only because the franchise shifted hands within EA several times over the past few years and with it the websites (I recall some iterations being pretty damn bare-bones even before the current one). The games weren't free temporarily, they were made free permanently. No fan-run mirror has been taken down since, and EA even held their official releases on FilePlanet while it was still a thing.
Post edited April 21, 2017 by Plokite_Wolf
Posted April 21, 2017
Thanks for helping me prove my point. Anybody who wants to can pretty much host a download for the the original Command And Conquer and Red Alert.
As stated, EA included the first two games in the "Ultimate Collection" just for the sake of completeness...if they sold it without them people would bitch, even if they are available for free.
I have not bought a new C and C game for some time. after being disappointed in RA 3. The series does seem to have gotten in a rut for the last several years.
Post edited April 21, 2017 by dudalb
Posted April 21, 2017
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Lord_Kane: Earthsiege. Mech Warrior (several versions) Earthseige used to be a Sierra IP, I do not know who are the current rights holders atm. The Mechwarrior IP I think is owned by Piranha games I am not 100 percent on that and I think the older games are in somesort of rights hell atm, I know the main Battletech IP is owned by Topps but I dont know how MW and BT interact thought they are the same universe.
Microsoft has been holding the rights of the MechWarrior series since 1999, IIRC, Piranha is just a licensee.
Posted April 21, 2017
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Lord_Kane: Earthsiege. Mech Warrior (several versions) Earthseige used to be a Sierra IP, I do not know who are the current rights holders atm. The Mechwarrior IP I think is owned by Piranha games I am not 100 percent on that and I think the older games are in somesort of rights hell atm, I know the main Battletech IP is owned by Topps but I dont know how MW and BT interact thought they are the same universe.
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Plokite_Wolf: Microsoft has been holding the rights of the MechWarrior series since 1999, IIRC, Piranha is just a licensee.
Anyway, a new MechWarrior game by Piranha is scheduled for release later this year.
Microsoft owning the IP rights would explain why the MechWarrior games are conspicuous by their absence on GOG. The whole franchise as far as video/computer games has been pretty much dead for the last few years, the new game is something of reboot.
Posted April 21, 2017
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Lord_Kane: Earthsiege. Mech Warrior (several versions) Earthseige used to be a Sierra IP, I do not know who are the current rights holders atm. The Mechwarrior IP I think is owned by Piranha games I am not 100 percent on that and I think the older games are in somesort of rights hell atm, I know the main Battletech IP is owned by Topps but I dont know how MW and BT interact thought they are the same universe.
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Plokite_Wolf: Microsoft has been holding the rights of the MechWarrior series since 1999, IIRC, Piranha is just a licensee.
From what I have heard Microsoft lost the rights a while ago, thats why the free release of MW4 Mercs got pulled is due to MS losing it to initially Smith and Tinker, I believe its now in the hands of either "Infinite game publishing" or Piranha themselves, but yeah you were right at some point.


PS Fucking fix CNCNZ or yell at Sonic to fix it. :P
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionGreat games now available - GOG get busy! (21 posts)(21 posts)
(21 posts)