Those were dark days for ol' Stevedog, three decades off PC gaming had suddenly crashed into the big brick wall of online only DRM. Copy protection schemes like code wheels or "What is the 3rd word of the first paragraph on page 12 of the manual" style challenge questions were annoying, but there were some easy ways of dealing with them. The new form that required being logged into an online account to play your games was just too much for my tastes. I had first encountered Steam when I purchased Half-Life 2, at the time I was living in an older house and the wiring did not support robust internet connectivity. After researching a bit more I decided that this new fangled "Steam" thing was not worth the effort if all I wanted to do was play Half-Life. My journies journies with Gordon Freeman were over.

As the years passed I found more and more of my favorite game series were going Steam only and my choices in PC games were dwindiling. Fast forward to the release of Fallout New Vegas, the title that promised to wash the bad taste of Fallout 3 away by going back to the roots of the franchise, which as a diehard Fallout fan made me squeal with glee. When the game was released as Steam only I was devastated. Was it time for me to finally give in and accept Steam as the only way I'd ever game again? I had one last option, I googled Steam Alternatives and the first thing to pop up was GOG.com.

I downloaded Tyrian first so I could test out just how DRM free it really was. The first purchase I made was Oddworld Abe's Oddesy because it was a game I already owned so if it turned out horrible I hadn't really lost anything. Having passed all my initial tests GOG became my goto place for PC games.