As for old games running on today's computers & easily: that in part depends on the game and it depends on your specific hardware. But the answer is: not necessarily. No matter what configurations settings I try, I cannot get some old games from GOG to run properly on modern computers, like the old FMV Tex Murphy games, for examples.

As for your other questions: If you download the offline installers, then you can copy those files to another computer and install them on that computer, which case: no, you don't have to install the game on the same computer that you downloaded it with.

And no, you don't need to be connected to the internet to play the game. Unless you are talking about something like the GWENT game, in which case you do need to be connected to the internet.

Mostly yes, they will run on new systems without problem. There are a few exceptions like those old Interstate games which apparently can't be fixed for newer systems, so check the gamecards/forums to be totally sure. But most games run fine.
You can download installation files and then install the game on any computer you choose to, no internet connection required.

GOG used to specialize in bringing old games to modern PCs. In general, they do it well but there are numerous titles with smaller or larger issues - your mileage may vary, but for those cases there's a generous refund policy.

Because those games are prepared to work with modern machines and systems, they're not really suited for old systems they originally worked on.

If you'd like to know how downloading and installation works, you can try out free titles: https://www.gog.com/partner/stay_at_home

Edit:
For some weird reasons, regular old-fashioned installers are confusingly called "offline backup game installers". Just in case you were wondering what exactly you're supposed to download from your library.

if you buy old games from here, they almost always won't run easily without configuration or at all. despite gog still using its image from years ago, they actually don't give a crap about old games working out of the box on newer systems for years. so do you self a big favour and do not buy games on gog, especially old ones.

1) Sure. Mostly. There are some like Creatures and Interstate 76 which just aren't going to work without some extra help.

2) Yep. As InkPanther says, the offline installer is what you seek.

Though rather than stick with the default Dosbox that GOG provides (which can be years out of date and is showing age), I'd rather use this: Dosbox Staging.

Thanks, Ancient-Red-Dragon, for letting me know about the "offline installer" and that I don't need the internet to play the games (possible exceptions noted). I have a few desktops and laptops of various ages which might give me an edge as far as getting a game to work. Thank You, morolf. I've been looking at a few of the game pages and see now where to go for the specific game forums. That will be very helpful. Great info, InkPanther. I grabbed one of the free ones to try... easily found the offline installer thanks to you and the others that replied to my post. Hmmm.... other responses to my post don't give me this impression. Thanks for the response, Darvond. I didn't realize DosBox was part of the equation. I will look into DosBox Staging.

Ignore apehater. Some years ago we lost them under a bridge and they began eating goats.

that may be, if you have doubts, just take an extensive look into game specific forums on gog and see it yourself. instead of telling others what to do and by that give them a wrong advice, you just may ignore my gog critical but accurate posts

* edited *

Oh, and speaking of which, some games straight up use ScummVM or have extractable ROM files, too.

What games do you have on floppy/cd? Sometimes you can find reimplementations or remakes, but it’s very per game and more obscure the less chance. It’s possible there is help out there, try pcgamingwiki. Without further info it’s hard to say.
In terms of what you buy, depends what you want to do, if it’s multiplayer then 95% chance of needing internet. If it’s playing gwent 100% etc. If you download the offline installer files, then you can copy them about as you wish.

As others have already noted, some games may still have issues on newer hardware and/or Windows 10 (or sometimes even Windows 8 or 7, but in my experience 7 has much better track record with the problematic GOG games).

Old games that run either on DOSBox or ScummVM don't normally have any real issues, so e.g. MS-DOS era games should be all pretty much ok. It is mainly the early, Windows 9x era games, that have the most compatibility issues (unless they also run in ScummVM; like Myst 2: Riven started using ScummVM at some point and that allowed Windows 10 users to play the GOG version as well).

So if you are thinking of buying some old game, first check its gamecard. If Windows 10 is listed as one of the supported operating systems, that is a good indication the game (more) probably works on your modern systems, and what is even more important, if you fail to get it to run on Windows 10, you are eligible to get support from GOG to get it running there, or get a refund. (Then again nowadays they might give you a refund anyway, even if you were trying to run a non-supported game on Windows 10, not sure...).

Another thing is to visit the game's GOG subforum. If there are serious issues to get the game running on modern PCs, there are normally many threads about it, also with tips how to get it to run.


For instance, I've been lately testing to get the GOG version of Dark Reign to run on various PCs of mine. Windows 10 is not supported, and many people seem to have lots of issues to get it to run there, possibly due to the inert (not removed) copy protection that the game still seems to have, and which may act up sometimes.

The best success so far to get it to run for me has been:

1. A genuine Windows XP machine. There it seems to generally work ok, but with one caveat: you may not have any windowses open while you run the game. If you do, at least I will get that "no CD found" copy protection error in the game and it refuses to run, even on Windows XP.

However, if I make sure I don't have any windowses open (not even File Explorer) and start the game straight from the Start menu, I still get that "no CD found" error but the game still starts and runs fine. Even the in-game music works.

2. Linux (Mint) with WINE: The GOG version seems to install and run fine there, I don't even get that "no CD found" error as I do in Windows (XP). However, the ingame music doesn't play at all in Linux, but otherwise the game seems to work fine, with sound effects, the video parts work too etc. (The missing music has been reported also by many Windows users, but it works for me in Windows XP specifically.)

https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Home is your friend.

If there is still a game you cannot get running but not because some copy protection not working on modern PCs, you can list them here and we can maybe help.

If there is a game that interests you, check out the specific game forum. That should give you an idea if there are any issues with the game running.