That's a well written summary.

And another thing is: Many games are held dear by people because they were their "firsts". Like losing your virginity. They hold them dear in their memories and would like to see them again here, but in retrospect and objectively there were a lot of mediocre and bad games back then too. Or there were games that were really ground-breaking at their time but so quickly surpassed by their successors that nobody would turn an eye for them now (let alone put out their wallet).

Games like pottery in a museum. If it's a pot that is 10,000 years old, the museum will display it, regardless if the potter was as untalented as it gets and hated his job.

But, this place isn't a museum, it's a business.

Dune 2 springs to mind.

Well they released Trickstyle, its came out when games like wipeout and proskater were huge. it pretty much combines the 2 games into an amalgam of awesome strategy racing/skill chaining i have ever played.

Thank you. : )
The sad thing is, since I became active here, I've probably typed up some version of that general explanation several different times for various replies in these forums. I really should start bookmarking some of these (not just mine, but other people's good explanations of various GOG-related things as well) so I don't have to keep composing the same novella over and over again. ; P

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.

Les maisons des avocats sont faictes de la teste dee folz.

I think Dune 2 would sell to the nostalgia crowd even now. I was thinking more of games like Birds of Prey (by the people who later made Tomb Raider...) or 3D Construction Kit (which came with a full game).

Was that supposed to go here, perhaps?
Oh, I think it would too, but I don't think most people would play it for long. We've been spoiled by later advances in RTS controls, to the point where Dune 2's controls now feel hopelessly clunky.

Just save it as a notepad/word document or something. I think we should be careful in getting annoyed at these common questions from people who have low rep, because they probably don't hang around or post in these forums much or pay attention to the business side of GOG.

can't think why it would.

(yes)

WHERE IS DUNGEON MASTER!? The rightsholder hasn't done anything with the property in nearly twenty years. That would be the perfect series for GOG to buy the rights to and self publish. Maybe even have CD Projekt Red make a next-gen DUNGEON MASTER as their next game after Cyberpunk 2077.

https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/dungeon_master
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/dungeon_master_chaos_strikes_back
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/dungeon_master_2

Nah, I just bookmarked it. :)
I'm with you on the "not getting annoyed at common questions from new users/non-forum-regulars" part. My complaint about reformulating the same information or argument into a forum post repeatedly was in no way meant as a gripe against the OP for asking his question (this one is probably not even in the top 10 most-asked questions in these here forums!), but a lament of how much time I've wasted over the last year-and-a-half needlessly trying to duplicate my own past effort, simply because I'm too lazy or shortsighted to even so much as bookmark a post. :/

(another one for the notepad...)

The (sole) rights of Dungeon Master by FTL have ended up with Wayne Holder, who left a few traces on the internet. He had a blog on tinkering, some Java related stuff... Unfortunately he totally dropped off. A few years ago some fans and creators of source ports were able to contact him, but that was the last that was heard of him. He doesn't answer emails, not even phone calls from his ex collegues, from what I've heard. Maybe some illness, Alzheimer, Parkinson, depression, who knows.

So he's unavailable and that's it.

And that's the thing about a lot of older games. There are personal stories behind them, human drama. It's not always easily to even get a hold of the people in charge, and often there are multiple parties involved.

I've found relatives and (personal) acquaintances of Wayne Holden on the net. Took me a few days of research. Do I really want to pester them, because their daddy, friend, whatever (who might be slowly dying) needs to sell the rights to some game?

There are good source ports out there, free to download. Mr Holder knows of them (they came to him) and decided to ignore them. That's good enough for me. (and I still have my original Amiga diskettes...).

It's okay, there will be another entirely interchangable, no avatar guy asking stupid questions around again really soon.

as usual