Fair point, though I would counter this by saying it seems to me less people care about DRM-free gaming/ownership in recent years than they did then.

As far as I am aware, this is accurate. Firstly, the Duke games are not exclusive to Zoom Platform, because they are available on Steam. If we exclude Steam and consider only DRM-free stores, then the Duke games are de facto exclusive, because the current IP owner (Gearbox) does not want to make them available on other DRM-free stores (which is their choice). It is not because of any sort of formal exclusivity deal written into Zoom Platform's license agreement, or because they have paid to make the Duke games exclusive to their store.

As far as I know, there is nothing legally preventing Gearbox from selling Duke Nukem on other DRM-free stores besides Zoom Platform, but they are choosing not to. As I said earlier though, we should be very thankful for Zoom's perpetual license, because without that, the Duke games most likely wouldn't be available DRM-free anywhere.

The funny part of all of this is that to make things even more complex a corporation called Embracer Group, Previously called Nordic Games Group ( THQ Nordic, Asmodee, etc ) is now the owner of both 3DRealms and Gearbox.

https://techraptor.net/gaming/news/embracer-group-has-acquired-gearbox-software

At the end of the article it states that Gearbox will remain independent so Embracer is taking a hands off approach with there studios so Gearbox can still refuse to deal in DRM-free if they want to.
Not sure why you quoted me and then just repeated everything I wrote but in a less friendly manner.

Unless something has changed relatively recently, Steam only sell two of the newest version Duke 3D games, though one of those (Anniversary Edition) contains a remastered original Duke 3D with a new 5th episode, with the 4th one being the Atomic (Plasma) episode I think. None of the other mission packs are present, and the Manhattan Project etc is not available at Steam. The other Duke game at Steam, is the latest Duke game, that most people hate.

I am fairly certain both have DRM too ... but don't quote me on that ... been a while since I checked.

P.S. I did buy the Anniversary Edition before I bought the original Duke with mission packs at ZOOM Platform, mostly because I wanted those mission packs and DRM-Free ... though I have the Atomic Edition on disc and file ... that disc also includes Duke 1 and Duke 2 ... disc is DRM-Free too.

Regarding Duke 3D, Steam sells Anniversary edition and the Megaton Edition. I didn't find The Classic Atomic edition

Oh ... are they selling the Megaton Edition now.

I think the Atomic edition is part of the Anniversary edition, at least as a remastered version, though the wording at Steam seems to imply you also get access to the original ... last I looked anyway ... maybe almost 12 months ago or more.

EDIT
Just been to Steam for the first time in ages, and no Megaton Edition showing for me ... must be a region thing if it is available to you.

All I see with a search is the following.

Duke Nukem Forever
9 Jun, 2011 A$ 24.95

Duke Nukem's Bulletstorm Tour
8 Apr, 2017 A$ 9.99

Duke Nukem Forever Collection
13 Jul, 2012 A$ 49.95

Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour
12 Oct, 2016 A$ 29.99

Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition Duke Nukem Bundle
A$ 62.98

Duke Nukem Forever: The Doctor Who Cloned Me
13 Jul, 2012 A$ 12.95

Duke Nukem Forever: Hail to the Icons Parody Pack
12 Oct, 2011 A$ 12.95

No, you are right, not really available. It is not even a region thing, the links I foud were legacy pages from 2013 about discounts in Megaton but the real link of the game does not exist. Not functctional

I recently opened up an account on Zoom because I was just too goshdarn curious about that "Uncensored 2003 Pre-Retail Build" of Postal 2. I PMed a certain Zoom representative who shall go unnamed about giving me details about this build but didn't hear back. So far, I'm somewhat underwhelmed (ie. they failed to meet my already low expectations). Here are my findings:

- Registration and buying is fairly straightforward. No complaints there.

- When you try to download a PDF file, it opens the file instead and when you want to go back, it takes you all the way back to the library overview, so you have to click on the game again to open the game downloads. There's no way to circumvent this, you can't right-click the downloads or open them in seperate tabs. Not a huuuge issue, I guess, but it's more cumbersome than it needs to be.

- The Postal 1 manual has a replacementdocs.com logo on the front page. For all I know, gog could be using the exact same manual, but they at least airbrushed out the logo (which would be in keeping with gog's MO of appropriating community content and proclaiming it as their own).

- The Postal Forms and the comic book seem identical with the gog versions, but with all the gog logos replaced with Zoom logos.

- The "Uncensored 2003 Pre-Retail Build" turned out it is the exact same bloody thing that's also included in gog's extra content (where it's called the "Complete original version"). Even has the same version number (1409). It's neither "uncensored" nor is it "pre-retail" (I own the STP retail version and in terms of content, it's basically identical to the 1409 version I played on gog years ago). There have been numerous stories by RWS employees in the past about how they had to cut content because of publisher interference, so calling it "Uncensored 2003 Pre-Retail Build" gives off the false impression that someone dug up an old beta that had all that stuff intact. Teeters quite close to false advertising IMHO. In any case, for me it means another 10 bucks flushed down the toilet!

- Instead of breaking up the downloads into separate installers for each game, it is one large installer, broken up into one setup.exe, two 1.8GB BIN files and a third 46MB BIN file. Why 1.8 GB? I'm at a loss here, maybe someone else knows the answer...

- Here's a real mind-boggler: After installation is complete, your computer will be clogged up with not one, not two but FIVE separate installations of Postal 2!!! I get that you need seperate installations for the latest build and the 2003 build. But why oh why does it install a separate version of Postal 2 for EVERY SINGLE MOD?!? And since it's all tied to one installation package, you can't uninstall each of these seperately. At least Corkscrew Rules (which IMHO is the main selling point of the Zoom version, as it was sourced from a rather pricey collector's box that's only available in Japan) is a seperate installer.

- The only info I found online re Zoom's Postal 2 version was the following post on Leddit: (Emphasis mine) I can confirm that this is NOT the case. The current Zoom build of Postal 2 only features the one version of A Week in Paradise that's included natively with the latest build (ie. it's cut compared to the original mod). I guess I have only myself to blame for listening to a Ledditor. There is, however, a subtle hint that the original version of AWP was scrubbed from the Zoom version - if you check the System subdirectory in the 1409 folder you'll notice a file called AWP.ico, which would be a sign that the original AWP was part of the 1409 build at some point).


I inquired about whether the Zoom version of Hatred has mod support, but didn't hear back. Fool me once, shame on... shame on you. So I'll be holding off on getting Hatred on Zoom until a reliable source can clear that one up for me.

In my experience, most browsers, unless you change the behavior, automatically open up a PDF file in a tab, rather than download it. That has been the default for decades.

The game A.I.M has a PDF file and when I left-click it, it opens a Save As window, showing the PDF file name.

I am using the Brave browser, a Chrome clone. Don't recall if I tweaked the settings for PDF files, but I would have the first time one opened in a tab ... hate that.

The problem with the download links is that they are hidden behind JavaScript, no doubt for security reasons.

Hey, this seems like some really good feedback, which I'm sure the Zoom team would be interested to hear. I don't know if you use Discord, but their #Support Discord channel might be a better place to post these, as there is no guarantee they will see it here (and they probably can't respond fully, due to GOG's forum CoC).

I don't know about most of the points you raised, but 1.8 GB seems to be a 'standard' file size for Zoom's installer file downloads. So, the 46 MB file is presumably a small bit that was left over. I thought GOG also does something similar, where larger games are split into chunks with a fixed max. file size?

Well, if someone said that on Leddit, it's not something that Zoom Platform claimed, so I don't think they can really be blamed there?

Absolutely not, but it's still worth checking into, so I brought it up. If Zoom can release the original version of AWP, cool. If not, it's out of their hands, so I don't blame them for it.

I suppose the best way to go about it then would be to put the pdf into a zip file.

I have not looked into this yet, but sounds like a mistake somewhere. I will investigate, but certainly is able to be there (it was in previous versions in the past)

This is doable, but we have half and half user base - half would be OK with a zip others would complain they have to unzip a file just to check a pdf. It very much depends on how you expect PDF's to open. But as mentioned above, this is sortable on the client side anyway.

Regarding the file sizes - we use inno setup. They spilt files at 2GB. The extra 48MB annoys me far more than you would understand - I often reorganise files etc to make them fit as a 2GB one part installer, than multiple parts.

About the multiple versions of the games - this is to allow making adjustments to each game/addon independently. I don't agree with "clogging" your PC, it installs no extra reg keys etc, its just files on your computer.

GoG uses 4GB. However, 4GB at least makes some sense as it's the maximum file size under a FAT32 volume (makes sense in that it prevents additional support queries from someone transferring files under a FAT32 rather than NTFS or alternative).

1.8GB is an interesting one - I can't think why they would settle on that limit (I recall that some earlier versions of ZIP Manager had a 1.8GB file limit, and that some versions of SAP struggle with larger than 1.8GB data extracts), but I don't think it's tied in to any overarching system architecture.

[Edit] Post above appeared after I started drafting!

Yes indeed, and GOG for instance, mostly do that.