Wow you still have a 286?? My first PC was a top of the line 486Dx2/50. I thought PCs were crap for gaming given that I was used to my Amiga 500's graphics and sound. I started to get interested in PCs when some good games were released on the 386. My very first computer was an Apple 2C :)

The reason I bought Lilly Looking Through today(regardless of the overwhelming negative reviews about how short it is) is because we have the school holidays coming up, and my favourite 6 and 9 year old(friend's children) will be coming over to play :)

I'd be curious to see their reactions to some of the older games I play but generally they are pretty interested in whatever I am - games, books, art and best of all exploring nature and identifying medicinal and edible plants and spotting birds and animals :)
Haha yes I should add that the majority of pirate games I downloaded I did not even play. But I had them, and that's what counted lol. Hmm that reminds me of my current game collection :P

*starts counting fingers...*

Also I've only (obtained by no admission of guilt or process) a grand total of 2 games... wait 3! The first... Privateer - I lost my CD so I played the game about 7 or 8 years ago... and later found the damn CD in the wrong case in a dark corner of the basement. Second - Uplink - before I joined GoG (stupid, I know!) I always wanted to play this game, having tried a demo version of it ages ago! Didn't put nearly enough time into it as I thought I would. 3) FTL. Again, pre-GoG for me, I wanted this DRM free. LOVED it! Loved it so much that when it ended up on Amazon shortly thereafter, without DRM I bought it because the Devs deserved it!

Ah, I've scrubbed my digital conscience.

I've gotta head off for an hour or so. Sleep well to those who depart in the meantime :)

I do indeed, but it has an overdrive chip in it making it effectively a very low-end 486sx, IIRC.

My first computer was an 8086 with CGA graphics that I could play QBert on that my dad had gotten for free from his work when they upgraded (it was already practically worthless when we got it in 1993), but before we owned that beauty, my best friend had an Apple IIg and that's what I learned to program BASIC on when I was in 3rd or 4th grade.

Then, in early 1994, my dad made the plunge and bought a brand new 486dx 33mHz from Gateway 2000. I was hooked on PCs with that machine. A couple years later, my friend was throwing out that 286 I mentioned, so I took it off his hands and still have it. I still have my 486, however it is now upgraded to a DX2 and can play Diablo!

I have the unique luxury of being head of IT for my job, so I have a computer grave yard in my office (so my wife couldn't throw the stuff out).

But you, my friend, had an Amiga! The creme de la creme of gaming machines from the early 90s! Do you happen to still have it? I have always been so jealous of people that got to grow up with Amigas.

I don't particularly want to defend Steam in this forum, but I think it's interestng analyzing what I see as their good (and bad) points.

Let me start with the good:

* Selection - They definitely have an advantage over GOG in this respect
* Convenience, esp. for multi-machine use. When setting up a new machine I just install one client app, select what I want and let it run in the background. I wish for the day when setting up a new machine (including the OS and all business/productivity apps, etc) is this easy, instead of going through a couple of days of babysitting installers (and yes, I know Debian Linux and its derivatives provide convenience almost at this level, but then they doen't work with all the non-free software that I do want to use)

Before Steam (and that is also before GOG) I had to track down the floppies or CDs, deal with the protection scheme and, if I wanted to stay compliant with license terms, I was limited in the number of machines I could install to.

With Steam there was no more searching for the CD and it gave me peace of mind that I could install the software to as many machines as I wanted and Steam would take care of checking that I was complying with the number of copies licensed. The "protection scheme" in Steam did feel a lot less intrusive than many CD-based schemes (e.g., no more software that refuses to run when it detects an ISO-mounting tool or when it doesn't understand the drivers for my optical drive, or because it is expecting a "real" floppy drive instead of a USB floppy drive)

One downside was that when the amount of money I had spent on Steam started getting to a nice sum, I started worrying about the possibility of suddenly losing "all the investment". Another downside was the loss of the second-hand market. With a CD I could play until I got tired and then resell it. I could also get older games for a low price from people that had already played enough (note this the pay-per-license vs pay-per-physical-goods tradeoff applies to both Steam and GOG, no system is perfect). Still in most cases when having to choose between a copy-protected CD/DVD and Steam I would choose Steam

Then I found GOG, which gave me part of the convenience. No tracking of CDs either, no license agreements threatening me with going to the lower depths of hell if I installed to more than one machine, and a nice downloader. When setting up a new machine and putting a few dozen games on it, it does require more babysitting though. It may be two or three additional steps for one game but multiply that by a few dozens and it does feel qualitatively different. However, the peace of mind from eliminating the risk of sudden loss makes it worth it. I continue to buy from Steam but, if it is available on GOG now I am more likely to ignore the "deal" in Steam and get it here. If it is not available on GOG, I just get it on Steam (I cannot claim to be "sticking to principles" or anything like that).

In my opinion each person needs to evaluate the tradeoffs and decide what they prefer (and different people will place different value on the good and bad points in each option), what is important is to choose with your eyes open and understanding what you're getting and what you aren't.

I do hope GOG continues to improve the selection of available games (and that most people behave correctly so that manufacturers get less paranoid about unlicensed use) and I also hope GOG continues to improve the toolset (downloader/installers/updaters, etc) to make it as convenient as possible.

The moment I realized I needed to sleep was right when I landed in this thread, read that question and thought the answer to that was "A messy face" :P

Oooookay I need to sleep.

^

Some good points made.I use both Steam and GoG and except for a few instances have not had any significant issues with Steam. I have over 40 games on there and about 30 here, so I could be considered experienced with both, having used both services since 2009 , for whatever that is worth:).

My first PC was a 386 SX 25 I bought in 92 from radio shack, had 1 MB of memory and a 25 MB hard drive. Swore it would be more than I would ever need, LOL. At that time all I cared was that it was possible to play Civ 1 and Pirates, countless hours in those two games alone. Had that PC for a couple of years, then went into a 486 DX2 66 MHZ and really got into some fun games :)

Somehow I never had an Amiga. Played all the Nintendo's, Atari, Commodore 64, PC, and Sega. Old school gaming, gotta love it ;)

@Tarnicus: I want you to babysit me, next! :D Bahahah :) Lucky kids to be hanging around such a cool guy!

6x9+15=Messy face ;)

I had 2 of them(bought a friend's one in the late 90s cheap) and unfortunately they were stored at my mother's house and she threw them out. I've used emulation since but it just isn't the same!

An Apple 2G was fancy stuff! BASIC eh?

10 PRINT "The computer teacher is an idiot who knows nothing about computing"
20 GOTO 10

Was something I loaded on every single Apple computer in the lab in 1989 and the poor teacher got so upset because he didn't know how to stop them all looping, so I stopped it. That little exercise in puerility had me become the computer class monitor who taught more than he did lol

I planned on doing IT stuff for life until I realised I wanted to be outdoors and keep computers to being recreational only. It look me a while to realise that after learning hardware, software, a little programming and website design.
I snipped your post as to not take up so much space but just wanted to say that I agree wholeheartedly with pretty much everything you said, especially the first part after I snipped it :)

A very well thought out, calm and rational post :)

LMFAO! Great to come back to this thread and read that. Synchronisitically at about the exact same time you wrote that, I was in the car with my girlfriend's father and we were talking about passwords and how a lack of sleep affects my almost eidetic memory for numbers and mentioned the time when I once forgot my PIN. Since then I locked a phrase in my head that would have me NEVER forget it again, and that phrase to tell me what my number is "A 69 going down". The universe is an hilarious place indeed :)

lol thanks for the compliment :)

I'm the lucky one :) See attached pic from when I was sick and visited the 9 year old on her birthday earlier this year. I was sent it when I got home and it was one of the most touching messages I've ever received :)

Commodore 64 vs Apple 2C arguments were then as Steam to GOG arguments are today. Obviously the Apple 2C was better :P

Hmm that reminds me of Atari ST vs Amiga 500 arguments and console vs console and PC vs Mac arguments and...I'm noticing a pattern here. I bet our ancestors used to argue about which trees were best to make clubs out of, and then someone made a spear and won the argument lol

I also remember thinking that the hard drive on my 486 was so huge that I'd never need another ever again! lol My how times change, and perhaps one day we'll look back on this thread on the inside of our eyelids when we are HUMAN V2.0 full of cybernetic implants that will be compulsory and wonder why we needed external hardware in the first place :)

That's hilarious!

My plan was to never do work with computers, as I didn't want it to ruin my love them, much like you. So for 10 years, I used my expertise for my own enjoyment. Then I realized that I didn't really have any choice. I didn't like college, it felt like a waste of money, so I never got a degree. Everything about computing I taught myself because I had a passion for it, hardware, software, networking, coding, web design, digital audio engineer, digital video production, digital image manipulation. I didn't need college. But I did need to earn more money than being on the phones in call centers or restaurants.

I really just fell into a sweet gig. I was in between jobs, living on a buddy's couch with my girlfriend who was quite young, and my car stuffed with belongings, earning money in a not very legal fashion, when I realized that the relationship was getting quite serious and I wasn't going to split town. So I had to get a job. There was a small research company a friend of mine worked at, and I got hired in on the phones. Just as a temporary gig so I could land an apartment. I got promoted to manager within a month, built a new server for my boss by years end, and have been on top ever since. Best thing ever, I couldn't imagine having to do anything else. That was 8 years ago.

I've worked for Microsoft for a while, and as a part of an IT for a medium legal firm, but nothing beats being your own boss, and having complete control over your systems and the decision making that involves them. It actually still feels much like a hobby because of the freedom I have, so I haven't lost my enthusiasm.

Sure I don't make as much money as being with a large company like Microsoft, and the benefits are pretty shallow, but I would get so angry when I had 10 bosses, and was just a face in the crowd. As I said in my giveaway thread, where I'm at right now in life, I'm happy. I don't want to chase the dollars. I just want to be comfortable and feel that I make a difference, and take care of my family. I have all of that.

I know that I will enjoy it too, and even though it was only $2 on sale, I had to use the children as the excuse for such an expenditure lol. The art, atmosphere look amazing and the music is divine. Thanks for passing on your praise of it. I'm going to download it now to take a look when I'm a little more alert :)