I bought Sands of Time and Beyond Good and Evil when they came out on GOG even though I'd just ordered BGaE retail and already had PoP:SoT. I had long-since lost my Return to Zork CD so got that on special. I bought the Humble Indie Bundle and Frozenbyte Bundle for World of Goo and Trine even though I'd already just those because I felt that they were worth far more than I paid the first time around (ended up with some new favourite games that I never would have looked at before, because they came in the bundles).

I have a USB FDD for that purpose. OK, well I bought it a decade ago when there were still a few uses for floppies. These days though, I don't use it except to dump floppies to an image. The image is then what I actually use as FD tend to be somewhat fragile and prone to corruption.

Yes,
Quite a few
Mainly as digital backup.And cause lazy to install from DVD/CD :)

Now, that I think of it, I do sometimes when the games are a part of something like the iD pack. I've found that the price of buying the whole thing is sometimes less than just buying the games I don't have.

Empire earth 2 because the CD version wouldn't run anymore

Four main reasons, in order of preference:

1. E.g. Return to Krondor: The original game does not work too well. In this case, apparently the GOG version fixes the FMV player problem that at least I had with the original. I say "apparently" because I've yet to install the GOG version. So I pay GOG for being able to play the game in Win7 without hiccups.

2. E.g. Phantasmagoria: No need to juggle with so many CDs anymore.

3. Fallout or Outcast: The original game installers don't work in Win7 64bit IIRC. Even though it is possible to get the original games to install in Win7 with some workarounds, I'm paying GOG for a hassle-free installer.

4. E.g. Giants: Citizen Kabuto: The original seems to run fine on Win7, so basically I was paying GOG a few bucks for an updated no-CD patch, and a digital copy of the CD.

Also in general: I can store the physical games away, not taking room in my apartment anymore.

Ok 5th too: If I think the original CD has some obnoxious copy protection method that I'd rather keep out of my system, even if it didn't cause me real problems. That's why I bought Icewind Dale again from GOG, because I read somewhere that the Heart of Winter expansion CD apparently uses Starforce, which I always wanted to avoid. So I bought the GOG version just in case.

I am less inclined to buy floppy disk based DOS games (I already own) from GOG, because unless the original has some obnoxious code wheel or manual check that the GOG version doesn't have, they usually seem to offer the least benefits to me. The installed and updated DOS game can usually be freely copied around from one PC to another, without ever touching the original installation disks. I don't see the integrated DOSBox version as a major benefit.

Was he talking about floppy disKs, or CD-ROM disCs? I don't fret that much about my CDs getting broken (albeit they certainly can), but the floppy games, being susceptible to magnetic failures and all, more so.

Then again, I think most floppy disk based DOS games didn't need to be re-installed from the original floppies ever, even if you wanted to move the game to another PC.

Oh yeah, I must admit that sometimes the sound of spinning CDs may annoy me (especially when my older laptop starts to resonate with it, sounds like it is ready to take off), but not enough for me not to play a good game.

If I have DRM-free digital copies of the games already (from GOG), then the only reason to re-buy yet another set of digital copies would be so that they run on some even newer Windows versions, where the GOG versions fail.

I'm pretty sure I would pass buying most of them, unless I could get the whole set very cheaply (I have used several hundred euros on my GOG games already). Instead, I'd simple continue playing the GOG versions either in a retro-gaming PC running XP or Win7, or in a virtual machine in the new Windows version, if possible.

Case in point: I already mentioned I quite seldom re-buy floppy disk based DOS GOG games, because I feel I quite often have a digital copy of them already, which don't need the original installation media for anything. Those DOS games can usually be easily zipped and moved around, archived in USB disk drives etc. I already have a working digital copy, so no need to rebuy them from GOG, even if GOG versions come with DOSBox integrated.

Ah, yes, disk swapping - forgot about that one. Baldur's Gate games are so much more enjoyable when you don't have to swap every five minutes. I have used both that and "lol, spongeroberto", but I'm a bit fuzzy if it was on steam or on xfire.

The 5.25" disks aren't too bad, I know there are people selling adapters for them, but the sooner you get around to it the better. Chances are good that the disks have already started to go south. I know a few of my 20 year old 3.5" disks were already going bad.

Or, you can just treat them as abandonware as I doubt very much that any of those things are still available and being sold. 3.5" disks were already going out of fashion when I got my first computer in late 1991.

Sure. Bought Fallout 2 (to have the complete collection at the gog shelf), Abe's Exoddus (it is a chore to install through disks), Gorky 17 (don't install in newer Windows) and HoMM3 (mine wasn't the complete version).
There's a lot of other games I still need to buy a digital version, but they will take the back seat to games I don't have.

Didn't read all three pages of responses so I'm sure this is a repeat, but YES, I have LOTS of the same games I've bought on GOG here, right now.

But, they don't seem to want to run on my new computer at all (maybe if I were smarter I could figure that part out myself but I'm not so I rely on GOG).

PLUS, and this is even bigger to me, usually the GOG version is the final patched version. When I pull out a CD from an old game, and then let's say figure out how to get it to run, I've gotta believe it's a hit or miss as to whether I'd find somewhere to download the patches to games 7, 10, 15, 20 years old. Because the CD version is almost always the first version, unless you but it as a game of the year edition or something.

So, yeah, I figure for 3 or 6 bucks, I'll do it. I don't think I've ever bought a $9.99 game that I already own though. I'm pretty sure I haven't.

Thanks for the info, and think I may try a few this week.

It will be kind of funny if the diskettes are still good, as I have a lot of the old demos from my old bbs archived on 5.25's, as well as boxed games from the late 80's-early 90's.

If it works out, I'll let you know which demos I have, as it might be funny to see them again in a Dosbox. If there are any you are interested in, will be no problem to send as most are < 400k as I recall, with many < 64k (com file size limit.)

I've done it a few times, mostly for getting my hands on the original version when I only owned the German one (often with inferior voiceovers or even censored, as in the case of Fallout 1&2). Or to be able to play it on my netbook without requiring a CD. I'd also do do it for the games that don't run that smooth on Vista or Win7 anymore if GOG managed to fix them (e.g. Silver). And I wouldn't mind getting rid of my retail copies one day to save space on the shelves.