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General discussion (archive)Including unmodified versions of early Windows games(8 posts)(8 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted April 25, 2014
Hi all!

Huge GOG,com fan and own most of the MS-DOS releases. My hobby is building old retro PCs and getting GOG.com games going on them.

With MS-DOS games this works quite well. Sometimes created the original CDs is a bit of work, but usually there is a way.

Some games use ScummVM and therefore don't work on DOS which is a shame :(

However with early Windows games there are more issues. GOG.com does great work at getting these old games to run on modern machines. A combination of patches, mods, hacks are used with great success.

However this often breaks compatibility on original hardware. Some chances are subtle, for example GOG.com removed EAX option from Splinter Cell because it doesn't work on Vista 7 or 8, But some use Windows XP or Creative Alchemy.

Other games are more severe and don't even start and through a lot of error messages.

So I would love if GOG.com could also include a "untouched version" of their games so to speak. CD or DVD images maybe for those want to play the games on original hardware. Games I purchased and had issues with on old hardware include Tomb Raider 2, Incoming and Battle Field (the Windows one).

What does everyone think?

Oh here is an example of one of my YT videos. It's about Splinter Cell: http://www.gog.com/forum/splinter_cell_tom_clancys/splinter_cell_lights_and_shadows_everything_you_need_to_know_yt_video_comparing_retro_pc_with_mode
Post edited April 25, 2014 by Mau1wurf1977
Posted April 25, 2014
avatar
Mau1wurf1977: Hi all!

Huge GOG,com fan and own most of the MS-DOS releases. My hobby is building old retro PCs and getting GOG.com games going on them.

With MS-DOS games this works quite well. Sometimes created the original CDs is a bit of work, but usually there is a way.

Some games use ScummVM and therefore don't work on DOS which is a shame :(

However with early Windows games there are more issues. GOG.com does great work at getting these old games to run on modern machines. A combination of patches, mods, hacks are used with great success.

However this often breaks compatibility on original hardware. Some chances are subtle, for example GOG.com removed EAX option from Splinter Cell because it doesn't work on Vista 7 or 8, But some use Windows XP or Creative Alchemy.

Other games are more severe and don't even start and through a lot of error messages.

So I would love if GOG.com could also include a "untouched version" of their games so to speak. CD or DVD images maybe for those want to play the games on original hardware. Games I purchased and had issues with on old hardware include Tomb Raider 2, Incoming and Battle Field (the Windows one).

What does everyone think?

Oh here is an example of one of my YT videos. It's about Splinter Cell: http://www.gog.com/forum/splinter_cell_tom_clancys/splinter_cell_lights_and_shadows_everything_you_need_to_know_yt_video_comparing_retro_pc_with_mode
Hi!

The process of doing that (taking really old files, messing with how they're made to run, and then trying to make them work on a modern pc) might be a bit hard, but ScummVM and other emulators exist, so they might find a way to do this!
Post edited April 25, 2014 by LesterKnight99
Posted April 25, 2014
The past three weeks, I've been playing GOG games on my retro PIII 600 and I ran into the same problem - GOG screws with game files to make them run on modern PC's but this breaks them for older PC's which is a pretty bad side effect.

It would be cool if GOG could include a patch to revert modified files back to their original state.

A good example of this is Dungeon Keeper 2: it runs like hell on my retro PC because only software mode is supported. When I install the original DK2 from CD, it runs smooth as butter. I had to replace a few files to get the GOG version to work properly. Same with games that use nGlide like King's Quest VIII - unplayable on retro PC's unless you know what to do.
Posted April 25, 2014
For some DOS deprived of installation files you cannot change music setting other way than directly editing cnf files, if you want to play on DOS/Win98 machine you have to install on XP than transfer files [and registry entries] (hoping it will work), cannot play some 3dfx games other than on nGlide (I still have 3dfx inside my PC).

GOG should add unmodified images of the installation discs in extras, as they are, with no support etc. Easy to do, lots of added value for users (definitely more than another avatar).
Why they don’t want to do this is beyond me but TeT (if I remember correctly) clearly said they will not do this.
Posted April 25, 2014
This is a pointless idea and gets posted from time to time for some reason. What the hell is the point of playing these games on older hardware when they work fine on newer ones? Just because a few people have some weird hobbies does not mean GOG has to waste their resources on them.
Posted April 25, 2014
avatar
Aridoom: This is a pointless idea and gets posted from time to time for some reason. What the hell is the point of playing these games on older hardware when they work fine on newer ones? Just because a few people have some weird hobbies does not mean GOG has to waste their resources on them.
Because of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IR4bUFw2g6c

Ignorance is bliss. But I can't blame most as they simply don't know what they are missing. How can you when you don't have anything to compare with.

A3D audio, EAX and CMSS, proper Voodoo 2 graphics, poorly compressed Audio tracks

Including the original images is not resource intense. GOG.com starts working off these. Then they patch / mod / hack them to get them going on a new PC. So resources isn't a problem.

Sad thing is that the original games are cheaper to get than GOG.com sells them for. E.g. I got Splinter Cell, MDK, Quake, Forsaken, Incoming, Unreal for less on eBay (posting happens to be very cheap with games).
Post edited April 25, 2014 by Mau1wurf1977
Posted April 25, 2014
I'd like the original ISO\zip game files too!
They should be separated from installers,emulators and modifications.
GOG should really add them as a bonus, so we could choose what to use.

Also, what happens if the current installers\fixes won't be compatible in next O.S. versions (ex: Win9)? We would have to re-download every big file again!

There are various requests in the site wishlist already, but they only have about 100 votes :|
Post edited April 25, 2014 by phaolo
Posted April 25, 2014
I was thinking of the same some time ago, only not for playing on retro systems.
For example, if GOG where to sell Grand Prix Legends they would make a version that would run on modern computers, though this would most likely break compatibility with all the mods out there.
The easiest solution would be if GOG would provide an ISO discimage of the original GPL CD-ROM so users could use that for the GPLS installer.
The same would be true for Falcon 4.0 and the BMS mod.
Though these two games are unlikely candidates for GOG release it is something to consider in the future as it may also apply for games I didn't thought of.
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General discussion (archive)Including unmodified versions of early Windows games(8 posts)(8 posts)
(8 posts)