Thanks for the quick reply; two very underated gems, but I'll stop screwing with this thread now.

Likely more a quality/compatibility issue. On GamersGate, the following info can be found for Red Faction 2 (wouldn't be surprised if it affects other games of the series): "Users of Red Faction II that have Direct X 10.1 ATI video cards or
Direct X 10.0 Nvidia video cards will receive a error message. This issue unfortunately cannot be fixed at this time and is a known issue." There are other games with similar issues, e.g. Industry Giant 2.

I'd say this needs to get deleted now. Hurray!

...

Ha ha ha ha ha holy cow. You're right. ;)

"American McGee's Alice - EA
(EA probably wants to keep it on Origin exclusively right now)"

Except you can't get the original "American McGee's Alice" on Origin
They have the sequel Alice: Madness returns

https://www.origin.com/en-gb/store/buy/50391/pc-download/base-game/standard-edition-ANW.html

and some people even have the original in their Origin accounts because it was a pre-release bonus but you can't buy the original separately from there or anywhere else and its not bundled with Madness Returns any more AFAIK - I'll like to me proved wrong though!

"Battlezone 1 & 2 - Activision originally, although it appears Rebellion now owns the rights
(I guess the original was released as freeware at one point, but if it and 2 could be bundled in a release, that would be sweet. I'm not sure if nGlide could be used or not.) "

Well - the way I read the situation was that Infogrames Atari somehow always had the rights to the original vector arcade game 'BattleZone' from Nolan Bushnell's original Atari from the yearly 80's and licensed Activision to makes the games you're talking about and its the rights to the name (and I guess the original arcade machine) Rebellion now have and not necessarily the Activision games, although both parties are on here and could potentially work something out but you could say the same for the SSI - Ubisoft D&D games, I guess...

Okay, I thought it was still bundled with Madness Returns on Origin, but perhaps not. I'll edit the post to reflect what you said.

Which are far more important than the Battlezone titles anyway. ;) I actually emailed Wizards of the Coast again encouraging them to talk to GOG and Ubisoft. Probably won't make any difference, but its the thought that counts. I think I may just delete Battlezone from the post given the legal complexities (although I did make an exception for Dune :P).

I'm sure you know that Wizards of the Coast is owned by Hasbro, though they maintain a nominally distinct business identity. Given how much of the twice-acquired Avalon Hill game catalogue has been summarily ignored by them, I'm not optimistic about their desire to leverage old computer games either.

Yes. It's possible Wizards cannot operate of their own accord and has to report to the "higher-ups" not interested in the back-catalog nor making a deal with another company. (Or they themselves may not be interested in the games.) My sliver of hope is there might be a few Paul Barnett's or Jeff Skalski's working at WotC - people who appreciate the classics - and they might catch an email or tweet encouraging re-releases of these.

Certainly worth trying, one never knows for sure. :)

Maybe you could mention the old Microprose Magic: The Gathering game too? (not so sure about that 'Battle mage" thing though, I think Acclaim or someone did that one)

anyway
"Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain - Squeenix
(Rights' issues - something to do with music? - are apparently holding this back, but I heard the PS version was re-released on the PS Store.) "

This was recently discussed here:
http://www.gog.com/forum/general/legacy_of_kain_blood_omen_1
and its either bun fight between Silicon Knights who made it and Crystal Dynamics who were one of the publishers and seem to have nicked the concept and IP off of them (like Codemasters with Op Flashpoint) or its because Activision were more involved with publishing the PC version than PS1 - that would explain why the PS1 version can be released
Either way I don't think its music related...

Does anyone know why 2000 was the first SimCity on GOG? I thought it was because some license issues about the first game in the series, assuming that the game wasn't entirely from EA or something.

Um. Is that Battlezone freeware legit? Because that game is FUCKING AMAZING and I want to play it again now :D

If it is legit, that would be a bitchin' freebie on GOG!

BZ was such an awesome game, would love to see it on GOG anyways. I wonder if anyone here wants to try to get a match going ;]

The fact that the game is (supposedly, haven't checked myself yet) available on PSN suggests that it's neither about music issues nor the legal dispute that occurred between Crystal Dynamics and Silicon Knights (plus I'm quite positive that there was no licensed music in the game, making legal issues related to the music less than likely).

As far as I can tell it's most likely that Activision holds the rights to the PC port itself but does not have the rights to distribute the game anymore. Squenix on the other hand owns and can distribute the whole franchise except for the PC port of Blood Omen 1. The franchise was initially published by Eidos and was then carried over to Squenix, Activision was apparently only responsible for the PC port of Blood Omen and its distribution (and yes, I own a physical copy of Blood Omen and it does indeed have the Activision logo on its cover).

Edit: Okay, checked again, Eidos started publishing the franchise with Soul Reaver but they have been responsible for all the later games + the PSN version of Blood Omen was published by Squenix in the PAL region. The PSX version of Blood Omen was actually published by Crystal Dynamics (but they are a subsidiary of Squenix now so odds are that Squenix has the rights to all their assets confirmed by BO's PSN release).