Really? I think that at least from 1989 or so onwards (pre-CD-ROM era), most PC games were such that you installed the game from the 3.5" disks to the hard disk, and then you usually didn't have to use the disks anymore. Some games might use one of the installation disks as a key disk to check that you really owned the game, but IIRC that was pretty rare on PC (on Amiga it was quite common, ie. you needed the disk to play the game).

For DRM, PC games seemed to use either manual checks, or no DRM/copy protection at all. That's what suprised me the most when I moved from Amiga to PC, many games didn't have any kind of "DRM" nor copy-protection. Similar amazement when I found out about GOG and that their games have no DRM whatsoever. Since I had had bad experiences with Amiga game copy protections (like my original Amiga Gunship (Microprose) game disk becoming corrupted due to the copy protection, end being a real PITA even when it worked), I felt very relieved on PC.

For example, I think the first Wing Commander had some manual check protection, while Wing Commander 2 had none whatsoever. Similarly, earlier Leisure Suit Larrys had some manual checks, but LSL5 didn't have any IIRC. You didn't need the original installation disks at all after the first installation, you could simply archive or copy the installed directory to another PC, and run it there (maybe running INSTALL.EXE or SETUP.EXE again to set up sound cards etc.).

It was always some kind of hassle.

The worst offender for me was the CD check, the problem being that I had some bad experience of my favorite games CDs dying on me because of intense use/abuse.

If it is such a huge PITA, interesting that console gamers can still put up with that, in this time and age. :) Especially since I've always felt swapping CDs with PC games is even less hassle than with consoles, because the PC unit/CD-drive is usually next to me, while the console unit is closer to the TV, and I actually have to get up to change the console game CD. But even that is bearable.

It is true that the CD media can get broken, but at least then I am in control (ie. I can store the CDs safely, and use them carefully, or even try to repair a scratched CD), unlike with online DRM where someone else controls it for me and decides for me whether I can play "my" games or not.

Plus, if something happens with the online DRM service, it affects all my games from that service. A broken game CD affects only that single game.

Yes I do. I think there is a reason there's been so much argument over e.g. Ubisoft DRM, for something that "you hardly notice".

I first started PC gaming in roughly 1985 or so. My first computer did not have a hard drive and the first actual hard drive I had was something on the order of 80 megabytes and didn't have it till...I'm not sure when exactly.

The early Sierra games made significant use of disc switching. I do believe they had the option to install to a hard drive, but they also allowed play through disc switching. At one point, the games usually came with both the 5.25" and the 3.5" floppies. One of the first games I had, Rogue by Epyx, had some form of copy protection on it that wasn't manual-based. It simply wouldn't read/use a copied disc. I had to make a run around by copying the save file over to a secondary disc and then re-copying it back to the main disc. That game had the lovely little intentional thing that when you loaded a save file, it deleted it off your disc. One use saves. Sadistic, IMO. LSL5 used manual-based protection, according to Al Lowe.

The Setup/Install thing gave you the ability to set the sound card usage and would make a configuration file on your disc 1.

Most DRM discussions nowadays are pseudo philosophical. I couldn't count the times I've read "I will never use Steam because I hate it".

And Disc check "DRMs" were the worst. Securom, Starforce with all their rootkits and scanning for emulation software. I will take any always online DRM before I revert to that shit. I had to crack most of my game to play them when I was still using discs. They simply refused to run.

And even before that, changing discs every time I switch games is just not worth the hassle. It is one of the reasons most of my 3DS playtime goes to downloaded titles, because even though I really want to get on with Zelda, I always loose interest when I need to get the cartridge.

Apart from DRM-free digital downloads (GOG and DotEmu), the early CD-ROM era was the golden era for me in that sense.

I hated the manual checks, it took longer time trying to find the correct manual and the correct word from certain page and line. Manuals also seemed to wear down much faster than e.g. CDs. The worst ones were the code wheels, when the flimsy wheel breaks down, no more game for you.

CDs, on the other hand, are much more durable, and as long as you have the CD in, it causes no more hassle (e.g. you don't have to eject and reinsert it every time you play, unless you play something else in between. Manual checks had to be done every time you play).

The only time I seem to had problem with CD media is when it was already broken when I bought it. E.g. one of the Journeyman Project CDs was badly scratched due to poor packaging and shipment from US to Europe (but I think I actually fixed that CD with a CD repair kit), and I think there is a small crack in my Descent Freespace 2 CD, which was already there when I bought the game second-hand (the CD still works, but I think I can see a small crack in the inner circle that could become a problem; hence I bought the game also from GOG).

One more thing I liked about the early CD-ROM-era: since the pirated versions were apparently usually ripped versions without e.g. FMV and music (due to room constraints or whatever), the original versions were indeed superior to the lowly pirate version, giving a good incentive to stay away from the pirate versions, free or not.

Not anymore than fretting about the game CD possibly getting broken in the future. I've never broken any of the game CDs I've played myself, but Steam offline mode has ceased to work for me, blocking me from playing any of my Steam games as long as internet was unavailable for me.

Also, people have hit e.g. the installation caps before.

I didn't like Starforce either, but then back then there were people like you saying that Starforce never caused them any problem, and people bitch about it just because they can.

My golden era of PC gaming was the CD-check times _before_ Starforce etc. I disliked manual checks and code wheels much more than CD checks.

To each his own. PS3 or XBox360 gamers don't seem to mind swapping game discs, while the rumors of "always online DRM" on future consoles seem to gather quite a lot of attention. Why, considering "they'd hardly notice it"?

The earliest days I experienced were not exactly like consoles -- most of the time, you did install the games from floppies to the hard drive. I think this was in the early 90's. There were some games that you could play straight from the floppy drive, though, which I loved because I wanted to use my super-fast 3.5" drive more. :D

Some games were so awesome and huge, I mean like 2 megabytes, and they wouldn't fit inside a single floppy, so I used the amazing Split and Merge commands (I think they were a separate program from DOS, but memory fades). I was a super-knowledgeable guy back then for knowing those commands. lol.

In the floppy days, the DRMs I encountered were mostly checking in-game for information from a printed manual, like find something on page something of the printed manual, which couldn't really be replicated by the average kid because scanners were rare. I started noticing technology-based DRM with the introduction of CD games, I think. I didn't really observe the DRM scene much from a couple years after that because I became hooked on my first MMO and didn't really play retail games much.

Frankly, I'm surprised if it did because I have no such recollection (in fact I was very surprised when I had finished my purchased LSL5, it hadn't made a single check from the manual, unless it deceived me somehow to check for it unknowingly).

But it could be I remember wrong, and mix it with some other game, it was a long time ago. Or then the Euro version was different from US version, or blaa blaa blaa.

It was a golden age. You would simply sit around for a whole day loading several hundred punch cards and—before you knew it—you'd be playing tic-tac-toe, DRM-free.

Ok, then I had simply forgotten it and stand corrected. I re-checked from Mobygames that I was indeed talking about LSL5, I remember the style of graphics quite well, and how LSL5 came with quite a big box which was mostly empty (apart from the installation disks and some manual/leaflet(s)).

I don't think I've ever played LSL6 or later.

PC gaming was never and is never going to be about ease of use. Code wheels, DRM, disc checks, compatibility, drivers, patches... it's rare when a game requires no tweaking, even a so-called "remastered" GOG title.

It's the platform. It's not gonna change. And it's the reason why as much as we talk about there being a resurgence and shit it will never be the most popular gaming platform.

Even with DRM and patches coming to consoles they are still extremely easy to use. Plop in the disc, play. If there is an update Microsoft does it all for you. Even when they go offline the current consoles will still play the base games on discs just fine.

Thank god there was no DRM then. I had enough trouble allocating memory, remembering the resources my sound card used and dealing with 3rd party vesa drivers.

Those were the days...

And when getting a virus meant that someone in the computer lab had a cold.

So with most games you own (Steam, GOG, elsewhere), you have to tweak them before you can play them?

To me it is a rarer occurance, at least if I play the game with the machine it was originally targeted for. For example, the few Steam games I have, I don't remember ever having to do anything besides clicking "install" and "play" from the Steam client. That was the case with Half-life 1-2, Portal, several indie games I've activated also in Steam etc.

I'm not quite sure about most GOG games, but at least with Baldur's Gate I just ran the installer and started playing. I expect that would be the case with most GOG games I have.

Same applies to most of my older CD games too, I don't remember doing anything special to e.g. Diablo 2 besides installing it on my Win7/64bit machine, updating it and start playing.

With Heavy Gear I ran into a bit of problems, but only because I tried to play it on a Windows machine it was not targeted to, Win7 (or XP). When I installed and patched it on a real Win98SE machine, I ran into no problems whatsoever.


If this (=needs tweaking) is something happening all the time with new PC games (Rage etc.), good thing then that I'm staying behind the curve at least by a few years.