Hi,

I have some questions about the Gog version of the Heroes Chronicles collection. Please forgive any mistakes in posting, as I don't post a lot.

I was reading the forum to check on a strange issue with these games (more on that later) and noticed several very disturbing posts about the Gog version of these games, most significantly that some of the later titles are inferior versions and implied that they may not work right (I think it said starting with the 4th game). So my most important question before I invest much time into playing these: Do they all work right, or are there problems? In other words, has anyone played all of them successfully without running into problems?

Specifically, it said they were cracked/pirated (!!!) versions in order to avoid the CD verifications, and that some of the later ones used an inferior version of the cracks. I don't know what makes one crack/pirated version better than another, but I don't want to get part way through any of them only to find out it won't run at all, or it crashes a lot, or game content is missing, or some other problem of that sort.

One reason I was looking on the forums is that even though the original versions of these games are from the US, it seems to be using a localized version with different spellings and so I thought perhaps I could configure it to use a different region or had somehow downloaded the wrong one or something ("artifact" spelled "artefect" and such). I don't care about the localized spellings themselves, but what I do care about is that if one thing is different, it could mean other things could also be different (such as something being censored or some such; I've read that some countries did just that with some other games such as Fallout 2). I'd vastly prefer to play the original versions (although since localized versions exist, one would think they should also be provided for the customers who would prefer to use them).

The other reason I was looking on the forums is that several manuals are missing. I already paid for the download of the collection a while back, but I am a collector and, although I can't get the physical versions I'd really prefer (except for the first one which I bought many years ago), the next best thing is scans of as much as possible, at the very least all of the manuals, but most of them are missing. I read in some posts that they aren't very different from each other (and some of the differing intros were presented in those posts), and I already have played all of the original Heroes 3 games (base game and the 2 expansions), so definitely already know how to play the game, plus I already have the physical copy of the first game's manual, but the manuals are still important to me for the collector and experience reasons; they add to the experience to at least be able to look through them, cover art and intro's and such. One of the posts had a link to some of the manuals, but I'm not sure which ones because the link is broken. As I've already paid for a download of this game and therefore have a legal right to ALL of the manuals, can someone please provide me with the scans of the missing manuals or make a suggestion as to how those of us who paid for the download of the game can obtain these missing manuals?

Lastly, not a question, but rather a comment that I feel compelled to make: While I have no problem with Gog over this issue (I assume this is not their fault), I am extremely disturbed by the circumstances that have caused them to end up using pirated versions and having missing manuals; specifically, I would have to suspect that whomever is the current license holder requiring Gog to pay them (3d0?) has not properly supplied Gog the materials for the games (what other reason would there be?). They are ethically (maybe not legally, but most certainly ethically) to provide ALL materials to Gog so they don't have to resort to using pirated versions and can provide scans of ALL of the manuals (as well as all localized versions, or certainly at the very least the original US versions). I don't know if Gog paid them a lump sum for the rights or pays royalties on each sold download, but any license holder who is unwilling to provide these materials (reducing Gog to using pirated, localized versions with an incomplete set of manuals) doesn't ethically deserve even one cent. Even so, maybe it would be a bit more reasonable if the original development staff employees got some royalties, but I highly doubt that (I've never received royalties for any of the software that I've worked on). I've heard some companies claim that they no longer have a copy of the products, but I have reason to suspect that is untrue (just an excuse), plus then it is their ethical responsibility to obtain copies on ebay or somewhere, or even arrange to borrow them from a collector who owns them (for purposes of copying/scanning the content). Otherwise, the game should be public domain, and if Gog even sold them, the price would reflect only any "value added" in terms of digging up the content themselves, testing, and so on. Anyway, I should clarify that this point is a comment, not a question, and I'm not interested in a debate about it (although discussions/clarifications are fine), just wanted to provide feedback (although I do not know if Gog employees read their forums).

I played the first game (from disk) and enjoyed it tremendously (and personally, I think the core H3 game and its 2 expansions are the best strategy games that I've ever played). While I'd vastly prefer physical copies, I was still delighted to find that I could get the other 7 games here. However, I do not want to play any badly broken/incomplete games, as that would ruin the experience for me, and, for ethical reasons, would regret having indirectly paid some license holder even one cent to do nothing more than sit around and collect royalties from Gog.

Anyway, as for my questions (particularly the main one about all the games being playable), any help would be appreciated - thanks