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General discussionWhat Is Wrong With The XP Games?(87 posts)(87 posts)
(87 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted January 04, 2022
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rjbuffchix: Genuine question: what did GOG do in terms of big releases prior to Galaxy? Obviously games back then released on Scheme had achievements, were built with Scheme architecture, etc. I guess there weren't as many AAA/AA releases coming to GOG, though on the other hand iirc there are bigger releases that had the "old" installer structure such as Dead Space, Dragon Age Origins, Fallout 3, so surely it is possible especially when we are talking about DRM-free-"unfriendly" companies like EA and Bethesda bringing stuff here.
There were many AAA's / major titles released here pre-Galaxy (Morrowind & Metro's (in 2015), STALKER's (in 2014), Deus Ex (in 2012), going back to Far Cry (in 2009), etc) and they were simply released in a "clean" state without any real fuss at all. Games lacked achievements, but a higher % of them had free soundtracks (vs today's DLC). Also, whilst Steam achievements were invented in 2008, they were only added to many games on Steam years later. Eg, Bioshock (2009) still has none on Steam even today. They were only added to Bioshock Remaster (2016). It wasn't lack of achievements or client that stopped Bioshock 1 coming to GOG pre-2019 as 2K were happily selling it DRM-Free on Humble Store for years before its GOG release (and still are today). As for EA / Bethesda, achievements are no holdup at all to bringing games here, though Creation Club definitely has been for Skyrim / Fallout 4 as it's more like an in-game micro-transaction store.

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rjbuffchix: My personal belief is that the "people" polled were shareholders.
It isn't even the first time either that a "popular demand" fake poll was invented to drive Galaxy. When GOG introduced the forced "unbundling" (splitting collections of games that formerly came in one offline installer, eg, Blackwell Collection, Penumbra, Wallace & Gromit, etc = one installer that installed 3-4 games at once, into separate installers / items in our libraries), they also said that "this was one of the most requested features". At the time, the relevant wishlist item had just 17 votes. In reality it was done simply because Galaxy 1.0 logistics required "one game per entry". So I really don't put much credence into half the "what people want" claims I read here (usually for the purpose of talking up the client at the expense of the offline installers).

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Dark_art_: The most recent version of Populous 3 didn't work for me, if I didn't had the old installer I couldn't play.
Same with Divinity Original Sin. Newest version still bugged and unfixed after 2 years. GOG refuses to provide a bug-free offline installer (that they allow for rollback). I'm fairly sure half the negative sentiment towards Galaxy here would reduce if GOG allowed access to older versions of installers instead of gating content behind Galaxy exclusive "rollback" for entirely fake reasons, but here we are stuck in the endless tug of war between those who want GOG to be "Steam in every way but not Steam" (with a fraction of the required resources, budget & personnel to accomplish that) and those who just want stable BS-free installers without the 2nd class experience...
Posted January 04, 2022
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rjbuffchix: The amount of resources that have been poured into Galaxy is absolutely absurd at this point. My goodness I forgot about the "(g)" busywork. Genuine question: what did GOG do in terms of big releases prior to Galaxy?
It has nothing to do with "big release", big companies don't give a damn if half the feature are missing as long as the game is sold the same price. Those some indy devs complained, but it was mostly users who complained.

And concerning that happened before to games having those features, simple before all those thing were disabled, no achievements, multiplayer also disabled unless there was a LAN option or it was using a third party account or online activation, if there was any online bonus skin or other cosmetic items like they were simply removed from the Gog version and of course most of the time the Gog version was exactly the same price than the Steam one despite the lacking features which caused a lot of peoples, on this very forum, to complain and call the DRM-free version "inferior".

Also, because people either weren't here at the time or have very selective memory, offline installer were usually 5-10 days late compared to Steam updates, and it was very common for devs of new games to skip a couple of versions on Gog, waiting for things to stabilize before releasing a new Gog version.

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rjbuffchix: My personal belief is that the "people" polled were shareholders. Us lowly plebs who want the store to be DRM-free are surely considered subhuman i.e. not people. Even though I would opine it should be considered quite the opposite re: shareholders and customers.
Dude you are making up stories in your head, first most shareholders are pension funds who don't even know how to spell DRM and don't give a damn about offline installers or Galaxy, they only care how much profit CDPR will make and how much dividends they will get.

Second stop playing the imaginary victim, if really Gog didn't care about peoples wanting the offline installers they would have dropped them a long time ago, it would have made their life a lot easier, just add a feature in Galaxy to ZIP the install folder and call it a day.

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nightcraw1er.488: Seems to me the argument here is: most people who use GOG use galaxy and social media so offline installers and forum don’t matter. So exactly the same as steam or epic, question then is what is the point of GOG?
That's because you have a very binary and limited view; it's not on one one side Steam-peoples using clients and not caring about DRM and on the other side the pure DRM-free enjoyers who gets PTSD every time they hear the word "client".

Peoples can like/use both, use Galaxy for the auto-update, multiplayer, cloud save, etc... while at the same still have both the DRM-free installs (because let's not forget than even games installed via Galaxy are still DRM-free and can be copied and run on any offline computers) and the offline installers.
Post edited January 04, 2022 by Gersen
Posted January 04, 2022
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Gersen: if there was any online bonus skin or other cosmetic items like they were simply removed from the Gog version
Speaking of "selective memories", I think you'll find plenty of offline installers here have cosmetic / DLC / former pre-order bonus items either included in the main offline installer base game (Dishonored Void Walkers Arsenal, Bioshock Infinite Columbia's Finest, Deus Ex Human Revolution Booster Packs, etc) - something that's also normal for GOTY disc re-releases - as well as other games that included minor cosmetic skins as a small 5MB sized .exe DLC installer, showing how easily that can be done. There never was and still is no valid reason to artificially gate off content that can easily be included in installers behind online-only post install verification (ie, glorified DRM) checks with or without Galaxy, beyond it being a tacky "online for the sake of being online" gimmick that goes out of its way to make it as difficult as possible to backup if it needs to be installed via some special client exclusive activation method, that's the exact polar opposite reason of why people buy games here in the first place...
Post edited January 04, 2022 by BrianSim
Posted January 04, 2022
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Gersen: if there was any online bonus skin or other cosmetic items like they were simply removed from the Gog version
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BrianSim: Speaking of "selective memories", I think you'll find plenty of offline installers here have cosmetic / DLC / former pre-order bonus items either included in the main offline installer base game
That's why I said "if there was any online bonus skin or other cosmetic items" the keyword here being online, there is plenty of cosmetics that are available offline, even today, and I am not defending the ones that are online. I was just pointing that before Galaxy when devs wanted to have online cosmetics they simply removed them from the Gog version.
Post edited January 04, 2022 by Gersen
Posted January 04, 2022
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Gersen: That's why I said "if there was any online bonus skin or other cosmetic items" the keyword here being online
- If Dragon Age Origins were released today the same way certain recent "post-modern" releases were, Awakenings expansion pack would be "DLC" and Warden's Keep would be "online bonus content".

- If Neverwinter Nights were released today the same way certain recent "post-modern" releases were, Hordes of the Underdark expansion pack would be "DLC" and Kingmaker would be "online bonus content".

- If Oblivion were released today the same way certain recent "post-modern" releases were, Shivering Isles expansion pack would be "DLC" and Knights of the Nine Quest would be "online bonus content".

See where this is going with the dumb troll nonsense of how great it would be if we could split off chunks of a game, stuff them online, so that a heroic client could step forward and bravely save the day by downloading this Online Bonus Content (tm) thus showing how "backwards" offline installers are? Or maybe we could drop the dumb troll nonsense of pretending there's any reason to artificially gate content online for a DRM-Free release in the first place as many other GOG games have done? It's completely fake and borderline trolling to play stupid and pretend otherwise...
Posted January 04, 2022
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BrianSim: It's completely fake and borderline trolling to play stupid and pretend otherwise...
Well said. "But, but it's ONLINE". Then take it offline then and put it in the game with the rest. Problem solved for everyone...
Posted January 04, 2022
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BrianSim: ...
Dude again you should have read the rest of the sentence, my point was not whenever or not those fake "online" content are good or bad, I have given my opinion on them multiple time in the past by the way, just that even before Galaxy they already existed and, at the time, they were simply removed.
Posted January 04, 2022
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Gersen: Dude again you should have read the rest of the sentence
I read your comment. And the solution to "I was just pointing that before Galaxy when devs wanted to have online cosmetics they simply removed them from the Gog version." is for GOG to explain to developers who want "online bonus content" right from the start that GOG isn't Facebook, and to simply request that they include any bonus content in the game installer and give positive examples of other games who've done that. Not cheer on manufacturing a problem so they can step forward with a solution that only exists because of the same manufactured problem they created only to try and make themselves look overly "clever".

The saying "if you give an inch, they'll take a mile" springs to mind and nowhere was that obvious of how the "pushing the boundaries" will always inevitably end up than the huge sh*tstorm that ended in Hitman last year (and wouldn't have even been a thing if someone didn't keep trying to normalize online content in DRM-Free games precisely because of the "enabling mechanics" of online exclusive, client exclusive gating you are cheering on as some positive 'innovation' here...)
Posted January 04, 2022
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nightcraw1er.488: Seems to me the argument here is: most people who use GOG use galaxy and social media so offline installers and forum don’t matter. So exactly the same as steam or epic, question then is what is the point of GOG?
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Gersen: That's because you have a very binary and limited view; it's not on one one side Steam-peoples using clients and not caring about DRM and on the other side the pure DRM-free enjoyers who gets PTSD every time they hear the word "client".

Peoples can like/use both, use Galaxy for the auto-update, multiplayer, cloud save, etc... while at the same still have both the DRM-free installs (because let's not forget than even games installed via Galaxy are still DRM-free and can be copied and run on any offline computers) and the offline installers.
Nothing binary about it, those people who use galaxy and use offline installers must be a fraction of a minority, less than those who don’t use galaxy, and less than those who just use the client.
As for galaxy and the game being drm free, so are a lot on steam and epic. No difference.
Simple fact is good old games had their niche - good old games - gog is simply fading into nothing compared to its far far larger competitors which it is copying lock stock and barrel. Sure they will make money for a while off the odd sale from someone who brought here for W3 or cyberjunk, but sooner or later they will realise it’s more expensive, doesn’t get parity, and life is just better on steam and go back. So loss of the as you say majority of users. Old users gone. So that just leaves the smallest group, not a great strategy.
I would say gog need to be different, as in we are not steam or epic, we don’t do what steam or epic does, so if you like that use us, if not stay there.
Posted January 05, 2022
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Gersen: We go back to the good old "Everything I don't like is a DRM" but that's not how it works. The fact that a game is not working on an unsupported OS, regardless of the reason, is not a DRM.
Not at all, I was very specific.
If a game did work on an OS, but an unnecessary change was made to it, via an additional file or files, then I see that as curbing my digital rights ... management thereof.
Posted January 05, 2022
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Gersen: It has nothing to do with "big release", big companies don't give a damn if half the feature are missing as long as the game is sold the same price. Those some indy devs complained, but it was mostly users who complained.

And concerning that happened before to games having those features, simple before all those thing were disabled, no achievements, multiplayer also disabled unless there was a LAN option or it was using a third party account or online activation, if there was any online bonus skin or other cosmetic items like they were simply removed from the Gog version and of course most of the time the Gog version was exactly the same price than the Steam one despite the lacking features which caused a lot of peoples, on this very forum, to complain and call the DRM-free version "inferior".
Then I disagree with those users. The "clean" versions of the games to me are not only "not inferior" but are even "superior." As for pricing, I look at it differently than most users. To me, a DRM-free offline installer is worth even more than they are charging and DRMed games are worth less than nothing. But even beyond that, I think it's a little silly to get hung up on the base price of Game X on GOG versus base price of Game X on Scheme. The services are not equivalent and Scheme is famous for sales (one example I recall from nearly a decade ago was a huge bundle of Square Enix games for $75, GOG could never do that); hell, Epic Fail Store even gives away AAA games for "free." So, even if there is base price disparity or not, there is going to be price disparity by nature of the sales regardless due to the size of the stores and their place in the market.

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Gersen: Second stop playing the imaginary victim, if really Gog didn't care about peoples wanting the offline installers they would have dropped them a long time ago, it would have made their life a lot easier, just add a feature in Galaxy to ZIP the install folder and call it a day.
It is easier to gradually phase them out than to remove in one fell swoop. If they just discontinued them out of the blue one day, there would be some sort of user backlash, likely some online coverage (as with the DRMed Hitman release), etc. I believe the steps to push people away from the offline installlers are to minimize such backlash when they do eventually discontinue them (I know staff has stated offilne installers are here to stay, but I am free to doubt them).

Here is the difference:

-If GOG removed offline installers out of the blue when Galaxy was starting to be pushed, there would likely be a lot of frustration, criticism, backlash. As an example, consider how users responded to Galaxy being bundled in the installers, which was discussed earlier in this topic. It would probably be a more critical reaction than that.

-If GOG gradually erodes the concept of DRM-free over half a decade+ and offline installers are effectively "hidden" away from the default, less people even know of their existence let alone know to care to have them, and more people like yourself make excuses as to why X new bad decision by GOG isn't "ackhtually" DRM.
Posted January 30, 2023
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patrikc: Have you tried contacting support with your issue?
You must be joking; their support is non-existent.
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Gersen: We go back to the good old "Everything I don't like is a DRM" but that's not how it works. The fact that a game is not working on an unsupported OS, regardless of the reason, is not a DRM.
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Timboli: Not at all, I was very specific.
If a game did work on an OS, but an unnecessary change was made to it, via an additional file or files, then I see that as curbing my digital rights ... management thereof.
Exactly
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Nightgazer: When I bought these games they worked on XP.

Here's a list.

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Beyond Good & Evil

Beyond Zork - The Coconut of Quendor

Dark Fall 2: Lights Out

Dark Fall: The Journal

Deus Ex GOTY Edition

Dragonsphere

Dreamfall Chapters: The Final Cut

Dreamfall: The Longest Journey

Dungeon Keeper Gold

Dungeon Keeper 2

Dungeons & Dragons: Dragonshard

Flight of the Amazon Queen

Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone

Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within

Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned

Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers

Icewind Dale 2 Complete

Icewind Dale Complete

King's Quest

King's Quest 2 - Romancing the Throne

King's Quest 3 - To Heir is Human

King's Quest 4 - The Perils of Rosella

King's Quest 5 - Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder

King's Quest 6 - Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow

King's Quest 7 - The Princeless Bride

King's Quest 8 - Mask of Eternity

La-Mulana

Lone Survivor: The Director's Cut

Lure of the Temptress

Myst Masterpiece Edition

Myst V: End of Ages Limited Edition

Neverwinter Nights 2 Complete

Neverwinter Nights Diamond

Nox

Overlord + Raising Hell

Planescape: Torment

Planetfall

Quest for Glory (includes VGA Remake)

Quest for Glory 2

Quest for Glory 3

Quest for Glory 4

Quest for Glory 5

realMYST

Return to Krondor

Return to Zork

Riven: The Sequel to Myst

Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space

Sam & Max Save the World (2007 Original Version)

Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse

Simon the Sorcerer

Simon the Sorcerer 2

Simon the Sorcerer 3D

Space Quest 1 - The Sarien Encounter

Space Quest 2 - Vohaul's Revenge

Space Quest 3 - The Pirates of Pestulon

Space Quest 4 - Roger Wilco and the Time Rippers

Space Quest 5 - The Next Mutation

Space Quest 6 - Roger Wilco in the Spinal Frontier

Stargunner

Syberia

Syberia 2

Tales of Monkey Island: Complete Season

Teenagent

The Bard's Tale

The Book of Unwritten Tales

The Book Of Unwritten Tales: The Critter Chronicles

The Journeyman Project 1: Pegasus Prime

The Journeyman Project 2: Buried in Time

The Journeyman Project 3: Legacy of Time

The Last Express

The Legend of Kyrandia (Book One)

The Legend of Kyrandia: Hand of Fate (Book Two)

The Legend of Kyrandia: Malcolm's Revenge (Book Three)

The Longest Journey

The Temple of Elemental Evil

The Witcher 2: Assassains of Kings Enhanced Edition

The Witcher: Enhanced Edition

Torin's Passage

Treasure Adventure Game

Trine Enchanted Edition

Tyrian 2000

Ultima III

Ultima II

Ultima IV

Ultima I

Ultima VII - Serpent Isle + The Silver Seed

Ultima VII - The Black Gate + The Forge of Virtue

Ultima VI

Ultima V

Ultima Underworld I

Ultima Underworld II

Ultima Worlds of Adeventure 2: Martial Dreams

Ultima 4: Quest of the Avatar

Ultima 8 Gold Edition

Ultima 9: Ascension

Uru: Complete Chronicles

Wallace and Gromit's Episode 1 Fright of the Bumblebees

Wallace and Gromit's Episode 2 The Last Resort

Wallace and Gromit's Episode 3 Muzzled

Wallace and Gromit's Episode 4 The Bogey Man

Warsow

Worlds of Ultima The Savage Empire

Zork - The Great Underground Empire

Zork II - The Wizard of Frobozz

Zork III - The Dungeon Master

Zork Zero - The Revenge of Megaboz

Zork: Grand Inquisitor

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Now, only these games still work on XP.

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Alone in the Dark 1

Alone in the Dark 2

Alone in the Dark 3

Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare

Back to the Future: The Game

Baldur's Gate 2 Complete

Baldur's Gate: The Original Saga

Betrayal at Krondor

Betrayal in Antara

Beyond Zork - The Coconut of Quendor

Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned

Icewind Dale Complete

King's Quest

King's Quest 2 - Romancing the Throne

King's Quest 3 - To Heir is Human

King's Quest 4 - The Perils of Rosella

King's Quest 5 - Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder

King's Quest 6 - Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow

King's Quest 7 - The Princeless Bride

King's Quest 8 - Mask of Eternity

Nox

Planescape: Torment

Planetfall

Quest for Glory (includes VGA Remake)

Quest for Glory 2

Quest for Glory 3

Quest for Glory 4

Quest for Glory 5

realMYST

Return to Krondor

Space Quest 1 - The Sarien Encounter

Space Quest 2 - Vohaul's Revenge

Space Quest 3 - The Pirates of Pestulon

Space Quest 4 - Roger Wilco and the Time Rippers

Space Quest 5 - The Next Mutation

Space Quest 6 - Roger Wilco in the Spinal Frontier

The Journeyman Project 2: Buried in Time

Ultima III

Ultima II

Ultima IV

Ultima I

Ultima VII - Serpent Isle + The Silver Seed

Ultima VII - The Black Gate + The Forge of Virtue

Ultima VI

Ultima V

Ultima Underworld I

Ultima Underworld II

Wallace and Gromit's Episode 1 Fright of the Bumblebees

Wallace and Gromit's Episode 2 The Last Resort

Wallace and Gromit's Episode 3 Muzzled

Wallace and Gromit's Episode 4 The Bogey Man

Zork - The Great Underground Empire

Zork II - The Wizard of Frobozz

Zork III - The Dungeon Master

Zork Zero - The Revenge of Megaboz

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That means that these games no longer work on XP.

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A New Beginning: Final Cut

Another World: 20th Anniversary Edition

Beneath a Steel Sky

Beyond Good & Evil

Dark Fall 2: Lights Out

Dark Fall: The Journal

Deus Ex GOTY Edition

Dragonsphere

Dreamfall Chapters: The Final Cut

Dreamfall: The Longest Journey

Dungeon Keeper Gold

Dungeon Keeper 2

Dungeons & Dragons: Dragonshard

Flight of the Amazon Queen

Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone

Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within

Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers

Icewind Dale 2 Complete

La-Mulana

Lone Survivor: The Director's Cut

Lure of the Temptress

Myst Masterpiece Edition

Myst V: End of Ages Limited Edition

Neverwinter Nights 2 Complete

Neverwinter Nights Diamond

Overlord + Raising Hell

Return to Zork

Riven: The Sequel to Myst

Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space

Sam & Max Save the World (2007 Original Version)

Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse

Simon the Sorcerer

Simon the Sorcerer 2

Simon the Sorcerer 3D

Stargunner

Syberia

Syberia 2

Tales of Monkey Island: Complete Season

Teenagent

The Bard's Tale

The Book of Unwritten Tales

The Book Of Unwritten Tales: The Critter Chronicles

The Journeyman Project 1: Pegasus Prime

The Journeyman Project 3: Legacy of Time

The Last Express

The Legend of Kyrandia (Book One)

The Legend of Kyrandia: Hand of Fate (Book Two)

The Legend of Kyrandia: Malcolm's Revenge (Book Three)

The Longest Journey

The Temple of Elemental Evil

The Witcher 2: Assassains of Kings Enhanced Edition

The Witcher: Enhanced Edition

Torin's Passage

Treasure Adventure Game

Trine Enchanted Edition

Tyrian 2000

Ultima Worlds of Adeventure 2: Martial Dreams

Ultima 4: Quest of the Avatar

Ultima 8 Gold Edition

Ultima 9: Ascension

Uru: Complete Chronicles

Warsow

Worlds of Ultima The Savage Empire

Zork: Grand Inquisitor

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Why is it that GOG has made these games impossible to work on XP now? They used to. And, since I am stuck with XP now, I feel that I have been cheated since I can no longer play these games.:(
GoG versions F.E.A.R., SW Battlefrone 1, and SW Battlefront II do not work with Windows XP32 or 64 for me; I tried an 2QX 6700, C2Q9650, and i7 920 systems with XP32/3264 respectively....they never work.
Post edited January 30, 2023 by charlemagne1980
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionWhat Is Wrong With The XP Games?(87 posts)(87 posts)
(87 posts)