I prodded Cinemaware and GOG to get in touch with one another, which eventually led to the releases of Defender Of The Crown, Rocket Ranger and Wings. Everything seemed to be going smoothly until the Cinemaware Anthology: 1986-1991 on Steam torpedoed the entire endeavor. People that paid $5.99 for each standalone release were incensed that those games and ten more could be had for just $9.99. Cinemaware said: "This release on Steam is being handled again by our publisher, and is NOT being done correctly. It will be fixed shortly. We will ensure all our GOG fans get handled in a fair matter, just give us some time." That was November 15, 2014, 584 days ago as of this posting. What's the deal?

All the Cinemaware games were purchased by Starbreeze some weeks ago:
http://www.starbreeze.com/2016/05/starbreeze-acquires-rights-cinemawares-classic-video-game-catalogue-including-came-dessert-defender-crown-wings

Starbreeze, huh? I didn't know that. Does that increase the likelihood that we finally get the rest of the games here?

No idea. It could lead to either the removal of the games from here (and/or Steam) while Starbreeze is preparing their own versions, or the replacement of the games here with the Anthology. IP transitions can be smooth (Atari's and THQ's auctioned games) or shaky (Bethesda's acquisition of Fallout and Gearbox's acquisition of Duke Nukem).

There could be a problem with using in Starbreeze'es release AMIGA ROMs. Still it's a recent piece of news so I have big hopes to see those games here..

EDIT: I dropped them an email with a standard question - let's wait and see if they respond ;-P

EDIT2: Whooo that was fast: We currently have no news to share regarding this. If we do - we will make it known per a press release. Regards Almir Listo.

I say it's not a lost cause....

To be honest I have been avoiding them since they were first released. Its one of the problems with emulated games, and one reason we probably wont see many here. Its hard to make money out of something which is already pretty widely available, and any pricing inconsistency kills the endeavour. I would jump at the chance to own a collection of all games for <platform>, much like I have with the Spectrum. But paying £4 a game, nope.

Well, the Cinemaware Anthology on Steam is carrying the Amiga versions of all the 14 games, so it seems that they did have the legal issues wrapped up.

Yes - what would be the point of buying those games from Cinemaware if the could not sell them ? We, as usually, wait and see :-D

Ummm, you said there might be a problem with the Amiga Roms in Starbreeze's release. I said that Cinemaware (a much smaller company) was selling the Amiga versions just fine, so I don't see how this should be an issue to Starbreeze.

Hmm...Money, legal risk aversion (small company=small risk in case of a mistake)...

If they are going for a classic release, I doubt they will omit the Amiga versions (especially when some of the games never had a DOS release in the first place).
If they are going for a modern rerelease, then yes, they will obviously omit the Amiga (and the DOS versions) as well.

If that email will result in those insulting, disgraceful releases being pulled from gog swiftly (as they should have been two years ago), you've have done a great service to humanity.

Yeah, releasing the Anthology here would be nice, but it's too little, too late. It should've been here long ago and Gog customers who spent more than $10 on Cinemaware releases should've gotten an upgrade for free. Too late for that now, it's not Starbreeze's job to make good on Cinemaware's fuck ups.

I would buy it on GOG once "It came from the Desert" will be available here....