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General discussion (archive)What is the difference between GOG and retail (9 posts)solved(9 posts)solved
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Posted February 18, 2012
Hey,
I’m new here and I just want to ask what is the difference between GOG games and the retail versions, I say this because my friends over at epic forums encouraged me to get UT GOTY and UT2004 from here. But I noticed that the games have windows 7 compatible sign on them, but the original UT GOTY never had this (I had the disk before I got the dreaded windows cannot read disk error). Does this mean that GOG enhances the game code or improves it or is it simply that GOG tested it on win7 and it worked?

Also the support section says the games are wrapped in an exe does that mean that the setup will be different to the origional retail setup

Thanks so much in advance ;)

PS: from what i have seen so far this site looks great!
Post edited February 18, 2012 by unrealmaster287
This question / problem has been solved by Titaniumimage
Posted February 18, 2012
It depends on the game if any "enhancing" is needed. Some games work just fine under Win7 without the need of tinkering, and others... don't. Spectacularly at that.

I don't know the specifics for UTGOLD and UT2004, but if it says it works on Win7, then you have a high percentage chance that it will work on your rig - exceptions, as always, might be present, but are largely hardware related.

A quick general overview: gog is in the market of acquiring older games for digital retail purposes, stripping any DRM that might be present (that usually means just an application of a "legal" no-cd crack), and trying very hard to make them work on any number of modern computers and operating systems. Results wary, but are about 95% deemed a complete success. Best of all, you can, and should, make a backup copy which you can now use forever.
Post edited February 18, 2012 by Titanium
Posted February 18, 2012
In some cases GOG makes tweaks to the game package so that it runs on modern PCs. In the case of older DOS games this means they'll package it pre-configured with DOSBox. If there were official patches available, they'll bundle it with them. And of course, there's no copy protection like on the discs.

As for UT GOTY and UT 2004: The disc versions work fine on Windows 7, but if you buy it off GOG to replace your broken CDs, you'll effectively be getting the same game again together with new serials. They are wrapped in an executable file in the sense that you get a single file that contains everything you need to run the game. Anything like the DirectX 10/11 renderers will have to be installed yourself though.
Posted February 18, 2012
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jamyskis: ... new serials ...
Do note that if you need serials for online play, you need to contact support, they won't be assigned to you automatically. Network play still works fine thou and your old disk keys might just work as well.
Posted February 18, 2012
Win 7 compatibility means that game (UT) should be working on standard hardware configuration (if it's possible to say 'standard' in PC gaming).

For some people some games marked as windows 7 compatible may not work, but it's a small percentage, and as long as you don't have any strange things inside your computer, it should just work fine.

About serials - sometimes it takes a few moments before they send those to you.
Post edited February 18, 2012 by SLP2000
Posted February 18, 2012
Thanks for the info,
But i have 2 more questions:

Will the games install correctly (i.e there will be proper entries in the add/remove program list)

And will the games register in Windows games explorer?
Posted February 18, 2012
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unrealmaster287: Will the games install correctly (i.e there will be proper entries in the add/remove program list)
it should
Posted February 18, 2012
You get a completely proper installer. Try out a free game here to see for yourself.
Post edited February 18, 2012 by Titanium
Posted February 18, 2012
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unrealmaster287: Will the games install correctly (i.e there will be proper entries in the add/remove program list)

And will the games register in Windows games explorer?
Yes, and yes.

A couple caveats though:
1. Some GOG releases have yet to be updated to register correctly with Games Explorer for Windows 7 (it's quite a bit more picky than the Vista one), which creates a non-working icon.
2. Some games are both registered by GOG's installer and also picked up by Windows as a "legacy game" thus creating two icons (I have even seen occasions where three icons were created for some reason).
Post edited February 18, 2012 by Miaghstir
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General discussion (archive)What is the difference between GOG and retail (9 posts)solved(9 posts)solved
(9 posts)solved