Define "installed." I have a (fairly old) copy of Galaxy installed -- because some games crash if the Galaxy DLL is missing -- but it never gets run.

"Define installed"

Installed does not equal not installed

I do not have an extensive list of games from GOG - Currently only 4 titles - But I have found with every one of them if you do not have GOG Galaxy installed at all, and you only use the Offline Backup Game Installers, they all work perfectly fine without any galaxy related files.

GOG used to provide only Individual Game Installers, GOG Galaxy is a new thing that GOG obviously wants to push us into using ( hence why they now bury the Offline Backup Installers and you have to find them underneath the huge INSTALL WITH GOG GALAXY button :D )

If GOG are now making games dependant upon having Galaxy files installed, something is going seriously wrong somewhere, and I would complain about it. Everything here is supposed to be DRM free and not require any clients like Galaxy.

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Note things can get confused if you have previously used one method. Say if you have used an Offline installer for a game, Galaxy not installed. Then you install Galaxy without uninstalling that game, Galaxy will then take over managing the games it finds on your system from GOG, updating them etc etc.

So if you want to switch between the methods, to be sure nothing goes wrong you really ought to fully uninstall the previous game installations and or GOG Galaxy, before changing over to managing your games manually or automatically without or with Galaxy.

I use Offline Backup installers - If I want to switch to beta versions of a game I need Galaxy, so then I would uninstall the Offline Backup version of the game, then install Galaxy, then install the beta version of the game I want to test. Afterwards, I would uninstall the game via Galaxy, then uninstall Galaxy, then re-install the game from its Offline Backup Installer ensuring there is no confusion as to how it was installed and its dependancies.

Times that procedure by however many games you have installed could be a PITA


Maybe you have a game or two that have a confused installation which have somehow become dependant on this galaxy.dll ? .. Whereas if you had installed the games purely with the Offline Backup Installers, without Galaxy ever having been installed (or subsequently installed after the initial installation), then the games would not be looking for this galaxy .dll

Never had that issue personally.

I don't know how to get a copy of Next, but I will say that once you do, probably the easiest way to play it and Beyond on the same computer is simply make another Windows account to play Next. Otherwise both Next and Beyond will use the same save file and that will crash Next at some point. Save data is stored in C:\users\[username]\appdata\roaming\hellogames\nms, so the new user account has its own save file.

Having both the Next and the Beyond client installed is then as simple as having them each in their own folders and never updating the Next one.

I got both installed. And can play both. At the same time. On the same account.
Just read this about Savegames before you do.

Pretty sure most people don't want to create a new Windows Account just to play two versions of one game. But, following the linked advice, you won't need to.

FYI, without reading all the responses here, I can confirm you: yes, I can play whatever version I want as long as I did buy and download the package before. This means if you have bought the game since Beyond, then NO, you won't be able to access any older downloads, and also no if you didn't download them in time.

It's done by downloading immediately the files from your game collection by clicking on the game icon.
You must save every single download version separately together with their patches. Then, after installing the newest game version, you copy your installed game folder and backup the content somewhere else with the name 'Beyond', after that you empty the game folder, take the older download version, install the older game and there you go.
You must also backup the savegames in their folder and empty that folder before starting the old version.

Currently I have a dual install of Atlas Rises and Visions (I'm downloading Beyond right now), but I also have Foundation and Pathfinder. Takes a lot of space on your HD, but I use an external HD to place game downloads.

Hi there.

This doesn't answer your question, but I've not seen my favorite download / game installer backup tool mentioned, which solved that problem for me quite a long time ago: gogrepo.

I use it for downloading my games, so I allways have local copies of the standalone installers. It'll keep older versions, if you previously downloaded them.

It can download all updates / new releases of all games I own in multiple languages for multiple platforms, including goodies, or just update / download a single game for a specific platform in a specific language -- that's a neat feature considering the frequency of NMS updates currently.

As a rule of thumb, it'll download anything you see listed in the GOG downloads. And, as said, it'll keep old versions, if you downloaded them previously.

There's a thread on the GOG forums:

https://www.gog.com/forum/general/gogrepopy_python_script_for_regularly_backing_up_your_purchased_gog_collection_for_full_offline_e/page1

I use Kalanyrs fork found here: https://github.com/Kalanyr/gogrepoc, since the original one by eddie3 (found here: https://github.com/eddie3/gogrepo) stalled for a while.

Caveat: It's a Python script, and to my knowledge there's no GUI.

You need a script ;) here is the one i use in powershell, hence the pipes and tee commands <3 This will scan your manifest find any updates only grab thouse, scan for new games, only grab thouse, clean out all old files you dont need and leave the latest versions for you with option for co,plete verification.. everything is logged forever as well.