10 years of GOG.com
Our favourite digital distributor GOG.com is currently celebrating a major milestone. It's now been a full decade since Good Old Games, as we used to know them, first opened their doors.
Back before 2008, looking for old PC games generally meant abandonware or hunting ebay. GOG.com made the process far more convenient. A selection of classics all from one site, that would install ready to run on your modern PC without zero fuss. No worrying about setting up dosbox for yourself, or windows 95 games complaining about compatibility.
What's more, they adamantly opposed any sort of DRM, which is why we still favour them even though Steam has a fair amount of oldies these days. Once were downloaded the game we were trusted to copy and install it wherever we liked with no restrictions. Sure that game could be then stuck on bit-torrent for freeloaders. But most people who really want to play a late 90s shooter can probably find $10 to pay for it. Or at least enough can to make the drm-free model viable.
As a welcome little extra, they also often throw in details like soundtracks, artwork and even alternate versions of games. Perhaps not a big deal, but it adds to the appeal of buying from them, instead of finding an abandonware copy,
We at FFG signed up early, of course. The first game I bought from them was Giants, Citizen Kabuto. Their selection wasn't enormous at first, but they steadily signed up more publishers over time. Perhaps the most eagerly awaited amongst the fans was Lucasarts, bringing a bunch of much loved adventures and star wars games. Meanwhile two of my personal favourites have been System Shock and Wizardry 7, games I had feared would be eternally abandonware.
Over the years they've added a of more modern games, particularly indie stuff (and in the process GOG.com became a name rather than an acronym). It makes sense to move some attention to a flourishing and highly relevant section of gaming scene rather than focusing entirely on the past. Still, their commitment to oldies has remained rock solid, in fact they recently added another great one from the 90s: Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine.
What GOG.com has also enabled me to do, personally, is purchase far more oldies than I have time to play. I have enough RPGs alone to keep me going for years (Betrayal at Krondor, Ultima 7, a whole load of Might and Magic). Then there's all those old Tomb Raiders, Settlers 2, Shadow Warrior… My lack of self-control is hardly their fault, though.
So then we salute GOG.com and wish them another successful 10 years. They are of course having a sale to mark the occasion, so now's the time to go see if any of your favourites are discounted. I'd particularly recommend the Timeless Classics Collection, which is exceptionally good value for $5.
Filed in PC Oldies
Tags: gog.com, good old games
Review: Blackwell Unbound »
« Vault of Regret: Zone Raiders
Comment by Rik
Has it really been 10 years? Curious to review the original list of titles here: http://www.forceforgood.co.uk/goggling/
I think I ended up getting Kingpin and MDK2, more to support the new venture than anything else (still haven't played either for any length of time…)
Most of my GOG purchases would run on my puny laptop, so I've become more grateful for the DRM element from a practical point of view (I was always in favour ideologically!) so I can play oldies on the commute, or on holiday.
Comment by Mr Creosote
Don't like that website. Still a very narrow selection, and what's much worse, their policy of making games "easy to run" effectively increases system requirements 100-fold and locks out many potential players.
I'm not complaining they offer the typical "one-touch download for clueless players" who don't know what an operating system is.
I'm complaining that they *only* do that.
Comment by Stoo
Mr C: Interesting. Which games have you found to be so resource hungry? I find that most MS dos and windows 95 era stuff runs flawlessly on my rather aged PC.
Also DOS games can usually be run through your own dosbox setup if you prefer.
Only after "installing" them. Which assumes you have an MS-Windows PC for a start.
October 10, 2018 @ 8:19 pm