I know a lot of us are old school gamers. We were the ones back in the day that had to have PC skills to get games working properly. Since then we've learned all about DOS Box so we could get our classic games working again.
Don't get me wrong when I ask this ... but is WC3 via gog.com ready for prime time? I had a lot of issues to contend with. The fixes mostly consisted of manual edits of the config file.
I guess I am more curious about the decision to put a game out this way. I will be the first in line to buy all the remaining WC titles on gog.com. The extras are worth it alone. It's like an early Xmas. But that's me, a 20 yr IT professional and a 30+ yr gamer.
I found lots of help on how to tweak the config file to get WC3 working but at the same time it seemed that a legit company would build a more sophisticated version of something like DOS Box and provide working config files along with it.
Perhaps this is simply not possible or perhaps they did a cost/benefit analysis and knew most of their market wouldn't mind fixing the game. I keep thinking of some random person who doesn't know how to do all this, they see gog.com and think "hey I'm gonna try some classic gaming. Oh Wing Commander, my uncle told me about that once!" When they fire up the game they would probably feel like it's a bust.
Also isn't Dosbox freeware? Even if they paid a license to distribute it for commercial purposes it seems kind of lazy doesn't it? I know there are a ton of DOS titles and it would be difficult to make a one-soze-fits-all solution ... or would it be that difficult? Not sure.
Out of the box here are the issues I encountered (all fixed now BTW)
All the video issues required two manual edits of the config file. Using the video setting tool did not result in a solution for any of it. The game controller support was improved by using button mapping software.
And one last time, over joyed these games are back in an official capacity. This isn't qq-ing. More curious how a game company decides to take this approach, essentially relying on the consumers to support themselves.
Don't get me wrong when I ask this ... but is WC3 via gog.com ready for prime time? I had a lot of issues to contend with. The fixes mostly consisted of manual edits of the config file.
I guess I am more curious about the decision to put a game out this way. I will be the first in line to buy all the remaining WC titles on gog.com. The extras are worth it alone. It's like an early Xmas. But that's me, a 20 yr IT professional and a 30+ yr gamer.
I found lots of help on how to tweak the config file to get WC3 working but at the same time it seemed that a legit company would build a more sophisticated version of something like DOS Box and provide working config files along with it.
Perhaps this is simply not possible or perhaps they did a cost/benefit analysis and knew most of their market wouldn't mind fixing the game. I keep thinking of some random person who doesn't know how to do all this, they see gog.com and think "hey I'm gonna try some classic gaming. Oh Wing Commander, my uncle told me about that once!" When they fire up the game they would probably feel like it's a bust.
Also isn't Dosbox freeware? Even if they paid a license to distribute it for commercial purposes it seems kind of lazy doesn't it? I know there are a ton of DOS titles and it would be difficult to make a one-soze-fits-all solution ... or would it be that difficult? Not sure.
Out of the box here are the issues I encountered (all fixed now BTW)
- Windows would not re-size nor maximize. Windows was set to original resolution resulting in a very small window on my modern monitor.
- In full screen mode game would not maintain proper aspect ratio
- Video sequences were very choppy
- Limited game controller support
All the video issues required two manual edits of the config file. Using the video setting tool did not result in a solution for any of it. The game controller support was improved by using button mapping software.
And one last time, over joyed these games are back in an official capacity. This isn't qq-ing. More curious how a game company decides to take this approach, essentially relying on the consumers to support themselves.