Good Old Games

[Dran]

I am not sure if any of you check out PCGamer ever, but I read it from time to time. This month they feature a site (Coming Soon) that will allow users to play, and download old games. These old games will be able to run on XP and vista. It is different then say gametap because there is no subscription fee. You download and own the games you want. It would nice to see the WC series up on this site. Here is the URL for Reference: http://www.gog.com

 

[Bandit LOAF]

That would be great - their VP has even expressed an interest in Wing Commander: https://www.wcnews.com/news/update/8963

 

[Worf]

Ah yes. I'm in the beta test of GoG - it's a site with a lot of promise, provided that the publishers jump onboard.

The games have no DRM (they work with the publishers, or crack the DRM), and come with a ton of extras (manuals of course, but soundtracks and other fun stuff). Plus, the games are cheap - so far, they are either $6 or $10, and you can download them over and over again if you have to.

Thee only thing that's holding them back are the publishers - they currently have Interplay and Codemaster catalogs, but a lot of other publishers are wary of the lack of DRM. Some of the older games use DosBox, the others work under Windows directly.

So far, it's a great service... I encourage you to join the betas - hopefully they'll have more beta runs...

 

[Bandit LOAF]

Thee only thing that's holding them back are the publishers - they currently have Interplay and Codemaster catalogs, but a lot of other publishers are wary of the lack of DRM. Some of the older games use DosBox, the others work under Windows directly.

I'm pretty sure this is more an issue of money -- you'll find Interplay and Codemasters involved in all these attempts (GameTap, the Comcast one, GoG, etc.)... because their rights are really, really cheap. You can license FreeSpace for a case of expired beef... well, that's a bad example, but most of their other stuff is very undervalued because of their financial troubles.