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So, i really love old games, i really love gog.com work and etc etc etc. But honestly, sometimes i think we have here only managers...

Two games i tried to play recently:

https://www.gog.com/game/tomb_raider_123
Works on: Windows (XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10)
BUT, Compatibility notice: Tomb Raider 2 is NOT supported on Windows 10.

https://www.gog.com/game/blood_2_the_chosen_expansion
Works on: Windows (XP, Vista, 8)
Where's Windows 7?

This selective compatibility looks like lazy work. Like manager in gog.com just check if there's a community made fix and then apply it to game. If game is not fixed by someone else, they just won't bother and skip this non-working OS.

In my wet fantasies i imagined that gog.com has a department of programmers, disassemblers and emulators of old hardware, who will pull any game from grave. Eh ...
That's not what I expected from the thread's title.
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vorob: In my wet fantasies i imagined that gog.com has a department of programmers, disassemblers and emulators of old hardware, who will pull any game from grave. Eh ...
Yeah, that's gonna get really expensive really quick. Even the community of enthusiasts struggle with the problem, how can we expect a *shop* to do all the work the fans couldn't? It would be a huge amount of work to go to such lenghts to ensure the ~two thousand titles they have now will work on all systems. And I suspect most of the deals they have might just forbid arbitrary modification of the binaries (that said, they could post patches no doubt).

But I love you too.
Post edited May 17, 2017 by clarry
Even the community of enthusiasts struggle with the problem, how can we expect a *shop* to do all the work the fans couldn't?

Well, they are earning money on this, so they could work a little bit harder.
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clarry: Even the community of enthusiasts struggle with the problem, how can we expect a *shop* to do all the work the fans couldn't?
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vorob: Well, they are earning money on this, so they could work a little bit harder.
Money and work: two of the key ingredients for miracles. I've forgotten the rest of the recipe…
Post edited May 17, 2017 by thomq
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vorob: This selective compatibility looks like lazy work. Like manager in gog.com just check if there's a community made fix and then apply it to game. If game is not fixed by someone else, they just won't bother and skip this non-working OS.

In my wet fantasies i imagined that gog.com has a department of programmers, disassemblers and emulators of old hardware, who will pull any game from grave. Eh ...
Actually GOG has made a lot of old games work on modern machines where others had given up. And actually they have teams of programmers for reverse engineering, meddling with the source codes (if available) and emulators (nGlide, ScummVM, DOSbox...).
Often these fixed version even turn up on Steam later (see the Star Wars games) - it's part of the deal.

Some games are simply a bitch to get to run reliably. If a system is not officially supported it could mean anything from "won't run in any case" to "runs on 90% of the machines, but we can't afford get swamped by tickets from the 10% and have to refund them". In those cases simply ask around here what experiences other users had and try to assess the risk to buy it anyway - YMMV.

And aside from that GOG also often have to hunt down the owners of the old games - which is like detective work and sometimes a convoluted mess (code here, music there... localisations all over the world by different studios...).

All that while GOG is a small company. I'm actually pretty impressed with what they have achieved.
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vorob: This selective compatibility looks like lazy work. Like manager in gog.com just check if there's a community made fix and then apply it to game. If game is not fixed by someone else, they just won't bother and skip this non-working OS.

In my wet fantasies i imagined that gog.com has a department of programmers, disassemblers and emulators of old hardware, who will pull any game from grave. Eh ...
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toxicTom: .
.
.
And aside from that GOG also often have to hunt down the owners of the old games - which is like detective work and sometimes a convoluted mess (code here, music there... localisations all over the world by different studios...).

All that while GOG is a small company. I'm actually pretty impressed with what they have achieved.
And if all else fails they buy it and become the publisher themselves! :D
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Grargar: That's not what I expected from the thread's title.
I second this!
Sometimes there are known ways to make a game work on a certain OS that is an unacceptable solution for a company like GOG. In my library I have an example where you need to take the computer offline before you kill the security of the system, not something GOG can ever suggest.
This guy is on some VERY effective drugs...and I want some.
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Grargar: That's not what I expected from the thread's title.
Here's what you expected. You're welcome :).
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Themken: Sometimes there are known ways to make a game work on a certain OS that is an unacceptable solution for a company like GOG. In my library I have an example where you need to take the computer offline before you kill the security of the system, not something GOG can ever suggest.
What is it?) Cracked Photoshop?)
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Themken: Sometimes there are known ways to make a game work on a certain OS that is an unacceptable solution for a company like GOG. In my library I have an example where you need to take the computer offline before you kill the security of the system, not something GOG can ever suggest.
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vorob: What is it?) Cracked Photoshop?)
I was talking about a game, in this case Independence War 2: Edge of Chaos, if it matters, that lacks support for Windows 7.

GIMP and other free programs are so good that I have no need for Photoshop, especially since I do not do graphical work.
Post edited May 19, 2017 by Themken