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Through the years, as GOG evolved, we explored many directions, and developed in ways that supported the needs presented by them. As mentioned in the first 2022 update, one of the things we’d like to do this year is to come back to our classic games roots, with the knowledge and experience that we gained during GOG’s existence.

Originally, GOG stood for Good Old Games. The idea for the company was born from the wish to play older games in a legal and easy-to-use way. As the classic games hold a special place in our heart, we’d like to devote more attention to highlighting them. It means that our goal is for GOG to become, once again, the best place for the classic PC games.

Our job isn’t to simply release the games that are already on the market. It’s to make them available to everyone - that oftentimes means fixing them, and making sure that they will run on the modern systems that you have. So far we achieved that by our internal work, and various cooperations with DOSBox or ScummVM, among others. Did you know there are a few titles on GOG that the DOSBox crew prepared special, dedicated versions of their great software? Our efforts to bring back some of the beloved games go beyond technical fixes.



In some cases, we also have to solve various legal contrivances to be able to release the games, as some of the rights and ownerships have been lost to time. Some of the titles that can be enjoyed thanks to these efforts are: Diablo + Hellfire, Theme Hospital, Dungeon Keeper Gold™, Deus Ex™ GOTY Edition, System Shock: Enhanced Edition, and of course the main star of today - The Wheel of Time, to which we added modern OS compatibility and hi-res support.

To help those classic games shine again, and get discovered by more people, we also do our best to support our releases with initiatives like Throwback Thursday, interviews with developers and other ways to look behind the scenes. If you like to collect the extra goodies connected to the games, such as guidebooks, wallpapers, concept arts and much more, there is a good chance that some of the ones you’ve gotten on GOG are thanks to our cooperation with The Video Game History Foundation.

But you know most of this already – so what’s next?! The newest development in the area of classics’ visibility and discoverability is the revival of Good Old Games concept. We’re starting with adding the “Good Old Game” tag, which will showcase over 500 games that our Team has deemed iconic classics – games that are older than 10 years and are critically acclaimed, stand the test of time, defined certain mechanics, or simply created new genres. You’ll find there games like Bioshock, Baldur’s Gate, Fallout or Gothic. Of course, this is in part our subjective choice, but we hope to inspire you to check them out for yourselves, have fun with them, and see if you agree with our assessment.



Why did we decide to pivot in this direction? Because we believe that celebrating and preserving classic games is important. They have the power to connect generations. They have the power to evoke nostalgia. They have the power to teach us about what came before and shaped the games we enjoy today. And they deserve to be remembered, and available for everyone to enjoy.

This is just another step to give Good Old Games a well-deserved spot on GOG. The invitation is here and it’s waiting for you! Rediscover with us the games that have been universally loved or search for hidden gems that didn’t get their time in the spotlight. Whatever you choose, we commit to bringing you the best classics experience out there: playable offline, compatible with new OSs, packed with additional digital goodies, and with the ability to back up anywhere at any time to ensure that the games we offer are playable for years to come.
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Dave3d: Lots and lots and lots of good ideas from users here.
Here is another: Make a tag for truly drm free games, a tag for Galaxy only games, and a tag for DRM'ed games.
Truly, going after old classics is great to hear, and I dont think they have to be OLD to be great, but DRM free and working on old OS'es (xp, win7, 8.1) and New OS'es (10, 11) would be wise also. You cant just cut out XP or Win7 because MS doesnt support them anymore. Most users have those OS'es on an old computer, not hooked to internet anyway, and taking away our choice to MAKE us use win 10 and up is not a good decision for drm free gaming.
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brian463: I totally agree with you .When I change my OS it's because my computer can no longer be upgraded. I still have working windows 3.1 computers. Before they changed the recycling laws I would go out every garbage day and pick up old computers. I still have 5.25 inch floppy's in their original cellophane wrappers.
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it's sort of the opposite with me ; i got rid of my even older junk equipment and occasionally given a blu-ray disc or other modern junkie equipment and software

except i have no "CD-ROM to put any CD into"

i have no drive anymore but IMAPI hope they're happy too
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ST.VXL:
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brian463: I totally agree with you .When I change my OS it's because my computer can no longer be upgraded. I still have working windows 3.1 computers. Before they changed the recycling laws I would go out every garbage day and pick up old computers. I still have 5.25 inch floppy's in their original cellophane wrappers.
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ST.VXL: .
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it's sort of the opposite with me ; i got rid of my even older junk equipment and occasionally given a blu-ray disc or other modern junkie equipment and software

except i have no "CD-ROM to put any CD into"

i have no drive anymore but IMAPI hope they're happy too
I've managed to collect a rather extensive game collection, consisting from both physical and digital copies of various platforms during my life - not for sake of collecting, but because I enjoy playing those. However older games, especially ones say, games once released in a physical form, but not available in any digital store, PS3-only or Steam-only, won't ever most likely surface on GOG, Having an optical drive is rather essential in order to create a disc image that can be used to extract resources such as audio tracks from the days when soundtracks fit into disc after the gamedata and to create Wine Bottles that will stand the test of time.

GOG is and will always be only a part of my gaming solution.
Post edited April 11, 2022 by sotisopa
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somberfox: As someone who was around for the original launch of GoG and was against the primary focus shifting to DRM free games, I'm glad to see this
Eh. I came for the old titles, but even before GOG's shift in focus I stayed because of the (mostly) untethered games.
I think this is my favorite update of the three. Filled me with nostalgia reading it! :) Now I sit here daydreaming of Skyrim, Black & White, NOLF...
"The future that comes from the past" - Highly poetic!
There is more: "The distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion." ~ Albert Einstein.
There is a future where we all play together, our future it is.
Attachments:
all_here.jpg (127 Kb)
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GOG.com: ...
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tfishell: This has been suggested in the past, and there are probably numerous legal issues (and it goes against the "back up your games on your own computer" philosophy) and might not be worth the trouble, but I wonder if there's money to be made letting people back up files they want to to their GOG accounts for a (reasonable) monthly fee (perhaps fee decreased or even waived depending on how many games you've bought). May not be worth it with Dropbox and Google and probably others already entrenched in the market, but I like to toss ideas (whether new or previously suggested) into the ring.

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Dave3d: Here is another: Make a tag for truly drm free games, a tag for Galaxy only games, and a tag for DRM'ed games.
Truly, going after old classics is great to hear, and I dont think they have to be OLD to be great, but DRM free and working on old OS'es (xp, win7, 8.1) and New OS'es (10, 11) would be wise also. You cant just cut out XP or Win7 because MS doesnt support them anymore. Most users have those OS'es on an old computer, not hooked to internet anyway, and taking away our choice to MAKE us use win 10 and up is not a good decision for drm free gaming.
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tfishell: I don't necessarily agree with the tags you said, but I do think there should be tags for more details about the multiplayer: LAN, local co-op, DRM-free online, Galaxy online, whatever else.

For old games GOG has always been focused on making sure the old games run on modern computers. If the games happen to still run on old computers even after GOG tweaks and fixes things, that's great, but I disagree that they should spend time and money ensuring the games run on old computers.

(I'm guessing we'll just have to agree to disagree, probably won't change each others' minds)
Thats the thing though:
Most games have already been made to run on the old os'es, and if they backed up those copies then they dont have to do any work at all, just put them in the Download Manually section along with the newer updated versions.
As for NEWER game titles, of course if they didnt ship with XP/7/8.1 support, I would not expect to see them backported to os'es they werent meant for.
But, I have been here since beta (on gog), and some of the games that USED to run on XP are no longer supported to run on xp. Why? They had them running fine before, but updated the exe for what? Galaxy, of course. Offline installers should still be offline installers, and I should be able to play my old games on my old xp machine, not have to hook it up to the internet (unsafe), install Galaxy (nope), and then download it through Galaxy (which doesnt even support xp (IIRC) in the 1st place?
War Wind 2 has the "Only On GOG" tag: https://www.gog.com/en/game/war_wind_ii_human_onslaught

This is false ever since SNEG Ltd. claimed the rights to the IP from you and released it on Steam.
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Plokite_Wolf: War Wind 2 has the "Only On GOG" tag: https://www.gog.com/en/game/war_wind_ii_human_onslaught

This is false ever since SNEG Ltd. claimed the rights to the IP from you and released it on Steam.
Game's been in this store since 2016 though?
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Plokite_Wolf: War Wind 2 has the "Only On GOG" tag: https://www.gog.com/en/game/war_wind_ii_human_onslaught

This is false ever since SNEG Ltd. claimed the rights to the IP from you and released it on Steam.
You might consider posting your observation here:
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/thread_for_tracking_wrong_tags/
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Plokite_Wolf: War Wind 2 has the "Only On GOG" tag: https://www.gog.com/en/game/war_wind_ii_human_onslaught

This is false ever since SNEG Ltd. claimed the rights to the IP from you and released it on Steam.
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Elmofongo: Game's been in this store since 2016 though?
Yeah, but it hasn't been an exclusive since 16 September 2021.

https://steamdb.info/app/1741150/