I honestly can't remember if I ever bought a game in physical format. I've been gifted a few here and there (including a copy of "The Witcher 3"), but I don't remember ever purchasing one off the shelf - all the games I currently... have ("own" is such a legally binding word these days that lawyers will generally have you know you own less than you think you own) are digital downloads, 99.9% off of GOG.

To be fair, I did have a large side collection of games (mostly donated to younger folk by now) that came together with a local gaming magazine. I was an avid reader of said magazine until it went bankrupt some years ago, but I won't count them as purchases, after all I was buying the magazine for its articles - the games that got thrown in the mix were just an added bonus.

But I'll stop rambling and get to the point. Just today, fed up with the general state of gaming and a couple of other personal things, I went off on a spree and bought a few games as hard copies. We're talking about old games here, most of them not the kind you'll find available via online distribution channels, some only available on Steam. I may be desperate to get some of them, but that doesn't mean I'll tip over and send Gabe my money. No... money... for... you... Gabe! :)

Here's what I bought and why:

-> Dune 2000 -> The Herbert family is rather stringent on copyrights and intellectual fees, so this is currently unavailable for purchase outside of the re-selling of initial releases

-> Emperor: Battle for Dune -> see above

-> Atomic Bomberman -> It was cheap, I used to play it a lot during high-school, has a nice vs mode I can use to annoy my girlfriend, so why not?

-> Z: Steel Soldiers -> yeah, the original version, not the remake available on GOG -> this is what I fondly remember and would like to replay. I'm also hoping it also includes the DOS version though the cover/seller haven't mentioned anything of the sort.

-> Kohan 2: Kings Of War -> the main reason behind this purchase train and a fantastic game IMHO -> ever since TimeGate Studios went bankrupt this has been deviously hard to obtain and the likelihood of it showing up on GOG any time soon is almost nil due to legal entanglement. Strangely enough Steam still sells it, but I won't start using Steam just because of that - and if I won't start using it to play one of my favorite games I probably won't start using it at all in this lifetime. But I can't wait a lifetime to replay it, hoping it lands on GOG - I may not have a lifetime left after all. I'm also considering getting the original Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns, and its expansion Kohan: Ahriman's Gift as hard copies.

What do you think? What would you have done?

Don't be shy to throw rotten tomatoes at me, I'm wearing my overalls.

You had me at "Dune".

If it wasn't for nearly every game on store shelves now being locked to steam, I'd never buy anything new digital that has a physical release. With old games GOG releases have the added benefit of being ready to work off the bat, but as long as it's something easy to get working with ScummVM for example I'd rather have a physical copy too.

I'm still furious, really, truly furious that quite a few old games I had got lost somewhere years ago, I've no idea how, where or why. Chief among them the original (pre RTS) Dune, one of my favourite games ever, and probably the one that had the greatest influence on me.

I have all three Kohan games hardcopy, not got round to playing them much yet (suprisingly), but I know I had a few issues getting them to run, you might need a nocd to get rid of the copy protection on the disc if your on Win10 and it was a pain tracking down.

Yeah, thought as much. I'm on Win7 at the moment, but I'd also like to have a shot and try to get Kohan II running in Wine. I'll probably buy the remaining games in the series too if I'm happy with how the physical copy of Kohan II turns out to be.

I'm actually the proud owner of all of the Dune PC games. I have working copies of the CD-ROM version of Dune, Dune 2, Dune 2000 and Emperor: Battle for Dune. And I'm not giving them up. Ever. Never. Never ever.

I've said it time and again that the decline of physical on PC is only to cause problems in the long run. Games have become disposable on PC. People don't have boxes anymore. They have backlogs. Once they're done with a game, they move on to the next one and never gave what they played before a second thought. And why should they? It's not a box that you accidentally find on your shelf or in your attic anymore. It's an entry in your Steam list or on your GOG shelf.

And many games won't ever be available legally for resale. Abandonware? Sure, but ignoring the fact that despite being a necessary evil for some games, it's still essentially piracy, and some games aren't even to be found there, at least not the CD-ROM versions (try finding an ISO of the CD-ROM version of Soccer Kid on DOS - which I do own legally).

I'd disagree with that. Even though I have a huge 'backlog', I often replay games I've played before - and only own in digital format. I know I'm not the only one either.

Well, I certainly don't see a clear bad side of going digital (as in "digital distribution") as far as games are concerned - perhaps the change is natural. Mediums do change every now and then. I certainly still look at games as games I hold dear when that's the case, even though I don't have anything to hold in my hand and caress while muttering "my precious".

And again, I'm only buying physical copies now because I don't have any other alternative I'm willing to go for.

In my case I can't say I wouldn't enjoy having a grand collection in hard copies of games on CDs and DVDs filling up two rooms, but honestly I don't have the apartment space to even start thinking about it. Sometimes it's just easier to plug in an external hard drive with a one-click installer... that may need technical user-level unticking... than shuffling CDs and DVDs all day long. And then there's the DRM which can pop up whenever dealing with retail releases... I won't even get started on that. True. Count me as one of that crowd.

I'm no stranger to buying physical games, but I do still buy old games I'd like to play if it doesn't look like they're going to make it to GOG anytime soon. Then, I usually just backup the contents of the disk to my computer, which became a habit after my physical copy of Nuclear Strike was lost to cyclic redundancy errors. Unfortunately, a lot of these games still have nasty DRM, and removing it, or even just trying to make a proper backup, can be messy. Then there's the issue of trying to get them run well on Windows 10. I've gotten about 2 dozen physical games so far this year, and about as many last year.

Steel Soldiers is the sequel to Z. It isn't available here. There was never a DOS version of Steel Soldiers.

Where did you bought these physical copies? There is almost no local market in my country (and I suppose it's similar in Romania) and ordering from US in ebay means paying more money on shipping than on the copy of the game.

I know I used to love the hell out of the first Kohan and Ahriman's Gift back in the day. I never got my hands on Kohan 2 until much later, but by then I never got around to trying it out.

I have been waiting for so long for Kohan to make it's way here. But this is the first time that I hear about any legal entanglement. Do you have any more info on that? A link would also be great.

High five! The same here :D

Physical copies are my guilty pleasure. No matter the goodies, digital games will never replace a good old big box with a printed manual.

I really miss printed manuals nowadays, even if the modern ones have nothing to do with those from the 90's or even the 2000's (Fallout manuals or RPG manuals in general) !

And I'am agree with Grargar, Steel Soldiers is the sequel to Z and doesn't have a Dos version (I still own my big box version).