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General discussionUpdate: GOG.com Blog + FLAC Soundtracks(34 posts)(34 posts)
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Posted January 31, 2014
A quick overview of new things on GOG.com

[/url]Friday seems like a good moment to sum up the interesting things that happened over the week. There's not much point talking about our DRM-Free Time Machine sale here, as it's already ended. We know you liked it, it was lots of fun, and we'll probably re-visit this idea in the future, but let's move on to more current things. There are two things in particular we'd like to mention. First, is the new [url=http://gogcom.tumblr.com]<span class="bold">Official GOG.com Blog</span> on Tumblr, that we've launched just this week. We hope to make it a place offering a different perspective on the games from our catalog, GOG.com and its team, and gaming in general. If you happen to own a Tumblr account and you would like to give us some help with spreading the news about the blog's recent launch, you can do so by re-blogging this post. Or any other post, for that matter. It will be greatly appreciated if you do.

The other thing is even more exciting, especially if you're a music aficionado. Over 30 [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flac" target="_blank]FLAC[/url]-encoded lossless soundtracks have been just added as bonus content to our games, and you can grab them alongside their respective games. If you already own one of these games, a FLAC soundtrack (or soundtrack) is now available for you to download. If not, you can some high-quality game music right now, for as little as $5.99.

Here's the full list of all 31 FLAC soundtracks. Note, that in some cases there will be more than one added to the same game+goodies package, so keep an eye out for the most attractive deals!

Another World

Battle Realms

Chaos Overlords

Crusaders of Might & Magic

Darklands (Roland MT-32, SoundBlaster16 OPL3, and the SoundBlaster OPL2 versions included!--see credits below)

Desperados Dead or Alive

Disciples: Sacred Lands Gold and Disciples 2 Gold

Earthworm Jim 1 and Earthworm Jim 2

Heroes of Might and Magic II, Heroes of Might and Magic V, Heroes of Might and Magic V - Hammers of Fate, and Heroes of Might and Magic V - Tribes of the East

Imperialism and Imperialism II

Jade Empire

King of Dragon Pass

KKND Xtreme

MDK 2

Might & Magic 6, Might & Magic 7, Might & Magic 8, and Might & Magic 9

Mob Rule

Neverwinter Nights 2(original soundtrack from the base game)

Shadow Warrior Classic Complete

The Witcher (both soundtracks: music from, and inspired by the game) and The Witcher 2

Wizardry 8

We’d like to thank Stefan_L. for providing us with the enhanced Darklands soundtrack. Also, special thanks go to Thiev and Judas Iscariot, two members of the jolly GOG.com crew, who went above and beyond their usual duties to procure all that lossless musical goodness and make it available for your listening pleasure.

That's it. Thank you for your time, have a nice weekend and remember about our Wargaming Promo.

Edit:
This Week on GOG returns! Well, at least in some form it does. Here's the first ever "<span class="bold">The week on GOG</span>" post on our blog. It contains the summary of all this week's releases, the weekend promo info, and--yes!--the Enigmatic Hint for the upcoming GOG.com release! We hope you'll enjoy it!
Posted January 31, 2014
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Tpiom: One question, are you sure Desperados - Wanted Dead or Alive doesn't have any "proper" filenames?

I mean... "green00" to "green19"... Eh? What's that? Would a composer/studio really name them like that?
Those names are from the in-game files themselves so, yes, that's how they are named. No, those aren't the best track names but it's all we got :/
Posted January 31, 2014
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evilnancyreagan: Perhaps instead of, "Over 30 FLAC-encoded lossless soundtrack" you could say, "Over 30 soundtracks losslessly encoded in FLAC" because to me a "lossless soundtrack" describes something else entirely.
That was my phrasing, and I'm far from being an expert in things audio, just a simple gamemongering wordsmith. Heck, I'm happy enough with my music being in MP3s, as long as the bitrate stays over 192kbps. So for all I know, you probably have a point there. I'll try to stick to the term you propose in the future. However, there's not much point changing what's been already written, as Over 30 FLAC-encoded lossless soundtrack is what I said _everywhere_.

I do see the term "lossless music" or even "lossless soundtrack" being widely used to describe the exact same thing we have here, but I'm ready to assume that all the people saying it would be wrong in the eyes of a purist. "Losslessly encoded in FLAC" it is, from now on. Unless someone proves you wrong ;-)

Of course, I can only speak for myself here. But that should suffice, as 90% of what GOG.com communicates to the general public comes in my words ;-)
Post edited January 31, 2014 by G-Doc
Posted January 31, 2014
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G-Doc: and follow the blog via the RSS feed.
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JMich: Small suggestion, add a link to the rss in the main tumblr page, since I had to go look for the url format to add it. I think you should be able to have the rss link show, shouldn't you?
I did think of that, actually. That's one of many tweaks and fixes that need to be implemented. Hopefully I'll get some help from our web design team soon(ish) :-)
Posted January 31, 2014
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G-Doc: Cool! That's highly appreciated :-D I'm sure Judas Iscariot will be quite excited with your list :-)

Of course, we need to confirm things with the rightholders first, before adding anything.
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HypersomniacLive: Stupid question, but is considered to be an "original commercial CD"? Is it related in any way to the the publishers on GOG?
I'm sorry, but I don't understand the question :-(
Posted January 31, 2014
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G-Doc: Cool! That's highly appreciated :-D I'm sure Judas Iscariot will be quite excited with your list :-)

Of course, we need to confirm things with the rightholders first, before adding anything.
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Wurzelkraft: What's your position on adding more languages to games? For example: I own the original German versions of Desperados and The Guild but they are just available in English on gog. Would it be possible to add other languages if I send in the discs or, even simpler, the disc images?
As G-doc stated earlier, we have to check with the publisher/rights holders first before we can add anything and that includes languages other than English. We aren't averse, however, to adding additional languages as we did recently add the German versions of the entire Realms of Arkania series on GOG and the entire Gothic series before that :)
Posted January 31, 2014
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JudasIscariot: Those names are from the in-game files themselves so, yes, that's how they are named. No, those aren't the best track names but it's all we got :/
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IAmSinistar: Sounds like they were tagged and named by whatever asset management software they used during development. But that's just the programmer in me talking.
Possibly but I am not a programmer myself so I can't say for sure :)
Posted January 31, 2014
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JudasIscariot: We aren't averse, however, to adding additional languages as we did recently add the German versions of the entire Realms of Arkania series on GOG and the entire Gothic series before that :)
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Wurzelkraft: That's basically why I asked since I really liked these additions. ;)
I wonder why :P
Posted January 31, 2014
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ssokolow: For some reason, my shelf isn't flagging these games as having updated content.
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judgemask: I've got the same problem :(
We didn't flag the content because a) the news post covered all the updates in one fell swoop and b) we didn't want to spam everyone's account with update flags :)
Posted January 31, 2014
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Karboxyd: Self-bump for great self-justice.
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evilnancyreagan: WHAT YOU SAY?!?
Make your time!
Posted January 31, 2014
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Midoryu: I'm sorry if that's already mentioned, but there are errors in the FLAC files for "The Witcher". Weird clicking sounds.
I've uncovered those while I checked their quality against the FLAC files I ripped from the official soundtrack.

24 the dike ~ 3:00
27 leo's farewell ~ 1:34
28 silver sword ~0:08; 1:00; 1:22

And while I'm at it: The Soundtrack to "Two Worlds II" seems to have issues, too. But I didn't played the game, yet, that's why I evade the soundtrack to not spoil me anything story-wise. Should check on that again...
And wasn't there something with the Sam & Max games, too.... Hm... I'll check on that one later and report then.

On topic:
Using FLAC for over a year now, I'm really excited that GOG now supports it.
Quality debate aside, to each his own and it really differs from track to track, it's always good having a choice.
Hi,

Could you send us a Support ticket with any issues you find? It'll help keep everything in place, thanks :)
Posted February 01, 2014
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23rd: Why no Heroes 3? =(
According to our in-house expert on the HoMM series (Thiev), Heroes 3 never had any CD audio to begin with and, thus, there's nothing to make FLACs out of. Sorry :(
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FlamingFirewire: Would just like to point out to the GOG team that the Desperados FLAC OST spells the name of the game wrong ---> "desperadoes_doa_ost_flac.zip"
Oops, had a Dan Quayle moment there :P

Should be fixed now :)
Post edited February 01, 2014 by JudasIscariot
Posted February 01, 2014
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tajemniczybeton: How many games that weren't mentioned in this article got FLAC versions of soundtrack as well? I know for example Anomaly Warzone Earth got it as well.
Just Anomaly for now as that was a very late addition :)
Posted February 01, 2014
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JudasIscariot: According to our in-house expert on the HoMM series (Thiev), Heroes 3 never had any CD audio to begin with and, thus, there's nothing to make FLACs out of. Sorry :(
Aww.. I'm flattered. Unfortunately, that's true. About HoMM3 anyway, not me being an expert (that's always subjective ;) ).

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Choosername: Edit: The same for Heroes of Might and Magic 4 (i'll keep checking the rest)
May I ask why? HoMM IV had soundtracks released on a bonus CD and our FLAC files are ripped from that source.

Like Judas wrote, if you find any bad files, feel free to pester him and additionally please write to our Support. That way there's less chance of such info slipping past us.

... >.>
I volunteered to check by ear if there are any encoding errors in MM / HoMM soundtracks, but apparently listening to music all day could not be regarded as "work". /sad

(kiddin', kiddin'... that's so bad thing to write just before annual reviews :D )
Posted February 01, 2014
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Thiev: May I ask why? HoMM IV had soundtracks released on a bonus CD and our FLAC files are ripped from that source.
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Alex_Kagansky: Unfortunately, official CD version of HoMM 4 soundtrack encoded from low-quality source. :(
See spectral diagram in attachment.
Yes, and that was what's on the CD from the Heroes of Might and Magic Collector's Edition. We can't control where the original audio found on the CD came from but at least we are offering FLACs of publicly available material.
Posted March 24, 2014
Fix'd


Sorry about that, I thought I finished but apparently it slipped through the cracks. Check your game shelves and make sure you download this file: the_witcher_sound_track_flac.zip as that contains the fixed OST :)
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Community
General discussionUpdate: GOG.com Blog + FLAC Soundtracks(34 posts)(34 posts)
(34 posts)