All right I'm having a tough time coming up with how to word this so it may get a bit lengthy. Basically, I've been a fan since I first played the game on the Sega Saturn back in the mid 90's and later bought it on the PSX (I'd rented the SS and Myst at the time). I've played all the games but never got around to beating V for whatever reason.. probably cause I was in the middle of a relationship and it was hard to balance out both it and wanting to spend all day on the game.
Anyways, I DO have all the games, including the version of Uru released with the additional Content shortly before or shortly after Myst IV came out.. I can't actually remember which I got/played first anymore. So yeah, here's my question:
I've got all the old versions of Myst, Riven, and Exile (IE, the multiple CD versions and the old re-release of Myst (not the ME edition sadly). I am planning to purchase realMYST in a moment, but I wanna know about the Riven they have up.
My version of Riven is the original 5-disc one that came out waaaay years ago from RedOrb Entertainment. I'm not even sure if it'll work on my Windows XP Pro dinosaur (1gig RAM) because of the difference in operating systems occasionally mucking up old games.
Should I opt to buy Riven here for really damn good price, or should I look for the DVD version and hope it doesn't run me more'n 10 bucks?
Also, should I buy Uru Complete Chronicles off of here, or does the old one still work just fine in comparison? What's the difference on that one? I'd like to know before the promo period ends, by the way. Cheers.
EDIT: Since no one is really answering this lemme put it another way... at least as far as Uru is concened. Are there any differences between GOG's version of Uru and the one I bought a few years ago?

Ah well, sale's over... I'm still curious about whether this Uru is any different from the one I bought years ago. I guess I'll have to try installing Riven from the discs before I decide to buy GOG's version.

If you have the Path of Shell in your URU, then you don't need GOG's version really. If you're not sure, install your game, reach Relto and check how many different symbols are there in the bookshelf. If you got 3 symbols, than you have everything you could have as far as the single player version goes.
If you haven't played through URU, I'd recommend doing so before going into Myst V. Because it's pretty much a closure to URU's story. But beware: the lore of these two games is much larger and quite different from the original games. There are even some contradictions. You can check the myst lore site for some more info on that.
About Riven, I've seen a thread around here comparing GOG's videos and DVD's videos. Seems like the DVD version is superior, but only the videos. The rest is the same. If you already have the CDs, the best the GOG version will do to you is relief you of the need to swap CDs.

I think I have Path to Shell on my copy, I'll have to find it and double check. And while I have beaten Uru it was a long time ago, so I agree I should probably play it before attempting V again. I believe that is why V confused me as much as it did because I think I played Uru before playing IV and then later V so by then I'd forgotten a lot of Uru. I didn't get further than middle of the first age in V for a number of reasons and that was one of them.
I appreciate your input on it. I do indeed recall Riven being kinda painful with swapping 5 discs in and out. If I can't actually find where I put Riven, I may get the GOG version.

I used to have an XP machine and as far as I can remember, the game ran fine. Or at least it installed fine as I distinctly recall seeing the Riven folder on my desktop but remember beating the game on another computer. Since the primary issue with running Riven on a Vista machine is that the installer is incompatable, however (I've heard the game itself will run excellent, it's just that the installer won't work), logically I believe it's safe to say that the CD version should work fine on an XP machine. Would that you were using Vista or 7, though, I'd suggest putting down money for the GOG version unless you know enough about your computer to do the fiddling around required to get it to work. There's a forum somewhere that has a pretty good thread about getting the Myst games to work on newer machines at the bellow link.
http://www.mystcommunity.com/board/index.php?s=d645a2b3c1a972cc7dc1a5112a055c00&act=idx
I can't vouch for how different the quality would be for each version, though, but the GOG version looks as good as what I can recall from the origional, although if I'm remembering right the smooth transition from frame to frame option that was on the old ROMs doesn't exsist on the GOG version. If I'm remembering wrong, though, then this functionality wasn't in the old version to begin with.
And for Uru, I don't know if you've heard, but there is now a free, online version that's been released by Cyan. If you google myst online, you should find it. It's the complete Uru with a few tweaks here and there, albeit with slightly simplified graphics and the loss of the wall climbing game in Gharaseen.