The Story of Good Old Games…

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 8, 2011

There’s an interesting write-up on the origins of Good Old Games, AKA GOG.COM, at The Escapist:

The most interesting bits for me were the difficulty of tracking down the rights in order to license them. Also, that some companies remain terrified by the lack of DRM on these games that have been cracked and pirated for years – more than a decade, in many cases. That strikes me as a knee-jerk reaction not based on any kind of business sense.

I counted the number of titles I now have from GOG.COM. It’s scary. For those interested, the number was 58. 75+ if you separate the bundles into stand-alone games (not including expansions). Now six of these were freebies, and I’d say more than half were purchased on sale. And I did end up buying some games that I already own in one form or another. I’m really paying for the convenience of not having to dig up the CD-ROM, and for having the game already configured to install and run on a modern machine. I’ve run into situations where the copy protection or installer refuses to believe my machine is in any way legitimate, so it’s worth it to me to have those problems solved.

But still – that is a LOT of friggin’ games.

I have no idea how I’m going to find the time to play all of these. But when a classic RPG or something is selling for $3, it’s pretty easy to ignore the inner voice that says, “Hey, you are NEVER gonna play this thing for more than a couple of hours,” and instead chalk it up to “research materials.” I bought Might & Magic VIII just ‘cuz I was at work and wanted a new fantasy soundtrack to listen to, and saw it was a freebie that came with the purchase.

While I do consider GOG.COM to be in many ways my competition, it’s something I welcome. These “good old games” are the games I fell in love with, the kinds of games I want to play more of, and the inspiration for the games I make now. I wouldn’t mind a bit of re-discovery and renaissance of these classics, spurring interest in the kinds of games that were fairly unique to PC gaming back in the day. As far as I’m concerned, that renewed interest just opens the door wider for players (potential customers) and game makers alike.

This is a good old thing.

Filed Under: Biz, Retro - Comments: 15 Comments to Read

Menigal said,

I counted the number of titles I now have from GOG.COM. It’s scary.

Tell me about it. Between GoG and some of the older stuff on Steam, I’ve bought quite a few games I already own, for exactly the same reasons you mentioned. Yeah, I’ve got Dungeon Keeper and Arcanum sitting around here somewhere, but just running one installer and having everything good to go is so much simpler.

Then there’s the games I’ve always wanted to play, but either could never track down or just never got around to getting. Never mind that I’ve already got a huge backlog of games to get through. In a way it’s a good thing that so few new games interest me!

Let’s just hope the wife never finds out exactly how many old games I’ve bought.
Shaf said,

Now that GOG has EA the Ultima series will be easier to get. There’s also a lot of EA games from the late 80’s and early 90’s work getting. Looking forward to the Bards Tale Series.
BellosTheMighty said,

If you want The Bard’s Tale games, track down the Name-only remake from a few years back. It includes the original trilogy as a bonus. The main game is worth a play too – gameplay is hopelessly mediocre, but the hilarious writing makes up for it.

And GOG still doesn’t have The Magic Candle. *pouts*
Rampant Coyote said,

Hmmm…. yeah, I have Magic Candle III and Bloodstone: An Epic Dwarven Tale (I think it was called) which was sort of a side-series in the same world, but I don’t have the first two Magic Candle games.

While I have the entire Gold Box series (recently re-installed), I would be more than happy to pay $5.99 to get them all w/ digital documentation & everything. Especially if it came with Forgotten Realms Unlimited Adventures. I hope that will come soon (especially since I’ve been reading the CRPG Addict’s recent forays…)
Fumarole said,

GOG is a godsend for people like me who are on a very tight budget.
skavenhorde said,

No kidding about ARPG Adiict’s blog. Man I just skim past the pictures now because I KNOW I’ll be playing that dang game very soon. I’m going to do something different and play it through FRUA this time. The reviews for their version were very good and seemed to stick to the story quite well. Just with the added bonus of being the last build and a ton of work the mod community had done on the game….buuuttt must reisist. I had Dredmor that needs my attention right now and it’s a hell of a lot of fun to boot.

Next up after that is a game I’ve been absolutely drooling to play for…..not sure how many years now, but I we all got to play a sneak peak of it and it had me from that momentum on. I’ll be playing that one soon enough and can’t even look at Witcher 2, Duke Nukem and …….sadly Project Zomboid (although it hardly counts since it’s still in waaaaayyyyyy early alpha mode, but still can play it since I bought it. It’s really early and has no save, but the potential for PZ is amazing. Hope they keep up the good work.

So I must resist FRUA for a bit longer at least till after I’ve helped a few people and played some really fun games.

I swear to all the computer gods out there just let me make it to summer where I will have 2 months off then load me down baby. This vacation this year is all about me. Girlfriend’s signed off on it. We’ll do a little touring around the island and then the rest of the time I’ll be playing these games that I’ve been dying to for a long long time.

Only thing that might get in the way is studying and blogging.(I’ll be annoying you guys pretty soon with another blog on Roguelikes (the last one), but it won’t probably be out till I hit my vacation.
skavenhorde said,

@Fumarole You can pick up Project Zomboid for either 5 pounds, 10 pounds or 15 pounds….it’s all depending on how much you want to donate. They all offer the same service and you get instant access. It’s still really raw, but for being so raw it still is very cool.

Link for you: http://projectzomboid.com/blog/

I figured you might be interested in this because of your avatar.
mk2net said,

I’m grateful every day that gog.com exists…and now that they have the Origin catalogue in their pocket, I’m even more excited than when they got a hold of the Atari catalogue.
Calibrator said,

I have about a dozen titles from GOG but then again I have lots of originals. When they have a special sale I often mutter *dang! already have that!* 😉

But why buying there is great:
– No DRM! While I understand the need for it on new triple-A-titles I have no sympathy for this on old titles.
– As somebody who suffers from the local censorship on many titles the site is a godsend.
In fact this is one reason I avoid Steam, whatever the prices: They have to offer the censored versions if they want to do business in my country. Same as PSN etc., of course, but with GOG an alternative exists that flies below the radar.
– You can easily fill some gaps in your collection, of course. The prices are mostly alright and if you can wait, you should, though: Everything gets a discount sooner or later…
– As of today I can say that doing business with them has always been hasslefree.

The only thing that did bother me a bit was their “special” publicity stunt (you all remember that, I’m sure). Will I do business with them in the future? Very likely, but only to buy older titles and not to pre-order unreviewed *potential* bugfests like The Witcher 2.

I guess good things happen to those who can wait…
Rampant Coyote said,

I did pre-order The Witcher 2 from them. Haven’t had time to play it much (duh! Like everything else…) but I didn’t really notice any bug issues.

I’ve mostly been using it to fill out the gaps in my collection. Especially with some of the European RPG / Strategy titles that didn’t get much press here in the U.S.
Demiath said,

Well, I have about 130 (!) games on GOG and I’ll obviously never play all of them, but for me Good Old Games is mostly about making up for my piracy-heavy youth. Importantly, though, I don’t feel guilty about or regret having effectively stolen so many games back then by trading endless sets of floppy disks back and forth between me and my childhood gamer friends (besides, the RAR file on, say, disk #47 out of 51 was frequently corrupted anyway so it’s not like we *always* got what we wanted). I know just much I spend on interactive entertainment nowadays – i.e. when I have an actual income to use for buying games – and my interest in and experience of a wide range of genres, franchises and series would simply not have been possible without all those youthful transgressions.

That said, getting legal copies of all the classics feels good; even if I’m mostly stuffing the pockets of A) a bunch of nerdy Poles and B) greedy publishers and rights holders…
WhineAboutGames said,

I’ve bought a lot of stuff from GOG that I *never* play because figuring out how to work them (darn those oldschool design principles!) is too much work. I’m not sure if I’ve actually ever played through a game purchased there! But I don’t particularly mind either. 🙂
BellosTheMighty said,

I hear what you’re saying, Whine. ^_^ I bought the Robinson’s Requiem collection during that promotion they had recently, and you wanna talk about intrusive interfaces. >_< I managed to barely work my way through the first one, but the sequel… I don't think the interface was worse, per se, but it was a lot more irritating, and the fact that I can't just bull through combat anymore annoyed me. Admittedly, it is kinda silly that I could take down nearly everything except the bulls, droids, and Kagoo with the knife/hatchet, fast footwork, and a bit of save-scumming. But in Deus I lost two knives by accidentally throwing them at the second enemy, then spent nearly half a minute getting shot in the balls by an archer point-blank because my punches went over his head and I couldn’t figure out how to crouch. Yeah, I think I’m done with this series. OTOH, Ultima Underworld! ^_^
Rampant Coyote said,

I just bought Robinson’s Requiem during the same sale, and don’t think I’ve even installed ’em yet.

Some games have pretty crazy-stupid interfaces regardless. Others just really need you to RTFM. I was getting frustrated trying to play some of the older RPGs (even ones I had played before) until I really took some time to RTFM, and then it was a piece of cake.

We tend to forget just how challenging the interfaces and controls were on those old games, only remembering the experience. (But I also remember some games – even way back then – which drove me crazy with the confusing UIs…)
Xian said,

I am up to 35 Good Old Games and over 100 on Steam, though many from both places were bought on sales. A lot of the Steam games were things like the THQ Pack that had close to 20 games for $50, even though I am probably only ever going to play half of the ones included.

The story of their beginning was interesting, and I bet it is a lot of work chasing down the rights holders and getting permission to distribute them. I am glad that someone stepped up to the plate to do that. Too many times I have seen on forums where people were wanting to get an old game and the only source was abandonware sites. Now there is a legal alternative.