To add: I had the XP machine connected to the 2nd ethernet port on my main, Windows 10 machine, using a cat6 as a crossover cable to copy many of these offline installers over from my file archives. Jade Empire was one of them. I just copied my archived Jade Empire offline installer folder to an SD card and then copied that to the XP machine, and the installer is running as it should. So, something must have happened during the LAN-transfer. The XP machine could not get on the internet (I made sure of this - I could not successfully ping anything but the other machine) and only the folders I set up to be shared on each end could be seen and interacted with. I am going to scan for issues, but I don't think anything bad happened as a result of the crossover connection.

You can install the games on another computer and copy the files over. Games requiring registry entries or files outside of the games folders pretty much went out if style around when steam came out and became popular.

I sync gogrepo and gog galaxy so I already gave both. If I need an older version I install that version and also keep a backup of the extracted files.

You can also extract the files themselves, can't remember the name of the tool right now but you can google it.

As for why the installer isn't working, some gog installers don't support older operating systems but in that case the installer should execute it just won't install. If this is a case of the exe not running then ensure the file isn't corrupt, no security software is interferring and clear your temp files. IIRC system restore wouldn't wipe your installed games so that shouldn't prevent you from running it and if a game is missing a registry entry and you never backed the registry entry up as you should then just reinstall the game.

DosFreak wrote on 2024-02-05, 22:37:

You can install the games on another computer and copy the files over. Games requiring registry entries or files outside of the […]
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You can install the games on another computer and copy the files over. Games requiring registry entries or files outside of the games folders pretty much went out if style around when steam came out and became popular.

I sync gogrepo and gog galaxy so I already gave bith. If I need an older version I install that version and also keep a backup of the extracted files.

You can also extract the files themselves, can't remember the name of the tool right now but you can google it.

As for why the installer isn't working, some gog installers don't support older operating systems but in that case the installer should execute it just won't install. If this is a case of the exe not running then ensure the file isn't corrupt, no security software is interferring and clear your temp files. IIRC system restore wouldn't wipe your installed games so that shouldn't prevent you from running it and if a game is missing a registry entry and you never backed the registry entry up as you should then just reinstall the game.

I think that your idea is better than what I am doing. I got Jade Empire to install, but with claims that a couple of .bik files are corrupted. I am going to start from the beginning with the crossover cable method because either I get the XP machine to see my Win10 share folder but not the other way around, or the Win10 machine sees the XP folder - but not the other way around. It is annoying, to say the least, hehe. I am rusty with networking and do not want the XP machine exposed to the internet but want both machines to see each other without issues. I have to peruse the thread I made about XP/internet/network/security and read again what everyone said. I have an old D-link wired/wireless N router I am thinking of attaching to a switch on network and looking to isolate it and use it specifically for my retro machines and look into setting up an FTP for all of these files. The last time I did all of this stuff was years ago using Windows 7, XP, 98SE, and WfW 3.11 and before my accident, but had a network set up for transferring files everywhere. Windows 10 sucks (in my opinion!)

I had a feeling this might be a problem one day , honestly at this point gog should start offering the original floppy disk images and bin / cue files , I think some games offer it but I'm guessing not all of them. Also some releases are butchered to help with running the game on modern systems which makes it harder to run on period correct hardware or you miss certain options like mt32 support , I've read about some people complaining about that.

Ultimately I get that GOG mainly caters to running games on new systems but it also makes it difficult for us retro peeps, though I guess backwards compatibility gets more difficult the further hardware advances and sacrifices have to be made and there's a whole philosophical song and dance you can get into about that.

AppleSauce wrote on 2024-02-06, 01:49:

I had a feeling this might be a problem one day , honestly at this point gog should start offering the original floppy disk images and bin / cue files , I think some games offer it but I'm guessing not all of them.

Quite a few games that are available on GOG have some sort of legacy option, whether as a separate download or with a sub-folder in the main installer for either backwards-compatible EXE files or having a full install (effectively being installed twice) - examples of the former being Blitzkrieg 1 and 2, Empire of the Fading Suns (who I convinced the current rights holders to add just before they released the 1.5 update) and Seven Kingdoms 2. Examples of the latter being Thief 1 and 2, Majesty Gold HD and Blade of Darkness. Night Dive Studios are on my shitlist for removing the original version of Shadow Man from GOG and never offering it as an optional download - the GOG release of the original version works perfectly fine on Win98.

On the flip side, several games use a WINMM injection and provide OGG soundtracks instead of uncompressed WAV - you could use something like _INMM to get it working on Win98, but the fundamental problem of having compressed audio tracks remains. This is an instance where bin/cue files are very much preferred.

Also some releases are butchered to help with running the game on modern systems which makes it harder to run on period correct hardware or you miss certain options like mt32 support , I've read about some people complaining about that.

Ultimately I get that GOG mainly caters to running games on new systems but it also makes it difficult for us retro peeps, though I guess backwards compatibility gets more difficult the further hardware advances and sacrifices have to be made and there's a whole philosophical song and dance you can get into about that.

I worked on a project back in 2021/22 documenting games from my GOG library that are compatible with Win98, I never finished it (especially with cross-referencing which games from the mid-00s were originally Win98-compat) but I'll throw it here since I might as well not let it bitrot, plus any motivation to work on it would be good:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1TrTaM … 0RrrZ-4HvcBSfM/

The most important thing to note is that several games have DDRAW.DLL injections along with nGlide installs, D3D8.DLL and other DLL files - replacing those with Win98-compatible equivalents will get them up and running. A couple of games I was able to only get to work once (1nsane and Mobile Forces) and could never get them working properly again, which is odd. Probably requires some arcane combination of things installed. You finally have instances of various renderers being stripped from releases, such as everything that isn't Glide from POD Gold and software renderers from Uprising 1 and 2, Pandemonium 1 and 2 and Requiem: Avenging Angel.

On the DOS side of games, you have issues like non-VGA modes being stripped out (Battle Isle, Crystals of Arborea, Silent Service 2, Wing Commander 1, Hyperspeed being at least five examples I know of), setup EXEs missing (Wizardry 6) or requiring CDs unnecessarily (Prehistorik 1 and 2) which make me look for alternative options for games I have legally purchased, not to mention the large majority of point-and-clicks that only provide ScummVM as an option.

Yeah GOG kinda sucks. They need big warnings about stuff being stripped/ not vintage compatible.... IMHO but no they won't...

DosFreak wrote on 2024-02-05, 22:37:

You can install the games on another computer and copy the files over.

And if no computer with a later Windows on it is available, then innoextract should do the trick.

This is why I still prefer original installers.
GOG installers are convenient as they typically include any patches and no-cd cracked and my favourite is cd audio moved onto the HDD.
But your guaranteed an ISO of the original game will always work on the version of windows it was designed for.

While I know it's not technically correct, I figure if I own a gog copy of a game then I've kind of paid for the copy of the original release I "find" on the internet for the rare games and common PC CD-ROM games are cheap if your only after the CD rather than trying to buy a boxed copy.

If I own an original or bought any legal paid version figure I can use anything related to make it work, even if it comes from the dark side. Bought many game and OS CD's that the "activation" servers no longer exist so have to find something to bypass....hmmm fek MS for killing the XP activation servers after spending probably near $1000 for all the retail versions I bought decades ago. Sorry but this type thing really irritates me....

Horun wrote on 2024-02-06, 03:37:

Yeah GOG kinda sucks. They need big warnings about stuff being stripped/ not vintage compatible.... IMHO but no they won't...

They do have a 'warning' of sorts .... it looks like this;

You then need to wrap that, with part of their charter..;

One takes those two things, and can then piece together a line that reads like.... "Any changes, inclusions, modification or omissions made to the original game release files, are done so under the auspices of meeting the minimum system requirements as stated, so the titles run on next-gen PC and on modern OSs" From that, one can deduce GOG defines 'modern OSs' as being win7 or above, and thus 'next-gen PC' would tend to infer the PC hardware type available when win7 was released way back when...and newer. GOG don't make any claims wrt supporting winXP, and nor do they claim to support vintage computers and/or the OS' that vintage hardware was running on (for which the game title/s were originally designed for) ~ they are into preserving 'vintage' games, so that experience can be brought to modern hardware...with none of the drawbacks wrt DMCA/DRM that were used at the time of the title/s production.

It's not that I'm being any sort of devil's advocate here, but more the barrister's eye view of the facts presented, and I can't see that GOG's done anything wrong here, wrt their stated charter ....ie; if GOG claimed to be preserving vintage games, for use on old-gen PCs running ancient OSs ... which they don't... then they'd probably have to make it clear such will not run on next-gen PCs running modern OS'....if only because that's what most ppl are using, in 2024...

So this leaves us with original copies, dubious online resources, to be able to get 'original' game installation files. Else some smart puppy has to come up with a set of patches, to revert any GOG changes (and this is likely illegal =) Looks like a rock & a tight spot to me..... but not 'me' personally ~ I have a few retro computers ; all the games I would play on that hardware, I don't ..I use emulation or WINE...to play the games better, on this next-gen PC with modern OS ... and it's not just that the games run better, I see it as preserving the old hardware --- I liken it to vintage car ownership, you have your daily drive, and your vintage machine you start up every now and then, and take for a club run drive every 6months =)

I haven't had many issues with running GOG installers on WinXP. Maybe it depends on the games that I play, but the vast majority of them worked fine for me.

Off the top of my head, only the GOG version of Quake 2 was problematic. It would install fine on XP, but the game executable wouldn't run, as it appears to require Windows 7. To be clear, I'm talking about the original Quake 2, not the remaster.

Horun wrote on 2024-02-06, 03:37:

Yeah GOG kinda sucks. They need big warnings about stuff being stripped/ not vintage compatible.... IMHO but no they won't...

No GOG is kinda great. They were never meant for running old games on vintage systems. GOG is meant for running old games on modern systems. The games are often modded/updated for that reason. It's just a bonus that most games run on vintage systems therefore they don't need vintage compatible sign. We, the retro gaming community can do that for ourselves. And no other digital marketplace offers DRM-free offline installers for all their games. That essentially gives you MORE ownership rights than you ever had over your games.

giantclam wrote on 2024-02-06, 05:49:

GOG don't make any claims wrt supporting winXP,

A quick look at the first page of games I own proves this to be complete rubbish:

https://www.gog.com/en/game/1nsane
https://www.gog.com/en/game/7th_legion
https://www.gog.com/en/game/act_of_war_gold_edition
https://www.gog.com/en/game/advent_rising
https://www.gog.com/en/game/age_of_wonders
https://www.gog.com/en/game/age_of_wonders_shadow_magic
https://www.gog.com/en/game/age_of_wonders_2_ … _wizards_throne
https://www.gog.com/en/game/alien_nations
https://www.gog.com/en/game/alien_shooter_expansions
https://www.gog.com/en/game/alien_shooter_2_reloaded
https://www.gog.com/en/game/aliens_versus_pre … or_classic_2000
https://www.gog.com/en/game/alone_in_the_dark … e_new_nightmare
https://www.gog.com/en/game/american_conquest
https://www.gog.com/en/game/amerzone_the_explorer_legacy
https://www.gog.com/en/game/amnesia_the_dark_descent
https://www.gog.com/en/game/anachronox
https://www.gog.com/en/game/anno_1404_gold_edition
https://www.gog.com/en/game/anno_1503_ad
https://www.gog.com/en/game/anno_1701_ad
https://www.gog.com/en/game/ai_war_fleet_command
https://www.gog.com/en/game/anomaly_warzone_earth
https://www.gog.com/en/game/anomaly_warzone_e … mobile_campaign
https://www.gog.com/en/game/anomaly_2
https://www.gog.com/en/game/anomaly_korea
https://www.gog.com/en/game/aquanox
https://www.gog.com/en/game/aquanox_2_revelation
https://www.gog.com/en/game/aquaria
https://www.gog.com/en/game/arcania
https://www.gog.com/en/game/arcania_fall_of_setarrif
https://www.gog.com/en/game/arcanum_of_steamw … _magick_obscura
https://www.gog.com/en/game/armed_and_dangerous
https://www.gog.com/en/game/army_men
https://www.gog.com/en/game/army_men_ii
https://www.gog.com/en/game/army_men_rts
https://www.gog.com/en/game/army_men_toys_in_space
https://www.gog.com/en/game/astebreed
https://www.gog.com/en/game/avadon_the_black_fortress
https://www.gog.com/en/game/avadon_2_the_corruption
https://www.gog.com/en/game/avadon_3_the_warborn

If you're going to push a narrative, at least make sure it can't be easily refuted.

and nor do they claim to support vintage computers and/or the OS' that vintage hardware was running on (for which the game title/s were originally designed for)

https://www.gog.com/en/game/arabian_nights

Though this one is amusing because the GOG release isn't Win98 compatible. Time to set up Win 7 on a P233MMX!

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2024-02-06, 06:50:

Off the top of my head, only the GOG version of Quake 2 was problematic. It would install fine on XP, but the game executable wouldn't run, as it appears to require Windows 7. To be clear, I'm talking about the original Quake 2, not the remaster.

The GOG release works fine on Win98 - see my previous post.

as in the thread there are ways round for those examples that dont install directly onto xp now

in any case gog are offline installers and a must for playing older games in w7 and later systems without needing to worry about patches and various tricks and hacks

without it there would be a lot less playing of older games

Horun wrote on 2024-02-06, 04:32:

If I own an original or bought any legal paid version figure I can use anything related to make it work, even if it comes from the dark side. Bought many game and OS CD's that the "activation" servers no longer exist so have to find something to bypass....hmmm fek MS for killing the XP activation servers after spending probably near $1000 for all the retail versions I bought decades ago. Sorry but this type thing really irritates me....

I actually tried the phone number option to manually activate my copy of XP and it worked. I had to submit a code that was on screen and then the automated service read back a code. Worked perfectly.

AppleSauce wrote on 2024-02-06, 01:49:

I had a feeling this might be a problem one day , honestly at this point gog should start offering the original floppy disk images and bin / cue files , I think some games offer it but I'm guessing not all of them. Also some releases are butchered to help with running the game on modern systems which makes it harder to run on period correct hardware or you miss certain options like mt32 support , I've read about some people complaining about that.

Ultimately I get that GOG mainly caters to running games on new systems but it also makes it difficult for us retro peeps, though I guess backwards compatibility gets more difficult the further hardware advances and sacrifices have to be made and there's a whole philosophical song and dance you can get into about that.

It is funny that you mention this; I messaged GOG recently requesting that they provide the disc/floppy images to those who purchase games since many of us either use real retro hardware or emulate hardware through 86box and what not. They have yet to answer. All well. I either have physical media, or I acquire it.

elszgensa wrote on 2024-02-06, 04:04:

DosFreak wrote on 2024-02-05, 22:37:

You can install the games on another computer and copy the files over.

And if no computer with a later Windows on it is available, then innoextract should do the trick.

Handy! Thank you!

chinny22 wrote on 2024-02-06, 04:22:

While I know it's not technically correct, I figure if I own a gog copy of a game then I've kind of paid for the copy of the original release I "find" on the internet for the rare games and common PC CD-ROM games are cheap if your only after the CD rather than trying to buy a boxed copy.

Agreed, this is my philosophy and belief as well. Plus, if something should ever happen to archive.org or GOG, I am creating an archive on my own. Software must be preserved.

fxgogo wrote on 2024-02-06, 18:25:

Horun wrote on 2024-02-06, 04:32:

If I own an original or bought any legal paid version figure I can use anything related to make it work, even if it comes from the dark side. Bought many game and OS CD's that the "activation" servers no longer exist so have to find something to bypass....hmmm fek MS for killing the XP activation servers after spending probably near $1000 for all the retail versions I bought decades ago. Sorry but this type thing really irritates me....

I actually tried the phone number option to manually activate my copy of XP and it worked. I had to submit a code that was on screen and then the automated service read back a code. Worked perfectly.

I own Windows XP Professional and Windows XP Media Center Edition discs but cannot find my keys. I use a recently created activation server emulator to "activate" Windows XP.

At any rate, I figured out why some games which I copied over from my main Win10 machine to my Athlon XP/WinXP machine via a gigabit crossover connection are not registering my left-mouse button clicks on the installer exe files: I started right-clicking to check the file properties and there was a tab explaining that "the files came from another computer and have been blocked for safety," with the option to unblock them. I NEVER saw this before. I am using Service Pack 2 with no further updates (yet, but I will apply SP3 and other updates since I am isolating the XP machine on the network and plan on visiting some sites, such as Vogons, with it.) Something within XP or my network settings is locking these exe files. I will research this issue and see if I can find a way to turn this "feature" off, because it is annoying as hell. This entire project has been a test of patience: I am using an old gigabit N router from Dlink until I can buy a newer one with USB 3.0 and VLAN support, and I updated the firmware to the last available version and thought I bricked it because I can no longer access the router settings from the XP machine (the only machine connected to it other than a switch to connect the router to my main network.) It turns out that the firmware adds "features" which prevent old browsers and CPUs from being able to use the router menus. I decided to disconnect the XP machine and connect my main PC to the router and found out that I can access the menu from there. Now I have to use my main PC to set it back up and then put my XP machine back on it. What a P.I.T.A...

This probably means that when I buy a more modern router to use instead of this ancient one from the black n' white silent movie and Egyptian pyramid era, my XP machine won't be able to access the menu.

RandomStranger wrote on 2024-02-06, 06:58:

No GOG is kinda great.

What I meant was: for original equipment/vintage computers GOG kinda sucks. Yes for newer non vintage/non retro ones it is a good thing.

fxgogo wrote on 2024-02-06, 18:25:

I actually tried the phone number option to manually activate my copy of XP and it worked. I had to submit a code that was on screen and then the automated service read back a code. Worked perfectly.

Thanks ! Good to know ! I used the MS Toolkit to activate the last time had an issue. Sometimes when you change hardware too many times/have to reactivate too many times the "phone activation" does not want to work for some reason.

Horun wrote on 2024-02-07, 02:01:

RandomStranger wrote on 2024-02-06, 06:58:

No GOG is kinda great.

What I meant was: for original equipment/vintage computers GOG kinda sucks. Yes for newer non vintage/non retro ones it is a good thing.

Original equipment / vintage computers was never the goal of GOG, as was already pointed out.

Horun wrote on 2024-02-07, 02:01:

fxgogo wrote on 2024-02-06, 18:25:

I actually tried the phone number option to manually activate my copy of XP and it worked. I had to submit a code that was on screen and then the automated service read back a code. Worked perfectly.

Thanks ! Good to know ! I used the MS Toolkit to activate the last time had an issue. Sometimes when you change hardware too many times/have to reactivate too many times the "phone activation" does not want to work for some reason.

When it comes to XP, there still exist non-blacklisted VLKs out there, which make the entire online activation process unnecessary. It also doesn't care about hardware changes, IIRC. But, of course, if one wants to activate their legit retail key, the phone option is probably best.

One reason i dual boot win7 with xp. I can potentially install under win7, do a reg diff, then play under winxp. The game partition is mounted as D on both.