Man hope this works 😉
IT could be a success!

Hmmm. Seems Qbix knows something!!!

http://forums.3drealms.com/vb/showpost.php?s= … 35&postcount=17

For dos games they will use dosbox though.

(...)

I don't know how they want to do it. I got an email today that they will do it and an invitation to check it out.

Looks like they don't have access to source code:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2008/07/12/go … od-old-answers/

Oh well. That removes much of my interest for the site.

that is a bit of a let down

heh. I've been reading alot of the comments on the net about GoG. Every now and then you'll see someone so happy about "Good Old Games" and how they now will not have to "put up with the incovenience of trying to use DOSBox". Boy are they in for a suprise! 😀

I think we should take these people, boot their ass back to 1989 and make them use a real DOS system. 😀

It's hardly surprising, now is it? DOSBox offers a whole lot of options that old DOS didn't have, so for the uninitiated it can be a bit daunting (as could real DOS, of course). Some things are easier with DOSBox (having enough memory available, for instance, sound card support etc), other things are more difficult (output method, scalers etc).

DOSBox has been able handle anything I threw at it but sometimes with a lot of tweaking. If a game comes with DOSBox and a preconfigured dosbox.conf, that should take out the inconvenience for these players. If there is a surprise for them it will be that DOSBox runs the game well as it was configured by GoG, and that using it that way is not an inconvenience.

Seems to me like what GoG will be doing is provide the actual game with all the updates from the original vendor and wrap it up in a neat installer. Rather like a frontend with a profile set up for the game. Nothing you couldn't do yourself if you fished the game out of the bargain bin at your local software store, but it doesn't seem like they're charging exorbitant amounts of dough for it either. Sounds fine to me.

DosFreak wrote:

I think we should take these people, boot their ass back to 1989 and make them use a real DOS system. 😀

Amen to that.

I think we should take these people, boot their ass back to 1989 and make them use a real DOS system.

Most would probably stare at the blinking cursor and not have any idea what to do next. I remember in 1997 being the only one who knew how to work on a legacy Windows 3.1 system that was still in production running a custom application, just a scant 2 years after Windows 95 was released. How soon they forget.

I think it's a good idea. If nothing else it does give users a legal way to get the old games and I hope many more publishers get on board.

Xian97 wrote:

I think it's a good idea. If nothing else it does give users a legal way to get the old games and I hope many more publishers get on board.

While you can find fault with the execution, the end result is to place these gems on the retail market again. I can find no fault with that. If it is a clumsy release, at least it is still a release.

DosFreak wrote:

I think we should take these people, boot their ass back to 1989 and make them use a real DOS system. 😀

Force them all to get Dragonsphere and the CD version of Betrayal at Krondor running without DOSBox; that would keep them busy for a while. 😈

Good Old Games are taking applications for the early access beta.

Go to http://www.gog.com to sign up.

On Monday, September 8, anyone who signed up for the GOG.com beta will start receiving access keys to the site.
We're saying goodbye to the press beta and gearing up for the next phase: Early Access Beta. Everyone who signs up before Sunday September 7 at midnight (EDT), during the next week will receive an access key, which will allow them to dive into the GOG.com site. If you don't receive your access key on Monday, don't worry as we're sending them out in stages.
The Early Access Beta will offer all the main features of the site, including buying DRM-free games, joining the community and writing reviews. Apart from just getting access, everyone buys a game from GOG.com during the Early Access Beta will receive a bonus code to get one game from GOG.com’s Interplay catalogue for free!

This was to be expected eventually. There are always nostalgic people out there - not just us folks.

Apple II emulators, Nintendo emulators, Atari, arcade games, etc. Older PC games are just the next step, as us DOSBox users already know.

First look: GOG revives classic PC games for download age

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080909 … wnload-age.html

In addition, the team at GOG has put much time into ensuring the old classics play on new computers. Working with groups like DOSBox to pack a powerful DOS emulator into games that require it and offering Audiere for high-level audio APIs, the GOG team has ensured that your old PC favorites play as you remember them on your fancy new gaming rig.

wouldn't call it working. I've only had early access to the beta.

Well I have beta access and have download Fallout 1 and 2, both downloaded fast installed easily and played perfectly. Both came with high quality pdf manuals and the Fallout sub forums had links to half a dozen mods. They are offering two DOS games, Descent 1(plus expansion) for $5.99 and M.A.X 1 (with M.A.X.2 free). These use DOSbox, and they are open about that. I haven't bought either of them, but based on my experience of G.O.G. I am sure the DOSBox part is invisible to the user, as part of G.O.G.'s 'making retro gaming easy'. This has to be good news and will help PC retro gaming get a voice that's been drowned out by console retro gaming (google 'retro gaming' and see how many PC sites you find!)! So I wish G.O.G. all the luck in the world!

Kids today:

http://www.evilavatar.com/forums/showthread.p … ?t=64910&page=2

I am sorry but what is the point with GOG.com? According to the website all they do is providing OS compability with games, no updates or anything. And you have to pay for it to. Don't get me wrong, I love playing old classics like X-com every now and then, but why should I pay for something that theese days can be found as freeware using DosBOX which is also a free program? I can be wrong but according to the website it sounds more like a solution for people to lazy to use google...

Sigh.

DosFreak - we were bound to get posts like this. Pirates and hardcore gamers, who know where to go and what to do, who know how to download multiple zips and put them all together following a readme written for hardcore I.T. people. I was expecting more posts like this from the bitorrent crowd, and have been a little surprised how few there have been!

In any event, Freespace 2 is free if you are knowledgeable enough to 'fit it together', but for $5.99 for Freespace AND the expansion (and Freespace 2 if you wanted, as part of the early beta promotion!), why bother? I certainly saw a straight forward approach of either with the free version, spending a couple hours putting it all together or spending a couple minutes paying for the games and then clicking a button to download and then an hour later unzipping and playing straight away on my XP dual core PC! One could argue at the prices being charged, you are paying for the service surrounding it and the title is free! I mean, no DRM, XP/Vista compatibility and ongoing support? That's worth $5.99 right there!

Anyone know if there's a list of what games on GOG uses DOSBox? Trying to find some mention of DOSBox on the gog website but I'm not finding anything.

I could look at their catalogue and guess....I guess.

so what if games use dosbox? I bought some games, Stonekeep and Redneck rampage use it. SO WHAT? you install them and they run as expected, this is what you pay for. And those are 5.99$ games, not a 60-70$ ones. Plus they usually come with all expansions pre-installed (if any) . This is a typical case where you pay for convenience.

AFAIK all DOS games use DOSBOX, since they need to run on Vista too...