First post, by Great Hierophant
- Rank
- l33t
I have always sought to buy games that were originally released on physical media, whether that media is a floppy disk, a cassette, a CD or DVD or even a cartridge.
I believe that a game that was released on media, whether that release could be bought in a store or ordered from a website has a certain legitimacy that download-only games lack. On the media it has an untouchable state (except for magnetic media). It can't be forever altered with a patch or broken by one, but it can be fixed by one. If there is a fan base, they have a known starting point from which to mod. A properly taken-care of CD, assuming no bit rot, will survive For this reason I also prefer the original standalone releases to compilation releases or GoG/Steam releases.
Its not like a have some fetish for CDs, in fact when I go to a thrift store I often walk out with a PC CD-ROM or two. When I get home, those CDs get imaged. The same thing would happen to floppy disks if I ever found any.
While you could burn DRM free downloads onto a disc, it just isn't the same. Retail discs are branded in a certain way, the way their developer wanted it. They don't need some some special program like Steam to validate itself or bundled with GoG in such a way that requires a full hard disk installation and may not install on a vintage system.
Furthermore, for games originally released to run on Windows 3.x/95/98, obtaining the original release media is the best way to ensure that these games will continue to run on a vintage PC. Also, if you are not fortunate to have a large hard drive on your system, the original versions will allow you to swap CDs.
More modern CD games merely use the media as a distribution medium. The disc itself after an install serves only as copy protection. The only option is a full hard drive install, and these days there are many games that limit the number of installs or tie the disc or its CD-key to a particular PC. In this sense, there is little difference from buying the game as a download, at least until the budget releases. When the game goes to the bargain bins or the discount price, companies discontinue using the advanced copy protection as they have made 80-90% of the money they will ever make from the game.
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