VOGONS


First post, by dumpsterac1d

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Since a lot of this section of the site is devoted to finding ways to install games from GOG on their original operating system, I'd like to invite anyone here to put your vote into a specific feature request on the GOG Community Wishlist:

Provide Original Files And/Or Disk Images with GOG Purchase

I know more than a few very similar requests have been created on the GOG Community Wishlist site, but I'm hoping to get as many people focused on one single request as possible. These tend to actually work as well, many of these recommendations are shown as pending.

Basically this would allow folks here and elsewhere have access to unaltered and non-repackaged installers, disc images or diskette images of original games for us to do with what we want. I'm not sure how this would work legally since the content of said disks will most likely be referencing copyrights that don't fully exist in the same state, but the main point here is that they are made aware of how many people there are who would want this feature.

I, for one, would be purchasing from GOG roughly once a week if I had access to original content and could run games on my PC without having to expand installers, re-edit config files, etc etc.

So if you feel the same, please consider giving this an upvote, and if you know of any other communities that would benefit from GOG doing this, please share!

Thoughts?

Reply 2 of 32, by clueless1

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I upvoted this too. Thanks for starting it.

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Reply 4 of 32, by xjas

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+1. I've submitted tech support requests to GOG over their shonky re-packaging in the past (not only this issue, but certainly part of it) and gotten nowhere. It's certainly dampened my enthusiasm for the platform.

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Reply 5 of 32, by jmarsh

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The worst thing is that sometimes they break stuff (like using broken tools to combine resources from multi-disk sierra games into single files) and then when it gets reported to them, they say they're unable to modify the files due to copyright/licensing restrictions. WTF?

Reply 6 of 32, by krcroft

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+1 vote from me too.

IMO, they should provide as close to an archival-grade download of the physical game and media:
- high quality png scans of the box front and back, misc box inserts, and floppy or CD faces
- print-quality PDF of the manual, guide, and hint-books
- bin/cue or img dumps of the media
- patches
- crack / no-cd / copy protection skip (if applicable). The user can choose if they apply these; some people feel any modification detracts from the full experience.

Finally, GOG can have their installer deploy their pre-installed, modified/mangled, etc.. version for those on modern hardware who might not care about the historically-accurate archival content.

Reply 7 of 32, by cyclone3d

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I up-voted and added a comment as well. Great idea!

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Reply 9 of 32, by doaks80

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+1ed. Would be cool but what the bet the devs don't even have them? Most of the time they send a gold image to the publisher who prints copies. Chances of finding the original gold image for a particular retail release....maybe not great?

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Reply 10 of 32, by dumpsterac1d

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doaks80 wrote:

+1ed. Would be cool but what the bet the devs don't even have them? Most of the time they send a gold image to the publisher who prints copies. Chances of finding the original gold image for a particular retail release....maybe not great?

You might be right, but I'd hope that if they put out requests to devs they're getting money for, they might be willing to send any copies they have to help the games sell. I mean, I'm not even particularly keen on getting hi res scans of floppy disks or CDs, since that would actually require GOG to somehow get their hands on the "preferred" versions of every single game (i.e. 1st retail box in pristine condition)... I'd be fine with whatever original content they can push to their service.

Like... CD BIN/CUEs would be excellent, but if there's a working version that just has files, an installer, etc? fine by me. I just don't want to have to dig through files. Just me personally.

Reply 11 of 32, by Kerr Avon

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Personally, I have no interest in the original or older installers in themselves, I just want an installer that works well, even if that's the nth version of the installer. But I know some people do want them, so I've upvoted it, of course.

Reply 15 of 32, by svfn

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They already do this for some games, some have ISOs as .GOG format, but can be renamed. I guess they cannot do this for all games as it would take much more space and some of these disk images are not used to run the game, hence not included. GOG's priority has been making games work on modern systems and not archival purposes. Still it would make a purchase sweeter to know you have an original image as backup, digital manuals and such are always added value.

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Reply 16 of 32, by .legaCy

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svfn wrote:

They already do this for some games, some have ISOs as .GOG format, but can be renamed. I guess they cannot do this for all games as it would take much more space and some of these disk images are not used to run the game, hence not included. GOG's priority has been making games work on modern systems and not archival purposes. Still it would make a purchase sweeter to know you have an original image as backup, digital manuals and such are always added value.

But ISO files don't contain the redbook cd audio tracks, maybe if it is a bin/cue image.
It is really annoying going thru the hassle of unpacking and repacking, if they at least provided setup files with a installer that works on Windows 9X for example, it would be great.

Reply 17 of 32, by svfn

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yea that too, in some cases the .GOG disk image does not content the original redbook audio which is a shame.

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Reply 19 of 32, by duga3

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Ah, the good ol' circle of life of an average retro PC gamer:

1. conceived by poor parents >>> resorts to piracy
2. gets job with income >>> hoards original CD/DVD discs
3. discovers steam >>> hoards ephemeral rentals of copy-protected games during summer sales
4. realizes steam is a joke and drops support for older operating systems >>> hoards GOG

..this is where it gets "full steam backwards" (pun intended)..

5. discovers GOG games are crippled in one way or another >>> hoards original CD/DVD discs again
6. discovers CD/DVD discs are not built well enough to survive more than a few decades >>> resorts to piracy again

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