In most cases the GoG installer just hides the disk image behind a a nice front-end, or it has already extracted everything from the disk, and patched the executable files not to require the disk being present. Generally, I would prefer using the GoG package - if it runs well on Win9x. On some cases the games may have been patched to work better on NT-based systems, which can sometimes make them work worse (or not at all) on Win9x.

Another thing is if the CD had audio tracks, then sometimes GoG converts these to OGG files to downsize the image, which in theory lowers the audio quality. Not everybody would notice/care.

GOG is great. As an archivist, though, I'd hate for their releases to one day be the only versions left, for the reasons mentioned above. They're pretty good, but they don't always pick the best release version when multiple are available, either.

I can't be the only one who is lazy enough sometimes that it's easier to pay a couple of quid and download the installer, rather than go and hunt for the physical disc that I know I have - somewhere..?

but how do you get the GOG installer to work on 9x

candle_86 wrote:

but how do you get the GOG installer to work on 9x

They just work fine, they are Win32 programs after all.

Not really, you'd need kernelex for them and even then they still have issues

leileilol wrote:

Not really, you'd need kernelex for them and even then they still have issues

Oh, true that. I installed them all onto a WinXP box the other day and assumed the installers would work on Win9x as well *facepalm*

It's probably impossible for Win9x games but DOS games can easily be extracted from installers and copied into directories, at least..

appiah4 wrote:

leileilol wrote:

Not really, you'd need kernelex for them and even then they still have issues

Oh, true that. I installed them all onto a WinXP box the other day and assumed the installers would work on Win9x as well *facepalm*

It's probably impossible for Win9x games but DOS games can easily be extracted from installers and copied into directories, at least..

Not impossible.
http://www.philscomputerlab.com/installing-go … s-on-95-98.html

I could have sworn I remember seeing a similar topic here before...

Anyway, GOG installers are useful for playing Win9x based games on modern Operating Systems. It's wise to keep them as such, since some 9x games won't even install on modern OSs. Even if these were able to install, some may have other issues.

As for DOS games, it comes to preference... I would prefer to install from original ISOs in Dosbox, just for that nostalgic feeling and seeing the original installation screens.

There were some discussions on issues with the GOG versions, but I could not remember what they were. Something to do with ripped CD audio or something.

From my experience, there's one game that has CD audio mess - Revenant. In the original CD installation, the audio from the CD is situational. But the GOG version is not. And it's a heck of a work to make it work in modern OS. Lot's of DirectX based issues.. (for the original CD / ISO installs on modern OSs)

appiah4 wrote:

They just work fine, they are Win32 programs after all.

There are many reasons why a "Win32 program after all" may not work on older systems.
Nowadays practically no new applications are written that are compatible with Win9x, and in a year or two the same will happen to XP.

Malik wrote:

From my experience, there's one game that has CD audio mess - Revenant

Vangers, in my experience, is another. Under WinXP with an Audigy 2 ZS, the music pops and crackles. Under Win7 with onboard sound, it's fine. I don't know if others have reported similar problems. This game is really obscure.

The music is half the reason to run Vangers, so it's a pretty big problem for me. However, I also have it on CDROM with the original CDA tracks, so I can also just pop it in a CD player and go!

KT7AGuy wrote:

Vangers, in my experience, is another. Under WinXP with an Audigy 2 ZS, the music pops and crackles. Under Win7 with onboard sound, it's fine. I don't know if others have reported similar problems. This game is really obscure.

The GOG version is the same as the Steam version, isn't it? I understand the original developers specifically made changes to it to make it run better on current systems.