Anyone here bought from gog.com?

Been trying to find a copy of RollerCoaster Tycoon and I found one (and it's two expansions) for $5.99 on gog.com. It looks sort of like a Steam or Direct2Drive kind of thing. I'm assuming I have to create an account too. Anyone have any experience with this website? I've only used Steam.

 

I've used it. It's pretty much like Direct2Drive, although I'm not sure if D2D forces you to use a proprietary download manager. GOG doesn't, though, you can download the compressed files directly through your browser. You do have to create an account, but their DLM is optional and no extra software on your computer is required.

 

I've gotten several games off them (Freespace 2, Fallout 2, and both Enemy Engaged games). They're reputable.

 

Great! Thanks guys

 

How does Enemy Engaged fare under Win7? I spent long hours with EECH back in the day.

 

Haven't tried it on Win 7 yet; ran it on Win XP on my MBP. I've downloaded the installation files onto my Vaio (along with arneh's mod pack, which moves the game forward about a decade in terms of visuals) but haven't installed it yet. I'll report back once I do...maybe next weekend?

 

I bought The Witcher from there. Created account, used PP to pay for the game. After that had access not only to the game files themselves, but also some stuff related to it, like guides, maps, OST and so on. You can download game like ordinary files or use their application. I downloaded files myself. They were cut into separate 2Gb which is kinda neat, since I can fit 'em onto ordinary inexpensive DVD-5s .

 

This is a nice point. The Enemy Engaged games have huge old-school flight sim manuals where they teach you about not just the controls of the game, but the physics and tactics of flying helicopters. The entire manuals were provided via PDF download, as were PDFs of keyboard shortcut quick-reference maps.

 

GOG does several things:

They try to offer games that aren't available anywhere else, whether they're considered abandonware or just generally old and out of circulation.

They offer all of their games without DRM so you don't have to worry about activation limits or any garbage like that.

They make sure their games work on modern systems before the sell them. Occasionally you'll find an issue here or there, but most of the time they just work - install and play.

and

They offer extras such as PDF manuals and soundtracks and whatever else they can get their hands on.

In the end, the service is generally only going to be of interest to people who want to play old games, but for those people, it's Mecca. The biggest shortcoming is that there are so many great old games and so many of them belong to companies that dissolved or were purchased so tracking down the right to sell some old games has proven nearly impossible, and some companies like to hold on to their distribution rights even for old games. Hence no System Shock or Lucasarts games among other things.

 

George Lucas wouldn't re-release old LucasArts games without digitally altering them "to fit his original vision" by adding in rainbows and Kirby and giant friendly dinosaurs. That's how he rolls.

 

I've bought a few titles from gog.com.

I've only run across a few problems (sound on Fallout:Tactics on XP, screen resolution on Blood 2 on XP w/ 7950 GTX, menu on Independence War), but gog.com has a fairly active community and solutions are found by the community fairly quickly. And gog.com periodically collects the various solutions so they are easy to find for your particular problem.

Typically, gog.com sells the game with the latest patches (which for old games isn't changing very fast), and sometimes even makes available community patches.

My only frustration is that DOS based games purchased from gog.com use an older version of DosBox so I always have to fight with those installations to avoid having multiple versions of DosBox on my machine.

Enjoy.

 

Bought Witcher 2 from GOG, best online game buy yet. GoG rocks both Steam and Origin IMO, since Origin and Steam are just DRM in disguise.

 

No System Shock? I was fairly certain that I saw System Shock 2 on GOG. Guess I'm mistaken.

 

Well, they'll ship SE type updates such as Monkey Island 1 and 2, but they've also released Loom, two Indy games, and The Dig unaltered on Steam. Maybe more as well, though I don't think any of them came to GOG.

That would be an instant and eternal bestseller for them if they managed it, but it's been in copyright hell for over a decade now. You never know, though - the old Sierra AGI adventures emerged from copyright hell after over half a decade, so maybe it'll happen one day. We can only hope.

 

I love gog.com. They just have a lot more titles to bring back! Hopefully all the old publishers will agree. I mean all the old Star Trek games are great. They have their quirks but definitely worth a replay at $6. Plus classics like Star Trek Armada I and II.

 

Don't forget, he also adds additional and unecessary voice clips .

 

I bought a couple games from GoG, would definitely recommend them. IIRC the download rates are excellent (was getting ~1.8-2MB/s last summer).

 

Anyone who has never played Freespace 2 owes it to themselves to do so. One of the greatest games ever made in the awesome-but-now-dead genre of space combat simulators.

By the way, what the hell is The Witcher 2 doing on gog.com?

 

GOG's sister studio is CD Projekt Red who made TW2. They wanted to try it out and see how it would go selling a new game on their site. At the time it was the only place to get it DRM free, and I think still might be.

 

I think the non Steam copies of The Witcher 2 recieved a DRM killing patch to help combat poor performance.
But i bought my copy on GoG.com and i dont regret it one bit.

 

My holy grail would be for GOG to get the rights to Carmageddon 2. I still have an original CD of this game. It works on Windows 7, but takes quite a bit of tinkering to get it to play correctly with gamepad support.

Still, I've bought quite a few games from them, my most played being Shogo: Mobile Armor Division. It's one of the more buggy releases, as there are sound stuttering and random crash issues. They don't affect my overall enjoyment of the game, though.

 

GOG.com is owned by CD Projekt.

 

Now that's a great suggestion! I remember playing it as a kid. It had two awesome Iron Maiden songs . Also I was happy enough to have the original one, with red blood in it . So much fun. C3 didn't really feel the same to me .

 

I really like GOG most play really well and I have bought a few:

Blood
Blood II: The Chosen
Duke Nukem 3D
The Witcher 2
Messiah

Want the Wing Commander games (1, 2, & 3), Another World, and a bunch more.

Wishing that one day GOG has Maniac Mansion, Day of The Tentacle, Quarantine, Quarantine II: Road Warrior, Terminator (Bethesda 1990), Terminator 2029, Terminator Rampage, and of course Terminator: Future Shock, System Shock, System Shock 2, Shadow Warrior, Witchaven and Witchaven II: Blood Vengeance, and like everyone every X-Wing and Tie Fighter game Lucasarts ever made. Maybe one day... One can dream anyway. XD

 

only issue I ran into was they wont give a CD key for the games i purchased... guess its not a big deal for most people but it was a little anoying, almost like i didnt have a proof of purchase.

 

Since it doesent include DRM, its very rare of them to include a key i guess.
I know The Witcher 2 ships with a key to unlock the extra FREE dlc.

 

What games did you buy that you were expecting a key for?

 

I actually prefer dealing with GoG over Steam--it doesn't require a program running in the background for you to start up your games, so the games boot up muuuuuuuch faster (unless you've always got the Steam client running in the background). And I don't like always having the Steam client running in the background because it's occasionally glitchy.

The Witcher 2 hadn't been on my short list of what I want to buy next, but if that changes, I'd definitely get it from GoG.