DRM-Free Classic Games Store Opens To Public 122
arcticstoat writes "With all the controversy surrounding DRM in games at the moment, one games store has decided to buck the trend, proudly proclaiming that all its games are DRM-free. First announced back in July, Good Old Games is now in the public beta stage, which means that anyone can now access the site's archive of classic PC games, and you can do what you want with your game when you've bought it, too. 'You won't find any intrusive copy protection in our games; we hate draconian DRM schemes just as much as you do,' says the site. 'Once you download a game, you can install it on any PC and re-download it whenever you want, as many times as you need, and you can play it without an internet connection.'"
In related news, Stardock, the company responsible for the Gamer's Bill of Rights, is apparently working on a new copy-protection solution that will be friendlier to consumers than current schemes.
Whoa (Score:5, Informative)
I'm pretty surprised that they managed to get all these out on the start. I expected one or two good games, but whoa, Descent? Earthworm Jim? Fallout? Gothic? MDK? Operation Flashpoint? Shogo?
It's like I died and got zombified in the better part of the 90's!
Freespace FTW (Score:3, Informative)
I bought Freespace 1/2 off of GOG and played it on my Mac through FS2_Open, the open sourced FS engine... a kick ass game, in beautiful high res graphics. This is how all abandonware should work ;).
And it sure as hell beat the X-Wing / Tie-Fighter series out of the water in terms of innovative mission design.
Plus, their site is really slick, clean and easy to use.
Re:Trojan Asshats... er horses (Score:2, Informative)
Stardock != Starforce
Re:Whoa (Score:4, Informative)
I just downloaded the Descent and Descent 2 package, and yes they do indeed use DOSBox.
Re:You're Missing A Point (Score:1, Informative)
For the DOS games they're selling, they're actually using a bundled version of DOSBox anyway. It's the same kind of setup as the DOS games available through Steam.
Assume for a moment that I don't already own a copy of one of these games, and I don't want to pirate it. Buying a copy from GoG is much simpler than trying to track down a copy of the original.
Once you have that (and I don't see any requirement for using Windows to download the games themselves) you can take the original files and do whatever you want with them. Run them in your own copy of DOSBox on any OS you like. Run them in a VM. Copy them onto floppy disks, and load them onto an old DOS machine.
As for only supporting newer versions of Windows, they've done pretty much what I would have done. That is, not bother testing it on older versions of Windows, and don't claim that they're supported. Yeah, they'll probably work, but the extra effort involved in actually verifying that they work is probably too much. Testing on two OSes is bad enough.
Re:NO mention of their use of dosbox on their site (Score:1, Informative)
Don't hurt yourself while getting off your high horse:
http://www.gog.com/en/thanks/ [gog.com]
Their thanks page specifically mentions DOSBox.
Are you going to part with some of those dollars now or do you just like to complain?
That took me a whole 2 minutes. (Score:4, Informative)
Look harder. [gog.com] Linked from the front page and everything.
this site is tops (Score:4, Informative)
I signed up and bought Hostile Waters on Thursday.
GoG.com is easily the best online buying experience I have ever had.
The selection is quite good but currently limited (I already own 20 of the 40+ titles). Most titles are $6, with a few more recent ones at $10.
The site design itself is excellent, with a global wishlist, ratings, reviews, and forums. Buying was totally painless.
Games are DRM-free downloads, pre-patched, XP/Vista compatible, come with installers, have extra download materials (like manuals), and get game-specific support sections and forums.
I'll definitely be shopping there again.