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GOG.com

KeAShizuku

Educated
Joined
Dec 11, 2023
Messages
167
Lord_Potato said:
I see 2 potential solutions to the issue:
1) Download all GOG installers for the games I own on an external drive, so that nobody can take them away from me,
2) Don't use GOG forums, so that no dangerhair mod has a reason to deprive me of the most easy and practical access to my whole libray.

So far both work for me fine.

And its not like you can do the same on Steam, due to DRM on many games. So, GOG still wins, despite its dumb and most likely illegal banning policy.
Click to expand...

What about bit rot? Honestly piracy is better at preservation.
 
ds

ds

Cipher
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Jul 17, 2013
Messages
2,480
Location
here
KeAShizuku said:
What about bit rot? Honestly piracy is better at preservation.
Click to expand...
Use error correction codes like par2 files or an archive format that has them built in. Combine with backups.

Relying on file sharing for preservation like the is just storing files on someone else's computer. You can't rely on anything except the most popular stuff still being there when you want it unless you are willing to store it yourself.
 
axx

axx

Savant
Joined
Jan 9, 2017
Messages
857
I'm not sure about Warcraft but Diablo 1 never dropped below 10% for first couple of years after it was added. They sure are picky with their discounts.
 
Azdul

Azdul

Magister
Joined
Nov 3, 2011
Messages
3,688
Location
Langley, Virginia
KeAShizuku said:
Lord_Potato said:
I see 2 potential solutions to the issue:
1) Download all GOG installers for the games I own on an external drive, so that nobody can take them away from me,
2) Don't use GOG forums, so that no dangerhair mod has a reason to deprive me of the most easy and practical access to my whole libray.

So far both work for me fine.

And its not like you can do the same on Steam, due to DRM on many games. So, GOG still wins, despite its dumb and most likely illegal banning policy.
Click to expand...
What about bit rot? Honestly piracy is better at preservation.
Click to expand...
If piracy is good at preservation - all the games for Atari 8-bit and C-64 should have good cracks at the end of machines commercial life.

The fact is that many of them had to be archived from originals and cracked again decades later - by people with no connection to 'the scene'.

TOSEC often had 8 different cracked versions signed by different groups - all sharing the same crack side-effects - and not a single 'proper' one - with all game sound effects present.

I suppose Amiga is already a lost cause - and some originals are lost to time.
 
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Unkillable Cat

Unkillable Cat

LEST WE FORGET
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Joined
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Messages
28,511
Codex 2014 Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy
Azdul said:
KeAShizuku said:
Lord_Potato said:
I see 2 potential solutions to the issue:
1) Download all GOG installers for the games I own on an external drive, so that nobody can take them away from me,
2) Don't use GOG forums, so that no dangerhair mod has a reason to deprive me of the most easy and practical access to my whole libray.

So far both work for me fine.

And its not like you can do the same on Steam, due to DRM on many games. So, GOG still wins, despite its dumb and most likely illegal banning policy.
Click to expand...
What about bit rot? Honestly piracy is better at preservation.
Click to expand...
If piracy is good at preservation - all the games for Atari 8-bit and C-64 should have good cracks at the end of machines commercial life.

The fact is that many of them had to be archived from originals and cracked again decades later - by people with no connection to 'the scene'.

TOSEC often had 8 different cracked versions signed by different groups - all sharing the same crack side-effects - and not a single 'proper' one - with all game sound effects present.

I suppose Amiga is already a lost cause - and some originals are lost to time.
Click to expand...
Sometimes it's not worth trying to preserve the originals, but those are fringe examples.

I'm aware of at least two games where the original release was bugged to the point that the game could not be completed.

Enter diligent hackers who created hacked fixes to these games, so that people can finally play them through to the end.

Which version should be preserved? The original? Or the fix?
 
KeighnMcDeath

KeighnMcDeath

RPG Codex Boomer
Joined
Nov 23, 2016
Messages
15,298
Some more M.U.L.E.
IMG_4941.gif

Mobygames




 
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Azdul

Azdul

Magister
Joined
Nov 3, 2011
Messages
3,688
Location
Langley, Virginia
Unkillable Cat said:
Azdul said:
KeAShizuku said:
What about bit rot? Honestly piracy is better at preservation.
Click to expand...
If piracy is good at preservation - all the games for Atari 8-bit and C-64 should have good cracks at the end of machines commercial life.

The fact is that many of them had to be archived from originals and cracked again decades later - by people with no connection to 'the scene'.

TOSEC often had 8 different cracked versions signed by different groups - all sharing the same crack side-effects - and not a single 'proper' one - with all game sound effects present.

I suppose Amiga is already a lost cause - and some originals are lost to time.
Click to expand...
Sometimes it's not worth trying to preserve the originals, but those are fringe examples.

I'm aware of at least two games where the original release was bugged to the point that the game could not be completed.

Enter diligent hackers who created hacked fixes to these games, so that people can finally play them through to the end.

Which version should be preserved? The original? Or the fix?
Click to expand...
Two versions should be preserved:
A. Exact image of original media - including low-level information about tracks, bad and weak sectors etc. Including separate image for each official re-release.
B. Latest version - without DRM - with documented fixes for bugs and compatibility problems.

Cracking or fixing 8-bit or 16-bit game when you have exact low-level image of original media, cycle accurate emulator and machine with 100 times more memory and processing power is not really that complicated - that's why original should be preserved.

Original Jet Set Willy cannot be finished. However - fixes made later by other people - not the original author - made traversing infamous Banyan Tree less fiendishly difficult. These fixes were later made official by publisher - and used in re-releases.

I prefer original version - which requires series of pixel-perfect and almost frame-perfect jumps. It has that special Matthew Smith flavour.
 
Taka-Haradin puolipeikko

Taka-Haradin puolipeikko

Filthy Kalinite
Patron
Joined
Apr 24, 2015
Messages
20,562
Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy Bubbles In Memoria
Does anyone have any comments about Army Men -series?
Any entries in series which should be absolutely avoided?


I maybe buy Army Men 1 and Army Men RTS for starters.
 
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