GOG.com

[negator2vc]

Sounds nice, but I've checked and it seems to be literally nothing. Like "verifying cloud saves work" or "confirming compatibility for win 10/11" for games I've played on modern gaming pc previously with no noticeable problems.

I did not notice a single update that would fix an actual classic, good old game, for which the GOG release has problems running properly or where they say it runs on modern systems, but it's a lie (Age of Wonders 2/SM, Incubation, Nox etc.).

HoMM 3, Dungeon Keeper 1-2 are some games with fixes.
I haven't checked the fixes since I use Wine/Linux or fan made engines to play old windows games.

 

[Azdul]

Sounds nice, but I've checked and it seems to be literally nothing. Like "verifying cloud saves work" or "confirming compatibility for win 10/11" for games I've played on modern gaming pc previously with no noticeable problems.

I did not notice a single update that would fix an actual classic, good old game, for which the GOG release has problems running properly or where they say it runs on modern systems, but it's a lie (Age of Wonders 2/SM, Incubation, Nox etc.).

Sometimes the compatibility fix is obvious, like removing ring 0 DRM, or when Gothic 1 clearly had not intended to change the window size to 0 by 0.

Microsoft and Nvidia do their own backward compatibility updates in parallel, sometimes screwing things up, like with heap management impacting Planescape Torment or different Nvidia drivers impacting Baldur's Gate 1 differently. Sometimes fixing the game on Windows 11 2H22 will break it after 2 years down the line on 2H24. It is a moving target.

The ultimate solution is to have a game decompiled and ported to ScummVM. Then someone else will do the maintenance .

 

[JC'sBarber]

Yeah, I saw that too, it's marketing stunt, there is almost nothing substantial.

An ingenious marketing stunt, though. With all the hype surrounding the "Stop Killing Games" movement, the fact that GOG allows you to download offline installers for games works in their favour immensely. I hope this does get more people to buy GOG games, so more companies would support it and game preservation in general.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

OH FUCK NO!!!

Why the fuck are people so fascinated by god damn rodents. As a kid, I liked the Rescuers.... now... THEY CAN JUST DIE! Same with the LITTLES and other rodent fucks.

 

[lightbane]

(Fictional) mice can be awesome! Mouse guard game when?

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

I can only see them as enemies.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

I can only see them as enemies.

Even mice dude? Rats I get, but do mice also give you shit?

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

HoMM 3, Dungeon Keeper 1-2 are some games with fixes.

H3 and DK1 builds are now pretty much just platforms for running HD and FX, respectively. But they've included the fix for dark angels not appearing in DK2, so that's an actual thing, good catch.

Sometimes the compatibility fix is obvious, like removing ring 0 DRM, or when Gothic 1 clearly had not intended to change the window size to 0 by 0.

Microsoft and Nvidia do their own backward compatibility updates in parallel, sometimes screwing things up, like with heap management impacting Planescape Torment or different Nvidia drivers impacting Baldur's Gate 1 differently. Sometimes fixing the game on Windows 11 2H22 will break it after 2 years down the line on 2H24. It is a moving target.

The ultimate solution is to have a game decompiled and ported to ScummVM. Then someone else will do the maintenance .

You can fix most of it yourself and a lot of the time it's easy and quick (like, it's enough to tinker with compatibility settings for .exe for a second and you can play Nox mostly fine on W10), but that's not the point, is it?

And it's also not the case for all of the games, unfortunately. I still did not find a surefire way to run AoW2/SM with no issues on W10.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

I swear they formed a fucking alliance; even squirrels.

 

[JC'sBarber]

Disney kept extending copyright terms to keep their MOUSE under lock and key, so as far as I'm concerned the mice can go pound cheese.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

I may never eat cheese again with that image in my head.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Yesterday, shortly after reading the announcement of the Preservation thingie, I logged onto GOG and found that six games in my library had been updated.

So I set about downloading the new installers. While downloading the new installers three more games were updated, so I downloaded those as well.

I checked in at GOG today - and 19 games in my library had been updated.

Changelogs do follow most of the updated games, that contain some information. But the question does remain: Does GOG ensure backwards compatibility, and/or compatibility with fan-made mods?

Only time will tell, I guess.

(Incidentally, did GOG ever fix Ravenloft: Stone Prophet?)

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Hah! They won't fix that.

 

[Avonaeon]

Why are you folks obsessed with older versions of games?. This isn't fucking Star Wars, if GOG fixes a game it's objectively better, unless they're replacing Geralt with a black man.

I like to play them on older XP machines and some of their newer installers don't work on XP.

 

[Alienman]

Does GOG ensure backwards compatibility, and/or compatibility with fan-made mods?

God, I hope they don't screw around with that. But most updates seems to be they making sure it works on Windows 10/11.

 

[negator2vc]

but would be nice if they kept the old versions available for download

They do.
Or did something change along the line?

In pretty much all my GOG games I can only see (and download) the latest offline installers, in this case the fixed ones.
The only exception I remember is Witcher 3 where they kept the classic version in the extra files section.

 

[Tweed]

I hate mice and I like it when they DIE

 

[Rahdulan]

They're giving away Diggles. I played the demo ages ago and it was called Wiggles then.
https://af.gog.com/en/game/diggles_the_myth_of_fenris?as=1649904300

 

[catfood]

 

[Vorark]

I swear they formed a fucking alliance; even squirrels.

They did:

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

Most comments from fellow gamers were "it woud be too much hassle for GOG".

How? Considering it would basically just be upload and forget. Considering how many abandonware websites are still around that do something like that, I don't buy it. It's not like they care a great deal about fixing games either, you can occasionally find ones they haven't bothered to fix. Someone around here was complaining that Chaos Overlords doesn't work, and I saw that their version of Bloodwych has a game breaking glitch in it.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

They probably have to get legal permission to fix that kinda stuff. They might have permission to sell the game but that might not extend to modifying its content.

 

[Baron Dupek]

Finally some good giveaway

 

[Semiurge]

OH FUCK NO!!!

Why the fuck are people so fascinated by god damn rodents. As a kid, I liked the Rescuers.... now... THEY CAN JUST DIE! Same with the LITTLES and other rodent fucks.

Mice would be a blessing after being cursed with rats. Surely you can agree?

 

[Cerulean]

Funny thing is, I read an article from a psychology researcher a few years back... he said that rats could be domesticated just fine, and they even made good pets. But mice? No matter how well you treated them, they'd always end up biting you at random. The common wisdom of rats vs. mice is apparently backwards.