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[Minsc]

What is GOG? 100% DRM free games of the past and present available for Windows and Mac. Pay a few bucks, download an installer and play!
Thread info pt 1: Above: Links to GOG.com, GOG's forums, Recommended games by GAF members, MRORANGE's thread of PC gaming threads.
Thread info pt 2: Below: GOG's recent releases (current/past month), followed by a section of quotes for any of the recommended recent releases.
Past yearly threads: 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010

Well, here we are! Update your subscriptions, and hopefully this new format is to everyone's liking! As you can maybe see above, each month's banner art and
thread title will try to incorporate the highest profile release of the prior month. In a few more days (June 5th) is CD Projekt RED & GOG.com' Summer Conference,
where we'll hear a "sensational message from GOG.com itself" and see what new thing is coming to GOG.com later this year... That's about it for now, away we go!​

Week 26, 2014 (June 23rd - June 29th)​

- Shovel Knight (2014), Action
Summer Sale 24-hour ADRENALINE RUSH! (NeoGAF thread)​

Week 25, 2014 (June 16th - June 22nd)​

- Xenonauts (2014), Strategy
Summer Sale Giveaway: Magrunner: Dark Pulse FREE for 24 hours! (NeoGAF thread)​

Week 24, 2014 (June 9th - June 15th)​

- Seven Cities of Gold: Commemorative Edition (1993), Strategy
- Desktop Dungeons (2013), Strategy
2014 Summer DRM-free Sale (NeoGAF thread)​

Week 23, 2014 (June 2nd - June 8th)​

- Lifeless Planet (2014), Adventure
- Labyrinth of Time, The (1993), Adventure
CD Projekt RED & GOG.com Summer Conference (June 5, 6:00pm GMT)​

Week 22, 2014 (May 26th - June 1st)​

- Where is My Heart? (2014), Action / Puzzle
- Among the Sleep (2014), Adventure / Horror
- SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition (2003), Simulation
- A Story About My Uncle (2014), Adventure
- Paper Sorcerer (2013), RPG​

Week 21, 2014 (May 19th - May 25th)​

- Chronology (2014), Adventure
- Bad Mojo Redux (2004), Adventure
- Always Sometimes Monsters (2014), Adventure
- Vertical Drop Heroes HD (2014), Action
- Last Door: Collector's Edition, The (2014), Adventure​

Week 20, 2014 (May 12th - May 18th)​

- CLARC (2014), Adventure / Puzzle
- Bionic Dues (2013), Strategy
- Ascendant (2014), Action
- Screamer 4x4 (2000), Racing​

Week 19, 2014 (May 5th - May 11th)​

- 1849: The Gold Rush (2014), Simulation
- F-117A Nighthawk Stealth Fighter 2.0 (1991), Simulation
- RealMyst: Masterpiece Edition (2014), Adventure
- Tesla Effect: A Tex Murphy Adventure (2014), Adventure​

 

[Stumpokapow]

The banner looks really nice. Hope the monthly threads work out for the community here.

Edit: Oh, nice, I got a cameo!

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

Jeez, Minsc, you keep doing such good work with this stuff.

Edit: oh, and I think going with monthly threads is a good idea. Keeps it feeling more relevant for casual observers, and there's enough stuff happening on the store at this point that I think it's justified.

 

[MRORANGE]

Yay! Got my PC thread in the banner!

Nice thread as always

 

[inm8num2]

Wow, amazing work! Looks fantastic!

I really like the boxes for the weekly releases. There's something about GOG that's so cozy to me, and the OP reflects that.

 

[gabbo]

Wow, amazing work! Looks fantastic!

I really like the boxes for the weekly releases. There's something about GOG that's so cozy to me, and the OP reflects that.

Pretty much this all over

 

[AuthenticM]

Is it possible for the C&C series to come to this or will it be relegated to Origin ? Are there EA games on GOG ?

 

[Finalow]

nice OT, well done.
I might get Paper Sorcerer next week, have been planning to play that game for a while now.

 

[Persona7]

Excellent OT, Minsc. Thanks for your hard work and dedication.


I really can't wait for the 5th.

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

Is it possible for the C&C series to come to this or will it be relegated to Origin ? Are there EA games on GOG ?

There are quite a few EA games on GOG, and SimCity 4 (a 2003 game, so... fairly recent) came out a few days ago. I don't think C&C is out of the question.

 

[inm8num2]

Is it possible for the C&C series to come to this or will it be relegated to Origin ? Are there EA games on GOG ?

There are EA games on GOG, but the release rate isn't as high as I'd personally hope. Still, just this past week EA put SimCity 4 on GOG, so that's cool. C&C seems like a possibility - nothing I know of to rule it out.

I'd love to see them finish out the Westwood catalog, but I guess film/franchise rights with Dune and Blade Runner are complicated.

edit - ninja'd

 

[Darkmakaimura]

How's Vertical Drop Heroes?

 

[Dragoon En Regalia]

Excellent work, master of Boo. We're really gonna fill out that index users get when they title-search for GOG!

I'm in the process of adding old Japanese PC games to the wishlist, since I think they'll be a thing with good enough publicity. Anyone interested in my progress should check this wish page. Also, buy SiN Gold, guys, it's the hot sauce.

 

[Persona7]

Time to load up sim city 4.

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

Excellent work, master of Boo. We're really gonna fill out that index users get when they title-search for GOG!

I'm in the process of adding old Japanese PC games to the wishlist, since I think they'll be a thing with good enough publicity. Anyone interested in my progress should check this wish page. Also, buy SiN Gold, guys, it's the hot sauce.

There was an older wishlist thread back that was started back when I posted a rant about there being no Japanese games on GOG. I think it had like 200 votes or something, but yeah, it's an effort I'd like to see actually get some support and (ideally) lead to something. There are a lot of really good, lesser known titles from the mid-90s.

 

[Sinatar]

Is it possible for the C&C series to come to this or will it be relegated to Origin ? Are there EA games on GOG ?

Honestly it's pretty surprising to me that they aren't already there.

 

[jj984jj]

There are quite a few EA games on GOG, and SimCity 4 (a 2003 game, so... fairly recent) came out a few days ago. I don't think C&C is out of the question.

SimCity 4 was already available on other stores, doing C&C on GOG would be another matter since the older games are only in a collection on Origin. Everyone that sells the collection gives you an Origin key.

 

[CTLance]

These threads will show up monthly? What a pain. Now I have to log into neogaf even more often (so that I can search for and subscribe to the threads). Oh woe is me.

And while I'm at it, text in pictures in an OP annoys me. Once the pics are broken a few months or years down the line the OP becomes useless. Plus, it doesn't show up on searches.

Gripe gripe, kvetch kvetch. Yeah I know, I'm just a fountain of joy, puppies and rainbows. Sorry 'bout that. Thanks for the thread, minsc. I may not sound like it, but I am grateful.

Now that I'm done complaining about lovingly handcrafted free stuff, ...

SC4 and Tesla, you shall be mine. And then you shall rot on my HDD with my other games while I stay paralysed in the face of dozens upon dozens of games in my gaming library. Mwahahaha.

Spoiler

Why do I keep doing this to myself?

 

[Dragoon En Regalia]

There was an older wishlist thread back that was started back when I posted a rant about there being no Japanese games on GOG. I think it had like 200 votes or something, but yeah, it's an effort I'd like to see actually get some support and (ideally) lead to something. There are a lot of really good, lesser known titles from the mid-90s.

I came across that a while ago and replied to you in the previous thread about it, lol. You have my axe, so to say. I'm just as invested in building awareness for '80s Japanese PC games that weren't designed by Hideo Kojima. Hell, I got my latest avatar thanks to digging around in the documented PC-88 game library for cool stuff.

At least we have Falcom. And for what it's worth, Project EGG technically doesn't use DRM, though the launcher w/emulation requires a subscription fee (once again, no online connection needed). I wonder why WOOMB went away several years ago...

 

[Minsc]

Thanks for the feedback everyone, and everyone's posts/thoughts/questions are always appreciated and welcome. Even if they're not overly positive.

These threads will show up monthly? What a pain. Now I have to log into neogaf even more often (so that I can search for and subscribe to the threads). Oh woe is me.

And while I'm at it, text in pictures in an OP annoys me. Once the pics are broken a few months or years down the line the OP becomes useless. Plus, it doesn't show up on searches.

Gripe gripe, kvetch kvetch. Yeah I know, I'm just a fountain of joy, puppies and rainbows. Sorry 'bout that. Thanks for the thread, minsc. I may not sound like it, but I am grateful.

Now that I'm done complaining about lovingly handcrafted free stuff, ...

SC4 and Tesla, you shall be mine. And then you shall rot on my HDD with my other games while I stay paralysed in the face of dozens upon dozens of games in my gaming library. Mwahahaha.

Spoiler

Why do I keep doing this to myself?

Well about your concerns, I'll say what I can to alleviate them somewhat hopefully. First switching to the monthly format brings really only an extra click on your end, at the end of the month, I'll have a link to the next thread, so you shouldn't ever have to search for the new thread (though you will need to subscribe more often).

Actually, even the little timeline image of thumbnails of monthly threads will take you from thread to thread as well, once we have more threads down the road to have it working, if you don't want to go to the end of each thread. Just relinked the current thumbnail to this thread if you're curious, obviously not to useful yet, but that's how it will work.

Pics in the OP are hosted on imgur, so unless imgur goes out of business they should never go down. Even if they do, all the information for recommended games exists on NeoGAF already in text format (which is how I find it), and I have the pictures all backed up locally and remotely outside of imgur besides. Of course, relinking everything would be a little hassle, but I'd manage it in a few weeks worst case scenario, which I'm really not expecting, I believe imgur should be very reliable. And the release info is written out in the OP as well as linked, so that will always be there. The first thread of each year I do plan on turning in to a yearly list like it's always been, so if for whatever reason down the road, you want to go back to see what came out on GOG in 2014 or look for the highlighted games to add to your wishlist/etc, you can just look at a single thread, instead of 12, if you want.

Is it possible for the C&C series to come to this or will it be relegated to Origin ? Are there EA games on GOG ?

If they come to GOG, I hope it's in the form of the Command & Conquer - The First Decade compilation, and you get ~20 games/expansions for like $20, but I don't think we'd be so lucky. As long as each entry is sold with all the expansions I guess it'd be fine either way at a lower price of $5.99 or whatever.

 

[wilflare]

I really should be using this service more often

 

[inm8num2]

I really should be using this service more often

Yes, you should.

 

[SHL23]

i love gog. got 121 games with them. im hoping someday theyll release no one lives forever 1 and 2 and jazz jackrabbit 1 and 2

 

[Durante]

Great job on the thread. Always good to shine some light on the only long-term gaming platform

 

[Knurek]

Great job on the thread. Always good to shine some light on the only long-term gaming platform

Is it really? Once GOG shuts down, you still lose access to all your bought contents, just as on every other store.

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

Is it really? Once GOG shuts down, you still lose access to all your bought contents, just as on every other store.

Lol, no.

 

[Nikodemos]

Is it really? Once GOG shuts down, you still lose access to all your bought contents, just as on every other store.

Not if you downloaded all the installers (which, admittedly, might take an enormous amount of hard drive space, depending on how big is your collection).

 

[Knurek]

Lol, no.

Of course you do.
You can backup the installers, sure, but you can do the same with Steam games. No difference.
If you didn't backup them, or lost your data to bitrot, you can always torrent them (provided someone was kind enough to pirate them and provided torrents are still a thing), but you can do the same with Steam games. No difference as well.

Just to be clear, I have close to 200 games on GOG, I'm really not some DRM apologist or anything like that. It's just that I really don't see their way to be any more 'long-term effective' than any other digital store out there.

You can back up Steam games, but not install them without connecting to Steam. That's the opposite.

That's easily remedied with a crack, which are plentiful.
Don't really see a difference with having to go to a pirate website to download a crack for a game you bought if Steam goes bye-bye vs having to go to a pirate website to download an installer for a game you bought if GOG goes bye-bye.

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

Of course you do.
You can backup the installers, sure, but you can do the same with Steam games. No difference.
If you didn't backup them, or lost your data to bitrot, you can always torrent them (provided someone was kind enough to pirate them and provided torrents are still a thing), but you can do the same with Steam games. No difference as well.

You can back up Steam games, but not install them without connecting to Steam. That's the opposite.

 

[flux1]

Nice thread. GOG is my favorite PC store and has got most of my business over the last two years.

To the comment about losing your games, as long as you keep backups of your installers you won't lose a thing. I had ISP problems for about three weeks and didn't have broadband last month. All my GOG games installed and worked just fine from my external drive during the down time.

 

[Minsc]

Of course you do.
You can backup the installers, sure, but you can do the same with Steam games. No difference.
If you didn't backup them, or lost your data to bitrot, you can always torrent them (provided someone was kind enough to pirate them and provided torrents are still a thing), but you can do the same with Steam games. No difference as well.

Just to be clear, I have close to 200 games on GOG, I'm really not some DRM apologist or anything like that. It's just that I really don't see their way to be any more 'long-term effective' than any other digital store out there.

Steam games (some/most of them) would require outside measures to run if you needed to install them on a PC without internet access or in some post-apocalyptic era without Steam, GOG games would not need any additional measures.

Edit: I'd not let that stop me from enjoying any games I wanted to play though - I'm currently very much enjoying a playthrough of the DRM-laden-uPlay Might & Magic X Legacy. Great, great game, would be right at home on GOG... uPlay doesn't add a thing to the game, in fact only hurts it.

 

[AuthenticM]

SimCity 4 was already available on other stores, doing C&C on GOG would be another matter since the older games are only in a collection on Origin. Everyone that sells the collection gives you an Origin key.

If they come to GOG, I hope it's in the form of the Command & Conquer - The First Decade compilation, and you get ~20 games/expansions for like $20, but I don't think we'd be so lucky. As long as each entry is sold with all the expansions I guess it'd be fine either way at a lower price of $5.99 or whatever.

They need to put out The First Decade on GOG. The mod community for C&C has been working on unofficial patches for the games for the past eight years; I even contributed a tiny bit. The patches correct bugs that had been left in by Westwood and even added by EA with TFD, as well as making available "lost" missions and music that had been left out of the original games because of programming typos. There's even a 720p patch for the original C&C, and apparently a new modder made some progress on hacking Red Alert's executable, making that feature a possibility for the game. The patches are available for the individual games, but one modder made an executable that install every patch for every game.

You can get them and follow their development here down below.

Command & Patch via CNCNZ
CNC Communications Center

 

[Persona7]

Of course you do.
You can backup the installers, sure, but you can do the same with Steam games. No difference.
If you didn't backup them, or lost your data to bitrot, you can always torrent them (provided someone was kind enough to pirate them and provided torrents are still a thing), but you can do the same with Steam games. No difference as well.

I've tried backing up my steam games and most of them flat out do not work when I tried moving them to a different computer. Sometimes you can just copy the folder but other times I think they create registry hooks so the only way you can fix that is by installing steam, signing in and downloading it again.

 

[hlhbk]

I've tried backing up my steam games and most of them flat out do not work when I tried moving them to a different computer. Sometimes you can just copy the folder but other times I think they create registry hooks so the only way you can fix that is by installing steam, signing in and downloading it again.

Incorrect. You can copy the folders and be 100% fine on another computer.

 

[AuthenticM]

Incorrect. You can copy the folders and be 100% fine on another computer.

For some games. Not all games work like that.

 

[Tizoc]

Monthly threads now? No biggy, but man does this new thread smell fresh and awesome~

 

[AuthenticM]

Monthly threads now? No biggy, but man does this new thread smell fresh and awesome~

I don't think the threads are monthly. At least, I hope not; that would not be productive. I think the June 2014 simply refers to the creation date of the thread.

 

[Minsc]

Incorrect. You can copy the folders and be 100% fine on another computer.

A large number of games (even DRM-free ones) require registry hooks to be installed, and that isn't done automatically when you copy folders. They might start fine, but you'll run in to errors down the road when playing. Some games do not, and can be copied / backed up just by archiving/moving the game folder, but that is not true by-in-large, imo, to any great degree.

I don't think the threads are monthly. At least, I hope not; that would not be productive. I think the June 2014 simply refers to the creation date of the thread.

We are going to monthly threads (or something like it if monthly doesn't work, but I'm optimistic it will be nice). All the digital service threads (Steam, PSN, iOS, etc) use a monthly format, except for the very, very obscure ones that don't see 50 posts a month.

 

[terrisus]

Thank you very much for doing this, Minsc.

GoG DRM-free is the best.

 

[draetenth]

A large number of games (even DRM-free ones) require registry hooks to be installed, and that isn't done automatically when you copy folders. They might start fine, but you'll run in to errors down the road when playing. Some games do not, and can be copied / backed up just by archiving/moving the game folder, but that is not true by-in-large, imo, to any great degree.



We are going to monthly threads (or something like it if monthly doesn't work, but I'm optimistic it will be nice). All the digital service threads (Steam, PSN, iOS, etc) use a monthly format, except for the very, very obscure ones that don't see 50 posts a month.

Is the steam thread really monthly? It seems to fill up so quickly...

 

[Nzyme32]

Very nice thread. I often lose touch with GoG news, so hopefully I will be able to keep up to date here

 

[charlequin]

Don't really see a difference with having to go to a pirate website to download a crack for a game you bought if Steam goes bye-bye vs having to go to a pirate website to download an installer for a game you bought if GOG goes bye-bye.

It's a little absurd to compare the worst-case scenario for GOG (you bought games and didn't back them up, and you have to go out and pirate them to play them again) to the best-case scenario for Steam (you have to go pirate and crack any Steam game to play it after the service goes down), and even so GOG comes out better since you can just find someone who does have an archived GOG installer and use that, no sketchy cracks required.

I'm perfectly willing to use Steam and accept the tradeoffs that entails, but I'm not under any illusions about how much better GOG's approach is.

Is the steam thread really monthly? It seems to fill up so quickly...

They get refreshed at one month or 20,000 posts, whichever comes first.

 

[randomkid]

Subscribin', I really gotta get to the Last Express one of these days, and all those other games they gave me for free.

Also, soundtracks and manuals~

 

[Dragoon En Regalia]

I'm surprised at how much is shared between the GOG and Steam releases of Another World. DRM aside, the Steam app comes with the original Amiga ROMs and artwork in addition to the video, soundtracks, and documents.

 

[Zero-Crescent]

Picked up Sid Meier's Covert Action today. I've only played one case so far, but it's been pretty neat, sort of like a combination of Pirates! and Carmen Sandiego.

 

[Persona7]

Picked up Sid Meier's Covert Action today. I've only played one case so far, but it's been pretty neat, sort of like a combination of Pirates! and Carmen Sandiego.

It really is a strange game. I need to play some more.

 

[Knurek]

I'm surprised at how much is shared between the GOG and Steam releases of Another World. DRM aside, the Steam app comes with the original Amiga ROMs and artwork in addition to the video, soundtracks, and documents.

Speaking of Amiga... I wonder how long before GOG adds Amiga releases.
Would love to have the definitive versions of Cannon Fodder/Alien Breed/Pinball games, not to mention all those exclusive games (DICE's Benefactor, Arabian Nights, Brian the Lion, Ruff 'n' Tumble, Valhalla adventure games, The Speris Legacy).

I'm perfectly willing to use Steam and accept the tradeoffs that entails, but I'm not under any illusions about how much better GOG's approach is.

I only wanted to dispute the claim that GOG's approach is a better long-term solution. Although, I'm not sure what a really good long-term solution would be, Internet Archive? That's bound to go down sometime in the future as well...

 

[Dragoon En Regalia]

This is why I'm considering digital storage as a career option: there's still a lot to be learned and plenty of precautions to take for the future.

Amiga games and Japanese PC games aside, I still can't believe the 'ol Speccy hasn't made its way onto GOG yet. British gamers are getting left out if there ain't any Stamper Brothers games like Head Over Heels, not to forget early Codemasters!

 

[mclem]

This is why I'm considering digital storage as a career option: there's still a lot to be learned and plenty of precautions to take for the future.

Amiga games and Japanese PC games aside, I still can't believe the 'ol Speccy hasn't made its way onto GOG yet. British gamers are getting left out if there ain't any Stamper Brothers games like Head Over Heels, not to forget early Codemasters!

Head Over Heels isn't the Stampers, it's Ritman & Drummond. (And, for that matter, Ritman has given permisson for the game to be distributed)

One slight awkwardness on the Spectrum side is that so much content has been legitimately released by the owners. Ultimate and Codies are notable exceptions, which is likely to be a reason you've picked them out (and it's an excellent point), but it does mean that the pool for potential releases is actually quite shallow.

 

[mclem]

Release: The Labyrinth Of Time ($5.99)

I note the phrasing of GOG's involvement in Thursday's conference is a little odd:

GOG.com unveils a new project

That doesn't sound like a release, as such, so I'm curious what else they could offer. Non-native platform support via officially-licensed emulators? Kickstarters for particularly troublesome licenses? Letter-writing campaign to Disney? Goat sacrifices?