
How GOG.com Saves and Restores Classic Videogames - danso
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/09/16/how-gog-com-save-and-restore-classic-videogames/
======
impostervt
I used GOG to buy the original Master of Orion. Randomly throughout the game,
to stop piracy, a screen will pop up and ask you to identify the name of a
ship. Back when the game was release, the instruction booklet was the only
place to get this information. If you clicked the wrong ship name, the game
would exit.

In the GOG version, you can click on any ship and the game will continue. I
was very impressed that they kept that small detail while providing an easy
way around it. It really brought be back to the early 90's, playing the game
round-robin with my father.

Frighteningly, since I hadn't played the game in 20+ years, I realized I still
actually remembered some of those ship names.

~~~
toxican
I love old attempts at stopping piracy (I assume that's what that was?). I was
setting up Warcraft in DOSBOX a few years ago and had a laugh when it asked
for the nth word on the nth page in the instruction manual. Fortunately the
internet provides, but that's a pretty clever attempt that I could see causing
issues for pirates back in the day.

~~~
rstupek
Some of them were actually pretty elaborate. There were manuals which were
printed in specific colors so that you couldn't photocopy them to give to a
friend

~~~
erickhill
My favorite was Electronic Arts' code-wheel, where you had to rotate three
paper circles on a central axis to discover the needed codes based on three
random words that sound sort of like something from the game world.

One of my friends hand copied the wheel for me for a particular game to help
me play a copy. It wasn't a very good transcription...
[http://www.intric8.com/files/legacy.jpg](http://www.intric8.com/files/legacy.jpg)

~~~
digi_owl
Yeah, they had that on the FA-18 Interceptor simulator for Amiga as well.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RdE1L9jCic](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RdE1L9jCic)

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VonGuard
Shameless self promotion (non-profit, though) but if you're interested in game
preservation, and in particular, games that might not be worth a commercial
re-release, the Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment in Oakland is always
working to save stuff like Habitat.

We're running a Kickstarter right now, too, to move into a larger space.
[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/themade/the-museum-
of-a...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/themade/the-museum-of-art-and-
digital-entertainment-20)

~~~
networked
Impressive! I never thought I would see a project to restore Habitat. It is
also great to hear you got Randy Farmer and Chip Morningstar on board.

For those of you who don't know, Habitat was the very first graphical MMO game
back in in the 1980s run by the predecessor to AOL. The developers' and
moderators' ("oracles'") experience was really interesting for me to read
about. They've documented a real-time online virtual world with avatars and
its own economy that predates the Eternal September, IRC and the Web. I posted
some links in an old comment:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6390038](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6390038).

------
shmerl
Great article. I like how they view restoring old games as a form of
archaeology and detective work.

I buy my games on GOG to support them, since they practically single handedly
pushing DRM-free distribution forward. They are working to convince even
historically DRM heavy publishers to release their games without DRM.

It's a pity they so far failed to push DRM-free video forward[1] because of
backwards thinking publishers. May be the upcoming Witcher film from Platige
Image will appear on GOG, since they might have easier time talking to Polish
filmmakers about DRM-free release.

[1].
[https://www.gog.com/forum/general/introducing_gogcom_drmfree...](https://www.gog.com/forum/general/introducing_gogcom_drmfree_movies/post499)

~~~
thristian
_> since they might have easier time talking to Polish filmmakers about DRM-
free release_

Also because they've been publishing The Witcher games DRM-free for a while
now, and probably have some good stats on how responsibly the Witcher fanbase
deals with DRM-free releases.

~~~
shmerl
Yeah, Witcher games are a great example, but I'm sure they have a lot of stats
for different games sold on GOG, and that's one of the ways they combat this
DRM stupidity. I.e. they come to publishers, show them charts and say that
they simply lose sales by not releasing their games on GOG DRM-free. It works,
though not rapidly.

With video, the MPAA/DRM corruption is so strong and sick, that publishers are
just scared to move away from the status quo even when they admit that it's
stupid. Someone will have to really break that wall to move things forward.

------
lotharbot
One thing that disappoints me about GOG is that, for many older video games,
they use a DOSBOX version instead of a modern source port.

For example, if you pick up Descent 1&2 [0] you get it in all its 320x200
glory, complete with multiplayer that requires you to enable IPX in DOSBOX,
extremely limited controller support, weird framerate issues, and assorted
other glitches.

But the modern community has rehabilitated the 20-year-old game [1]. The
internal game physics are the same (the ship and the weapons behave like the
original) but you get access to higher resolution, better controller support,
a multiplayer game tracker, and lots of other metagame improvements (including
new modes for team play.) It's a better experience all around, and GOG could
easily add a source port without any legal complication whatsoever.

[0]
[http://www.gog.com/game/descent_1_descent_2](http://www.gog.com/game/descent_1_descent_2)

[1]
[http://descentchampions.org/new_player.php](http://descentchampions.org/new_player.php)
\-- install instructions

~~~
binarycrusader
Actually, that's trickier than it sounds. The original licenses for the
Descent/Freespace source releases prohibit commercial use from what I recall.

Unwinding that licensing mess so that they could use it is likely not worth
the return on investment.

~~~
lotharbot
They've already tracked down the original license holders/issuers in order to
release the software in the first place. It seems to me like it would be
orders of magnitude less work to contact a source port author and get all
parties to agree to a simple modified license that would allow for source
modifications to be included in the bundle.

(The original Parallax license for Descent, as well as the Rebirth
modification to it, can be found at [https://github.com/CDarrow/DXX-
Retro/blob/master/COPYING.txt](https://github.com/CDarrow/DXX-
Retro/blob/master/COPYING.txt) . I'm not sure it would even need to be
modified -- it prohibits "end users" from using it for revenue-generating
purposes, but doesn't prohibit the original rights holders from bundling that
end-user code with the original software.)

------
danso
Even though there's the open-source (but somewhat stalled) Exult project, I'm
almost interested in buying their copy of Ultima 7
([http://www.gog.com/game/ultima_7_complete](http://www.gog.com/game/ultima_7_complete)),
if there was some documentation on how the fuck they reverse engineered that
mess. The game was so memory intensive that our computer barely met the
requirements...and even then, it required its own "Voodoo" memory manager [1]
which took a long time of tweaking INI files and learning what XMS/EMS memory
were...I used to attribute my interest in computer programming to video games
-- as in, wanting to make video games. But I think it's more accurate to say
that clumsily screwing around with the details of my computer's boot process
just to get Ultima VII to work made me much more inclined to try to tweak/hack
every thing about a computer.

[1]
[http://wiki.ultimacodex.com/wiki/Voodoo_Memory_Manager](http://wiki.ultimacodex.com/wiki/Voodoo_Memory_Manager)

~~~
thristian
At the bottom right of the page you linked, the game is included in a "GOGmix"
named "GOG games using DOSbox", so I'd assume it's the DOSbox emulator being
clever, rather than GOG's reverse-engineering skills.

For example, DOSbox emulates the DOS API directly, rather than running a real
copy of DOS and emulating the hardware. That means that DOSbox's DOS doesn't
actually take up any space in the emulated machine, leaving vastly more of the
magic 640KB available for applications to use without having to mess around
with memory-managers.

------
LordKano
I have grown quite fond of GoG.

In the past year, I have spent more money on games at that site than I have at
any brick and mortar or online seller.

~~~
bduerst
Same - the Galaxy client just seems much more clean than Steam's. Even though
they serve different markets, I feel like Steam has gone for a wider,
shallower offering by including so much Early Access inventory.

It would be amazing if GoG Galaxy had linux support though.

~~~
shmerl
You can vote for these items:

* [https://www.gog.com/wishlist/galaxy/open_source_the_galaxy_c...](https://www.gog.com/wishlist/galaxy/open_source_the_galaxy_client)

* [https://www.gog.com/wishlist/galaxy/publish_galaxy_protocol_...](https://www.gog.com/wishlist/galaxy/publish_galaxy_protocol_specification)

* [https://www.gog.com/wishlist/site/document_the_protocol_and_...](https://www.gog.com/wishlist/site/document_the_protocol_and_api_of_the_galaxy_updater_client_to_enable_community_alternatives)

------
PythonicAlpha
There are many old games, that are still unsurpassed, since today's games
often just care about better and better graphic effects, but fall short of
story or game-mechanics. I greatly admire games, that cope to bring much fun
with rather simple means (and not necessary with graphic effects).

Gog makes many of such "Good old Games" available again. That is great!

------
apineda
Hmm... Maybe this is why Kings Quest 6 had some puzzles integrated with their
printed manuals. Just a neat way to stop piracy!

~~~
sandmansandine
One of my favorite early DRMs was for Indiana Jones (Temple of Doom, I think)
which came with Dr. Jones' Diary. Some of the puzzles required looking up old
journal entries and figuring out what was written in order to put the statues
in the right order (or whatever the puzzle was) was a lot of fun as a little
kid.

I got a copy later on and got a PDF of the diary just to play it again, it was
a lot of fun.

~~~
rosege
pretty sure that is the grail diary from the last crusade

------
ccanassa
I wish more GOG games were made available for Linux and OSX. I really don't
understand the reasoning behind this decision since DOSBox is already cross-
platform.

------
bennyp101
GOG got me playing Sam and Max hit the road again! I dont know why, but I love
that game ! Pick the costume from the book to play lol

------
pdknsk
I will be downvoted for this, but I have become wary of GOG after I learned
that they're incorporated in Cyprus for the sole purpose of tax _avoidance_.
Someone will mention Amazon (Luxembourg), Google (Ireland) and other companies
now, but those are corporate behemoths from which you don't expect otherwise.

~~~
asiekierka
Have you looked into Polish tax laws?

~~~
VonGuard
Yeah, they're Polish. It's like being founded in Delaware as an American
company.

~~~
iso8859-1
Are you referring to this?:

"Delaware charges no income tax on corporations not operating within the
state, so taking advantage of Delaware's other benefits does not result in
taxation."

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delaware_General_Corporation_L...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delaware_General_Corporation_Law#Tax_benefits_and_burdens)

~~~
gknoy
Many companies are founded as Delaware at least partly because of the legal
framework and case law precedence that that state has for governing corporate
bodies. Or, that's what I gleaned from an article a while back about how stock
and options and things actually get transferred around.

------
Mithaldu
Sadly their efforts are limited. They also sell this game:

[https://www.gog.com/game/hostile_waters_antaeus_rising](https://www.gog.com/game/hostile_waters_antaeus_rising)

It's a great game, glowing reviews, should be a sure buy, right?

What the reviews don't point out, and no part there warns about is that the
game is quite buggy and slowly deteriorates in performance the longer you
play, such that play sessions above 30 minutes are virtually impossible.
Contacting tech supports only results in the usual "have you reinstalled your
graphics drivers? tough luck."

Their efforts are laudable, but when they don't pay off, they're not above
being a little less than earnest.

~~~
Raphmedia
They do offer "MONEY BACK GUARANTEE. 30 days coverage after purchase."

30 days is a lot for video games.

~~~
blibble
it's also a lie, I tried getting my money back via the GUARANTEE after less
than an hour (because the game wouldn't work), and they essentially refused.

needless to say, I instructed my card company to issue a chargeback, and they
did...

~~~
Raphmedia
Did you have a bug at the time? You can easily get your money back if you did
not download the game already.

To get your money back on an used product, you must prove that you have game
breaking issues.

