Using GOG games on vintage computers

[eightbit]

Probably not something that most people already do not know about, but apparently many of the GOG game releases can be used on vintage computers with some minor tweaks. I have always loved GOG for the fact that you "own" the purchased game so I have been buying games from them for years.

 

Over the weekend I figured I would try to get some games running on my recent PII build with a 3DFX card...and I had excellent results. 

 

Since a lot of the GOG titles I have cannot simply be extracted (that is I just cannot extract the .exe using 7zip) I figured I would simply install them on my Win10 machine and then copy the installed game folder to my PII rig.

 

I did that first with MDK. All I had to do is rename the "mdk3dfx.exe" file to "mdk.exe" and copy the glide dll files to the root directory. Bingo..works perfectly!

 

Next I copied the install folder for Quake 2 to the vintage PC. I didn't even have to do anything at all. That just worked.

 

 

Pretty cool to get these games to the ol' P2 build and have them just work with no need for a CD rom and so on. I'll be messing with other GOG titles to see what else I can get working over time. I really am not too surprised since they are the old games anyway, but still cool regardless.

 

[wierd_w]

Any of their games that wrap DosBox would work, I feel.

 

For instance, Anvil of Dawn wraps DosBox. Just copy the folder over. Done.

Edited July 17, 2022 by wierd_w

[eightbit]

Just now, wierd_w said:

Any of their games that wrap DosBox would work, I feel.

 

I would expect so. I liked the fact that at least with Quake II I can just launch and play without the CD. I have the retail disc, but it needs to be in the drive to actually play the game. I know there are probably updates (or no-cd patches) out there that can eliminate that burden, or I can rip to ISO and mount it with virtual clone drive or daemon tools....but the GOG version certainly made it easy. I wonder what other games will just work. GOG games could be a great resource for playing these old titles on vintage computer builds conveniently. 

 

 

[82-T/A]

The nice thing too is that they've already done the work of trying to find, acquire, and even patch themselves in some cases... the most updated versions of all of these games. Back in the day, a lot of these games, the only way to get the latest or updated version, was to download it from a BBS. And almost no one knew how to do that, so I basically had whatever was on the floppy disk when you bought the game. GOG is my favorite. I have like 10 games on Steam... but 312 on GoG!!! Haha...

 

[eightbit]

On 7/17/2022 at 9:21 PM, 82-T/A said:

The nice thing too is that they've already done the work of trying to find, acquire, and even patch themselves in some cases... the most updated versions of all of these games. Back in the day, a lot of these games, the only way to get the latest or updated version, was to download it from a BBS. And almost no one knew how to do that, so I basically had whatever was on the floppy disk when you bought the game. GOG is my favorite. I have like 10 games on Steam... but 312 on GoG!!! Haha...

 

 

Agreed. I prefer also to "keep" my games. I haven't purchased a game on Steam in years. Being able to download offline installers of all of my games (and for various OSes in many cases) is fantastic.

 

 

[82-T/A]

4 hours ago, eightbit said:

Agreed. I prefer also to "keep" my games. I haven't purchased a game on Steam in years. Being able to download offline installers of all of my games (and for various OSes in many cases) is fantastic.

 

True! I'd actually forgotten about doing that. I had started downloading all of my games and putting them on a storage server, but incidentally, GoG is always updating them. I have a NAS that I used to run, but haven't had it running since I moved. I think I need to get it set up and download all the games again. You just never know...

[Keatah]

7 hours ago, eightbit said:

Agreed. I prefer also to "keep" my games. I haven't purchased a game on Steam in years. Being able to download offline installers of all of my games (and for various OSes in many cases) is fantastic.

I don't care what anybody says, but keeping the games you paid for is HUGE. And say you have 50 games, all you have to do is pay $1.00 extra per-game to afford that big badass HDD to hold them all. And then some.

 

GoG is good!

[eightbit]

1 hour ago, Keatah said:

I don't care what anybody says, but keeping the games you paid for is HUGE. And say you have 50 games, all you have to do is pay $1.00 extra per-game to afford that big badass HDD to hold them all. And then some.

 

GoG is good!

 

I hear that loud and clear. I purchased a bunch of PS3 games on the online store years ago (oh my beloved Super Stardust HD...how I miss thee) and while I do not have a PS3 nowadays I was planning on picking one up soon and downloading my purchases. Apparently I am too late as the store closed shop on 7/2 from what I am reading.

 

I logged into my account and I do not see any of the games there....argh.

 

Super Stardust HD and Toy Home were the two I am really going to miss. My wife loved the latter and I was addicted to SSHD. I know there is an alternate version available for PS4...but not the same to me.

 

Steam is no different. They remove games and then...well...that's it. Unless you have them already downloaded. And, even then, you have to be logged in...or log in and put yourself in offline mode IIRC. One day you won't even be able to do that I am sure.

 

 

[82-T/A]

9 hours ago, eightbit said:

Steam is no different. They remove games and then...well...that's it. Unless you have them already downloaded. And, even then, you have to be logged in...or log in and put yourself in offline mode IIRC. One day you won't even be able to do that I am sure.

 

Exactly...

[+OLD CS1]

15 hours ago, eightbit said:

Steam is no different. They remove games and then...well...that's it. Unless you have them already downloaded. And, even then, you have to be logged in...or log in and put yourself in offline mode IIRC. One day you won't even be able to do that I am sure.

 

+1 bajillion

 

I am a huge proponent for owning physical copies, and games or utilities which do not require on-line authorization to use.  My Plex server currently hosts almost 3,100 movies and 280 TV shows, all of which I own in some form, most of which are physical media.

[Reaperman]

I find the gog win9x and xp era games tend to just work just great. No swapping discs, no copy protection--so they're often better than original releases(!). The only way it would be better is if gog galaxy supported win32. 

 

I've never tried fishing files out of one of their dosbox setups, though--seems like a hassle.

On a side note, their dosbox builds have always smelled a little lazy in terms of configuration.

So my opinion of that GOG-gaming era contrasts greatly with my win9x experience.

Edited July 21, 2022 by Reaperman

[Tanooki]

GoG here too, if I know a game is coming, even 6-12mo out, it can wait for them over Steam (and *F* epic, origin, etc.)  Steam is the last resort, but if you watch, a number of games can be run offline and off their stupid loader too if you dig out where they're hiding so that's something even if not advertised as lots of sites will point out how to do it and where to look.

 

I'm like that with other stuff.  I've got a drawer full of CDs, MP3d the lot, stuffed a copy on my PC, backup drive, and then put them into the storage on my phone eating up like 5GB of space so I can use it in my car...no way I'm buying music for 99+ cents a piece when I can go to half price books, garage sales, etc and pay like dollar here 5 dollars there for the whole set.

Into more costly stuff, we have our games too, some manuals, sure roms and PDFs are handy kind of, but not the same, and not as handy as a real cart with reliable hardware and a real book you can easily thumb through (so says the 85-90 Nintendo Powers and fun clubs(3) I have.)

[Keatah]

It's not only the principle behind everything.. keeping what you purchased.. But the nostalgic factor is important (to me).

 

I really really hated the industry for a while when they started getting rid of games in the arcades. I'm like I developed this skill set, you see, and all of a sudden it's useless. You took away my livelihood! The games are gone. GaG me!