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Baldur's Gate and Planescape: Torment at GOG.com for $10, More to Come?

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout' started by RC Cola, Sep 28, 2010.

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  1. RC Cola

    RC Cola Member

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    Not sure how many of you guys know about Good Old Games (GOG for short). It is a downloadable service, a bit similar to Steam. Unlike Steam, they seem to specialize in older games (hence the name), and their games are DRM-free. They also offer some other nice things (artwork, manuals, etc.), but that's probably their main selling points. A bit more about the service from Wikipedia:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Old_Games

    Recently, they relaunched their website (with a horrible marketing gimmick by the way), which was previously in a "beta" stage. This relaunch included the announcement of the original Baldur's Gate for $10 (plus lots of "goodies"). They then hinted that much more would be on the way. Seems like they were right. Today, they added Planescape Torment to their library. And I'm guessing it won't stop there.

    Anyway, just wanted to give a heads up to other PC gamers that, for one reason or another, wanted to play these games. It has been pretty difficult to find them, and even then, the games might not perform all to well on modern operating systems (I think GOG does a bit of work to make sure these games work on Win7...though I might be wrong). And good luck finding them for under $10, complete with the manual. Or even under $50, especially Planescape Torment for a time. I already got Planescape Torment and the Baldur's Gate games recently, but if I hadn't, I'd definitely jump on these deals. I'm interested to see what else they might have snagged. Already off to a great start. Never imagined Planescape Torment being available on a downloadable service.

    Oh yeah, the site:
    http://www.gog.com
     
    #1 RC Cola, Sep 28, 2010
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  2. Jontro

    Jontro Member

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    So they didn't really make anything new? Baldur's Gate was epic back then, but I still have my old CD's.

    Don't think it's worth paying 10 bucks for it now. Make something new and people will happily pay 50 for it.
     
    #2 Jontro, Sep 28, 2010
  3. iconoclastic

    iconoclastic Member

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    Let's just say that I can get all those games for free online, including the manual and artwork....
     
    #3 iconoclastic, Sep 28, 2010
  4. Phreak3

    Phreak3 Member

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    Retro gamers only want to play old games that they have fond memories of. If the game is 10 years old or less, then most people would probably still have the CDs somewhere in their house and would have no reason to buy something from the site.

    If the game is really, really old and a retro gamer doesn't have the game anymore, there is a good chance the game has been abandoned and is now abandonware. Most all abandonware is legally free and on the web somewhere. (i.e., www.abandonia.com).

    So, i'm not sure if their business model is going to work.
     
    #4 Phreak3, Sep 28, 2010
  5. lost_elephant

    lost_elephant Member

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    I've purchased multiple games from gog before. My dad's Lord of the Realm and Master of Orion cds (circa 1993) wouldn't work on his newer computer.
     
    #5 lost_elephant, Sep 28, 2010
  6. Acedude

    Acedude Member

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    #6 Acedude, Sep 28, 2010
  7. RC Cola

    RC Cola Member

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    Making something new would kind of defeat the purpose of Good Old Games. In fact, I think it is strange that they have games from...2006ish or so.

    This is definitely aimed at people who don't already own these games. Which in that case, the asking price is definitely more than fair. For example:
    http://www.amazon.com/Planescape-To...r_1_1?s=gateway&ie=UTF8&qid=1285727130&sr=8-1
    ~$45 new, or $25 used. Or $10 at GOG, and you get a lot more with your purchase.

    And to be honest, I think I'd rather rebuy Baldur's Gate at $10 than pay $50 for Dynasty Warriors...I mean Dragon Age 2.


    Awesome, now I know who to thank for why these games have taken so long to come out on digital services, why their publishers push for restrictive DRM, and why the IPs are more or less dead.

    Thanks!


    Probably depends on the gamer. I probably have kept most of my games from the last 10 years or so, but not everyone would. Either gets lost as people move, sold when people need the money (or want to quit gaming...*shudder*), or maybe they just don't work on newer PCs (maybe something like lost_elephant mentioned).


    I think it is only a good chance of being abandonware if you just pick some random old game. If you start looking at some of the higher-quality, better selling games, especially those that led to newer games, I think the majority of them are probably NOT available as abandonware. This includes the games mentioned here already, and I could name a few more off the top of my head (Gabriel Knight, King's Quest, Space Quest, Duke Nukem 3D, Raptor, Fallout 1+2, The Longest Journey, etc.). All relatively old (10+ yrs I think), but good luck finding a way to download them legally for free. Up until recently, good luck finding them period, especially at a reasonable price.

    If you said that a couple years ago, when this service was just starting out, I'd probably agree.

    At this point, all signs seem to indicate that this is a very successful business model. If this business wasn't successful, Planescape Torment would still be some rare game you'd have to pay $50+ to play.

    (When they took down the site, I assumed GOG was doing poorly. Something strange seemed to be going on at CDProjekt, but I'm assuming now that GOG has been a success for them).
     
    #7 RC Cola, Sep 28, 2010
  8. HI Mana

    HI Mana Member

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    RC, Repped.

    $10 is stupid cheap; that's way below my "impulse buy" threshold, and just to guarantee compatibility and to compress 5 CDs (that are over 10 years old, and definitely have suffered some wear and tear) into a digital downloadable package is almost worth the price of admission, even if it weren't tied to one of the greatest games of all time, from an era where it was ok to publish a SINGLE-PLAYER game that wasn't gong to be a million dollar franchise, and developing games was a labor of love (thanks Bobby KoDick). Nowadays, even Bioware doesn't have enough muscle to prevent Mass Effect 3 from devoting far too much development time to crafting a multiplayer engine, so it can be a bad Gears of War clone, while Dragon Age 2, the spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate 2, one of the most tactical RPGs I've ever enjoyed, dies an ignoble death as a mass-produced, generic fantasy hack-and-slash.

    For the poster mentioning pirating, one of the reasons legitimate gamers might have to repurchase old games is because of jackasses like you who force publishers to put restrictive DRM on games; some early DRM systems from companies that are out of business now make their games unplayable.

    Now if only we could get Grim Fandango...
     
    #8 HI Mana, Sep 29, 2010
  9. saitou

    saitou J Only Fan

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    I would love a graphics update to planescape torment. Playing it today hurts my eyes...
     
    #9 saitou, Sep 29, 2010
  10. RC Cola

    RC Cola Member

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    There are a few mods/patches for widescreen support and things like that. I'm not sure if it is included in the GOG version (probably not). I actually strongly recommend checking out some mods since they fix a lot of issues with the game (as great as it was, it was buggy).

    Here's a guide to help with that:
    http://thunderpeel2001.blogspot.com/2009/01/planescape-torment-fully-modded.html
    Not sure if anything will have to be different for the GOG version, but if so, I'm guessing there might be some guides about it soon.
     
    #10 RC Cola, Sep 29, 2010
  11. Franchise3

    Franchise3 Member

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    Compatibility.

    Try running some older games on Windows 7. A lot of them are a pain in the ass to configure so that they run correctly, or they just don't work at all. I'm pretty sure all the games on GOG are tweaked so that they seamlessly install and run on modern operating systems.
     
    #11 Franchise3, Sep 29, 2010
  12. Dr of Dunk

    Dr of Dunk Clutch Crew

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    TA was the forerunner to Supreme Commander. I remember playing it when it came out years ago and how far ahead of its time it was. It's one of my favorite games ever. That being said, it's one big tank rush more than the strategy game that Starcraft is.
     
    #12 Dr of Dunk, Sep 29, 2010
    Last edited: Sep 29, 2010
  13. Acedude

    Acedude Member

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    Still remember when I first played the demo that came with a PC Gamer demo CD, and I still got the original Commander Pack CDs :grin:

    I agree it's less of a paper-rock-scissors game than SC, but it still had many strategy elements in it, from radars/radar jammers, to anti-air or ground plasma/laser cannons, to utilizing choke points and the 3d terrain. The vast number of different units it had was just overwhelming: ground units, vehicles, ships, subs, carriers, stealth planes, bombers, torpedo launchers... and this is not including hundreds of 3rd-party custom units fans created. On top of that, the quasi-3d graphics were ahead of its time and music soundtrack is just amazing. The game was special.

    Was never a huge fan of SupCom though, maybe because I had way too much expectations for it after all those years.
     
    #13 Acedude, Sep 29, 2010
  14. Xerobull

    Xerobull ...and I'm all out of bubblegum
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    GOG is a great site. You can get Heroes of Might and Magic 3 there for cheap.
     
    #14 Xerobull, Sep 29, 2010
  15. professorjay

    professorjay Member

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    I occasionally go through an old school gaming kick like right now. I just got Scumm to run old adventure games like Monkey Island.

    I understand the Windows 7 compatibility problem. I couldn't get Commandos 3 or Deus Ex to run at all (even in compatibility mode). I'm considering installing a Windows XP VM just to run them. I'm also looking to get the Wing Commander series going again (DD alert). Ironic that you have to strain your computer to run it so it doesn't go to fast.

    As an aside, mentioning or bragging that you can get intellectual property online for free isn't some brilliant revelation.
     
    #15 professorjay, Sep 29, 2010
  16. saitou

    saitou J Only Fan

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    Wow thanks! That widescreen mod looks perfect!
     
    #16 saitou, Sep 29, 2010
  17. Xerobull

    Xerobull ...and I'm all out of bubblegum
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    Hells naw!!! You should check this out. It's gong to be a hit!

    <object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/qItugh-fFgg?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/qItugh-fFgg?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>
     
    #17 Xerobull, Sep 29, 2010
  18. SuperVon

    SuperVon Member

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    I thought GOG closed the website? All of a sudden their up and running again, what's up with that?
     
    #18 SuperVon, Sep 30, 2010
  19. RC Cola

    RC Cola Member

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    That was part of their marketing gimmick for this relaunch.

    "Let's act like we're closing down our site, and no one will be able to buy/download any of their games. Then, later in the week, we can go 'PSYCHE!' and relaunch the site with all the great new stuff we have planned."

    I do suspect that there might have been something more going on behind the scenes (there was some weird stuff happening around this time with their parent company, stocks, etc.), but I'm going to assume that was just a coincidence.

    Though on the other hand, it did get a lot of people talking about GOG...so maybe it did work.
     
    #19 RC Cola, Sep 30, 2010
  20. RC Cola

    RC Cola Member

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    A little bit late to this, but the next "mystery" game is:

    http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/icewind_dale_complete
    Icewind Dale.

    Never played it or even knew much about it (mostly focused on PST and BG), but I think I'll check this one out. Does sound pretty awesome, plus the usual GOG bonuses sound great.

    Anyone here play it before? Or the sequel (guessing it will be added eventually as well)?
     
    #20 RC Cola, Oct 7, 2010
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