GOG Launches Preservation Program with Wing Commander Discounts (November 13, 2024)

[ChrisReid]

It's been thirteen years since GOG.com started selling Wing Commander games. Over the years, they've added the entire primary DOS/Windows catalog, but some of the packages are starting to show their age. The last WC game to be added was Armada in November 2013, and there hasn't been a whole lot of tweaking since. A few critical bugs were fixed here and there, but as hardware and operating systems change, glitches have started to arise. And that doesn't even count the occasional bug that's been around since the games were first listed!

To help combat this, the service announced a new effort today to shore up some of their top titles. There are 100 games in the initial rollout, including Privateer and Wing Commander 3. Both have gotten a handful of updates to ensure they continue to run on modern systems. And both are 50% off to celebrate! We hope to see many more improvements added and more WC games added to the program in the future, but this is a nice start!






Thanks to DesolationStone for the initial tip!

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Original update published on November 13, 2024

 

[Worf]

With this, will GoG finally fix WC IV?

 

[Pedro]

With this, will GoG finally fix WC IV?

My ultrawide patch for wciv gog is sitting around on the forums somewhere if they want to add it

 

[Bandit LOAF]

"GOG reads their own forums where users have been doing this for free for 15 years"

 

[Dyret]

"GOG reads their own forums where users have been doing this for free for 15 years"

Yeah, GOG hasn't really lived up to their name for a while. I would always buy older games on GOG because I knew they'd work, but these days they are as likely to be broken as those released on Steam.

 

[wcnut]

Emulation and compatibility software are always in a state of motion. You were always better using GOG to get the main game files and setting it up yourself. I haven't used base dosbox in over a decade. Also, I don't view an issue with ancient dosbox as a broken game. Setting things up has been the nature of PC gaming since the very beginning.

 

[Dyret]

Also, I don't view an issue with ancient dosbox as a broken game.

Other people might though, depending on how playable the packaged product they're actually making you pay for is.

Personally I wasn't talking about dosbox specifically (though I've had my experiences there as well), but more about how things like Deadlock II would shit itself on launch for years, making it *literally* broken. I agree fiddling around with dumb shit will always be part of PC gaming, but it's also nice when storefronts take some responsibility for what they're selling. Steam is a lost cause in that regard, especially when it comes to older titles, but GOG was a lot better until it wasn't. If they're tightening things up again I'm not complaining.

 

[Worf]

The primary goal of GoG is to sell DRM-free games. In the beginning, that was basically a lot of older games because that's all rights holders would give up - if they could make a few extra bucks selling a 20 year old game, bonus, who cares if it's got DRM or not. But these days, a lot of newer games are on GoG because the publisher no longer cares enough to have DRM on it.

Also means if GoG goes away, if you download all your games, you can play them forever.

As for older games, they're gong to be in flux a lot - especially as ways of emulating them change constantly. We've gotten to the point where DOXBox has competition in the form of 86Box and others which don't just emulate the environment, but emulate everything.

 

[Dyret]

Ah, yeah, I'd forgotten about the anti-drm gimmick of theirs.

We've gotten to the point where DOXBox has competition in the form of 86Box and others which don't just emulate the environment, but emulate everything.

Huh, interesting. I was planning to replay some of my childhood games, might give it a whirl.

 

[Worf]

Not really a gimmick. The other stores could blink out of existence and there goes all your games with it. Or a store could just remove a game from your library - Sony has already removed purchased products from people's libraries, as has Steam.

And that isn't even including people who lost everything when their account gets banned - of which every store has stories, from Apple, Google, Steam, Xbox and Playstation.

With GoG you can download those offline installers and even if you get banned, you still have your games.

And for newer games, removing DRM can often improve performance. Or you get the GoG version and don't worry about it.