Game preservation has focused on the limited availability of the most beloved titles in history. That’s fair enough, especially since you still can’t buy the vast majority of the previous games. But DRM-free game distributor GOG has attempted to answer the next inevitable question: How can these games be played on modern systems?
Last month, GOG introduced itself its first list of 100 games from the new “Good Old Games” preservation program. The company hasn’t used its full, unbroken name for more than a decade, but the moniker is intended to indicate titles that receive special treatment directly from the distributor. GOG says it has confirmed they can be played on modern PCs with the latest versions of Windows and graphics drivers. The tag also states that the team will continue to work on bug fixes that could prevent players from getting on board quickly and easily.
“We realized very quickly that we’re only partially participating in preservation efforts by releasing games,” GOG’s head of business development, Bartosz Kwietniewski, said in a video interview with Gizmodo. “You have to make sure the games are playable, that they’re compatible.”
Additionally, GOG offers a support service for players to contact if they are unable to get their game to work. It’s all old school, like the long-gone Nintendo Hotline. But the show isn’t so much a throwback to the past as a way for today’s gamers to discover that these older games weren’t just good for their time, they’re still good now.
The pledge essentially expands on existing preservation efforts that the GOG team has already been doing for years, but belies the hard edge of GOG’s conservationist philosophy. Earlier this week, the game’s distributor said legacy game developer Blizzard was removing both Warcraft and Warcraft II from GOG on December 13th. The games are classics and continue to sell to this day. Still, Blizzard has its own $40 Warcraft Battle Chest which contains both remastered titles. In a blog entryGOG explained that it would continue to support both games with updates even after they are no longer available on the store.
Blizzard hasn’t made an official statement about their reasoning, though anyone who buys the DRM-free version now before it’s delisted will still have access afterwards. GOG couldn’t speak on the record about the details behind Blizzard’s timing, but the central theme of the conversation revolves around preservation.
“We learned the hard way that sometimes, despite our best efforts, the decision is ultimately up to the publishers,” Kwietniewski said. “These difficult decisions, we will have to face from time to time, and we strongly believe that this program is the answer to the players’ concerns.”
The game’s distributor said it will continue to support both games in its Good Old Games program, including updates. It also points to the other problem with game preservation: digital ownership is an oxymoron. Publishers who can make money off 30 year old games will ask you to forgo modern game prices just to get a digital license for the title, not the game itself.
Which games are getting the old game treatment?
While your DVD or cassette tape will play on a modern player and an older one (barring any degradation of the physical media), games that are only 10 years old can be virtually impossible to play. Take the 2001 CRPG for example Arcanum of Steamworks and Magic Obscura. It’s one of the best RPGs you’ll ever play, and that’s partly because it’s awkward to run on modern machines. Under GOG’s “Good Old Games” program, the company now says it should be compatible with Windows 10 and Windows 11 on first install.
You can find all the changes in a list on each store’s page. For a game like the original FalloutGOG claims it confirmed Windows 11 compatibility and added cloud saves. Earlier this year, GOG took the leadership in making the spy role-playing game, albeit ingenious alpha protocol playable again after its publishers withdrew it. GOG notes that it should have its full soundtrack and achievement support and should be stable on Windows 11.
GOG management told us they did a “full quality control test” of the games on the list. While it may be the best digital release out of the box, so to speak, other issues can inevitably crop up, some of which have been there since the game’s release.
The company updated Arcanum to make it compatible with modern resolutions and set the game’s settings to run better smoothly on today’s multi-core CPUs. It’s just the first step. The game is notoriously buggy. Modders like the person named Blood tooth drug I’ve worked for years to make the game playable, but for the average gamer, just having the title launch after download can be enough to get them to play such an old RPG.
GOG plans to release more games in the Good Old Games program every month “or even more frequently.” Kwietniewski, a big fan of Heroes of Might and Magic 3 (“I’d say it’s still one of the best looking pixel art games out there”), said he wants to add every Might and Magic title to the list. The number of games included in the program may vary, but the head of business development said it will be consistent.
What does it take to make old games playable on modern systems?
For older DOS-based games, GOG is used open source emulators for these games to work. Aiming for the most authentic experience beyond plugging in a 20-year-old machine and hoping it doesn’t crash, the rest comes down to elbow grease. Kwietniewski said there are 15 staff members, including developers, technicians and more, working to release and re-release games. It’s already a relatively small company, although it’s full of people who have been actively playing since yesterday until today.
“It also takes a lot of time, first of all, to even get the rights and approval for the rights holder to release,” Kwietniewski said. “When we talk to rights holders about releasing their old games, they say we have about 50 people working on them. We’re a very small and very agile team, and right now we don’t need a big development team to continue our work “.
GOG doesn’t plan to use many mods from the community. On the one hand, it “adds to the job” as it means the team also has to maintain compatibility with the game and mods. That said, the company reached out to the community to help fix the classic point-and-click Blade Runner cutscenes.
There are some things GOG can’t do since it doesn’t have access to the source files of most games. The fixes aren’t a panacea for each game’s various problems. Take 2009 for example Dragon Age: Origins. The game has long suffered from a memory leak issue that causes it to crash, and GOG has spent years working on patches to fix it, but crashes can still occur. The company just released their latest patch for Dragon Age: Origins. It is the only professional outlet outside of Bioware to have released a patch for the game in the 15 years since its release.
What is clear is that players still care about these games. They keep selling, and when they sell for relatively cheap and the barrier to entry is so low, compatibility is the only thing standing in the way of experiencing the greats of gaming’s past.
“This will be an ongoing effort by GOG, not only adding more titles to the program, but also keeping those that have been in the program and unfortunately removed,” Kwietniewski said. “I’m crossing my fingers that there won’t be that many, but that’s why this show exists in the first place because we can’t predict the future.”
