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From: H1M3M <wipnoah@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action
Subject: Re: GOG Preserves Old Games... but do they?
Date: Fri, 22 Nov 2024 14:52:33 +0100
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Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
> 
> 
> GOG's idea of preservation is focused on rejiggering the code to work
> on modern PCs so they can sell it, and I have to wonder... if you
> change the game, is it really preserving it? It's one thing if you
> take the original game and containerize it in DOSBox or some sort of
> virtualization, but GOG --and partners like Nightdive Studios-- more
> often create new code entirely.

The google approach preserves the access and ability for the game to be
played on modern hardware, but I'm afraid it's not a true preservation,
because

> 
> Now, on the one hand... does it really matter? However they do it, it
> gets it so we can play the old games again; that's all that matters.
> right?. Except that NEW code has a expiration date too; stuff that
> runs on Windows64 will one day be as obsolete and hard to run as C64
> assembly code.

Yes, unfortunately it matters. It's nice being able to play that game on
my modern intel with its modern RTX, but if want to play that "Good old
game" in my "Good Old PC" I'm out of luck:

- Original executable is gone and replaced with ScummVM
- The glidewrapper that makes running a game on a modern GPU makes it
incompatible with a real 3DFX card.

For me, ideal preservation would be a combination of the version
prepared to run on modern computers, and a 1:1 ISO copy of the original
CDs the game came in, so that I can play it whatever way I like: Dosbox,
PCem, 86box, full virtualization solution, or old hardware.



BTW, this offtopic, but I have new IDE drives for my retroPC, hoping I
can finally hear those games that have CD music again. On ISOS I had to
obtain from internet, because GOG has a bad habit of leaving some ripped
music files in a folder (Pandemonium) and let the music issues to your
own skill.

So, that leaves me to offtopic 2: Maybe GOG is better for preserving and
future proofing modern games than for classic games.