5 ms·

Honestly I find GOG's whole mission of "update old games for modern Windows" kinda weird when I compare it to what people who want to play old console games do:

Honestly I find GOG's whole mission of "update old games for modern Windows" kinda weird when I compare it to what people who want to play old console games do: they just fire up an emulator. Running a virtual Windows machine sounds like a much easier solution than individually patching every crusty old executable to run on the modern OS, and re-patching every single one of them when MS rolls out yet another new graphics/controller system a few years down the line.

1313ed01 10mo ago
Their DOS releases are fantastic. I install the games, then copy the files to my virtual C: directory for DOSBox-X and know those games will always Just Work and I will never have to reinstall anything or mess with configurations. Some games I also copy to my phone to play in DOSBox in Android. To repeat myself from old threads, it would be awesome to have something like a WindowsBOX, like DOSBox but emulating (probably) Windows 98SE, fully open source. GOG could use that for old Windows games and never have to modify the games themselves. I would be happy to support GOG developing an emulator like that, rather than making old games run on new Windows.
- egypturnash 10mo ago
  Really I'm surprised nobody's done "WinBox" yet. Proton kinda covers that except it runs in Linux, not Windows. I dunno how it handles old Windows games as I've got zero nostalgia for those, my Steam Deck mostly runs modern stuff from small teams.
  - ConceptJunkie 10mo ago
    ReactOS has been around for 20+ years. You can run some old games on it, but it's hardly at the level of WINE and projects based on it.
    - jeditobe 10mo ago
      30 years ^)
  - qwertfisch 10mo ago
    It’s almost not necessary. Windows has – in contrast to Linux – a very good and long compatibility guarantee. You can put up any program from 1995 (at least being 32-bit) and it will start and run. The things GOG is improving are some bugs that occur mostly in games, e.g. something with color palettes in pre-2002 games. But I think every game using DirectX 9 or later will work without any adaptations, even ten years from now.
WorldMaker 10mo ago
GOG uses emulators as well. GOG has a share of games that use Dosbox or ScummVM as two somewhat common emulators they will configure a game to run in that I'm aware of. That said, there's also something to be said that if a game is patchable, there is some value in patching it to run directly rather than "need" an emulator.

1313ed01 10mo ago

Their DOS releases are fantastic. I install the games, then copy the files to my virtual C: directory for DOSBox-X and know those games will always Just Work and I will never have to reinstall anything or mess with configurations. Some games I also copy to my phone to play in DOSBox in Android. To repeat myself from old threads, it would be awesome to have something like a WindowsBOX, like DOSBox but emulating (probably) Windows 98SE, fully open source. GOG could use that for old Windows games and never have to modify the games themselves. I would be happy to support GOG developing an emulator like that, rather than making old games run on new Windows.

egypturnash 10mo ago
Really I'm surprised nobody's done "WinBox" yet. Proton kinda covers that except it runs in Linux, not Windows. I dunno how it handles old Windows games as I've got zero nostalgia for those, my Steam Deck mostly runs modern stuff from small teams.
- ConceptJunkie 10mo ago
  ReactOS has been around for 20+ years. You can run some old games on it, but it's hardly at the level of WINE and projects based on it.
  - jeditobe 10mo ago
    30 years ^)
- qwertfisch 10mo ago
  It’s almost not necessary. Windows has – in contrast to Linux – a very good and long compatibility guarantee. You can put up any program from 1995 (at least being 32-bit) and it will start and run. The things GOG is improving are some bugs that occur mostly in games, e.g. something with color palettes in pre-2002 games. But I think every game using DirectX 9 or later will work without any adaptations, even ten years from now.

WorldMaker 10mo ago

GOG uses emulators as well. GOG has a share of games that use Dosbox or ScummVM as two somewhat common emulators they will configure a game to run in that I'm aware of. That said, there's also something to be said that if a game is patchable, there is some value in patching it to run directly rather than "need" an emulator.