Your top GOG.com must buy list...

[Nefaro]

I'm still waiting for GOG to do the Gold Box series by SSI.

Who has the rights to them at the moment?

[Greybriar]

I'm still waiting for GOG to do the Gold Box series by SSI.

Who has the rights to them at the moment?

From looking at some of the former SSI titles GOG.com has, I would hazard a guess that Ubisoft does.

[Arctic Blast]

Yeah, it should be Ubisoft. The problem is, it also ends up involving Wizards of the Coast and Atari (since they have the current rights to D&D computer games), and it's tied in to AD&D as well. The good news is that all of the above are already on GOG. The bad news is that they have to convince ALL of them to agree.

And there's also the strong possibility that the code is long gone.

[Bison]

How do they lose a code? 

[Staggerwing]

The original uncompiled code to many  classic games has been lost over the years. It's kind of like building a house but then losing the plans afterward.
You can live in the house as long as you want but you can't build another one based on the same design. I know it's a weak analogy but it's the first one that came to mind.

Apparently these things can't always be reverse-engineered, or so I've been told by those who actually know something about writing code.

[Slick Wilhelm]

Did you see the big D&D Collection at Gamersgate, for $10??  Looks like it would knock out most of those.

I had not seen that, thanks very much, Nefaro!

I wonder if those older games on gamersgate are as Windows 7 friendly as the ones purchased on GOG. Any idea?

[FarAway Sooner]

To elaborate on how one "loses the code" to a game, let me try to give a plain English explanation that hopefully makes up for in clarity what it lacks in precisions.  If anybody has clarifications or corrections to offer, feel free to, as I really can barely play a developer on TV and never sling my own code, but I work with lots of people who do...

The games that run on our machines (and all apps, really) are basically binary code--all 0s and 1s.  Those 0s and 1s get created by something written in a programming language (you may have heard of languages like C++, COBOL, etc.), but that programming language isn't intelligible to a PC in a stand-alone sense. 

After you're done writing your program, you have to run a compiler to generate a binary code base that will actually run on the machine.  That binary code is nothing but 0s and 1s--don't ask me how a PC can translate 0s and 1s into World of Warcraft but it does.

So the discs that we get don't contain the stuff written in C++ or Java or whatever programming language is used.  They just contain the binary code, all in the format of 0s and 1s.  Figuring out which 0 and 1 to tweak to alter the program is extremely complicated--I have no idea if it's impossible, but it's so complicated as to be pretty close to impossible, I think.

When you hear people talk about "source code", they're talking about the code written in a programming language that some other developer could look at and understand.  That's what's lost.

The binary code that runs on our machines is still around, and can be (in theory) mass-produced.  It just can't be altered.

[Yskonyn]

The binary code that runs on our machines is still around, and can be (in theory) mass-produced.  It just can't be altered.

Not that it would be legal, but aren't there ways to decompile software back into source-code, from the finished product? Many EULA's talk about this being against usage policy, so I'd reckon this would be possible?

[LongBlade]

And there's also the strong possibility that the code is long gone.

I'm pretty sure the code is still around. The problem is Ubi. They know in theory they have several IPs which are worth their weight in gold. But in practice it isn't valued nearly has highly as when they bought it. I don't think they want to take that hit to the value so they just sit on it.

At least, that's the story as I remember it. I can dig around for more info if folks really want to know.

[Nefaro]

Did you see the big D&D Collection at Gamersgate, for $10??  Looks like it would knock out most of those.

I had not seen that, thanks very much, Nefaro!

I wonder if those older games on gamersgate are as Windows 7 friendly as the ones purchased on GOG. Any idea?

Gamersgate is usually pretty good about placing warnings in the System Requirements listing, for each game, if something doesn't work under a specific OS.  It'll says something like, "NOT WINDOWS 7 compatible!" or thereabouts.  But you should still practice common installation procedures when using (especially older) games such as installing them to a location other than one of the "Program Files" folders and setting the shortcut/exe to 'Run as Admin'.   

There are quite a good amount of Win98 & XP games that work in Win7.  A quick google search will usually give you any title-specific details.  I expect those games to run if each individual title's ReqSpec listing doesn't say.

[Nefaro]

..

Daily Deal at GOG

For that same package plus NWN Diamond and a couple others, for ~$21.

http://www.gog.com/promo/dungeons___dragons_deal



You may still be able to get out cheaper, if pick & choose, but that's a pretty wide assortment.  Plus, I think the GOG installers are the easiest (and best) to handle.  So here's another offer to consider.  If you just wanted to skip the few extras, the GG deal plus the GOG NWN Diamond one is probably the most cost-effective.

Only 17 hours left!!

[Arctic Blast]

And there's also the strong possibility that the code is long gone.

I'm pretty sure the code is still around. The problem is Ubi. They know in theory they have several IPs which are worth their weight in gold. But in practice it isn't valued nearly has highly as when they bought it. I don't think they want to take that hit to the value so they just sit on it.

At least, that's the story as I remember it. I can dig around for more info if folks really want to know.

That's often true when one studio buys another...they weren't interested in all of it.

And the thing is, are those old school D&D games worth a ton? Hard to say. Sure there's a market for them, but it is going to be limited. We're talking AD&D 1st Edition rules here.

[Slick Wilhelm]

Pulled the trigger on Icewind Dale 2 and Neverwinter Nights: Diamond last night, so that leaves only Baldur's Gate 2 still on my list.