Fallout headlines CD Projekt's retro-PC store

  • By thorsen-ink, GameSpot
  • Posted Jul 11, 2008 2:31 pm PT

To gamers too young to have played the 1996 original, the excitement--and controversy---surrounding Fallout 3 might be a bit baffling. Now those wondering what all the fuss is about have a chance to play the first Fallout without having to track down a battered copy on eBay. This week,...

To gamers too young to have played the 1996 original, the excitement--and controversy---surrounding Fallout 3 might be a bit baffling. Now those wondering what all the fuss is about have a chance to play the first Fallout without having to track down a battered copy on eBay.

This week, Poland-based publisher CD Projekt announced the launch of a new online store at GOG.com, which stands for Good Old Games. As the name suggests, the online store will offer a variety of classic PC games for download, ranging in price from $5.99 to $9.99. Though most were released in the Windows 95/98 era, all games are guaranteed to work with Windows XP and Vista, and will not be restricted by digital rights management (DRM) software.

"Our main goal is to create a user-friendly site with the best classic PC games for a price that might be considered impossible to achieve," said GOG.com managing director Adam Oldakowski in a statement. "The people behind GOG.com are gamers, and we all know how difficult it is to find a lot of classic games. So we've started building a great games catalogue, gotten rid of the copy protection that gamers hate so much, optimized the games to work on modern operating systems, and made them cheap."

In addition to the original Fallout and its 1997 sequel--created by many current members of Obsidian Software (Alpha Protocol)--GOG.com will offer several other games when it launches in September, including MDK, Sacrifice, Freespace 2, and TOCA Race Driver 3. On August 1, the site will enter a closed beta. Those who wish to participate can sign up at the site for a chance to be selected.

112 Comments

  • Humorguy_basic

    Posted Jan 23, 2009 2:45 pm PT

    GOG, along with Arkane, have let me - and themselves - down by having the RPG Arx Fatalis available on GOG with the 1.19 patch, yet NOT making that 1.19 patch available to current Arx owners! This is disgusting and belies GOG's claim to be a 'games company run by gamers'! This shows it to be a money grabbing corporation like all of them! And as for Arkane, well, without my money initially for the original Arx keeping them going, they could not have done this deal with GOG!!!

  • Humorguy_basic

    Posted Aug 8, 2008 2:02 pm PT

    ...... As to 'Good Ol' Games' well - many many games will be good to someone, so don;t be too hard on them if you personally don't think some of them are good - others might! I also hope they give reviews or at leas in depth info on each game as some will not know much about certain games! maybe gameplay vids, etc? I would hope for one of the greatest RPG's ever Darklands - by Microprose (1993), and one of the greatest tactical FPS's Terra Nova: Task Force Centauri - by Looking Glass (1994)! Just because you have never heard of them, doesn't mean they're not classics!

  • Humorguy_basic

    Posted Jul 21, 2008 12:23 pm PT

    I hope this site does very well and gets huge. I have most of the games mentioned above as PC gaming has been my hobby for 20 odd years, not just my pastime, hence I still have the boxed versions of all of them sitting on my shelves! What I want it for is the forums! It would be the only forum (moderated, I hope!) for retro PC games. It would be great to have threads where no console owners are butting in like on all the 'general threads' - even PC previews on this site has mostly people who have played the console version posting!

    Imagine just have PC gamers taking in multiple threads and all talking about the Good Old Games of pre 2003!!! It will be brilliant! I'd.pay G.O.G.com just to be a forum member if that happened!!!

  • gbrading Site moderator

    Posted Jul 17, 2008 2:58 pm PT

    Excellent news. I also hope they offer System Shock 1 & 2, since those are also pretty difficult to get in any shop these days, and I would really like to play them.

  • Joseph6

    Posted Jul 16, 2008 7:19 am PT

    I just hope this leads other publishers to re release their back catalogs online. I would kind of like an updated version of tie fighter, but it was quite long, especially by today's standards.

  • The_Weekend

    Posted Jul 15, 2008 10:56 am PT

    Fallout 2 - best PC RPG of all times ...

  • FuBi2k

    Posted Jul 15, 2008 6:27 am PT

    Fair enough. I'll just leave with this. Fallout 1 and 2 were about great roleplaying dialogue, and choice. From every scrap of info and every demo/article released this year, Fallout 3 is about shooting things. I've said all I can. You should stop by the Fallout 3 message boards on this site.

  • BloodMist

    Posted Jul 14, 2008 3:25 pm PT

    No the point i was making is that the Dark Brotherhood missions easily stand up to the great and unique quests that were seen in Fallout, so that's why i have great faith in them in that they can recreate the Fallout experience quite well.Will it be EXACTLY the same?Of course not, nor could it ever be, it's been so long.Will it be AS GOOD, and interesting to play?I'm thinking it will.

    Now, as for the feel, from the very first teaser released, to what has been shown now at E3, i dunno about you but it feels like Fallout to me.It's working for me.I dunno if it is for you but, i'm diggin it as very Fallout-esque, if you will.If you're not then well, whatever.

  • wopafoona

    Posted Jul 14, 2008 2:07 pm PT

    Awe. Some.

    /drool

  • defjam33

    Posted Jul 14, 2008 7:17 am PT

    this service is the PC version of Gametap for consoles (i hope i got the name right)...

  • mr_laurie

    Posted Jul 14, 2008 5:15 am PT

    @Agulf

    If you cna hunt down a copy of the original discs you can play most of the old Lucasarts adventures on XP/Vista/Mac/Linux via the SCUMMVM

  • FuBi2k

    Posted Jul 14, 2008 3:29 am PT

    Very well, point taken. But how can you honestly call it a full Fallout experience after they've removed some of the greatest assets of the series. I don't need to play the game just to see the confirmed list of features already removed. Its heartbreaking to see what has been deemed unnecessary to the upcomming RPG by Bethesda. I honestly hope that they can somehow make up for this but in my opinion extra weapons in no way makes up for less choice. And again people read my prognosis and think I'm straight bashing the chance of Fallout 3 being any good. Never said that. Witcher rocked, no argument. I only stated that while this will probably be a good game thats fun to play, I have serious doubts as to whether this game on the whole will be as great as Fallout 2. I can see how you can characterize my statement as jumping the gun and maybe I am a little. However I would like to turn your attention to the fact I never said anything about Fallout being an impossible experience to recreate in a 3D environment. "Not just because of the switch to a 3D first person viewpoint" is I assume what you are referring to and you probably automatically grouped me in with the hundreds of traditionalists who have condemned the game from early on. To clearify my words as I'm sure I was unclear: I don't think the switch to 3D is such a horrible thing but I have other reasons I'm not yet confident in the potential of this release as a true heir to the Fallout throne. Obviously that is farther away from what I said especially since I used "just", so I see how I skewed my original sentence and if I had caught this I would have fixed it so I apologize. I added the last part as a reiteration for you since its apparent my message wasn't clear.

    I am guessing the Dark Brotherhood you are referring to is the faction Oblivion, though I might be wrong though due to my impaired logic. Well alright then, while my opinion may have a flaw in reasonable process especially if Fallout 3 somehow manages to be an honorable successor, my logic is almost undeniable if you understand me correclty: Remove the some of best things from a series = A change in the overall experience. Logic also dictates that if you change the writing staff of a series there will almost certainly be inconsistencies that will effect the mood and or tone of the stories presented (A problem that occurs often if you've ever played a Pen and Paper RPG). Basically no two humans are going to write the same story no matter how closely they follow a theme, but I never brought this up because I IN FACT DO NOT undersell Bethesda's ability to write a good story or design a good game. I was only pointing out the probability that it will have a different feel when it comes to stories involving other characters. It takes more than a backdrop to build a world and I will have to wait and see if that "cringe" I talked about goes away after playing it. I would have used a different expression if I was truly condemning this game before its release.

    That said, I appreciate the response even if you clearly disagree and I will be the first to admit that I am probably judging the game too early. Just a Fallout fan on this end disliking the changes that they have made to formula when that was my favorite thing about it.

  • HappyBB

    Posted Jul 13, 2008 10:55 pm PT

    I think this is a good news. I wanna try out FallOut 1 & 2 and see what the fuss is all about. I just have one question. Won't what GOG.com is doing violate any copyright or license agreement issues?

  • solartiger

    Posted Jul 13, 2008 10:31 pm PT

    "Though most were released in the Windows 95/98 era, all games are guaranteed to work with Windows XP and Vista, and will not be restricted by digital rights management (DRM) software..."

    Then counts me in!!!

  • Donners22

    Posted Jul 13, 2008 9:23 pm PT

    Freespace 2 is open source these days anyway, and the Fallout games have been re-released (the original is in the Interplay 10th anniversary collection, there's the Fallout Collection, etc). Planescape: Torment has been re-released in a double-pack with Soulbringer as well.

  • FAcorp

    Posted Jul 13, 2008 6:25 pm PT

    This is great news my old Fallout disk stopped working years ago! :}

  • gozalo

    Posted Jul 13, 2008 6:06 pm PT

    Genius, pure genius

  • gozalo

    Posted Jul 13, 2008 6:05 pm PT

    Genius, pure genius

  • Humorguy_basic

    Posted Jul 13, 2008 9:14 am PT

    Seeing so many great titles mentioned here, I have one worry - the silly copyright owners! I can just see EA and Blizzard and Sierra and Bioware and other loved and hated publishers not letting CD Projekt have a license! In the same way they don't make games from over a decade ago freeware, even though they have no plans for re-release or update or follow-up!!!

  • pigonthewing

    Posted Jul 13, 2008 8:23 am PT

    This is awesome! Not sure why you would get freespace 2 off of it since its available for free and works great now but otherwise i think this is great. Id love to see the original xcom, and myth games and being able to play the original fallouts again, to sweet.

  • Agulf

    Posted Jul 13, 2008 7:59 am PT

    Day of the tentacle, grim fandango, full throttle, dungeon keeper?

  • OracleXIII

    Posted Jul 13, 2008 7:06 am PT

    It's good to see CD Projekt move up in the world.

  • GunnyHath

    Posted Jul 13, 2008 7:02 am PT

    Fallout 2 works fine in XP, and Fallout 1 works 98% fine if you turn your refresh rate down to 60hz.

  • BloodMist

    Posted Jul 13, 2008 6:10 am PT

    Yes FuBi, judging the game before it's even released, how very logical of you.Good lord....obviously if a game like The Witcher can come out and recreate the Fallout experience in a lot of ways in a 3D environment, it can be done in Fallout 3.You're simply...well, i really don't know WHAT the hell you're doin to be honest.Oh yes, jumping the gun, that's right.

    Also, you're really underselling Bethesda, and there are two simple words alone that prove that you are: Dark Brotherhood.'Nuff said.

  • Humorguy_basic

    Posted Jul 13, 2008 3:44 am PT

    Oh - and another thing...... I have heard on the grapevine of 2 things - a PC gaming version of Microsoft Virtual PC and a win95/98 version of DOSBox! If both these things happen, then we'll have easy to play DOS, 95 and 98 games through emulation!!! Secondly, just occurred to me, with GOG's forums, we will, at last, have a place to chat about these classic retro PC games without having to share the threads with console gamers! It occurred to me how hard it is to find just PC retro sites and forums outside of abandonware sites, you Google 'retro gaming' and all you get is arcade machine and console retro sites. It's like PC gaming didn't exist before 2005! This being the case, GOG will be more than a retailer for me, it will be a meeting place for like minded retro PC gamers who didn't join the PC gaming fraternity in 2002, but rather 1992!!!

  • Humorguy_basic

    Posted Jul 13, 2008 3:31 am PT

    Wow! Based on just the number of comments I think GOG will do pretty well. Now we have the same choice with classic games as many modern games - buy it boxed new or second-hand or download it through sites like Stardock and Steam! Just like with modern games, I prefer the box and manual, but if an old game is impossible to get, GOG will be a godsend!

    Oh, and am I glad I am a PC games hobbyist, rather than just a pastime - it means I have kept my older PC games like Fallout and MDK and Freespace 2, as well as even older games like X-Com and the original Gabriel Knight System Shock and Ultima Underworld!!!

  • FuBi2k

    Posted Jul 13, 2008 3:08 am PT

    BatmanBegins24

    The Elder Scrolls series is a great contribution to the RPG genre from Bethesda. I didn't mean to imply that they are incapable of making good RPGs. When everything is taken into account (Complete details on what I mean by everything can be found at sites like www.nma-fallout.com) its just not Fallout. Not just because of the switch to a 3D first person viewpoint but because the things that made fallout so memorable: The shades of grey in player choices - Confirmed to be removed and the karma meter does roughly nothing except tell the world whether you are bad or good without the numerous in between reactions found in F1 and F2.

    The deep backgrounds of the characters - There was always something more to an npc than what there seemed and early indications tell us that Bethesda has already decided Super Mutants are nothing more than mindless beasts and Ghouls are just dangerous zombies now akin to those found in Resident Evil with no society.

    Some of the perks that gave you extra dialogue options and fun player persona and skill options have been removed in favor of combat focused ones. Dialogue trees have been shown to be not half as deep as in Fallout 1 and 2, and dialogue was a big part of the series. V.A.T.S. is in no way an adequete replacement for the strategic turn based system that was the heart of Fallout combat. Personally, the change in writing staff makes me wonder also if they can capture the post apocalyptic world the way the writers and legendary designer Chris Avellone did in F2. Not saying Bethesda can't write, only saying that while the Elder Scrolls series has good writing, Fallout 2's wriitng was near brilliant.

    I could go on with the full list but I'll just stop here since this is getting ungodly long. Myself along with a legion of fans would rather have no game at all. If it turns out to be awful then most people who never played the first two will characterize the series as such. Though I don't like the direction the game is going in, it will probably turn out to be a good RPG. I'm only saying it could have been a great work of genius had the right people have picked it up. For now it looks like the one thing they claim it is not, it truly is. Oblivion with guns. Read the previews that have taken a close look at the game and not just written a hype column and you will see that almost all are in agreement that it feels like Oblivion. While thats not a bad thing for gaming, it deprives everyone of the true feel of the Fallout series, which wasn't about level, weapons or who's got the best armor or who can operate what turret. It was about a realized world that pulled you in with great dialogue, player choice beyond right and wrong, and the constant feeling that there was always something beneath the surface in a world filled with gritty secrets and dark humor. So to recap my basic message here: Fun RPG with good atmosphere, graphics and gameplay - Sure, of course, why not. Bethesda has proven they can do this.

    Will Fallout 3 be an Incredible post apocalyptic experience with a world that pulls you in with seemingly infinite choice and possibilty as well as memorable characters in a game that summons you back in for another round as long as eight years after its release ala Fallout 2? ...Don't bet on it.

  • PutU2REM

    Posted Jul 13, 2008 3:05 am PT

    Being an old gamer (I refuse to give my age) that remembers well the days of DOS, I think this is a great idea. Many old games have held up surprisingly well, IMO, and in comparison with modern games there's much greater variety. Rising budgets have quashed adventurousness.

  • Bron5

    Posted Jul 13, 2008 1:08 am PT

    Great news! I have most of these games, but if they come out with spiffed up versions that run well on XP/Vista, it'd be worth $5-$10. I hope they inlcude PDF's of the original manuals and Box Art. That would be great.

    I don't think they'll get shutdown, I'm sure they've probably got some sort of license to do this. There are lots of good old games, so this will be great. Good luck to them!

  • azrael2514

    Posted Jul 13, 2008 12:34 am PT

    I wish they would do Syndicate or the sequel, Syndicate Wars. Those are seriously my favorite games of all time. They are what got me into comp gaming.

  • F0RCEFL0W

    Posted Jul 12, 2008 11:07 pm PT

    I give the site a week after opening before they get a Cease and Desist order and get shut down by some publisher.

  • Admard

    Posted Jul 12, 2008 11:04 pm PT

    Is it just me, or is that a Fallout 2 screen shot?

  • Kragspire

    Posted Jul 12, 2008 10:13 pm PT

    This service doesn't mean squat untill I start seeing Daggerfall for sale.

  • Deckard2323

    Posted Jul 12, 2008 9:17 pm PT

    Great news. I've been playing PC games since 1992 and have a vast collection of games, but I'm sure there are old gems that I've missed. Now, if only they did some clever programming and made Tie Fighter work on my Vista....

  • BatmanBegins24

    Posted Jul 12, 2008 5:22 pm PT

    Adam_the_Nerd:

    Deus Ex is available through steam and other download services.

  • rachkovsky

    Posted Jul 12, 2008 4:56 pm PT

    Go HALO 1 2 3 and gta age of empires/mythology command and conquer doom quake call of duty GUILD WARS

  • rachkovsky

    Posted Jul 12, 2008 4:54 pm PT

    never played and maybe never try im more of a 1999-present kind of fan!!!

  • EmptySki

    Posted Jul 12, 2008 4:43 pm PT

    that sounds cool.

  • drc003

    Posted Jul 12, 2008 1:39 pm PT

    People may doubt what Fallout_Red said due to his name but let me just say this: WHAT HE SAID!

  • ptown58

    Posted Jul 12, 2008 12:57 pm PT

    Sell retro game players too which will be old Dell computers with 95-ME on them ha ha ha

  • Adam_the_Nerd

    Posted Jul 12, 2008 12:57 pm PT

    Ooh I want to try Deus Ex; I've never been able to hunt down a copy.

  • ptown58

    Posted Jul 12, 2008 12:55 pm PT

    Re-selling old stuff ? what a brilliant concept , maybe theres people out there who are foolish enough to go for it. Make a few that are free and charge for others.

  • theMasticator

    Posted Jul 12, 2008 12:49 pm PT

    The good old times. Unbeatable.

  • theMasticator

    Posted Jul 12, 2008 12:48 pm PT

    The good old times. Unbeatable.

  • FunkinX

    Posted Jul 12, 2008 10:47 am PT

    Microprose shall rise again!

  • Masterjimmy

    Posted Jul 12, 2008 10:42 am PT

    I bet Bethesda Softworks is doing the Jig at the moment after news like this. The 3rd game will now sell much much more with 2 of the best Rpgs getting resold and shown to the newer gamers of today. Good Work GOG.com

  • Pinkyimp

    Posted Jul 12, 2008 10:33 am PT

    Planet Scape Torment is Offical..also beta testers get 1 free game.

  • BatmanBegins24

    Posted Jul 12, 2008 10:26 am PT

    FuBi2k:

    Why would you cringe? Bethesda has developed some of the greatest RPGs ever created with the Elder Scrolls series. And Interplay would be shut down if Bethesda did not buy the rights to Fallout. They actually did shut down for a while. What would you rather have: A possibly great RPG from Bethesda, or no game at all?

  • franwex

    Posted Jul 12, 2008 10:22 am PT

    Finally someone thinks of this!!! I was waiting for them to do it, but I figured it'll be after fallout 3 was out! I'm glad it's now!

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