The people over at GoG have started a new campaign where you have the chance to reclaim some of your old (Windows) games.
Now at first this may not sound too useful for us Linux gamers, but let's be honest, not all old Windows games will ever come to Linux so Wine is often the only solution if you want to play them. The biggest problem with that is often the DRM on these old Windows games is not really compatible with Wine and you either can't play them or you need to find a hacked version or the game is not maintained and a Windows 95 game often won't work as great on Wine as a windows XP/7 game.
Now with this new GoG campaign, if you have any of the original DVD's laying around, like I have with the Stalker series, then head over to their page and enter the original code to get a DRM free version from GoG.
At the moment the following games are in the campaign:
Editions released worldwide:
-S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
-S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky
-S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat
Editions released only in CIS & Russian territories:
-Mount & Blade: Warband (Linux version also available)
-Mount & Blade: With Fire & Sword
-Eador: Genesis
With more titles coming soon.
I personally find this an amazing gesture, which with all the other stuff GoG does (money back if the game does not work, 5.99 USD= 5.49 EUR = 4.09 GBP = 7.79 AUD = 359 RUB) it's really distinguishing itself from Steam. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Now at first this may not sound too useful for us Linux gamers, but let's be honest, not all old Windows games will ever come to Linux so Wine is often the only solution if you want to play them. The biggest problem with that is often the DRM on these old Windows games is not really compatible with Wine and you either can't play them or you need to find a hacked version or the game is not maintained and a Windows 95 game often won't work as great on Wine as a windows XP/7 game.
Now with this new GoG campaign, if you have any of the original DVD's laying around, like I have with the Stalker series, then head over to their page and enter the original code to get a DRM free version from GoG.
At the moment the following games are in the campaign:
Editions released worldwide:
-S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
-S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky
-S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat
Editions released only in CIS & Russian territories:
-Mount & Blade: Warband (Linux version also available)
-Mount & Blade: With Fire & Sword
-Eador: Genesis
With more titles coming soon.
I personally find this an amazing gesture, which with all the other stuff GoG does (money back if the game does not work, 5.99 USD= 5.49 EUR = 4.09 GBP = 7.79 AUD = 359 RUB) it's really distinguishing itself from Steam. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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I imagine it's a move to help boost GOG Galaxy when it arrives fully.
Of course, you can argue that Steam is a DRM (but one that works fine with Wine) but it's not a GOG exclusive feature.
You'll never see a Blizzard game on GOG or Steam, as they have their own system. But you know you can already reclaim you disc games on Battle.net, right (http://us.battle.net or http://eu.battle.net for USA/Europe respectively)? Works for Diablo 2, Warcraft 3, StarCraft that use the old Battle.net and, of course, the newer ones (WoW, Diablo 3 & StarCraft 2) that require having a Battle.net account anyway for online activation. It doesn't work for Diablo or Warcraft 1 & 2 (they didn't have a CD key). You'll never need you discs anymore. The only drawback is that you can't resell them after this as the CD keys are then tied to your account.
Note that some games might have a new key format (happened to me for StarCraft in a budget reedition) but the support can provide you with a working one.
I'm not sure Dark Forces 2 had a CD key, they were not widely used at that time. Not sure exactly when most games started to have a serial but I remember people being outraged when Half-Life 2 required online activation in 2004.
It would be nice to be able to activate games on GOG that had no CD keys but I don't see them requesting some pictures of the original game boxes and floppies as proof of purchase. Too bad, I think I still have my Amiga games from Lucasfilm. :D
The key for Shadow of Chernobyl can be found in the registry only after installing and running the game at least once. You can find the "InstallCDKEY" entry in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\GSC Game World\STALKER-SHOC
Blizzard allows you to redeem Diablo II in its store.
I've done it with the very first original boxed Diablo II.