Noting there's a great flash deal for original Everspace on Fanatical right now.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: slaapliedjeUnfortunately at this stage (for me) innoextract fails to extract the freespace game. I'm pretty sure this is because GOG has changed their installer, which is why the setup file is now a newer version than when game-data-packager was written. Not sure how to find the older version of the GOG download..

I've noticed this for a few GOG titles as well (and I presume the problem could be a lot more than "a few", as I haven't been testing everything).

Does anyone (e.g. Shmerl) know an alternative way to use innoextract for extracting GOG Windows titles when the regular innoextract technique seems to fail? For reference, this is what I get when I try to run innoextract on Doom II + Final Doom:

/Downloads/doom$ innoextract setup_doom_ii_with_master_levels_1.9_\(28044\).exe 
Warning: Unexpected setup data version: 5.6.2 (unicode)
Warning: Unexpected Auto Boolean value: 19
Warning: Unexpected Auto Boolean value: 20
Warning: Unexpected trailing byte in UTF-16 string.
Warning: Unexpected data while converting from UTF-16LE to UTF-8.
Warning: Unexpected trailing byte in UTF-16 string.
Warning: Unexpected data while converting from UTF-16LE to UTF-8.
Warning: Unexpected data while converting from UTF-16LE to UTF-8.
Warning: Unexpected trailing byte in UTF-16 string.
Warning: Unexpected data while converting from UTF-16LE to UTF-8.
Stream error while parsing setup headers!
 ├─ detected setup version: 5.6.2 (unicode)
 └─ error reason: basic_ios::clear: iostream error
If you are sure the setup file is not corrupted, consider 
filing a bug report at http://innoextract.constexpr.org/issues
Done with 1 error and 10 warnings.

innoextract -v
innoextract 1.7
Extracts installers created by Inno Setup 1.2.10 to 5.6.0

For me, some installers extract fine and others fail. Avoiding the use of WINE to run the actual installer is my preference. Maybe there is a source tarball of innoextract I could build and use that instead?

View this comment - View article - View full comments

My last physical PC DVD purchase was a few years ago, and I picked up a new (unopened) copy of Fallout 4 for cheap. It does clearly state on the back of the DVD sleeve that the game requires Steam to play. Even though the box and contents are of no practical use (I activated the key now), it is still containing various documents and artwork, including a Vault-Tec wall poster, and the art on the sleeve (double-sided) is quite decent. Pretty happy that owing to Proton, I'm actually able to play it on Linux rather than any need to (ever) fire up Windows. Saying that, it is sitting in my backlog of literally thousands of games that I still haven't played.

Nowadays I make much more considered purchasing decisions than I used to. It is very rare for me to just buy something I see on the fly, without any research or planning. Buying Humble's Monthly Subscriptions with their hidden reveal content is the closest I get to unknown, spontaneous purchasing (and even then, I don't need to activate the key, I can gift it to someone else).

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Seems a "high" price to pay for an old game. You could have picked up a brand new Steam key for approx $3-$4 in a suitable sale. Of course, you don't get the physical media or cover artwork. Maybe go back to the shop with the receipt and ask to speak to a manager. They might relent at their previous response.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Looks interesting. Liking the fact that it is suitable for multiple replays.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: Purple Library Guy

Quoting: g000hFor those thinking this will be a good thing for DRM-Free Gaming: I think the opposite - This will push all new commercial games to become purely rental titles, i.e. You can download the game for free, but you won't be able to play it without a subscription. DRM-Free games will just be for free gaming (i.e. where no money is paid for the game title). Commercial game developers won't be releasing DRM-Free any more.

Until the next lawsuit. I'm not sure getting around law is quite so simple as all that.

I'm not sure you're quite getting my point on this.

My point isn't that a subscription model would be leveraged onto current games (although it isn't impossible). My point is that it will push game publishers/developers to adopt a subscription model (e.g. rent per hour) for all their new and future titles. This is something which is perfectly fine from a legal perspective, and it would allow them to get around the resale problem entirely (and not lose any profits to resale).

A subscription model like that would change the gaming industry in a big way, i.e. no DRM-Free titles from commercial developers, people who play more hours could end up paying more for the privilege. A loss of consumer ownership of the software - The software would not work if the rental wasn't paid. A subscription model is similar to a streaming model, but rather than streaming the game's video and remotely-controlling it, you still download the files and run it locally.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

For those thinking this will be a good thing for DRM-Free Gaming: I think the opposite - This will push all new commercial games to become purely rental titles, i.e. You can download the game for free, but you won't be able to play it without a subscription. DRM-Free games will just be for free gaming (i.e. where no money is paid for the game title). Commercial game developers won't be releasing DRM-Free any more.

The effect of enabling game reselling on the gaming market could lower profits for many companies to such an extent that they go out of business (bankruptcy) or there isn't sufficient profit to release game titles any more (so those developers would not even create their game titles). As the gaming market currently stands, many developers struggle to make a profit / break even - This law change would make it harder.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

There is potential that this move could cause the gaming industry to go into a subscription model, where you actually pay to use (rent) a game per hour, rather than having any ownership. Potentially the games would be "free" but then playing them would cost money. This would bother me, because I like an upfront payment and then being able to play the game as long as I like with no additional costs (other than electricity bill).

View this comment - View article - View full comments

I can see it driving up prices. Probably find game prices in Europe will double.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Spotted the update waiting, downloaded it, and then come to GOL and spot this article. Hehe, pretty quick response time.

View this comment - View article - View full comments