GOG Summer Sale now live with new releases from SEGA

I used to love GoG, until i didn’t.

Although I like the DRM free games that the GOG is selling. I had issues with plenty of them and wasn't able to even make them running on Linux. So I decided to rather not buy anything on GOG anymore and instead support Valve with their love for Linux and their much more Linux friendly service.

anyways youre often buying games and supporting the developer/publisher which released the game for dos & windows. neither of those support linux - at all, in no way.

sure, many of these games can be played in open source projects for modern os (linux) and dont require the involvement of GOG at all other than to download the game.

i would still rather have a DRM free version of old games
and i would still rather have steam linux proton help me play the games
while true i can also run my own Wine + DXVK installed and manage it all myself
i do most Dosbox games in my own installation folder for all Dosbox games.
i play most adventure games in Scummvm.

there are dozen ways the slice the pie, you just play whatever game you like in whichever way you like on whatever platform or OS you like.

nobody:
Linux gamer: sees a GOG news -> "music" on repeat mode.

Just as something relevent to current energy prices, my main daily system is no longer x86_64. It's AArch64, specficially a Raspberry Pi 4. Steam is not supported there at all, so I simply cannot use Steam games for daily casual gaming right now. Instead I turn to dosbox for a lot of my gaming needs - and there are a lot of old games running through dosbox! (side note: I just found out Aliens vs Predator, the 1999 game, will run on it too, nice!) This is where GOG really shines, and while true I need to unpack a few things, it's still less hassle than if I were forced to use some game management tool.

I do boot the x86_64 desktop on occasion, but never leave it on for long. The cut to the energy bill of using a Pi4 instead has already paid for the Pi4 itself.

You can with the likes of box64 though?

In theory, but last I looked into such things it was a messy, crashtastic experience. I can of course temporarily boot my x86_64, download a game, then copy the files out (presuming steam isn't required to run the game), but it's generally fewer hoops to jump through just going the GOG/itch.io route.

Being said, I have played a few things through box64, and that can work well enough. Sunk far too many hours into the bonesweeper demo/prototype that way.

as painful as it was to setup steam using box86
it does work.

i did not test it greatly beyond the "default steam anonymous" account
which has some basic games

considering my raspberry pi 4 could barely play 0 A.D. at 30fps, i wasnt going to spend much time testing out steam x86 games through box86

i do use box86 for other things however. so it mostly works!

yeah if you have the 64bit OS on your pi, you can use box64
ive chosen to stay with the 32bit OS & libraries for now.


atleast with GOG you can simply use innoextract to unpack their setup packages.

yes itchio is a bit of a loop, many games are windows packages (especially .rar files)
all the effort to setup a wine/proton environment for a free 15 minute tech demo. ive avoided mostly playing the itchio games ive claimed or downloaded....

For any fans of classic 2D platformers, the Jazz Jackrabbit games are in the 1990s section of this sale for £1.59 each, as "Jazz Jackrabbit Collection" and "Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Collection".

The Jazz 1 collection comes in a DOSBox wrapper that has a native Linux version, and the only catch for using it as it comes is that you need to be using a resolution above 1024x768; It will silently crash on machines using 1280x720. I didn't pick up the Jazz 2 re-release because I still have that from back in the day (easily run through Wine, but full-screen doesn't play nice on some machines and the controls map oddly onto modern controllers), though it's worth noting that GOG's offering is the later "The Secret Files" version with extra fan-made levels and an additional playable character.

Hehe, who would be a fan of classic 2D platformers and not already own Jazz Jackrabbit

There have to be some folks out there who've missed it! I do have Jazz CD from way back when, but I re-bought it on GOG during a previous sale just to show support for re-releasing the series - and it was an easy and cheap way to get the most recent version of the game (GOG's is 1.3, and I don't remember if my disc is the "Good" or "Bad" version of 1.2).

I'm BTW always unwrapping the GOG dosbox games to use my systems dosbox. Not to save disk space, but I use dosbox-staging which is much better in handling fullscreen and non-standard screen resolutions...

I wonder if I'd be better off using that on my GPD Win Max? DOSBox as provided with those GOG releases and lr-dosbox in RetroPie (the only ones I've tried so far) get rotated to the left (which then persists after quitting), because the display on that device is a vertical one that's been mounted sideways. Unless there's some setting somewhere that I can tweak, of course.

I'm BTW always unwrapping the GOG dosbox games to use my systems dosbox. Not to save disk space, but I use dosbox-staging which is much better in handling fullscreen and non-standard screen resolutions...

In my case I built DOSBox Staging and then just dropped it over the DOSBox binaries provided by the GOG.com installers which also works seamlessly. DOSBox Staging gives a huge performance improvement in Build engine games like Blood, so it is something GOG.com themselves should really consider adopting. Yes, I know, BloodGDX, NBlood, and Raze are a thing, but I am becoming more and more of a purist with age...

Regarding Alien - Isolation. I've already sunk 2hrs with the Windows version from GOG.

No issues so far, ingame videos work and great performance with dxvk (limited the game to 165fps manually).

After getting a Steam Deck, it is inconvenient to run GOG games even if they are installed via Lutris/Bottles. I have no problem on the desktop but for handheld, the extra step isn't fun.

I would definitely give it a try. The major point is that dosbox-staging uses SDL2 that is much smarter in that respect. You might have to compile it yourself, though.

Ahh, that might do the trick, then. I've got no issues with compiling stuff myself (it's not difficult even for a non-programmer like me), so it's all good.

EDIT: Looks like it's [available as a Flatpak](https://flathub.org/apps/details/io.github.dosbox-staging). I'll get that installed shortly!

EDIT 2: It solved the problem - thanks so much for the heads-up on DOSBox Staging!

In my case I built DOSBox Staging and then just dropped it over the DOSBox binaries provided by the GOG.com installers which also works seamlessly.

Ooh, that's handy to know - thanks for that!


Last edited by Pengling on 8 Jun 2022 at 8:07 am UTC

About Alien Isolation.
You have an excellent game with linux port and you release it drm free in windowsonly !? Does that makes sense ?.In my view that is news that should be investigated.
What is the logic in Feral's policy. Does feral see steam as its only income stream ? (steam stream )

In GOG forum on the Alien Isolation Windows only release it is mentioned that Feral has a proDRM policy.
https://www.gog.com/forum/alien_isolation/linux_version.
I think it a proSteam mostly policy because steam can reliable monetize linux users.

But... if a linux gamer feels comfortable using wine .. then Feral seems gets empty handed here and windows as gaming platform stronger. (well that could be a wish for those who want linux as a productive platform!)


Last edited by chomwitt on 9 Jun 2022 at 5:45 am UTC

I think it a proSteam mostly policy because steam can reliable monetize linux users.

That seems to be the case. On GOG, Sega would be the sole publisher and would have to make an effort for the Linux/mac builds and separating the income. It doesn't look like they are willing to do that. I don't even know if gog can clearly separate the sales by platform.

I think it a proSteam mostly policy because steam can reliable monetize linux users.

That seems to be the case. On GOG, Sega would be the sole publisher and would have to make an effort for the Linux/mac builds and separating the income. It doesn't look like they are willing to do that. I don't even know if gog can clearly separate the sales by platform.

How steam does it? It doesnt look hard. You pay for the version you want and you get only that version.

Now that i checked my GOG collection the same happened with Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.
GOG sold it in great discount only for windows. I bought it, but thinking that dilemma again for Alien Isolation i think i'll pass. It's a windows sale and that how i see it. If we see that each windows sale is a wine - linux sale then i think we put very little weight in linux platform and the port - native efforts. And when ports do exist..

Just as something relevent to current energy prices, my main daily system is no longer x86_64. It's AArch64, specficially a Raspberry Pi 4. Steam is not supported there at all, so I simply cannot use Steam games for daily casual gaming right now. Instead I turn to dosbox for a lot of my gaming needs - and there are a lot of old games running through dosbox! (side note: I just found out Aliens vs Predator, the 1999 game, will run on it too, nice!) This is where GOG really shines, and while true I need to unpack a few things, it's still less hassle than if I were forced to use some game management tool.

I do boot the x86_64 desktop on occasion, but never leave it on for long. The cut to the energy bill of using a Pi4 instead has already paid for the Pi4 itself.

That's actually a great idea! How do you manage with a Pi as your desktop? Are you running your OS from a SD card or USB 3? Sadly, I never got the latter to work.