Wow, a whole lot of misconceptions posted in this thread. Let's do our best to correct them.

Quoting: Cyba.CowboyIt's both - to count as a "Linux" sale and to simply play these games ... As for those source ports, I have two issues with these - Wikipedia implies that these are inferior in comparison to the original versions, and I haven't been able to actually find them for download anywhere... Besides, I would much rather my money go towards the developers, even if it's only in part.

Wanting your purchase to count as a Linux sale is a perfectly valid reason not to buy them from GOG.com right now, I will not argue with that, but you have a severe lack of knowledge when it comes to source ports. The link you posted only mentions the limitations of the original unofficial Linux release of Doom by Dave Taylor, which was used as the basis for all the later source ports, but never in its original form. Almost all source ports will offer the same or better features than the original proprietary binaries of the game on any platform, and source ports such as Chocolate Doom will even give you an experience as close as possible to the original DOS release on modern hardware. It is using the original DOS binaries through DOSBox that is guaranteed to give you an inferior experience.

Check your package manager for Chocolate Doom. I know for a fact Ubuntu has it. You will need to purchase a legitimate version of the game to supply the game data, but since you want your money to go the original developers (or in this case the recognized license holder since none of the original Doom developers are a part of id Software anymore, and only a few of the original Quake developers are) that should not be a problem for you. Using a source port is not the same thing as getting some kind of dodgy piracy link and defrauding the company.

Quoting: Cyba.Cowboy

Quoting: slaapliedjeI think the best idea would be if GoG (or even Steam) could get permission to sell the Linux native versions of these. There are many different source ports, but I think a good many of them (especially Doom 3) had a proper port released by id.

I don't understand why they haven't.

We're not talking about any old games here, we're talking about the Wolfenstein/Doom franchise - a collection of some of the most iconic games ever released for computers (and eventually, just about everything else!)... It would be worth trying to get native versions of these games even if it was for no other reason than the fact that they are so iconic; though I would be surprised if GOG.com didn't at least break-even (make what they spent back) on the costs associated with the effort.

That "proper port" of Doom 3 slaapliedje mentioned is again a far inferior experience to what something like dhewm3 will give you. Read my article from last month if you do not believe me:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/playing-doom-3-on-linux-in-2017.10561

The main problem with both of your arguments though is that id Software themselves have NEVER provided official Linux binaries for ANY of their games. There were a few put out by other developers and porting houses (Quake III Arena through Loki Software and both Quake and Quake II through Macmillan Digital Publishing) but the rest of their games only had strictly unofficial Linux binaries put out by id Software employees in their spare time. These were not commercial ports of the games that GOG.com can today license for reselling, especially not from Zenimax since as far as they are concerned these ports never even existed, and are at best internal source ports released by past employees which never would have been allowed the same freedom to release them if they were working for the company today.

Any native Linux version of an id Software game appearing on GOG.com would constitute an entirely new release of the game not unlike the Enhanced Edition of Neverwinter Nights being put out by Beamdog. The existence of past unofficial binaries of these games is irrelevant to to the arrival of any official Linux versions of these titles today.

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Quoting: Cyba.CowboyThis is great and all, but I'm still waiting for the "Wolfenstein" and "Doom" sagas to be made available for Linux-based operating systems on GOG.com... All those wonderful games are sitting on my "wish" list, just waiting for purchase, GOG.com!

If you are holding off in the hope that you can make your purchase count as a Linux sale that is fair enough, but if all you want to do is actually play Doom or Wolfenstein 3D on Linux you would be far better off using any number of source ports than a DOSBox wrapper. Even stick in the mud purists like myself have Chocolate Doom.

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Quoting: KayKay91IMO it should've been just a patch for the original game.

That would only be possible if it was BioWare themselves that was making this, but they are not, this is Beamdog's work, and for them to be able to make any money on it at all they need to be able to sell it as an original product. Just be grateful that the game has been taken over by a Linux friendly developer again.

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Quoting: cRaZy-bisCuiTI'd buy them if GOG wouldn't charge 10 €. WTF is wrong with them? Packing old DOS games in a Dosbox requires not too much skill. Why would you buy it for a price like this? :'(

I don't think it is GOG.com so much in this case but Interplay themselves insisting on that price. You look at other games in their library and they are charging the same.

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Quoting: oldrocker99Back 10 years ago, Neverwinter Nights was the only commercial game to have a Linux client, and, as I had already played the game since 2002, I was overjoyed, and have played hundreds of hours on Linux.

No, the original Doom was one of if not the first commercial game to have a Linux client, way back in 1994:
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/1 [External Link]

Abuse by Crack Dot Com even had Linux releases published by Red Hat in 1997:
https://www.redhat.com/en/about/press-releases/press-crackdotcom [External Link]

Not to mention Loki Software, more from id Software, Hyperion, Tribsoft, LGP, and many more.

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It is my love of old games that makes me still lean heavily on WINE these days. I do not buy modern titles that often anymore, and when I do buy them they are always Linux native, but I have been purchasing old titles on GOG.com or from thrift stores to play through WINE. There was a time I would not have done this, at least not through something like GOG.com where sales are still being tracked, but over the past few years the fight against DRM has become more important to me than even something being Linux native, and GOG.com has been doing a great job at pushing the tide back and freeing titles that never were DRM Free in the first place. At this point I would rather play a DRM Free game through WINE than use a native Linux binary tied to Steamworks.

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Clocking in at just over five hours, that completes my final go of Max Payne 2 set to Dead on Arrival difficulty:

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Well, I just finished playing through Wanton Destruction again. This time with actual boss encounters!
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/the-big-three-build-engine-games-on-gog.5491/article_page=1

I am also considering giving Max Payne 2 another whirl through WINE just so I can try to unlock the happier ending. At least it is a fairly short campaign.

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Quoting: dubigrasu

While I do appreciate the enhanced textures I am still not sold on the new aesthetic that the BFG Edition creates, with the darker lighting from the original game in particular looking far better than the brighter world included with the BFG Edtion. Further many of the game features themselves have been altered or badly cut resulting in a game that is far less interesting to play.

Can you elaborate a bit on that? Thanks

In the original Doom 3 campaign it is mostly just little changes and cuts to certain scripted events as well as the removal of the handheld flashlight, but in Resurrection of Evil they made a whole lot of frankly stupid cuts such as replacing all of the new arcade machines with clones of Super Turbo Turkey Puncher 3.

The Doom Wiki has a more elaborate list:
https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Doom_3:_BFG_Edition#Differences_with_Doom_3 [External Link]

There were also several edits to the bundled versions of Doom and Doom II as well.

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Thanks for all of the kind words everyone. I almost was not able to get this article out in time for Halloween due to a crisis on my farm that I have now hopefully managed to navigate okay. Fingers crossed.

With regards to multiplayer, I was under the impression that whatever the status of the Windows version of the BFG Edition on GOG.com it did not really matter to Linux users as we would be bound to the multiplayer support included with RBDOOM-3-BFG anyway. Since the original release was Steamworks tied we would be stuck just with LAN multiplayer on Linux regardless.

And as for the few people commenting in favour of the BFG Edition here, that is perfectly okay, my own comments were just a bit of editorializing on my part. I am also someone who favours Chocolate Doom for when I go back every few years to play the Ulitmate Doom or Doom II again, so there you go.

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