How often have I been there. I have a file on my HD with a list of all my cd-keys so that I can use the internet as my back-up device. And with my savegames I also keep a handy no-cd crack....

@tbirdo - Yeah, the Myst Trilogy is great, I just recently got the DVD edition, to be honest just to have a little box (just the fat DVD-type box type Snickersnack mentioned, but it's enough for me). I like Riven the best - Played through 2/3 of Exile several years back on CD but lost my saves.

Seriously, where the heck is Myst 3 on GOG... and for that matter, 4 and 5? It baffles me that Cyan Worlds hasn't gotten them into digital yet - I guess there's publishing rights issues to deal with.

I'll have to give Quake Live a try - I think I signed up for it when it came out but never actually played it, ha. I have TF2 from the Orange Box but I haven't tried to play it since getting a computer that can actually play it (I first got the OB with a low spec machine)


@Snickersnack - Thanks for describing the box - I'm happy with the fat DVD type boxes, actually those are nicer because I want more boxes but I don't actually want to take up any space. I guess I'm contradictory that way. I agree that iD games have tons of cool mods - has anyone played WolfenDOOM? I can't comment on the level design or anything but I remember thinking it was pretty cool in concept and appearance at least. There's also a mod for Quake 1 that makes it more like Q3A, with trampolines etc.

@KingofGnG - I got Torchlight during a steep sale on Steam, which I've heard is supposed to be like Diablo gameplay-wise - maybe even made by some ex-Blizzard people? I still haven't given those kinds of games a fair shake, but hopefully I will this winter.

By the way, I have the Capcom Classics disc for the PS2 with several GnG series games, and I'm *awful* at them. They have this old-school charm that keeps me playing them now and then, though. I love arcade compilations.


@KingofGnG, @lowyhong - I'm with you guys on the pirating, more or less. I like to get the physical stuff and use it when I can, but sometimes it is a pain to actually install from disc, or it has irritating DRM so I don't wanna use it. Also especially for old stuff, sometimes you just can't find it anywhere physically, or it's all on 5.25" floppies. Also, sometimes I get something on GOG or whatever and like it so much I want a physical copy after the fact.

@SimonG - I guess No-CD cracks are slightly illegitimate because it's distributing the game executable modified (I always wonder why there aren't patches instead?) -- BUT I'm totally with you in using them, I can't see any moral issue with doing that with a game I own especially.

@DaveO-MM - Thanks for the suggestion. So Ultima 3 has a reasonably accessible interface for a beginner? Not to belabor the point, I just wanna make sure.


Has anyone played the Wesnoth open source game? Wikipedia says it's supposed to be kind of like Warsong on the Sega Genesis.

Whew! Sorry for the long post - I guess I should stagger my replies a little.

I'll tell you a little secret: to be good at this kind of games, or even to go through the first level of Ghosts'n Goblins, you need some specialized hardware. And I'm not talking about a keyboard here, I'm referring to a proper arcade stick with a wooden and hard base. That's the harsh reality about arcade games, I don't even want to think about playing this shit on a home console with a gamepad (just write the world "tablet" and I will voodoo the hell out of you XD) :-P

Improving your stats and leveling up is kind of weird in Ultima 3. I'd pick Ultima 4 (start of the avatar's story) or 7 as starting points for a beginner.

Ultima 3 is interesting though in that it was a hugely influential game. IMHO, more so than the much celebrated Ultima 4.

U3 is also the first game with a decent combat system. It's still not great but combat was never Ultima's strong point. U5 probably has the most deep combat system IMO.

Incoming long reply to a long reply...

The catch is that Cyan Worlds didn't develop or publish Myst 3,4 and 5. That was Ubisoft publishing and various other devs doing the grunt work. However, I would still really like to see them make it to GOG. They're quite good despite the change in developers.

If you like Diablo 1 at all, you need to play Torchlight right now. It's a brilliant take on the Diablo 1 design, but updated to modern standards. It's perfect for small bits when you don't have a lot of time for a long involved game. I'm so very excited for the sequel.

EDIT: and yes, many of the people at Runic are formerly of Blizzard North, the Diablo developers.

Wesnoth is awesome. I don't know Warsong on the ol' Genesis, but there is a staggering amount of gameplay in Wesnoth for a freeware game, and it's seriously good old school TBS.

The only trouble is that the dice rolls are very random and can lead to some seriously frustrating moments, which puts off most players. But there's an extensive autosave system that alleviates some of the stress.

Hahaha, I don't know about that. Ultima 3 was one of those RPGs where I'd open the floppy disk door for my player disk at start of each battle so that I could snatch it out if someone got killed*. Come to think of it, having no floppies on modern PCs, I wonder if GOGs version is even playable.

I really enjoyed U4 & U5 combat. It was no Wizard's Crown, but it simulated enough to give me a feeling of satisfaction without bogging down like war game. I really lived for the dungeon crawls, of which combat was but one element.

*Penalties were sadistic. Revival was hugely expensive and there was a very good chance the revival would fail and your character would be turned to ashes. The game allowed you to create something like 30 characters of which you would form a party 4. Your given so many characters because you would be losing a lot of them. It was a different age. ;)