Posted June 09, 2010
Thank you for looking into this for all of us! I am so excited to see what will come of this.
My only real concern on this is whether or not the games themselves will still come unencumbered by the DRM process.
One other thing I might suggest is figuring out how to properly emulate the platforms in question on PCs, Macs, and Linux boxes, especially for the trickier platforms such as the Dreamcast and the N64. Whether you provide an emulator for the platform and/or game in question, or whether you say, "You can go and find your own emulators, but here's the one we recommend for optimal gameplay efficiency on PC, Mac, or Linux", I'd be happy either way.
Also, maybe GOG.com could offer a free USB controller to go with each system with your first game purchase. That would be neat, so we didn't have to go way around Robin Hood's barn to acquire real controls, especially on the console side.
First, here are my Honorable Mentions:
8) Neo*Geo. While this wouldn't be my first choice, I'd love to see Strikers 1945 Plus on here, still no DRM, so I can play it on whatever I choose. I happen to like the Strikers 1945 series, so that would be a nice touch.
7) Amiga. While I am not terribly interested in the Amiga as my first choice, I know a lot of folks will want their favorite Amiga games playable on their modern computers, whether the flavor of Amiga be AGA, CDTV, CD32, or earlier. And if you were to do this, I sincerely hope you do some sort of deal with Cloanto so that they could offer some kind of an Amiga Forever deal for GOG.com customers. This way it will be simple for all of us to play these games, whether we're discovering the genius of these games for the first time or the 100th.
6) Commodore 64. This one is a no brainer for many of us, and if GOG.com could offer a large amount of C64 titles legally, this could be very important, especially for those who never really played these games, and now they could be played legally. That has a potential for being quite huge.
5) Sega Genesis/Megadrive, including the Sega CD/Mega CD. While there are a great many of those old titles available for PC (see many of those old Sega PC titles that were basically the Genesis/Sega CD titles ported to the PC), it would be truly interesting to see some of those games being sold on here in their original forms on the Megadrive (Genesis) and/or the MegaCD (Sega CD).
4) Arcade. This just barely fell out of my top 3, but I'd love to see this come sooner rather than later, especially if you can get some of the trickier arcade games on here like the laserdisc games, Area 51 (the old arcade light gun game from Atari Games/Midway), and many others.
And now... the Top Three:
3) Super Nintendo. While most of what I'd want on the Wii Virtual Console, it would be very nice to have DRM-free SNES titles on here.
2) Sega Dreamcast. I sincerely hope that this happens pretty soon, as I'd kill for a great way to play the full version of Chu Chu Rocket! any time, day or night.
1) Nintendo 64. While some of the titles are on the Wii VC, DRM-free would be incredibly nice, even for games I already own like Mario Tennis, Mario Party 3, Mario Party 2, and Star Wars Episode I: Racer. Also, for some of the import games (like Sin & Punishment and Wonder Project J2), I'd love to see either full translations or at the very least translation patches. I also would truly like to be able to play some of the best multiplayer experiences, like Goldeneye 007, online with many of the GOGers, possibly with voice chat.
And now, Honorable Mentions That Weren't On Your List:
Nintendo Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance. These would be wonderful to emulate and play legally, without having to go around Robin Hood's barn to acquire them. I especially want to see many games that got overlooked when they first came out, like Mole Mania.
Sega Saturn. While this console did fail, this would be such an interesting platform to play with to see what might have been.
Sony Playstation and Playstation 2. The original Playstation and PS2 are now out of production, and there would be some very interesting obscure games that you could offer us to play that maybe we didn't play before now, like ICO, Shadow of the Colossus, etc.
Wii and Game Cube titles that were out of print and hard to find, like Metroid Prime Trilogy, Super Mario Sunshine, etc.
Nintendo DS titles that were out of print and hard to find, like most of the Atlus titles, Advance Wars: Dual Strike (WAY better than Days of Ruin in my opinion), etc.
Turbographx 16. Please, this one would actually be pretty spectacular if you could pull this one off.
Nintendo Entertainment System. This might have to come with a USB Zapper lightgun like the old Zapper lightgun to play games like Duck Hunt, etc, but I wouldn't mind one whit.
This is way more detail than you wanted, but I hope you can take enough from this to really do this right, just like you have with the PC side.
BJ
My only real concern on this is whether or not the games themselves will still come unencumbered by the DRM process.
One other thing I might suggest is figuring out how to properly emulate the platforms in question on PCs, Macs, and Linux boxes, especially for the trickier platforms such as the Dreamcast and the N64. Whether you provide an emulator for the platform and/or game in question, or whether you say, "You can go and find your own emulators, but here's the one we recommend for optimal gameplay efficiency on PC, Mac, or Linux", I'd be happy either way.
Also, maybe GOG.com could offer a free USB controller to go with each system with your first game purchase. That would be neat, so we didn't have to go way around Robin Hood's barn to acquire real controls, especially on the console side.
First, here are my Honorable Mentions:
8) Neo*Geo. While this wouldn't be my first choice, I'd love to see Strikers 1945 Plus on here, still no DRM, so I can play it on whatever I choose. I happen to like the Strikers 1945 series, so that would be a nice touch.
7) Amiga. While I am not terribly interested in the Amiga as my first choice, I know a lot of folks will want their favorite Amiga games playable on their modern computers, whether the flavor of Amiga be AGA, CDTV, CD32, or earlier. And if you were to do this, I sincerely hope you do some sort of deal with Cloanto so that they could offer some kind of an Amiga Forever deal for GOG.com customers. This way it will be simple for all of us to play these games, whether we're discovering the genius of these games for the first time or the 100th.
6) Commodore 64. This one is a no brainer for many of us, and if GOG.com could offer a large amount of C64 titles legally, this could be very important, especially for those who never really played these games, and now they could be played legally. That has a potential for being quite huge.
5) Sega Genesis/Megadrive, including the Sega CD/Mega CD. While there are a great many of those old titles available for PC (see many of those old Sega PC titles that were basically the Genesis/Sega CD titles ported to the PC), it would be truly interesting to see some of those games being sold on here in their original forms on the Megadrive (Genesis) and/or the MegaCD (Sega CD).
4) Arcade. This just barely fell out of my top 3, but I'd love to see this come sooner rather than later, especially if you can get some of the trickier arcade games on here like the laserdisc games, Area 51 (the old arcade light gun game from Atari Games/Midway), and many others.
And now... the Top Three:
3) Super Nintendo. While most of what I'd want on the Wii Virtual Console, it would be very nice to have DRM-free SNES titles on here.
2) Sega Dreamcast. I sincerely hope that this happens pretty soon, as I'd kill for a great way to play the full version of Chu Chu Rocket! any time, day or night.
1) Nintendo 64. While some of the titles are on the Wii VC, DRM-free would be incredibly nice, even for games I already own like Mario Tennis, Mario Party 3, Mario Party 2, and Star Wars Episode I: Racer. Also, for some of the import games (like Sin & Punishment and Wonder Project J2), I'd love to see either full translations or at the very least translation patches. I also would truly like to be able to play some of the best multiplayer experiences, like Goldeneye 007, online with many of the GOGers, possibly with voice chat.
And now, Honorable Mentions That Weren't On Your List:
Nintendo Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance. These would be wonderful to emulate and play legally, without having to go around Robin Hood's barn to acquire them. I especially want to see many games that got overlooked when they first came out, like Mole Mania.
Sega Saturn. While this console did fail, this would be such an interesting platform to play with to see what might have been.
Sony Playstation and Playstation 2. The original Playstation and PS2 are now out of production, and there would be some very interesting obscure games that you could offer us to play that maybe we didn't play before now, like ICO, Shadow of the Colossus, etc.
Wii and Game Cube titles that were out of print and hard to find, like Metroid Prime Trilogy, Super Mario Sunshine, etc.
Nintendo DS titles that were out of print and hard to find, like most of the Atlus titles, Advance Wars: Dual Strike (WAY better than Days of Ruin in my opinion), etc.
Turbographx 16. Please, this one would actually be pretty spectacular if you could pull this one off.
Nintendo Entertainment System. This might have to come with a USB Zapper lightgun like the old Zapper lightgun to play games like Duck Hunt, etc, but I wouldn't mind one whit.
This is way more detail than you wanted, but I hope you can take enough from this to really do this right, just like you have with the PC side.
BJ
