A nice little article GOG just posted on facebook.

http://www.gameranx.com/features/id/9727/article/the-classic-games-we-can-t-play/

Official comment:

"We cannot promise you anything, but we ARE working hard and some day..."

I wouldn't say some of the classics will grey out because they are not available on the big online stores - especially games you can't get a special bonus of nostalgia and a symbol of elitist gaming. From his named games you will find all ranked in the genre top lists and posted in best of threads.

Silly article title, these games are widely available and play fine.

It's obvious they mean game you can't easily play legally unless you already own them.

Most of the game they mention are not available to buy digitally or in retail, the only way to obtain them is either to try your luck on e-bay or pirate them.

I know what the article is about, thanks. My point, again, is that it's a silly title.

For some reason the article won't load (even just gameranx.com wont work). -.-

Wow, No One Lives Forever isn't easily available online? *Checks Wikipedia* Maybe it has something to do with Fox Interactive being involved. If GOG gets them on board (somehow :P), I really want to the the two Croc games here.

EDIT: You know people will want this: [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Operative:_No_One_Lives_Forever#Music]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Operative:_No_One_Lives_Forever#Music[/url] The rights are probably hellish, though. :-/

Side-thought: I do not mean to start an argument over this (yet again), but the various mentions of GOG give fuel to my impression that they should (and they do thus far) continue to hold on to the "top spot in the consumer's mind" as the #1 place to purchase old games (even as they sell some new games), because that's what many people still know them for.

Interesting, I can only access Gameranx through a proxy. Have no idea why.

And considering the article - fine, so there's great and important games that aren't available legally anywhere. That's some big news... Is there a reason why you specifically linked to the "music" section? :B

Funny the article brings up No One Lives Forever, after checking Amazon it is still available for a somewhat decent price. Plus the games work perfectly on Windows 7 based on my experience with the copies I have.

Because (if you don't mind me repeating myself on this subject again and again) time and time again soundtracks seem to be the #1 kind of desired bonus material, so having the music available here on GOG seems like a very good idea. However, I don't know if it would bump up the overall price significantly or if the rights could be acquired. (Unfortunately, it seems like the best music is kept off the site because of price; I'd love if it was at least sold separately.)

Okay, I misunderstood your post. I thought you meant the music would be the reason why the game cannot be published on GOG.

Note though that because of its nature it would be practically impossible to provide Nolf's ingame music as bonus content (while it should be simple legally because Whitmore was Monolith's internal composer, so whoever owns the rights to the game probably also owns the rights to the music). The problem is that it consists of lots of short snippets including elements that are meant to be played randomly and comes along with zillions of transitions for different situations etc. - it's probably near impossible to turn the soundtrack into actual songs and I guess that's the reason why the bonus audio CD of the GOTY edition did not contain the soundtrack but some other music inspired by the 60's. And frankly I don't care about bonus content which is not related to the game. :P

Im glad they remembered Front Page Sports Football. THE FM of the american football world. Most disappointed there hasnt been anything close to it since then (Madden is all about action,,,not so much a career sim :/). Chances are Gog will never get it since its a niche product & i could be wrong it had official nfl names in the games back then. There were a few other nfl sims back then but none as good as FPSF

Some people are unable or unwilling to acquire them in the way you're suggesting. They are, for those people, not really available. Saying, "you really should play NOLF" is about as useful saying "you ought to write your own OS", they're equally baffling and outside what they are willing or able to do.

If you're unwilling to accept the abandonware concept then get on amazon and buy a disc for $10. How is the title "games we CAN'T play" not a stupid and misleading one?

If you can buy them legally retail then I don't really see the point of the author. 10 years before that was standard and there is still nothing wrong with ordering something and get it delivered by mail instead by email.