video game preservation

blizzard’s-pulling-of-warcraft-i-&-ii-tests-gog’s-new-preservation-program

Blizzard’s pulling of Warcraft I & II tests GOG’s new Preservation Program

Blizzard, DRM, DRM-free, game preservation, gaming, gog, video game preservation, Warcraft, warcraft 3, warcraft 3 reforged, warcraft II, Warcraft III / /

GOG’s version goes a bit beyond the classic versions that were on sale on Blizzard.net. Beyond the broad promise that “this is the best version of this game you can buy on any PC platform,” GOG has made specific tweaks to the networking code for Warcraft I and fixed up the DirectX wrapper for Warcraft II to improve its scaling on modern monitor resolutions.

It’s quite a novel commitment, keeping non-revenue-generating games playable for buyers, even after a publisher no longer makes them available for sale. The Warcraft titles certainly won’t be the only games for which publisher enthusiasm lags behind GOG and its classic gamers.

As noted at the Preservation Program’s launch, for some titles, GOG does not have the rights to modify a game’s build, and only its original developers can do so. So if GOG can’t make it work in, say, DOSBox, extraordinary efforts may be required.

A screenshot from Blizzard's Warcraft II: Remastered release, showing brick keeps, archers, footsoldiers, dragons around a roost, and knights on horseback units.

Warcraft II: Remastered lets you switch back and forth between classic and remastered graphics and promises to offer better support for widescreen monitors and more units selected at once.

Credit: Blizzard

Warcraft II: Remastered lets you switch back and forth between classic and remastered graphics and promises to offer better support for widescreen monitors and more units selected at once. Credit: Blizzard

Beyond being tied to Blizzard’s Battle.net service in perpetuity, there are other reasons Warcraft fans might want to hold onto the originals. Blizzard’s 2020 release of Warcraft III Reforged was widely panned as uneven, unfinished, and in some ways unfair, as it, too, removed the original Warcraft III from stores. Reforged was still in rough shape a year later, leading Ars’ list of 2020’s most disappointing games. A 2.0 update promised a total reboot, but fans remain torn on the new art styles and are somewhat wary.

Then again, you can now select more units in the first two Warcraft games’ remasters, and you get “numerous visual updates for the UI.”

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gog’s-preservation-program-is-the-drm-free-store-refocusing-on-the-classics

GOG’s Preservation Program is the DRM-free store refocusing on the classics

game preservation, gaming, gog, Good Old Games, video game preservation / /

The classic PC games market is “in a sorry state,” according to DRM-free and classic-minded storefront GOG. Small games that aren’t currently selling get abandoned, and compatibility issues arise as technology moves forward or as one-off development ideas age like milk.

Classic games are only 20 percent of GOG’s catalog, and the firm hasn’t actually called itself “Good Old Games” in 12 years. And yet, today, GOG announces that it is making “a significant commitment of resources” toward a new GOG Preservation Program. It starts with 100 games for which GOG’s own developers are working to create current and future compatibility, keeping them DRM-free and giving them ongoing tech support, along with granting them a “Good Old Game: Preserved by GOG” stamp.

Selection of games available in GOG's

Credit: GOG

GOG is not shifting its mission of providing a DRM-free alternative to Steam, Epic, and other PC storefronts, at least not entirely. But it is demonstrably excited about a new focus that ties back to its original name, inspired in some part by its work on Alpha Protocol.

“We think we can significantly impact the classics industry by focusing our resources on it and creating superior products,” writes Arthur Dejardin, head of sales and marketing at GOG. “If we wanted to spread the DRM-free gospel by focusing on getting new AAA games on GOG instead, we would make little progress with the same amount of effort and money (we’ve been trying various versions of that for the last 5 years).”

GOG Preservation Program’s launch video.

Getting knights, demons, and zombies up to snuff

What kind of games? Scanning the list of Good Old Games, most of them are, by all accounts, both good and old. Personally, I’m glad to see the Jagged Alliance games, System Shock 2, Warcraft I & II, Dungeon Keeper Gold and Theme Park, SimCity 3000 Unlimited, and the Wing Commander series (particularly, personally, Privateer). Most of them are, understandably, Windows-only, though Mac support extends to 34 titles so far, and Linux may pick up many more through Proton compatibility beyond the 19 native titles to date.

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