A lot of the old games you can get pre owned on Amazon. Game itself is usually a few pennies and you pay a few pound delivery. I picked up Mage Knight Apocalypse this way a few month back and it works fine on modern systems, it was actually factory sealed so even better. Thing is though, looking around in shops they don't have it anymore and they won't order it in for you either, they just can't get some of these old games.

The budget ranges recently like Sold Out (Mastertronic for all the old schoolers like me going back to the days of 8 Bit). They only manage to get certain old games but they don't work their magic like GOG and some of the time the releases just won't work even though all patches are on the disc. Prisoner of War for example just glitches constantly and you can't change any of the detail settings or it crashes to desktop.

Some of the other budget labels seem to have gone the way of the DoDo though, Xplosiv don't appear to be around now, havn't seen any of their stuff in ages, same goes for the Take 2 budget range.

I don't mind getting stuff on disc, even if it doesn't work so at least I can say that I actually have it and legally own it.

Hopefully one day we will see the likes of NOLF 1 & 2 and Contract Jack (Spin off from NOLF) land here. As GOG gets bigger and better with a bit of luck more companies will put their trust in them and we will start seeing bigger names here. The guys here do a great job as it is but bear in mind that they are still relatively new, it takes time to build relations with developers and I'm sure they can and will sort through the red tape.

I believe it's not about not getting the oldies at all, as far as I understood it's more that some of the classics will get forgotten because while not available on the big stores they're out of focus for a big group of younger gamers. That's what I got from that line with the female protagonist, people will remember the protagonists from the longest journey or beyond good and evil but not no one lives forever. So, in the writers eyes the availability on the shops will define what will be seen as a classic in the future While there is for sure a tendency to online and impulse shopping (many are buying and recognizing games because they are on gog or steam), I really don't believe it will be the only source which will define a games status. I still believe the most fame and reputation is still created by the quotation of todays developers (our game is in the sprit of...) , in forum postings, nostalgia articles and best-of lists.

Edit: Maybe I misunderstood the article completely or interpret to much in that sentence, to be honest I had some problem to get the point of the article. At last I share the wish that more oldies should be available on the digital shops.

I had the similar impression. Due to the lacking legal availability of getting them in digital distribution, those games don't get the spotlight they deserve.

You can get every game you want due to piracy, but they aren't advertised or talked about. For somebody who never heard of NOLF there isn't really a reason to go looking for it. If it would be on GOG people would be raving about it.

Just look at the forum here, whenever people ask for recommendations, 99% of the time only games legally available on GOG, GG, etc gets recommended. Only outstanding "abandonware" the occasional mention. If those games where back in distribution, this would change.

The answer to "what is the best adventure game with a rat-on-a-plank puzzle" is ALWAYS Blade Runner, abandonware or not.

Speaking of unavailable old games, I recently read somewhere that Caesar (the original Impressions games one) was released as freeware. Is it still freeware, or was this one of those deals that got rescinded once Activision absorbed Sierra?

How many gamers between 15 and 25 have played Blade Runner? How many even know there is a game of that movie?

Some of the games don't have discs for sale at any reasonable price. Sure, some folks are willing to pay way over original retail for a favorite (I've done it), but that puts it firmly out of the realm of an easily playable game for most people.

NOLF may or may not be available as a disc on Amazon, but certainly not all games are (and even some of those may have compat problems so severe that an average gamer may not be able to overcome them).

This is one of those arguing just to argue things. What does "can't" mean? Is NOLF a game you CAN'T play? Is the article name stupid? These are simple questions to answer.

I'm arguing with what you seem to be implying, that "all" (for some definitions of all) games are pretty much playable by the majority of the population, even if they don't appear on any DD service. I simply don't think that's true, especially when you remove piracy from the equation. NOLF is simply an example the author used, if it was a bad example, so be it, the point he made, though, remains valid in my mind.

I get the feeling StingingVelvet is more going off about the title of the article.. he probably thinks it should be something more like "The Classic Games that are really hard to find legitimate copies of for a reasonable price and/or make work without glitches on modern day PCs."
Which is truer.. but also quite the freakin' mouthful. >.>

Oh okay. Wikipedia probably mentioned that about the short snippets and I probably missed it. :P The bonus audio CD (inspired music would be very nice, though.)

Yeah, I know there are lots of people that don't care about bonus content, which is fine. I'm mainly interested in the soundtracks.

How about "The PC games in danger of being forgotten" or something else sensible. I am very picky about using words with clear meanings the wrong way. These are not games you "can't" play.

Except most of these games aren't in danger of being forgotten either, not any time soon at least... the last generation of gamers will need too die out for there to be a chance of games the likes of System Shock being forgotten, and even then.. it will take a while, because people will remember System Shock, if for no other reason than the knowledge that it was the precursor to Bioshock.

No less "being forgotten" is no stupider/incorrect a wording than "can't play".

"The PC games we can't buy anymore"

Boom, solved*.

*Add digitally if you're really pedantic.

I think you'll find that at least half of that age group has never watched or even heard of the film.