What I meant was, that you can not just insert the backup CD and then think the game is ready to play.
When you make a backup copy, it will only be install files you backup.

But you're not supposed to. From the GOG.com FAQ:



The misconception that "if I can pass it around, that must mean I'm allowed to" is why developers who offer downloads need to put DRM on their downloads in the first place. It's not to punish the user, and it's not going to stop piracy from happening, but it does prevent the casual passing around of a game that can eat into sales.

It's definitely the responsibility of the developer (or the shop - whoever's offering the download) to provide a good user experience. Ideally the DRM should be as hassle-free as possible and the download process should be easier than getting into the car and driving to the store.

Thanx Misslilo.
I definitely want to doewnload 3 games from GoG. I certainly dont want to9 pass them on to anybody else, except maybe only to my son which I do all the time with my boxed games and have done for ages without as far as I know infringing any copyrights.
But I travel a great deal and would like to play them in my many off-moments. I have 2 laptops but neither has a connection to the Internet.

Please could you explain exactly jow I do this; or maybe somebody else.
When i install a boxed game I get a hnumber of files in a folder and often 1 or more subfolders. I suppose that all of these are downloaded from GoG and are the only things needed to platy the games with no need to contact them or anything else.
I assume that it is these files and maybe subfolders with files that you copy onto a blank CD or DVD.
When I want to play the game from one of my laptops, what exactly do I do? Do I just open a folder on the hard disk of my laptop then copy all the files from my CD to that folder and then from those files alone on my laptops hard disk without any more ado I can play the game.
I wonder if this is completely correct.
I would be very grateful for advice.

Have you contacted GOG support to ask how to do this? I am sure their customer support could best serve you with the most accurate information.

Ana

My goodness, this is all very complicated for li'l ol' me. I don't even know what DRM means. And I don't know how to make copies of any games I play, boxed or download.
BTW, Adventure Shop sent me emails this morning on my request (and cancellation) for help. In the help email they explained very clearly how to make a new file folder, for which I am very grateful (and so is my husband as he didn't know either) and now I'm more than ever in favor of downloads. Let's hear it for Adventure Shop! And make MaG happy, I hope.

About pirates: I have to admit that way back in the early days of Sierra my husband had a pirated copy of Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards, a game I never would have considered playing by reason of the title alone. However there it was on the computer and when I had nothing better to do, I started to play it, and got hooked, that disco part was hilarious. After that, the rest of the games were bought, so I think Sierra got the best of that deal in the end. Meaning maybe pirates can also help the genre. Nothing is ALL bad, or ALL good, for that matter.

@harhan

When you have paid for the game on GOG, then you go to your acount there and find the games.
There's an option to either list them or have them stand on nice shelfs with the boxart from the front showing

Most of the time it's only 1 file to download (an install file plus of course the manual in pdf format).
Sometimes there's goodies too - wallpapers, soundtracks etc.

You can backup this file to a CD, then put the CD in a laptop and install the game from the CD by double clicking this file to install the game to your laptop.
It will put an icon on your laptop desktop, which you just doubeclick to play the game

It's really easy when you first try it

The GOG team actually modify the install file, so it comes with either DOSBox or ScummVM, which lets us play all these fine old games without any problems.

Many thanx Misslilo for your time and a good description.
One very last short question I promise to make it totally clear for me. Sorry for being a bit dim.

When you " --- double clicking this file to install the game to your laptop." do you have to be online connected to Internet?

No, no need to be online/connected for installing or playing the games at all

Donloads are fine with me and I think I am beginning to prefer them. I think it's a great option when games are either not going to come to the states or are hard to find. I just re-downloaded a game because I bought a laptop and wanted to replay that game on the laptop rather than on my desktop and had no problems. I am like Becky, I don't replay adventure games and want to play the new ones.

Thanks for the full picture now Misslilo.

I too greatly support downloads but only those like GoG and at least one other download site which downloads without the limiting DRMs. I'm hoping that gradually the other download sites will follow their example so that nobody needs to criticize the downloading of adventure games.
The situation may be somewhat different with casual and hidden object games.

By the way: There has been a lot of controvery also on another main forum at the same time as here in 2 recent threads. Nearly all the posters there refuse to download with DRMs - Digital rights management.
But no way does that mean that majority of players there are opposed.

One of those threads is here.

And another very long thread here.

Even thhough I feel strongly about this subject since I feel it may ruin my beloved adventure genre, ive written too much and and so this is my last post on the subject.
Thanks to any who have listened.

Please......

Like I said before I Cannot Download and I LOVED collecting the box version. When I order from Dave at interact Cd, he is in California and I am in Maryland it only takes 2-3 days to get to me no longer then that. I hate the thoughts of this someday coming to an end for me . I hope there is enough people out there that will still support the box version so they will still publish it.

I think we no longer have the intent of the thread in mind. There are plenty of threads here also that are against, it's to be expected. Those that are against something are more prone to post. The rest are happily gaming.

Ana

The casual forum is full of gamers that are happy downloading games.
They also download full adventures from Kheops, frogwares and independent developers as well as casuals.

Part of the reason might be the learning curve, the store's presentation or the publicity.
BF have activation codes too.

Harhan3, what other site than GOG downloads without DRM? :StPats:

Hi harhan3,
So DRM stands for Digital Rights Management. Now I am beginning to understand what some of this is all about! Thanks a heap!

BTW, I clicked on those 2 links you posted and read up on some, not all as they go on and on, of the discussions there, very interesting.

Hello SharonB

In my post above I stated "ive written too much and and so this is my last post on the subject.
Thanks to any who have listened."
However without entering again into this controversial topic at all, I will answer a question put to me just as others have helped me on GameBoomers.

Two such Sites apparently offer games with no DRM, Digital Rights Management, at all.
I know nothing about either site for good or bad. I simply noticed that somebody very near the end of the thread I linked to in a recent post mentioned them
They are Gamersgate and Stardock. I looked them up on Google, but as I said above I cannot vouch for either or against them.

Later on ---
I looked up one of the two suggestions and I'm not certain that its games are downloaded without any DRM.
imho more investigation is needed by anybvody wishing to go that way.

I'm disappointed that more people didn't post in favour of download games to get more of a balance of opinion As MaG has indicated in her post below, players are taking advantage of the download option despite DRM. Also many of the games are still available in boxed versions. I think the casual game portals are a little different in that many offer membership packages which, if you subscribe to them, mean that you can download games at a very low cost - I think that must make a difference! I think the reason that maybe there weren't more posts pro downloads, apart from players being too busy gaming , is that there is no immediate danger of the option going away as opposed to our beloved boxed versions!

Sorry Ana,

I must have over looked that post from Chrissie. Sorry also to you Chrissie. I had only one thing on my mind and that was someone to give me a ray of hope that this would not happen, because I am a hopeless worrier . I will not post on this subject again unless someone eles starts a new thread on the subject and then I would only post once. Sorry again to all, forgive me.

Hi Trinny3, not to worry! I think the thread just got carried away!

I also prefer to buy my games on disk when possible. I always have, but I would have been skewed that way anyway because highspeed internet wasn't available in my area until relatively recently. The local utility companies weren't in any hurry to upgrade when half the power lines were on emergency poles at any given time. It takes years sometimes for the companies to replace them when any are lost. (Manpower has been a bit low for years, and the companies keep having to spell each other with all these weather-related disasters we've had in our country...and then too the urban & upscale areas tend to get the best repairs first.) They have never been in any hurry to upgrade our area. The most influential people here are also older, and not big internet users. Many of them still don't use computers much.

With that in mind, its hard not to think that a sufficiently bad hurricane or other disaster could render it impractical for the utility companies to maintain broadband options here. You probably wouldn't think they'd do that --but a lady who worked for the phone company confirmed that to keep basic services running, downgraded 'emergency lines' can be put up rapidly, and once up, they often aren't in a hurry to upgrade for fun extras like DSL. Too many disasters, and even cable may not regard replacing the best lines to keep those top services for your neighborhood worth a rush job.

I am presuming that this concern is over-rated for the rest of the post, but I thought it worth mentioning once.

I have tried a few download purchases. The utility purchases went fine, and they give you lots of data you can save to get going again if something goes wrong, you have to reformat or whatever. You can usually save the downloads & the license. They have backups in place to notice if the process fails - like if you lost power while downloading/activating etc. (This happened to us once.)

Some game download sales went fine, but others left me feeling a little burned - and yes the activation and other limitations have everything to do with it, so its kinda hard to talk about whether one is as good as the other without bringing that up.

Mulawa is one who does it right. The games I buy from him I can save & even get another copy if I lose the first somehow...which has happened. I have no hesitation buying games from Mulawa anytime. I found Paypal awkward, but now Paypal has made my usual method easier, so that's alright too.

I downloaded copies of Sam & Max (PC version) from Telltale & later bought the disks in their box...I am MUCH happier with the disks, as the individual episodes will always need 'activation' and I might want to play on the pc that is never online, but Telltale is pretty reasonable to work with when its their own titles. They will sell you the disk version for not too much more at the end of the season. I like that a lot.

I bought Strongbad on the Wii - and it was fine to play, and Nintendo has made it possible to save those on the flash cards, so that's not too bad (they also keep track so you can download again). The price was reasonable too. Of course, that was Telltale again.

Al Emmo was another matter, sadly. I still haven't been able to save it since I bought it..so I am stuck leaving it on my hard drive..and having to have it online made me uncomfortable. It was a fun game, but I paid as much for it as any boxed Nancy Drew, and it came with all these annoyances.

I don't LIKE playing single player adventure games online that are fullscreen experiences because I can't see any security warnings..and when it isn't fullscreen, it isn't terribly immersive.

Hopefully a happy method can be found that makes the process more reliably enjoyable in the future, but right now disks are definitely the better choice for gaming purchases whenever possible. I feel its worth the wait.

I have also heard the manufactured disks last longer than ones you can make. This isn't as big a deal for utilities because they become obsolete in a very few years anyway, but really good games I might want to replay for a long time.

Oh dear oh dear --- I said I wouldn't continue but with all the many posts on this subject in various forums I honestly cant remember anybody seriously mentioning disruption of Net access due to severe weather conditions and especially in your part of the world Salar - another factor and cause for thought.

So if you have a prolonged disruption from your ISP what do you do with games that you must have connection to Internet before you play and or install them?
Players who only have dialup have mentioned their inability to download games especially as they tend to get bigger and often run into over a gigabyte.
But I haven't thought of hurricanes, typhoons and just plain foul weather conditions.
Not good at all for downloads that need internet connections after the first initial download.
Mind you, breakdowns in WWW connection for lengthy periods even withot storms also is terribly frustrating if you just want to play a game and cant cos contact with the net for any reason is essential.

Gee, what if it's a bad storm and your power goes out? Maybe PC games aren't such a good idea after all and we should have stuck with board games that we can play in candlelight!

Powerouts??!!
One of the reasons why I've seriously thought of getting a small generator for home use, lol

We have had power outings when obviously we cant use our PC, but we can still use our laptops which are not connected to the Net so we can play discs but not anything that needs the Internet for anything.
PS
Love your "Land of Hamlet" Misslilo.
PPS
Maybe you are lucky to live in an area free from power cuts.
Also when the weather is bad, especially lightening etc our ISP goes down sometimes for considerable periods whilst we still have normal electricity - and so although we cant acces the Net, we dont need candles.

Truth be told, I don't think I've EVER experienced powerouts - so it's not something we get much here in denmark

Lost internet connection is a different matter.
Happens occasionally if our ISP work on the cables or phone companies break the lines
The longest was 1 week without internet!!
Of course back then I only had one connection - today I've learned my lesson and now have 2 different ISP's

And to be clear about my view on game downloads - I really don't mind at all.
But since I'm also an "obsessed" collector, I like to have the boxed version too, lol.