Dual Comm Ep.17 | Discussion

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Thought I would share my thoughts here in the forums regarding Episode 17 since I like sharing links. Also don’t have to worry about the YouTube bots removing the comment because it thinks it’s spam.

Steam/GOG: I also like purchasing games from GOG instead of Steam when it’s possible. We already have the problem you talked about of having games that only work on older versions of Windows, but the Steam client doesn’t support Windows XP/Vista/7/8 anymore. And many of the games have Steam’s DRM baked into the executable, so it’s not as easy as just downloading the game on your modern PC and then copying the files over to a retro PC. At least with GoG the DRM is removed and the installers work in most versions of Windows, giving you the chance to experience the game on original hardware.

GoG isn’t perfect though. They suffer from the “It’s not Steam” problem, like other store do.

  1. Many times you don’t know if/when a game is coming to GoG.
    1. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a recent example. The game released on Steam back in December 2024. Then it got released on GoG this October. That makes me frustrated because I want to own the game on GoG, but I don’t want to purchase it twice.
  2. Some developers/publishers don’t update the games on GoG or they delay it. I noticed this with the Flatout racing games. Whoever owns them now released patches on Steam to add native controller support and replace GameSpy multiplayer with OpenSpy. Those patches have never made it to GoG
  3. Some games may not have as many features as the Steam counterpart. Sometimes this comes down to lack of patches (see above). Other times it may be caused by the integration of Steam Workshop modding.
    1. A Hat in Time and Kerbel Space Program are examples of this.

Talking about keeping copies of your GoG games, I download the installers and keep them on my NAS. It’s not as far as burning them to DVDs, but at least I have a copy kept somewhere. As for actually looking at the library, I love Heroic Games Launcher. It’s not just for Linux, HGL works on Windows, too. I love being able to use HL to see and install all my games from GoG, Epic Games Store, and Amazon. Even better, you don’t have to install those store launchers to use the games (looking at you EGS). Some games may need you to log in through a web browser to access online features (Death Stranding), but the experience is WAY nicer. Even better than that, Herioc Launcher can automatically add the games to your Steam client as “Non-Steam Game” with artwork pulled from SteamGridDB. HGL has been my go to for getting my non-steam games installed. It works on my Linux laptop, it works on my Steam Deck, and it works on my Windows PC.

MTDA (Make TVs Dumb Again): Yeah… the whole situation is bad. Lon Seidman (Lon.TV) made a video and blog post talking about the issue as well, probably spurred by the Consumer Reports article. There are options for non-connected screens. They’re called “large format displays”. Yes, they’re marketed for commercial use, usually digital signage. Yes, they cost more (sometimes significantly) than the consumer counterpart. But, they still have HDMI inputs, come with a regular remote, and don’t require accepting an EULA during first boot. Some may have apps built in, but the Samsungs we buy at work don’t. They only have a built-in web browser. LG Samsung

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So something that’s been rising as a complaint with GOG is that their games are apparently losing old Windows support a lot, too. I’ve noticed a lot of games are only maintained in 64-bit now, and a lot of their self-patched-up ones stay that way, which is unfortunate. It seems some (BG1/2 enhanced as an example) have separate 32-bit installers, but they come with less patch files etc. which makes me think they may not be maintained.

That concerns me. Obviously making them playable on modern hardware should be the top priority, but I’m really worried about how many of these won’t run on XP anymore.

Really regret losing my WinXP install that still had Steam. Steam on XP was awesome in like 2018.

I had noticed the possibility of this, but didn’t realize it was a real issue. That’s… unfortunate. That’s really unfortunate. It’s not surprising (when I syndicate my content elsewhere, the “elsewhere”s get neglected), but disappointing, nonetheless.

This makes it feel more like GOG is “just the backup”, which I don’t like that feeling, for some reason.

This is all VERY interesting. I didn’t know any of this about Heroic.

Ironically, the “have all libraries in one place” I actually hate about GOG Galaxy right now, and constantly have to re-enable the filters to JUST see my GOG games - but the possibility of leveraging Epic games without the launcher is very enticing. I wonder how long until Epic puts an end to that.

Automatically adding to the Steam menu so I don’t have to juggle the extra launchers at all after installing is quite exciting.

Maybe the market has come a long way, but these tend to lack the desirable features for a nice experience, no? Good colors/filmmaker mode, ALLM game modes, etc. They also come with a commercial price to boot, haha.

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+1 for heroic, I find the regular launcher unbearably slow, and it also opens browser windows to make the online work so there’s not much of a benefit for going with the stock launcher.

I have a grand total of 2 examples for games that didn’t work on heroic, “RAVEN2", that game is a mess, barely runs on anything and it uses a secondary launcher, they literally call it “Epic Netmarble Launcher”; and “Unrailed!”, which even on the regular launcher needed a steamworks patch.

iirc Shadow Warrior 2 on the Microsoft Store specifically has all the online features removed, the buttons are missing from the menu.

I think SteamCMD is still officially supported on XP?

Thanks for spreading the word against smart TVs!

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I am presently getting my family shifted to Linux, Heroic will come in handy for the TV PC.

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Heroic is great! I’m with Epos about the GoG Galaxy launcher. Love the idea of it in concept, but I swear every time I boot it up I have to re-login to all my accounts that are supposed to be linked. Haven’t had that issue a single time with Heroic and I’m finally actually playing some of the stuff in my EGS library since I don’t have to use their launcher anymore.

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Oh man, let’s not get started on the MS Store version of games. As Addie talked about in a video, they are the worst versions. Multiplayer doesn’t work with the classic versions. Mods don’t work. The game files are mostly encrypted. Save files may not be encrypted, but their file names are obfuscated to being a random string of characters.

Back during the pandemic I did a trial of Game Pass to play Celeste and Control. Later that year, Control was free on EGS so I grabbed it. I did side by side comparisons of files from the MS Store version to find the save files and get them renamed. Same for Celeste after I bought it from Itch.IO. I feel I was lucky to get the saves for both games working with non MS Store versions.

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y’know, I recall an interview with devs from windows 8 days, they were saying that the UWP format was just made as a container to have the same executable work on both tablets and xboxones, there was no reason for them to be exclusive to the company’s store. Recently, I saw confirmation of that, as a certain team that fixes online games got to store exclusives and made them behave like regular games with accessible files, minus a small .bat script that you have to run with developer mode enabled to add the game launcher to the start menu.
Edit: the online still depends on the Win+G game bar overlay thing to join people