24 replies to this topic

[tfishell]

EDIT: Perhaps contact LEGO via Twitter or email to let them know you support this idea.

 

tl;dr: This RRU n00bie/big LEGO and GOG fan is interested in trying to bring classic LEGO games to GOG.com, and was wondering if anyone had any support, suggestions, and feedback.

 

Hey RRU community,

 

I've never posted on your forum before, so I hope I don't speak out of turn, but I have a proposal of sorts that I'm interested in.

 

Some of you may be familiar with the PC/Mac games digital download service GOG.com (formally "Good Old Games" or as I call them, "Good Old Games and more"); despite having moved into new games territory, they are still very well-known around the interwebs as the service dedicated to preserving classic games and tweaking them to work on modern machines. I frequent the forums there A LOT, and thus have a decent reputation and a few developed "digital friendships" over there.

 

A few months back I created a topic dedicated to raising support for bringing the Humongous Entertainment classics (which some of you may be familar with) to GOG, as although they are children's games (which GOG doesn't have very many of), they are very fun point and click adventures of yore. (Plus, the company that bought HE - Atari - is already on GOG, and indie developer Nimbus Games is re-releasing them for iOS and eventually for PC/Mac.) I bring this up because I'm considering doing something similar with the LEGO games (although not tonight; I'm too tired), the pre-movie titles of which are somewhat like the HE games as they are beloved classics that kind of been swept away in the mists of the mind. (Or, both HE games and Lego Island are some of the most posted "nostalgia" images on Reddit Gaming.)

 

GOG will go after games their community shows interest in (look at the recent re-release of System Shock 2) or ones they believe will sell well. They help judge that via the Community Wishlist; I've posted a link to the LEGO titles here: http://www.gog.com/w...tal&search=lego (Please only vote for the ones you're interested in, to keep it accurate.) Also, you can contact GOG saying you would like to see LEGO on GOG here: http://www.gog.com/s...uestions_issues (just realize you'll get a generic response about how bringing games to GOG can be tricky due to legal and liscensing issues)

 

Having browsed just a tad before posting, it does seem like this community has developed some connections with people who have worked on some of these games, I was wondering if you all could think of anyone who might still have "sway" with those in the LEGO world. I'd be willing to contact them if you don't really want to.

 

In essense, I'm looking for support if you like this idea (email GOG and vote on the wishlist), and for your ideas as to how I can help make this happen. I plan on making a thread on GOG dedicated to this eventually, but again, I'm tired and am partially focused on the HE titles.

 

Thanks everyone.

 

EDIT: Free bonus content is also big over at GOG, so some sort of Lego Island soundtrack would be nice (although getting The Torpedoes music for that release would probably be next to impossible, unless they were desperate for money. ); also, the Lego Island comic book was really fun to look at.

[jamesster]

I've never heard of GOG before now, but it sounds interesting. I'm always up for classic LEGO games, of course. Voted, and I'll drop in an email as well.

[Cyrem]

I've never heard of GOG before now, but it sounds interesting. I'm always up for classic LEGO games, of course. Voted, and I'll drop in an email as well.

 

Wait what? You mean you've never noticed that every RRU competition has had a prize of a free game(s) from GOG?

[jamesster]

I've never heard of GOG before now, but it sounds interesting. I'm always up for classic LEGO games, of course. Voted, and I'll drop in an email as well.

 
Wait what? You mean you've never noticed that every RRU competition has had a prize of a free game(s) from GOG?

I've never entered any contests, so no.

[McJobless]

Some of you may be familiar with the PC/Mac games digital download service GOG.com (formally "Good Old Games" or as I call them, "Good Old Games and more"); despite having moved into new games territory, they are still very well-known around the interwebs as the service dedicated to preserving classic games and tweaking them to work on modern machines. I frequent the forums there A LOT, and thus have a decent reputation and a few developed "digital friendships" over there.

Beyond aware of it; couple games on it, and I plan on getting System Shock 2. I wish we could have a blend of Steam's UI and games library, with GOG.com's game library and its absence of DRM.

A few months back I created a topic dedicated to raising support for bringing the Humongous Entertainment classics (which some of you may be familar with) to GOG, as although they are children's games (which GOG doesn't have very many of), they are very fun point and click adventures of yore. (Plus, the company that bought HE - Atari - is already on GOG, and indie developer Nimbus Games is re-releasing them for iOS and eventually for PC/Mac.) I bring this up because I'm considering doing something similar with the LEGO games (although not tonight; I'm too tired), the pre-movie titles of which are somewhat like the HE games as they are beloved classics that kind of been swept away in the mists of the mind. (Or, both HE games and Lego Island are some of the most posted "nostalgia" images on Reddit Gaming.)

I absolutely love the HE games. A love no-one could ever understand. It makes me sick that they're going to iOS first, but at least they'll be re-released on their true platform.

GOG will go after games their community shows interest in (look at the recent re-release of System Shock 2) or ones they believe will sell well. They help judge that via the Community Wishlist; I've posted a link to the LEGO titles here: http://www.gog.com/w...tal&search=lego (Please only vote for the ones you're interested in, to keep it accurate.) Also, you can contact GOG saying you would like to see LEGO on GOG here: http://www.gog.com/s...uestions_issues (just realize you'll get a generic response about how bringing games to GOG can be tricky due to legal and liscensing issues)

 

In essense, I'm looking for support if you like this idea (email GOG and vote on the wishlist), and for your ideas as to how I can help make this happen. I plan on making a thread on GOG dedicated to this eventually, but again, I'm tired and am partially focused on the HE titles.

I'll be getting right on to it soon enough.

[tfishell]

Please let me know when you all have any suggestions on how I should proceed.

[tfishell]

By the way, has the community found compatibility workarounds for games like LEGO Island on Win Vista - 8? Is it rather hit or miss?

[Cirevam]

We sorta have known workarounds and settings. It seems like we have to handle most compatibility issues on a case-by-case basis. Some people, like me, have absolutely zero problems running most LEGO games. Others need to adjust things in their GPU settings or force other things on top of Compatibility Mode just to get the game to start. If LEGO games did appear on GOG then we might have to take the best known settings as a default and warn people that they may have to adjust other settings depending on their setup.

[MrEightThreeOne]

Oh heck YES.

These games have suffered Keep Circulating the Tapes for a while now, not to mention as time goes on, compatibility naturally becomes more difficult, and LEGO has not done diddly-squat to combat that. It would be my dream to have these updated for modern computers; Lego Island Xtreme Stunts is one of the worst cases of these, as it is not only the least known game in the series (despite being miles better than its predecessor), but it is also notoriously difficult to run on modern computers. In fact Windows 98 and XP are pretty much the only ones where it will actually run without any issue, not to mention it also has that evil saving glitch. Some have aged better than others, but all in all I am all for LEGO games on GOG. I'd love to see the Humongous games on there too, given I'm also a big fan of those (more so than LEGO, in fact), since those have also had some issues on modern machines, like how the older ones use 16-bit launchers that cannot be run on 64-bit computers without a workaround. But I wholeheartedly think LEGO deserves a spot as well. They're hit-and-miss games to me, but the ones that are good are really good.

[tfishell]

Oh heck YES.

These games have suffered Keep Circulating the Tapes for a while now, not to mention as time goes on, compatibility naturally becomes more difficult, and LEGO has not done diddly-squat to combat that. It would be my dream to have these updated for modern computers; Lego Island Xtreme Stunts is one of the worst cases of these, as it is not only the least known game in the series (despite being miles better than its predecessor), but it is also notoriously difficult to run on modern computers. In fact Windows 98 and XP are pretty much the only ones where it will actually run without any issue, not to mention it also has that evil saving glitch. Some have aged better than others, but all in all I am all for LEGO games on GOG. I'd love to see the Humongous games on there too, given I'm also a big fan of those (more so than LEGO, in fact), since those have also had some issues on modern machines, like how the older ones use 16-bit launchers that cannot be run on 64-bit computers without a workaround. But I wholeheartedly think LEGO deserves a spot as well. They're hit-and-miss games to me, but the ones that are good are really good.

 

Hey, you're the dude that runs HumongousSoundtracks, aren't you? (And got over a million views for your LEGO Island walkthrough?) Fantastic stuff. I hope to see the Humongous soundtracks released on GOG as bonus content, too, if a deal needs to be and could be worked out with Team Fat (music from Jeremy Soule is actually already on there). I think I already contacted you about this on YouTube, but if you get a chance (and have a GOG account), perhaps you could post here a message of support? http://www.gog.com/f..._support_thread Oh, and please vote for what you'd like to see on GOG on the wishlist. http://www.gog.com/wishlist/games

 

As far as compatiblity goes for Humongous games, thanks to SCUMMVM (http://scummvm.org/) it's easy as pie to make the games run on new machines (since they were created in the SCUMM engine). I actually recently ... torrented ... Pajama Sam 1 and 2, and Spy Fox 1 (temporarily as I do not own anything to play the iOS versions on), and it was basically just drag and drop to SCUMMVM. (Only problem was I couldn't save through SCUMMVM's system; I happened to remember "S" key.) Anyway, compatility should be a snap; I'm just trying to (without annoying the staff) make GOG see that there's a place for these good old kids games there. (although they probably wouldn't sell well at 9.99; I'd like to see a 5.99 price tag for basically all, and bundling of the older titles like a Freddi Fish 1&2 pack)

 

I'm a bit more concerned about LEGO compatibility, unfortunately. While the GOG team do make mistakes (and you will see posts complaining about compatilibty on the GOG game forums, b/c people don't realize that GOG can't test on EVERY combination of hardware and software [although they do test on 35-40 machines ... but I'm getting off track]), they're generally pretty good with compatibilty, and WILL NOT release a game unless it can inspection on all the test computers. However, given my experience with LEGO Island on Vista (I got it running thanks to this post, but it always froze on exit) and from what seems to be a "problematic" era of 3D graphics (maybe 1997-2002) I'm not entirely sure what to think. (Plus, GOG virtually never gets access to the source code, so they have to find other workarounds.)

 

Still, of course I hope something good happens.

 

For those who care, I've emailed Wes Jenkins about how I might go about making this happen. (Even though he hasn't been with LEGO for some time, I figured he might have some suggestions or connections.) We'll see what he says.

[MrEightThreeOne]

Yes, I do run HumongousSoundtracks. Unfortunately it's been nine months since I did anything on there. The Fat Man actually has the Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo soundtrack on Vibedeck for free, if you want to check it out (it's beautiful sounding too, as if you were listening to the original masters in full stereo!). We're still waiting for his others, but that one's there in the meantime. I'll be sure to show some support for them when I get the chance.

About being unable to save through ScummVM's save system...apparently they disabled that on games that use a different save system other than through the typical SCUMM method (the Monkey Island and Maniac Mansion games save through the SCUMM system, for example). I find it to be a really dumb move, but if it's what they want, it's what they want.

Wait, you torrented it? Uhhh...if the dev team for SVM were here right now they'd kill us

For LEGO games, here's what my experience is with compatibility...

LEGO Island: This one was wonky when it came out, and it still is. My best advice is just kill off Direct3D HAL altogether -- it's a terrible mode that should have never made it past the QA testing. On XP it's usually fine, on Vista and 7 (I'll call them Aero, because contrary to popular belief, they're actually near identical in terms of compatibility. Anyone who says Vista wasn't needs to actually use it before they jump to conclusions) it's annoying. On 8, the frame rate can be a bit low (I don't know what it is with old games on Windows 8, but for some reason they never seem to run at the right frame rate).

LEGO Island 2: Already covered above.

LEGO Island Xtreme Stunts: Again, covered above.

LEGO Racers: I have yet to find a computer that can't run this game flawlessly, though it's not very good with higher resolutions; I usually just play it in its default resolution.

LEGO Racers 2: Same as above, in fact the only thing I really think needs to be done is get rid of the RAM check altogether (not just fix it, kill it entirely). You see, this game has a bug that prevents it from being installed on machines with more than 2 GB of RAM, because it checks it with a signed 32-bit integer that overflows there.

LEGO Alpha Team: On XP, it has that dreaded looping glitch, where the voices and music get stuck in an infinite loop and prevent progress without being turned off. Aero plays it fine, Windows 8 has a bug where you get a window border around it unless you use a QRes fix, but it otherwise works fine.

LEGO Stunt Rally: I've heard reports about it crashing on some screens, and I hear some versions won't even run without a printer (I've been able to do it though, which makes no sense), and it's also one that doesn't cooperate well with Windows 8. I haven't had any issues other than the W8 issue, but I dunno.

LEGOLAND: Works fine, except for its dreaded 16-bit installer, but thankfully that can be worked around. It also has to be run as an administrator if you're on Aero or above (Screw the start screen, the UAC is the stupidest thing Microsoft has ever invented!).

LEGO Rock Raiders: On Windows 8 it runs at a super low frame rate unless you're windowed. No clue what that's about. Most other OSes run it fine though, but the music will often not play. At first I thought it was because it was one of those that called cdplayer.exe to play the music which was scrapped out of 9x versions, but it plays on my current computer so I don't know.

LEGO Chess: I've heard of all kinds of problems with this one. It uses a 16-bit installer from what I hear, but that's only the beginning. Some others might be able to inform you more about this.

Creator: Haven't tried this one on any other computers besides XP, so I don't know if it runs on Aero or 8.

Drome Racers: Have no clue, but the fact that nobody's ever asked anything in the support forum about this makes it look promising.

Soccer Mania: The game runs, but I hear it has a messed up save system. Others can probably tell you more about this.

LOCO: The biggest issue is that if your resolution width is not between 800 and 1280 and the height is not between 600 and 1024, the game will not run. Your resolution can be anywhere between there (even if it's completely illogical and irregular, like 1142 x 689), but if it is not, the game won't run. I imagine this could probably be fixed by making it automatically switch to a resolution though.

 

So, that's my knowledge on most of it.

[McJobless]

(I'll call them Aero, because contrary to popular belief, they're actually near identical in terms of compatibility. Anyone who says Vista wasn't needs to actually use it before they jump to conclusions)

I used Vista, and Rock Raiders refused to run. It runs without needing anything (except the codec pack) on Windows 7. I think from experience I might have a right to jump to conclusions.

 

I also wish that the Aero interface and the Metro interface could both royally f**** off.

[le717]

on Vista and 7 (I'll call them Aero, because contrary to popular belief, they're actually near identical in terms of compatibility. Anyone who says Vista wasn't needs to actually use it before they jump to conclusions)

 

I'll agree with you on Vista and 7 being the same later on in Vista's lifetime, but it still had issues running older games. Do I need to bring up the three topics we have about Racers not running on Vista, something that I experienced first-hand?

 

 

LOCO: The biggest issue is that if your resolution width is not between 800 and 1280 and the height is not between 600 and 1024, the game will not run. Your resolution can be anywhere between there (even if it's completely illogical and irregular, like 1142 x 589), but if it is not, the game won't run. I imagine this could probably be fixed by making it automatically switch to a resolution though.

 

720p LOCO. (Nah, can already do it.) I'd imagine it actually having better resolution support, perhaps using your monitor's native resolution.

 

 

LEGO Alpha Team: On XP, it has that dreaded looping glitch, where the voices and music get stuck in an infinite loop and prevent progress without being turned off. Aero plays it fine, Windows 8 has a bug where you get a window border around it unless you use a QRes fix, but it otherwise works fine.

 

Confimed border issue and fix on Win8. Even the JP Demo has it. Audio looping glitch, I did a bit of research into that a while back, and I generated a theory that it's not really XP causing the issue, but the game files themselves. It needs and installs a few DLLs that deal with the audio and videos, and on WinXP Home, they do not exist until the game adds them. XP Pro (from what I gathered from what you yourself said), Vista and 7 (both checked) already contain those DLLs, and a newer version of them, causing me to believe that the DLLs from the game had compiling errors.So for AT to run correctly on modern PCs, newer (Win 7) DLLs would need to be packaged instead of the originals.

[MrEightThreeOne]

But I hear it works just fine on Windows 98...

[tfishell]

Wait, you torrented it? Uhhh...if the dev team for SVM were here right now they'd kill us

 

I not exactly proud of it, but I tried to provide an explanation of why I did it. I own a copy of Pajama Sam 1 and 2, and Spy Fox 1 on CD, but I do not have the discs with me because I'm not at my parents' house right now (and I have no way to buy them online easily). So I torrented them to see how they worked on SCUMMVM.

 

I understand that that's very murky justification, and it's probably best that most people are not comfortable with my actions.

 

On the other topic, I appreciate you discussing compatibility with these old games. GOG won't release them unless each one works on each of their test machines. (It's too bad these are not Glide compatible games [so they could be run through nGlide], or that there doesn't appear to be an "old-Direct3D emulator" or something.)

 

Yes, I do run HumongousSoundtracks. Unfortunately it's been nine months since I did anything on there. The Fat Man actually has the Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo soundtrack on Vibedeck for free, if you want to check it out (it's beautiful sounding too, as if you were listening to the original masters in full stereo!). We're still waiting for his others, but that one's there in the meantime. I'll be sure to show some support for them when I get the chance.

 

Wow, that is excellent sounding! It would be fantastic if GOG could cut a deal with Team Fat to release the soundtrack alongside Putt-Putt StZ (I would hope that they would appreciate the exposure), but if it were to raise the price by 5 bucks, I'm not sure GOG would go for it. EDIT: Oh well, if GOG is unable to provide the soundtracks, I guess (thanks to your knowledge) I could upload the low-qual music to Dropbox and share that with people on the GOG forum (when the games come.)

[Lair of Rockwhales]

I also wish that the Aero interface could royally f**** off.

You mean the same Aero interface I use to force Fraps to record the whole screen when it hates a game's 3D? No thanks. (though to be fair, I usually disable it for normal uses) How is it even anything like Metro? It's just a style to the same old interface.
 

The Fat Man actually has the Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo soundtrack on Vibedeck for free

"Minimum price: USD $4.49" isn't free. The other PPStZ thing he has there requires you to tweet something 31 characters over the limit to download.

[MrEightThreeOne]

Aero is very different actually. It uses something called DWM to render rather than GDI, which changes a lot more than you think. Metro uses DWM too. I hate both, honestly. Aero is just overly obnoxious and distracting, and Metro has the bloody start screen (which, even as someone who doesn't hate Windows 8's guts, I still can't stand it).

For the soundtrack, it said "List Your Price", so that's what I assumed. Sorry.

[tfishell]

Thanks for your post in the Humongous thread, 831, I really appreciate it.

 

I learned something today that may help with compatibility for those that need it. A fellow GOGer posted https://docs.google....YJBT15FTx0/edit on the GOG forum, which says that Windows 95 can be installed within DOSBox. Theoretically, one could install Win 95 and play many of these early LEGO games within. Two problems: the person playing would need a very powerful PC to do this, and you would need to pirate Win95.

 

However, it appears that GOG has been in talks with Microsoft for the past few months about becoming a publisher, so there may be something to this.

[MrEightThreeOne]

That would be helpful, except there's a few major problems there...

1. Windows 95 is not officially supported in DOSBox yet. It's really unstable and can crash at the slightest touch.

2. DOSBox does not support emulation of hardware 3D acceleration, which almost every LEGO game requires. In fact I can only think of four that don't (Island, Creator, LEGOLAND, and LOCO). There is a custom build that supports it, but I have tinkered with it so much and I just cannot get it to work. I hear they're hard at work on it, but it's been 2 years since the last stable release of DOSBox.

You can buy 95 off eBay actually (I don't know how the whole OEM thing works, but it can be worked around from what I hear). I happen to have a CD version (OSR 2.5, and the one I bought off eBay) and the original 13 floppy version (RTM. My dad bought this for our old 486 in its prime. Sadly, it's just the upgrade version).

[tfishell]

Very old thread, but I saw this on r/gaming with a significant 1400+ upvotes:

 

http://www.reddit.co...rld_games_ever/