Buying Old Games on Stores
Many classic games have been put again on sale over the past decade with the rise of online stores or re-release of classic consoles. This guide will give you some advice before buying online.
PC Game Stores
Good Old Games, now known as GOG, has been around since 2008 and provides very well crafted releases, with tons of extras and are compatible with the newest Windows releases. Multiples languages may be available, as well as soundtracks, Mac / Linux versions and you can install the games on any computer (no DRM). Apart from restoring old games, this Polish company has produced the Witcher game series, an excellent license you should definitely play.
Zoom have been around for several years and have partenered with exclusive publishers for old titles. They offer DRM free releases just like GOG. Most games only have English languages.
Steam was the first digital store to emerge in the early 2000s, starting as a platform for Valve games, then becoming the gaming digital marketplace for PC gamers. Thus some games from mid-2000s have been available since then of Steam, but they are kind of abandoned as game support have been discontinued for years, and won't be restored at all. Watch out for the following message on Steam:
Electronic Arts has created its own digital distribution platform in 2011, named Origin. Some games from EA's catalog are available on Origin, but the availability of these games has been unstable: some games have been removed, some are moved to game packs or are only sold for some countries. Thus, an Origin link may take you to a 404 page or the game catalog homepage. Not a surprise coming from Electronic Arts alas.
Many other platforms are now available, some totally trustable like Humble or BigFishGames, some are more shady like GamersGate or GreenManGaming.
What to expect from these releases
DOS games will usually run fine as they are shipped with DOSBox, but you may have to check the forums to have them run fine on your current setup, like in game resolution to fit widescreen PC monitors.
Windows games bought from GOG should run immediately but may come really ugly, so you should check the forums for community patch. We try to provide these links on the game pages, but you should try PCGamingWiki, ModDB or WSGF. These fan made patches are unofficial and can't be shipped with commercial releases, you'll have to install them yourself.
Console Game Stores and Consoles Re-Releases
Console games have been re-released on the consoles, like Nintendo's Virtual Console or the Playstation Store Classics. These new releases are well done and you should get what you expect from them. The NES, SNES and Playstation consoles were also re-released as standlone mini consoles with a small batch of classic games, perfectly ported for modern TVs.
