Even though I'm perfectly aware there will be zero replies, I won't just break with good traditions, so I'm posting this thread for comments and discussion of the latest editorial here:

Jumping the CD hurdle

Well, I feel I don't have enough exeperience to comment some editorials, I for example wouldn't be able to say anything about ways of sharing big games.

But what I can say is that putting CD-Roms on webpages should become more common, as many start to become nearly impossible to get. For example, I have not seen in years a Dragon Lore copy apart from mine, also the same for The Seventh Guest, or a more local example, Justicieros, a shooter like the ones from pistol arcades with videos. Those are interesting games, but where can you see them?

Already many CD-Rom games had been abandoned, and many, the big ones (in size), will be soon. A bunch can still be found in second hand stores, I have seen even some "One Must Fall" in one and got a "Lords of the Realm II" for example, but they will end disappearing like the floppy ones.

I hope the problems for offering them becomes easily solvable soon. Having a computer connected all day for that sound like the best answer, but I think many people wouldn't do the work that it requires.

I have The 7th Guest. I don't consider it very interesting, but it certainly exists

Anyway, we already have that first solution running here, so you can just start setting an example. Maybe if it becomes more common on some sites (like this one), the word will spread to others as well.

Oh, and 'not enough experience' isn't a very good reason not to comment on something. A technical expert (no, I'm not necessarily talking about me here) can still have a very narrow view on things, so input from all kinds of people is always needed.

I liked 7th guest because all of the puzzles, and as a kid I found it creepy. But the problem is that CD games tend to give more trouble when making them run, for example Justicieros, which is the one I'm more interesting in making a review of due to it's rarity, even here now that Dinamic dissapeared, but it requires windows 95 and eve thought XP is supposed to be compatible with it, it isn't in this case, but I hope to solve it.

Well, I'll take a look at what I have, but, what would be the size limit? Dragon Lore 2 is good for example, but it's three CDs.

Currently, the partition housing the data storage is 25GB big. It's full when it's full. Usually, I would think twice about adding something larger than one single CD, but if it's a really worthy addition and doesn't become the rule, go ahead.

However, don't just start uploading anything. The partition is also in dire need of cleaning, so I need to do some backups before any bigger additions can be made

Well, I have to make them work, but I hope that with dosbox I can make great part of them work quickly, and then see if they are as good as I remember, even the ones I finished more than once.

I don't think I would add multi CD games, it would take too much time to download them and if there is a problem when doing it the transfer is wasted. Luckily it is rare that a game had many CDs and was good, right now I can think on Dragon Lore 2 and Planescape: Torment, but the second is too new and probably wasted much space with the graphics.

That's the problem with CD games, they decided many times to use the space putting animations and videos. A CD game that doesn't use them is usually 20 megs. And other times they are just improved versions with voices, or a few times like with System Shock or Dune, improved graphics.

This makes me think in Gabriel Knight II, where he is chased by a werewolf around germany. It wasn't published here, but for what I know the game was six CDs, as they decided to make the game with real, filmed images. And CDs where supposed to be the solution to disk swapping...

Which takes us back to another questions which was discussed in the predecessor forum intensely many years ago: Will games of that generation (mid-90s and newer) get the same dedicated treatment the older ones got or will everybody have abandoned them, because they turned out to be nothing but an impressive facade which faded with time.

When I started with Abandonware in the late 90s, many games covered were from the early 90s. Where are the people trying to preserve the games from 2000 or even the late 90s? It's the same age gap. So: just technical limitation or actual difference? I'm still convinced of the latter (many had a different opinion back then, though), which is why I'm a very bad candidate to promote games of the CD generation anyway. People who actually like those games are needed if anything is supposed to happen!

I would hope it all falls over it's own weight and starts anew, but films have been suffering the same problems from decades. When I play an MS-Dos game I can find easily a fun game, may be or not a really good game, but it entertains me. Nowadays, the new games do not give me the same entertaining, they have become too profitable and there are too many that look the same. Since a few years ago I have practically abandoned (modern) PC games, and got back to consoles, mainly Nintendo ones, where I find more interesting games, but still they are not fresh enough. They repeat too much the things known to sell and do not care about what makes a game good and fun. They are always selling their old horses telling how much their platforms have evolved, but still UFO is one of the better games I have played, it's more fun than many modern games, and even haves a better AI.

Of course, there are a bunch of good new games: Anachronox and both Deus Ex for PC, ICO and Shadow of the Colossus for PS2, Eternal Darkness or Pikmin for Gamecube or Vagrant Story for PSX. But there is a big trouble in the industry, that can be notice in the ending of the last one. The game story, a good story that revolves about a grimoire that contains the secret of the first inmovile motor and a damned city that changes all who enter in it is suddenly cutted with a Final Fantasy like end fight. And the reason is that same game, Square decided Final Fantasy sells better, so any other experimental (a word that I would like to be able to use in normal games) project couldn't consume resources.

And the worse thing is that is the correct thing, for a company. All the Final Fantasy are the same, the sixth and seventh are nice (but I can't play to them because the system makes me sick, literally, it's apressing with all the aleatory fights you have to suffer each two steps, and the slow fight where both parties can be awaiting each other's turn), but they are here for the money, not for art or fun.

And as they sell they are imitated, and the imitations sell, and the thing continuas. Part of the problem are game genders. Saying a game is an RPG, an action game o a strategy games helps to keep a list of them, but after being used for so long people thinks there is more than a label in them. People thinks they mean what a game should be like, and they expect that, and receive it.

The older games have the quality of having been developed in a more unstable basis, nothing was sure and they had to try and invent. As usually, money made worse the situation.

But I hope with time people saves all the good ones from the hordes of money-makers.