Hi guys,

I'm Sean, GOG addict and Linux user. I recently switched over completely from Windows, and part of what inspired me was GOG's cavalier and renegade approach to delivering excellent games from yesteryear.

I really do appreciate the fact that GOG sells these games at a price that many people can afford while allowing us to control the way we use those games. It does feel like buying a game, instead of buying a piece of software or a license. Reminds me of back in the old days when I used to go to a store that mostly sold PC games; I used to look around for hours and talk shop with the owner, even though I was in my teens. I bought Half-Life there and I have a lot of good memories from those days.

It's been pretty well established that all the games that run in DOSBox run platform-independent - I have ran several GOG games for DOSBox in Linux. The problem that I think many of us have encountered is that the games come bundled in an executable with windows DOSBox. These typically have to be "installed" with WINE and then made to work with the native Linux DOSBox.

I would like to suggest something to GOG. I think it would be a great help to us Linux users if you would offer all the DOSBox games as a compressed file, with just the game files and DOSBox configs. This removes all the extra process of having to deal with the executables - just link to DOSBox, modify a config file, and it's done.

Anyway, I think this could be a first and very easy step towards some more formal Linux support. I'm sure there's at least a few of us that would be glad to have this and please feel free to post below.

Since the setup files are created with InnoSetup (or how it's called), wouldn't innounp do the unpacking for you?

This has been suggested so many times before, it's impossible to count. Long story short, GOG is not opposed to supporting alternate OSes in this manner, they just don't have any plans to do that at the moment (they are only focused on getting the games up and running on Windows) and they do not have the means to do it anyway (they only have a limited staff available). Any support for alternate OSes is purely an "you're on your own" effort, though the community does offer a lot of help in that department.

Right, I agree totally and think focusing on Windows support should be the primary goal since it is what benefits most people.

I'm not asking for any special considerations made for Linux users. Just a slight modification in the way games are delivered would improve the experience for us. GOG wouldn't have to make a new executable, add any scripts, or whatever. Simply keep the game files out of the executable they build for Win users.

As a side benefit, Windows users that want to use a different version of DOSBox could also download the files and then simply add it to their existing installation.

However, that really would be a special consideration for Linux users, since GOG would have to provide and support a different package primarily for them (and other OS users like Macs), in addition to the default package they already provide. Even if Linux users are generally a bit more self-sufficient than most Windows users when it comes to the techy side of things, GOG would still need to deal with the occasional "I tried to download the archive package and _____ happened, help!", which takes them away from supporting their primary platform (which they already have enough trouble staying on top of).

As for that side benefit, Windows users can already do that with the current installer package, you just need to un-check DOSBox in the installer options, then you can provide a installation path to your preferred DOSBox version.

As more people show an interest, I'm becoming increasingly likely to port innounp to Perl, making extracting the files from the installers easier to do on various platforms.

As a Linux-only user myself (Arch), I'm more than happy to let GOG concentrate on what they are doing: bringing games to sale, DRM free. I'll complain if they switch installers to a more closed one though :P

cogadh, you have some good points. I do agree with you on the self-sufficiency. When I was in Windows I had little motivation to find workarounds to problems, including some other DOSBox games I was trying. When I switched over I found myself scripting and tweaking to get everthing just right. The GOG community is a great resource.

xyem, that would be great. I took a look at the source code for innounp but I have no knowledge of pascal. Honestly, if no one has done a port for *nix by now, there's probably almost no demand for it.

Why don't KFC sell beef burgers jeez

I also have no knowledge of Pascal :) That sort of thing doesn't stop me though, I'll figure it out (and I'm sure there will be people to help me if I get stuck).

The lack of demand probably stems from two things: it works under Wine (this is actually why I haven't ported it yet) and things packaged with InnoSetup aren't for Linux. As long as there are some people who find it useful though, I'll be happy :)

EDIT: Actually, I'll make a start on a port this weekend. Feeling like taking on a bit of a challenge :P

pinnounp begins :)

Awesome! If you need help testing or whatnot I'll do the best I can.

I'll throw my hat in the testing ring as well. I can't code worth shit (especially PERL), but I'm real good at breaking things.

Good stuff, Xyem. I'm up for testing it, of course!

Thanks everyone. I'd really appreciate your help with the testing :) Will let you know when I've got something for you!

I second that, if you need help testing I'm most definitely at your service.