There hasn’t been a lot of good news out of EA lately, but here’s some: the company just launched a bunch of classic games on Steam. The new (old) releases include nine games in total, spanning franchises like Dungeon Keeper, Populous, and SimCity.
I’m sure most of them have already been available on GoG for quite some time, I don’t know what took them so long to port them over competing storefronts.
Maybe they had an agreement with GOG? This is all personal speculation, but GOG was primarily known as Good Old (Ol’?) Games for a long time, as they would put that under their GOG acronym back in the day. It was essentially a storefront that primarily dealt with classics and keeping them available to consumers before they pivoted and started also focusing a lot on modern games. Maybe my memory is flawed and I’m completely misremembering the old GOG and they’ve always focused on modern games as well, so anyone feel free to correct me if that’s the case.
Anyway, I wouldn’t be surprised if GOG struck a deal with a lot of publishers for selling all their classics exclusively. On the flip side, it could also be that the publishers just didn’t care enough about their old offerings to put any effort into porting them into other storefronts. Now that retrogaming is much more ubiquitous than it once was, some bean counter pitched this idea in a mid-quarter profit seeking brainstorming meeting and here we are.
I wouldn’t think getting exclusive access to 20+ year old games that are mostly obscure would cost very much, but who knows. It was just a theory either way.
Looks like somebody is in need of cash 😂.
But to be fair, these games were back in the day mighty good. It’s really a shame to see how both greed and ever growing ambitious killed creativity.
Populous The Beginning! I never played the other populous games but I have some very fond memories of this one. As a kid I just loved using spells to reshape the worlds and mess with the enemy AI. Dropping a volcano in the middle of their village and watching them go nuts was always so much fun.
This one and SimCopter took way more of my time than any of the other Sim games by a mile. I was especially surprised because SimCopter was full 3D and my old hardware could run it.
I don’t know how well a remaster of either would sell, but I’d buy them. SimCopter could even be a mobile game at this point.
There is OpenRA. An open source engine to get those classic C&C games running on modern machines but it only supports C&C, Red Alert 1 and Dune 2000.
They are working on the next engine with Tiberian Sun currently under development.
If you’re interested in Dungeon Keeper, I highly recommend a similar project called KeeperFX. Play the game on modern systems, in higher resolutions, with game fixes as well.
Same here, Sim City 3000 and The Sims were my jam and I still listen to their soundtracks every once in a while, they’re so good. There was something truly magical about Maxis back then.
EA’s launcher still requires internet access though, right? If so, you’re probably better off sticking to the GOG versions. I booted up Jedi: Fallen Order on a train, and EA told me “no”.
Maybe not. The disclaimers on the side of the store page appear to be different between these and some other EA games. I hate how hard it is these days to discern if a game has a stupid always-online requirement.
Used to play the crap out of some Populous (all of them) was a great game. Not giving EA any money though. Just get them on GoG so you don’t rent them.
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Where is Themen Park™ Manager?
I want to play that again so badly and its not even in GoG (unlike another Theme Park, I didn’t play back then).
I’m sure most of them have already been available on GoG for quite some time, I don’t know what took them so long to port them over competing storefronts.
Maybe they had an agreement with GOG? This is all personal speculation, but GOG was primarily known as Good Old (Ol’?) Games for a long time, as they would put that under their GOG acronym back in the day. It was essentially a storefront that primarily dealt with classics and keeping them available to consumers before they pivoted and started also focusing a lot on modern games. Maybe my memory is flawed and I’m completely misremembering the old GOG and they’ve always focused on modern games as well, so anyone feel free to correct me if that’s the case.
Anyway, I wouldn’t be surprised if GOG struck a deal with a lot of publishers for selling all their classics exclusively. On the flip side, it could also be that the publishers just didn’t care enough about their old offerings to put any effort into porting them into other storefronts. Now that retrogaming is much more ubiquitous than it once was, some bean counter pitched this idea in a mid-quarter profit seeking brainstorming meeting and here we are.
GOG doesn’t have the money to do exclusives like Epic Games.
I wouldn’t think getting exclusive access to 20+ year old games that are mostly obscure would cost very much, but who knows. It was just a theory either way.
Good point that old games mightn’t cost as much to exclusivise
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Looks like somebody is in need of cash 😂. But to be fair, these games were back in the day mighty good. It’s really a shame to see how both greed and ever growing ambitious killed creativity.
I own all of C&C on Origin, but I’d rather get a root canal without anesthetic than use their launcher. I paid Steam $10 instead.
Don’t you still need the EA launcher through steam though? I don’t want to buy the ultimate collection again if that’s the case
EDIT: I can confirm I just launched RA2 without the launcher after buying through steam. Halleluiah
Damn, Populous was my go to game back in the day. So much fun
Populous The Beginning! I never played the other populous games but I have some very fond memories of this one. As a kid I just loved using spells to reshape the worlds and mess with the enemy AI. Dropping a volcano in the middle of their village and watching them go nuts was always so much fun.
I remember spending hours on the first level raising land across the entire planet to make a gigantic village
Can a bitch just get Sim Tower?! I miss that game the most from childhood…
This one and SimCopter took way more of my time than any of the other Sim games by a mile. I was especially surprised because SimCopter was full 3D and my old hardware could run it.
I don’t know how well a remaster of either would sell, but I’d buy them. SimCopter could even be a mobile game at this point.
Check out Project Highrise. Felt pretty similar to the nostalgia.
Or https://www.myabandonware.com/game/simtower-the-vertical-empire-3f2
Added but not updated to work well on modern systems. Can’t play one of my favorites games (red alert 2) because it just isn’t built for it.
Like they could of invested some time to update it a bit so I can play games that’s not 640-480.
There is OpenRA. An open source engine to get those classic C&C games running on modern machines but it only supports C&C, Red Alert 1 and Dune 2000.
They are working on the next engine with Tiberian Sun currently under development.
If you’re interested in Dungeon Keeper, I highly recommend a similar project called KeeperFX. Play the game on modern systems, in higher resolutions, with game fixes as well.
Populous was so much fun back in the day
I wish there were more god games, especially more complex / ambitious / large scale ones. Like a mixture of god game, 4X, and cult simulator.
Oughh, Dungeon Keeper… That was one of my favorites as a child, the Swedish voice acting was top notch!
I always loved SimCity 3000. It was the first city builder I’d ever played.
I can still hear that smooth jazz playing and the sound of screams when I sent a robot and a tornado barreling through the city.
I really want a modern old school style city builder. I tried cities skyline but it was too complicated. Like parkitect is to planet coaster.
Skylines is complicated?!?
Fair enough I guess, have you tried citiesXL? Older and dead but even more of a city painter I believe.
Compared to Sim City 3000 and Sim City 4, Cities Skylines’ UI feels really convoluted to me.
I honestly had no idea there was a SimCity 3000. Last one I played was SimCity 2000
Don’t skip over SimCity 2001-2999, you’ll be totally lost…
lol
Same here, Sim City 3000 and The Sims were my jam and I still listen to their soundtracks every once in a while, they’re so good. There was something truly magical about Maxis back then.
EA’s launcher still requires internet access though, right? If so, you’re probably better off sticking to the GOG versions. I booted up Jedi: Fallen Order on a train, and EA told me “no”.
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Just FYI, it generally seems that none of these require origin or the EA app or any more than Steam as DRM.
I don’t think these games require the EA launcher.
Maybe not. The disclaimers on the side of the store page appear to be different between these and some other EA games. I hate how hard it is these days to discern if a game has a stupid always-online requirement.
Can confirm at least on the C&C bundle there is no EA app requirement
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Now do Black and White, please…
Holy shit! Will DK1 and 2 run on Windows 10 now?
From what the steam reviews say, it’s using Dosbox for the former.
If it needs origin I’m not interested
It does not
Used to play the crap out of some Populous (all of them) was a great game. Not giving EA any money though. Just get them on GoG so you don’t rent them.
Yeah I’d forgotten about Populous, used to play it on my Amiga back in the day. It was the first. RTS type game I played iirc.