GOG enlists Sands of Time, BG&E

By Robert Purchese Published 26 March, 2009

Ubisoft retro classics for USD 10.

Good old Games has struck a deal with Ubisoft to offer classics such as Prince of Persia: Sands of Time and Beyond Good & Evil for download.

They're available, along with IL-2 Sturmovik 1946, from the retro-specialist's digital distribution service now.

Each costs USD 10, and will be joined in the coming weeks by Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six, Far Cry, Heroes of Might and Magic and Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell.

Good old Games offers all sorts of PC games from yesteryear. That may not sound too spectacular, but factor that there are no DRM measures to frustrate nor compatibility issues with today's operating systems (including Vista), and the prospect brightens.

There's even a community to become a part of. Back off?!

Trample over to GOG.com for a look at the wares.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (27) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • stevetuck #1 3 years ago

    SoT and BG&E some of the best games last gen for sure

    Tho im fairly sure this is a stealth advert...
    Edited by 1 at 26/03/09 @ 16:52

  • Smugglarn #2 3 years ago

    Love it! Became a member a few days ago. So far, I have only downloaded the free games (Lure of the Temptress and Beneath a Steel Sky) but I'm thinking of buying a few of the classics.

    Not a closed system like Steam which is both good and bad I guess. Still a great initiative.

  • shotgun44 #3 3 years ago

    Into my retro(ish) gaming lately. Just got my PS3 controller to work with my SNES emulator and i'm lovin my old faves! Might have to purchase a couple of these!

  • Slabbathepave #4 3 years ago

    I think its about time i played BG&E. Along with Psychonauts its on my last gen to do list.

  • dudefella #5 3 years ago

    BG&E is 5 euros on Steam...

  • dudefella #6 3 years ago

    BG&E is 5 euros on Steam...

  • Farfarer #7 3 years ago

    Anyone who hasn't played Beyond Good & Evil yet now really has no excuse not to. It's been up on Steam cheap for a while... but this is cheaper still.

  • GlassMoon #8 3 years ago

    Have they fixed up beyond good and evil for XP because I remember having some glitch where the audio was all out of sync

  • oerhoert #9 3 years ago

    Doesn't necessarily matter that it's cheaper on steam. Buying it on GOG, you really own it, you're not renting it and do not depend upon an internet connection and Valve's staying in business.

    Which makes ALL the difference in my view.

  • Setaro #10 3 years ago

    "Doesn't necessarily matter that it's cheaper on steam. Buying it on GOG, you really own it, you're not renting it and do not depend upon an internet connection and Valve's staying in business.

    Which makes ALL the difference in my view."

    oh FFS, why do people always say this same shit!

    1. Turn off your internet
    2. double click Steam, it will start in OFFLINE mode
    3. Play your fucking games.

    If i never connected to the net ever again, I can still play my fucking games!

  • septimus #11 3 years ago

    Genius. GOG is good.

  • mallocks #12 3 years ago

    @Setaro

    Profanity aside, I know I'm not the only one who has tried your simple 3 step program and yet has been denied access to my Steam games when without internet.

  • rowsdower #13 3 years ago

    Gotta love the GoG.

  • oerhoert #14 3 years ago

    Setaro: Do you deny that you get substantial more flexibility with regards to how you'll use your purchase when using GOG?

    I love Steam, but it has its evident drawbacks.

  • Der_tolle_Emil #15 3 years ago

    Steam sure does have drawbacks. But let's face it, the chances of Steam shutting down anytime soon is next to zero. In fact, chances are much, much higher that the game might not run in the next version of Windows or the version after that one and installing one of those is inevitably something you will do in the next 10 years, unless you don't intend on buying new hardware and thus don't couldn't care less if the new hardware doesn't come with drivers for XP anymore.

    Of course it's a bad thing that when Steam closes down you may not be able to play the games you bought anymore but when you really think about it, of all the things that could happen that will hinder you from playing the game, Steam's death is way down the list.

  • PearOfAnguish #16 3 years ago

    Never mind GoG vs Steam, I can buy Sands of Time off Amazon Marketplace for a quid. £1.

    I love GoG, but wasn't the point of it to make retro titles legally available and working on a modern OS? These are relatively recent games that run fine on Windows and are easily available as a physical product from any number of sources. It's pointless.

  • marty_k #17 3 years ago

    @PearOfAnguish Have you tired to run Beyond Good & Evil on a modern dual core ? ;-)

  • PearOfAnguish #18 3 years ago

    Yes, it runs too fast on multi-core systems. But you know it's possible to set a program to use only one core, right? And there's this handy app: http://tinyurl.com/daaz3x
    Edited by 3 at 26/03/09 @ 20:56

  • Roamer #19 3 years ago

    I like to think of GoG as a library where I can find any old gems that I may have missed or forgotten. I played a demo of Sacrifice when it came out and loved it but never got around to purchasing it - now I can download it cheaply. And, this is a big one, everything is DRM-free. Gotta love it. Hope it survives. Home of the Underdogs had its faults and gaping holes that this fills quite nicely.

  • peak_performance #20 3 years ago

    It's not terribly well optimised, runs with some slowdowns in FMV for me at least - probably the 7900GS bottlenecking but it should be able to handle it fine I think. Oh well, the intro is as beautiful as ever and stands as a perfect example of exposition and capturing the players interest.

    Ubisoft, how far you have fallen.

  • hiddenranbir #21 3 years ago

    GoG is growing to be the best distributor. No client forcing to be run, support for old games where Steam simply says "sorry, we're not responsible go ask the original developers".

    That may sound good for current games but for games from now defunct developers there is a danger of buying a game which ends up problematic. GoG make every effort to provide what support they can, even rounding up any unofficial patches they can, made directly available just in case.

    I say this from a recent experience with Warlords Battlecry 3 - which needed the hotfix to stop being broken!

  • smelly #22 3 years ago

    I'd buy far cry for 10 bucks.. my pc may be good enough to cope with it now!

  • Pastici #23 3 years ago

    Spot the GOG employees?

  • Svecke #24 3 years ago

    GOG.com is the best initiative anyone have every taken in gaming. I love the hell out of that place, and I'm planning on snagging FarCry when they release it. Nice to have that around without DRM.

  • marty_k #25 3 years ago

    @Pastici I'm the only one here :-)

  • CordableTuna #26 3 years ago

    The best thing about GOG is that after you've bought their game, they can't do anything to stop you from playing it. (Same thing with Impulse, actually. They can only stop you from updating to the latest version.) With Steam there's always the nagging feeling they can turn off all your purchased games if they feel like it, and you can't do anything about it.
    By the way, doesn't the Steam offline mode have a time limit? I haven't run into it, but apparently it will force you to reconnect to the Steam server eventually.

  • Rubarack #27 3 years ago

    2 of the best games ever with the worst DRM ever, now DRM free?

    Awesome.