Good Old Games opens to public, with no DRM

Posted at: 12:14pm 24th October 2008 by Ben Hardwidge

Any fan of classic PC games can now access the Good Old Games archive, with games costing under £4

With all the controversy surrounding DRM in EA games at the moment, it’s refreshing to see an online games site proudly proclaiming that all its games are DRM-free. First announced back in July, Good Old Games is now in the public BETA stage, which means that anyone can now access the site’s archive of classic PC games, and you can do what you want with your game when you’ve bought it too.

‘You won't find any intrusive copy protection in our games; we hate draconian DRM schemes just as much as you do,’ says the site. ‘Once you download a game, you can install it on any PC and re-download it whenever you want, as many times as you need, and you can play it without an internet connection.’

A few of us have been playing around with the closed BETA of the site for a few weeks now, and it all looks pretty good. There’s a good selection of PC games on offer, and not all of them are that old either. For example, TOCA Race Driver 3 is already up for grabs, and that’s only a couple of years old. The prices are good too, with a game such as Giants: Citizen Kabuto costing just $5.99 US (£3.85).

Plus, unlike some rereleased old classic games (*cough* EA’s Command & Conquer: The First Decade *cough*), all of Good Old Games’ titles have been properly tweaked to run fine on Windows XP and Vista. As the site says, ‘Now you can use your lightning-fast PC to unleash the full potential of those games you just couldn’t play properly on that busted old 386.’

The catalogue is already quite expansive, including classic games form the Fallout series, through Descent and Freespace, as well as oddballs such as Messiah and even the age-old Battle Chess. Fancy downloading some cheap, classic PC games? Then have a go on the open BETA here.

Has Good Old Games got the online game store model right here? Let us know your thoughts.