GOG’s Preservation Program Can Save Your Favorite Games (But You’ll Need to Vote)

After so many years, my beloved Breath of Fire IV is finally available to buy for a modern platform. It’s not for a console, but for PC! So it’s a good thing handheld PCs are all the rage these days!

The only reason this amazing game has been resurrected after more than two decades, is thanks to gamers like you and I, as well as the crucial efforts of the GOG Preservation Program.

The GOG Preservation Program Has an Important Mission

If you’ve never heard of GOG or Good Old Games, it’s an online video game distributor that’s getting more and more of my money. My GOG library is swelling all the time, and for good reason. This is just a small sample of my 100s-strong GOG library.

As I always say, 99% of the best games made aren’t in the current year. So why should we forget or stop playing the greatest video games ever made? GOG’s mission is to get the rights to resell these old games, if at all possible. This means we have a legal method to play these older games on modern computers, that there’s money going to the rights holders, and that there’s some sort of support.

Best of all, games sold on GOG are DRM-free. So you can download the game, copy it as much as you like, and keep it forever without GOG having the ability to affect your use of the game in any way. If GOG should ever close down, your games will keep working. As long as you have a backup, of course.

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Within the ambit of GOG as a whole, there’s the preservation program. For games that are part of this program, you’ll see this badge on the store page for that title.

Games that are part of the preservation program are enhanced and maintained by GOG itself. GOG is actually a wholly-owned subsidiary of CD Projekt—the developer behind the Witcher games and Cyberpunk 2077. So it has access to development resources and knowledge in addition to being a reseller. GOG goes out and finds old games with sufficient demand, work through the often tough legal challenges to bring them back, and then usually has to deal with the technical challenges as well.

Preservation program games are some of the most important titles, and GOG has committed to maintaining these games indefinitely, promising to ensure they work on future computers and operating systems.

People Vote on Which Games Deserve to Be Preserved

Obviously, GOG doesn’t have the resources to bring back and maintain every game from the past, so it’s instituted a “Dreamlist” where we can nominate and vote for games we want to get the GOG treatment, some of which might even be earmarked for the preservation program.

Here you can see two of my favorite games that I’ve already voted for—Freelancer and the original Prey.

There are tons of games on the list, and if there are any important to you, should vote for them in the hopes that you can buy a modern, compatible, and DRM-free version of it today.

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Breath of Fire IV Is the Perfect Example of Games That Should Be Preserved

Breath of Fire IV floored me back on my PlayStation 1, but this game was sadly released the month after the PlayStation 2 was launched. Which is one reasons I think it never got its due. Those who played it, however, simply can’t let the game go. From its beautiful animation and spritework, to the excellent story, combat, and music, it’s a bona fide JRPG classic. Sadly, it’s been stuck on the PS1 for decades.

While a PC version does exist, it wasn’t well-regarded, was inferior to the PS1 version, and getting it to run on a modern PC is an exercise in frustration. So the only real way to enjoy the game is either through emulation or original hardware, and good luck finding a physical copy for a sane price!

Now, for $9.99, you get an enhanced DRM-free PC version of the game that works with modern controllers, has new rendering options, lets you configure it to look more like the PS1 version, better audio, and much more. While GOG did most of the work, it’s fully endorsed by Capcom, and this is a major win for classic game preservation. Oh, and all the known stability bugs in the PC version have been fixed as well.

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There Are Many Worthy Games Trapped in the Past

One thing I really like about the Dreamlist is that it also shows you which classic and retro games are most worth your attention. If these games have so much player passion and love behind them, they’re probably worth looking into. Whether you just missed them back in the day, or weren’t even born yet. With modern games and their long list of issues, there’s nothing wrong with dipping into the deep and glorious backlog that is gaming history.