Hello readers!

In this article we want to lay out our thoughts about digital store fronts on one, and preservation efforts on the other hand. We will also examine two different ways on how MS-DOS Games are being launched on modern pcs – ScummVM and DOSBox – and explore the differences between both of these solutions. We will then conduct research and seek to reveal if any of these two solutions is better for preservation and if yes, why this is the case.

Concluding, we also want to chime in on how our offer can provide support on the issues at hand.

Let us begin by researching the current status quo on the subject. A customer who wishes to legally acquire an MS-DOS Game in 2024 doesn´t have a multitude of choices at his or her disposal to begin with.

GOG – Good Old Games, Steam and Zoom:

The most prominent option for such customers in this regard is to visit a digital store front such as GOG, Zoom or Steam and conduct a digital purchase of the desired title. With GOG or Zoom one does even receive a proper offline installer for the purchased game in order for it to be stored offline such as on a NAS for safekeeping. All of these sites do have in common that the MS-DOS Games do come properly bundled with either DOSBox or ScummVM. But wait, does it make a difference if ScummVM is used rather than DOSBox?

The difference between DOSBox and ScummVM:

In short, yes it does – quite a lot in fact. While DOSBox properly emulates a whole DOS System, ScummVM tries to emulate the interpreter itself.

What the dodge is an interpreter?

Interpreters use their own distinctive scripting language and enabled the developers to implement changes into their games more easily and swiftly. As a nice side effect they also make reverse engineering of games much more tedious. You can think of them as the equivalent of game engines we know today, such as the Unreal Engine. As popular interpreters of the past we consider SCI (Sierra Creative Interpretor) Engine by Sierra and the SCUMM (Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion) Engine of Lucas Arts. There are other developers known to have used interpreters, such as Delphine Software. In contrast to modern game engines however, these interpreters have been coded inhouse – the SCUMM Engine has been developed by Ron Gilbert and Aric Wilmunder, while the SCI Engine has been built by Jeff Stephenson.

As being stated above, ScummVM – as its name intends – emulates the interpreter and not the underlying operating system (MS-DOS) itself. As a result of this technique, ScummVM immerses immense control over each supported title – it can implement fixes on the fly, decide whether a game or even a specific version of a game is supported or not, decide if a copy protection is being bypassed on a specific title or not, change texts, graphics and much more. This leads to the effect that you as the customer receive a version of the game that the team of ScummVM envisiones. In other words, you will not receive the look and feel the developers intended. As a result, playing a game on ScummVM can hugely differ from playing the very same game on DOSBox or a real DOS machine. Another detail you have to know is that ScummVM does not depend on having the exact same files present as the original disk did – ScummVM does not depend on executable files for instance, all they need are certain data files of the game in question.

It is not rocket science to figure out what this leads to I think. If ScummVM does not require the original files, that means that GOG, Zoom and Steam do not have to provide them. But if they do not provide all files of the game you purchase, it renders you unable to play the title on DOSBox or on a real DOS machine in consequence. We are sorry to say that this is exactly what is happening in most cases. If ScummVM is attached to your game, it is almost certain that not all files are being supplied with the game package. You can always do research about it, but the chances of receiving all files are slim. Thats why its important to be vocal about it.

If this alone would not be enough, ScummVM also follows the rather weird policy that if the historic copyright owner never removed the protection, ScummVM will not remove it either. This is why many Sierra titles are still shipped to you with their Copy Protection intact. Sierra did not remove them or could not remove them anymore before wenting belly up, so ScummVM just keeps the protection intact – literally forever.

Full control? Meet the Reversers:

Regarding the copy protection issue, we devoted almost an entire section of our site – the GOG Games Patches – to deal with this. The ScummVM Team is technically only capable of upholding their copy protection policy if the copy protection itself is still functional inside the data files provided to ScummVM. In the case of our Sierra Patches, we did remove the protection directly in the script files themselves, which is why our modifications will run on ScummVM without the copy protection locking you out of your gaming experience. If your digital store front additionally gave you all gaming files, you can also run these games on DOSBox and also on a real DOS Machine, but this is dependant on the release you did receive from GOG, Zoom or Steam.

So with digital game store fronts the thumb rule is basically this:

• If the game uses DOSBox, all game files are being supplied and the game can – apart from DOSBox itself – be played on ScummVM (if supported) or on a real DOS PC.
  
  
• If, on the other hand, ScummVM comes supplied with your digital purchase, it depends if the game files are being supplied completely. If not, you can not use DOSBox to play the game and you can not play the game on your DOS PC.

Is there another problem with Digital Store Fronts?

Sadly yes. You see, back in the days a game usually had multiple releases. Let us take the game “Loom” as an example:

• Loom had its first release on DOS in 1990 on floppy disks using EGA graphics.

• In 1992, the company provided a better version in the form of a CD-ROM Version with speech (we call this a Talkie Version).

If you buy the game on GOG, you receive the CD-ROM Version of Loom which comes bundled with ScummVM. The EGA Version of Loom is missing from the package. Now you might argue on why you will be needing the EGA Version at all, concluding that the later release is the better one. Well, there are many aspects that can justify running an older release. With Loom the developers stated that the EGA Version is considered to be the definitive version of the game. It is also known that the CD-ROM Version misses several scenes from the original game. Another reason to run an older build could also be that your Retro PC simply can not handle the CD-ROM Release of the game. The latest version may be appealing on the surface, but it is not always the best choice for your set up. It depends, and as such, store fronts should provide as many different versions as they legally can. Again, this is where you will need to be vocal about.

What can you do if you want to play the missing version of the game?

• First of all, regardless of anything stated above, you should always buy a digital version of the game from the store front. By doing so, you endorse further development in this space and – more importantly – you aquire a legit license to use the game. Make your voice heard though, and tell your digital store front about the issue.

• If you really care about the game more deeply, you will then check out E-Bay to find a boxed copy of said game for your collection.
  
  
• You can then check out archive.org for a Floppy Image of your game. It is common knowledge that archive.org hosts multiple original Floppy Disk Images of countless games, even down to specific versions. You can then install these Floppy Images using DOSBox to your modern pc, or write them to a real floppy for your real Retro PC. We will lay out on how to do this in further articles.

Now, curtains up, this is the point where we come into play again. ;)

• If the game happens to contain copy protection and we supply a patch on our site, you can use this patch to get rid of it.

In our example case – Loom – you could then use our patch to enjoy the game without the protection. We are now pretty much safe on all fronts – you paid digitally for the game, you purchased it as a boxed copy for your collection and now you apply the patch to remove the protection in order to be able to enjoy the version of the game you desire to play. Perfect!

Now I do not want to come across as entirely negative – especially GOG has done a great service on promoting old games to a new audience. I´m not an idiot, I´m well aware to the fact that GOG is dependant on the versions they receive from the IP owners and that negotiations are tricky more often than they are not. I did not want to paint any negative light on ScummVM either, but instead shed a bit of light and awareness to the issue at hand. An interpreter emulation is different from an OS emulation – period.

Finally we can say that as preservists, we heavily rely on sites like archive.org for mirroring these floppy images for all of us and future generations. As we all know, floppy disks already died or will become unavailable at some point in the future. This is why the Internet Archive is such a useful and necessary institution to have – it is so powerful and beneficial to all of us.

Digital Store Fronts are the best way to support the current right owner with your money, yet E-Bay is the best way for collectors to get their copy of the game. Sites like ours try to provide a further service in this chain. By combining all these offerings, you can ensure to get the most out of your money.

It is not all grim on the horizon, but it is necessary that we step in to provide the respective patches and make people aware so that the games stay available.

Thank you for listening to this rather long rant. You may now turn off your computer. (Yes, this is a Monkey Island reference) ;)

Eric