why is daimond no longer for sale???

[darksouls]

??????????????????????

[DrLoboto]

I think it was never available on Steam, or was it? Anyway, it is still included if you buy the EE on GOG.com, but sadly not separately anymore.

[darksouls]

o

[soltan-heatwave]

Short answer, because the distributor / owner of dungeons and dragons computer products, Atari, refused to let it be made /sold after around 2005 - 2006.

It has been a while, but if I remember correctly, Atari had rights to distribute all electronic versions of Dungeons and Dragon which is why Bioware had to deal with them. Atari stopped selling the game after the final premium mod came out, which I believe was Wyvern Crown of Cormyr. The last update for NWN that Bioware did was 1.69. Diamond came out before this, which is why it is only patched to 1.66 and won't run on Windows 10 until you patch it to 1.69.

Atari refused to allow anyone to distribute Neverwinter after they stopped selling it, which was around 2005 or 2006. After everyone's supply of Diamond was depleted you couldn't buy it anywhere. They even stopped online purchasing of it at around that time.

Atari lost the rights to dungeons and dragons distribution in 2009, and got it back after settling with Wizards of the Coast. Which is why, I believe, things have loosened up a bit.

I hope this isn't too much information. Sometimes I can get to rambling on.

[darksouls]

damn corporations

[Toki]

What's daimond?

[DrLoboto]

Originally posted by soltan-heatwave:

Atari refused to allow anyone to distribute Neverwinter after they stopped selling it, which was around 2005 or 2006. After everyone's supply of Diamond was depleted you couldn't buy it anywhere. They even stopped online purchasing of it at around that time.

It was digitally available on GOG all the time until the EE's release (2010-2018), so that's not entirely true. No idea why only on GOG though. Since the store page for Diamond and the fan-made GOGWiki are gone by now, I can't check who was listed as publisher, if it was Atari or someone else. In any case, Beamdog did not rescue NWN from oblivion, the store page for Diamond on GOG was only removed when the EE replaced it, just as with all the other old games they enhanced (but as I said, on GOG you still get Diamond as a bonus - though worse service concerning updates and no development builds for the EE). Beamdog did finally bring NWN to Steam though.

[Dutchgamer1982]

https://www.gog.com/game/neverwinter_nights_enhanced_edition_pack

You are in luck it is at a sale now.. 5 euro to grab both this and the diamond edition.


GoG is better than steam anyway (steam = DRM... GoG = DRM free)
ofcourse even better are the old cd/dvd releases (that did not require registration at steam, origin or anywhere else) of days old... but getting them to run on modern hardware is very hard. (windows 10/7 is less the issue.. the issue is more with too modern hardware.. I had many games that worked on this pc with windows 7 when there was a 980ti inside... now with a 2080ti... many of those games no longer work....

given how the 980ti was the last gpu to be supported by windows xp... this makes somewhat sence...

I find the pulling of games concerning though... in the old cd-era I can still buy those online.. and even if the fysical medium gets damaged... I am legally allowed to make copies.. so as long as I keep (or purchase from somebody else) the fysical licence code... I am fine..


if steam or the likes pulls a game.. it is gone from history never to return....
it is like having works of art.. songs music.. being delited on purpose..
how would you feel if there was no way to get the unaltered copy of a song as you remembered it all those decades ago.. but only a remix of that song.. available..
and you had NO ability to purchase an old casette, lp, or record from somebody??
pretty down..

and thats what is happening with games...

while the concept of steam : no cost of shelfspace (well granted it does cost some harddrive space to store everything foreever... but alas.) would for all it's negatives..
(killing off proper ownership, and 2d hand sales for one..) forever on stock would be one of the things it would shine in...

**the very least if a game is pulled from steam... 2d hand trades in that game should be unlocked... or the game should be made available as free abandonedware

But that would ofcourse only happen if someone cared about the art... they clearly don't.

[soltan-heatwave]

The real problem with many of the older games and programs is that they had the type of security software that created Root entries to protect the software. When it was discovered that these root software programs opened windows up to hacking Microsoft did away with them and no longer allowed these root programs.

That is why many of the older software programs, with the old style protection, no longer work in windows. When Bioware released the last patch that they made, 1.69, they removed the security / protection program. That is why you need the 1.69 patch to get NWN to work in windows 10.

[Dutchgamer1982]

Originally posted by soltan-heatwave:

The real problem with many of the older games and programs is that they had the type of security software that created Root entries to protect the software. When it was discovered that these root software programs opened windows up to hacking Microsoft did away with them and no longer allowed these root programs.

That is why many of the older software programs, with the old style protection, no longer work in windows. When Bioware released the last patch that they made, 1.69, they removed the security / protection program. That is why you need the 1.69 patch to get NWN to work in windows 10.

many of the cd versions of games made mostly for windows XP.. that worked under windows 7 (not talking about 10).
still not work if the hardware is too recent..

(many cd versions of games I own fail to launch on my newer pc... but ran fine on my older one... even though both ran windows 7 ultimate (since only ultimate had the extra windows xp compability thingies..)

not sure if microsoft did remove support for these cd games in windows 7 too... unlikely since windows 7 was already no longer supported... though possible..

[oldrocker99]

I saw a meme with the sweating guy looking at two buttons.

One says "GOG--DRM-free games from a company that seemingly doesn't give two sh*ts for Linux gaming."

The other says "STEAM-DRM-filled games from a company that actively promotes Linux gaming."

[Dutchgamer1982]

Originally posted by oldrocker99:

I saw a meme with the sweating guy looking at two buttons.

One says "GOG--DRM-free games from a company that seemingly doesn't give two sh*ts for Linux gaming."

The other says "STEAM-DRM-filled games from a company that actively promotes Linux gaming."

meh not care much for linux.. my windows 7 full retail works fine for me...
-> but what I would like is more games on fysical mediums like we used to have...

when in the 90s dvds hit the store I worked in as assistant manager... that would delite themselves after you watched them...
It got me thinking...

what if we made usb-sticks with a game on it..
-no need for instal game
-no possibility to pirate (due the fact nothing is installed.. there is nothing to copy... and one could add software and hardware protection that if you were to fysically remove the shell of the usb stick, or try to hack into the files on it.. it would delite itself..

Yet STILL the things we want as users :
**full user rights (as we had.. in my nation.. we could return our games upto 30 days after purchase as the law allows with any any consumer product...)
**the ability to 2d hand sell or purchase the games
**the ability to own multiple copies
**the ability to play multiple games you owned at the same time
**the ability to lend out your games and lend them to others
**quality control (fysical medium has costs with it.. and is very much limited.. meaning you cannot get away with selling anything but top notch or you would not even GET shelf space.
**the fun of fysical posters, miniatures, manuals and the likes that came with boxed games.

I was one that kept buying fysical games for as long the stores that sold them still excisted.. searching far and wide to find that 1 copy that did NOT have steam on it..
sadly eventually all fysical games had "steam required" on them.. making buying fysical pointless..

[Panic Fire]

Originally posted by Dutchgamer1982:

Originally posted by oldrocker99:

I saw a meme with the sweating guy looking at two buttons.

One says "GOG--DRM-free games from a company that seemingly doesn't give two sh*ts for Linux gaming."

The other says "STEAM-DRM-filled games from a company that actively promotes Linux gaming."

meh not care much for linux.. my windows 7 full retail works fine for me...
-> but what I would like is more games on fysical mediums like we used to have...

when in the 90s dvds hit the store I worked in as assistant manager... that would delite themselves after you watched them...
It got me thinking...

what if we made usb-sticks with a game on it..
-no need for instal game
-no possibility to pirate (due the fact nothing is installed.. there is nothing to copy... and one could add software and hardware protection that if you were to fysically remove the shell of the usb stick, or try to hack into the files on it.. it would delite itself..

Yet STILL the things we want as users :
**full user rights (as we had.. in my nation.. we could return our games upto 30 days after purchase as the law allows with any any consumer product...)
**the ability to 2d hand sell or purchase the games
**the ability to own multiple copies
**the ability to play multiple games you owned at the same time
**the ability to lend out your games and lend them to others
**quality control (fysical medium has costs with it.. and is very much limited.. meaning you cannot get away with selling anything but top notch or you would not even GET shelf space.
**the fun of fysical posters, miniatures, manuals and the likes that came with boxed games.

I was one that kept buying fysical games for as long the stores that sold them still excisted.. searching far and wide to find that 1 copy that did NOT have steam on it..
sadly eventually all fysical games had "steam required" on them.. making buying fysical pointless..

physical?

Also frankly physical copies simply aren't as convenient as digital in this time and age.