It can be quite difficult to get your hands on older PC games. You might have missed out on a title several years ago and want to give it a go now, only to find that there aren’t any retail outlets that have it. Even games that sold very well in their time, such as Knights of the Old Republic, can be nigh impossible to find.
This happened to me when a few months ago I wanted to buy Mafia. A couple of friends practically worshipped the game and I wanted to see what the big deal was. However, it was nowhere to be found. Not in any local stores, nor on any of the internet shops I’d grown accustomed to purchasing from. So I had to find another way of obtaining this game – legally & first-hand.
And I found it. Since then I’ve purchased a wealth of oldschool classics from various unexpected locations, without resorting to shady eBay auctions and shitty second-hand copies. Now it’s time to share my story and give you the means to play those classics that you never got around to buying.
For those amongst you who might doubt the use of searching for older games when there are so many newer games being released. Here are a few points to take into consideration:
Older games are much less expensive and can offer equally – if not more – as much value for your money. In spite of their graphical inferiority, in many cases the gameplay you’ll find in an old classic surpasses what you’ll find in most modern titles.
Due to the wealth of information and reviews available for older games, you’ll also be hard-pressed to buy a classic title that you won’t like.
A final advantage is the availability of mods to expand these games with. If a game is moddable, then older titles have more mods than new ones.
Another advantage is that many of these older games will already have plenty of mods, which can drastically lengthen the playtime for any game.
Max Payne can be hard to find - unless you look to Steam!
Steam
So I set out to find Mafia – a game I wanted to try in spite of my general dislike for Mafia-based entertainment.
The first place I started looking was Steam. I already had a wealth of games on my account for this popular digital distribution and community service, with a number of older games amongst them as well. For all I knew, Mafia might be somewhere amongst them as well.
As most of you already know, Valve has built up a vast collection of games on their digital distribution service over the years. Many quality games can be found here and with an increasing amount of recent releases (Dawn of War 2, F.E.A.R 2, etc.) now requiring Steam to play, it’s also quickly becoming the main gaming ‘platform’ for many gamers.
Yet even in their vast archive of games, numbering in the hundreds, there was no mention of Mafia. Steam may have a number of older games, but it’s clearly focused more on what’s new and popular. And even if Mafia were to be found there, it can also be quite expensive if you’re not purchasing games during weekend deals or end of year sales.
In spite of this failure, I did manage to pick up a number of interesting games while looking for Mafia. Deus Ex, Max Payne, Nexus: The Jupiter Incident, Quake series, Spellforce 2 and the Unreal series were just too good to pass up on.
Impulse
With Steam proving to be lacking a seriously kick-ass game, my search continued elsewhere.
Next on my list of unusual candidates was Impulse. A service started by Stardock (Sins of a Solar Empire), which I discovered shortly after Valve’s stunt with European prices for games. It may not have as many games as Steam has, but it has a lot of obscure titles, which made the probability of finding Mafia here seem a bit more likely.
But while I found a number of interesting titles, ranging from Gun Metal, to Majesty Gold, to Galactic Civilizations 2. There was no Mafia to be had.
Their catalogue of games might be growing along with the number of active accounts, but so far it’s more interesting for the occassional indie-game purchase than big-budget games. It does have a number of games at significantly lower prices than Steam, which makes it an interesting competitor to say the least.
Good Old Games
This should’ve been the first place to look, because when it comes to old games you can do no better than CD Projekt’s (The Witcher) GOG.com.
Not only does it feature the largest collection of PC classics, but they’re also guaranteed to work in Windows XP and Windows Vista. Plus a number of bonus items are made available for most games, ranging from wallpapers to official soundtracks. And best of all: all games on GOG are in the $5.99 – $9.99 range.
However, the reason I didn’t go here first, was because I already knew Mafia wasn’t available on GOG. I’ve been with it since the closed beta and have kept track of every release since then, purchasing such games as Fallout 1 & 2, Descent 1-3, Freespace 2, Giants: Citizen Kabuto, Duke Nukem 3D, etc. Mafia isn’t on it… yet.
Even so, this is an incredible digital download service for classic PC games and well worth a look even if it may not have your ultimate oldschool game. It’s bound to have 1, 2 or 10 other games you’ll love. And if not – then it will soon, because the rate at which it’s expanding is ridiculous.
Resellers
During my search for a Mafia copy, I finally came across the Amazon (USA) and Play.com (USA) reseller venues. These offer both new and used titles ranging from the latest releases to genuine classics. It was here that I found my shrinkwrapped, untouched, copy of Mafia – for as little as 10 Euro, including shipping. And it was well worth the slim pricetag.
I’ve purchased a number of games on these websites since then. Thus far my experience has been that as long as you stick to reputable resellers (several hundred ratings of 90+%) of new - not used – items, then you’re relatively safe.
All of the games (Freelancer, KotOR 1 & 2, Oni, Dungeon Siege 2, No One Lives Forever, Startopia, etc.) that I’ve ordered from these resellers have arrived in perfect condition, shrinkwrapped and all.
An added advantage is that both of these websites also offer most new games at incredibly low prices, not through reseller channels but their own. Definitely worth a look, but keep in mind that delivery times could be a fair bit longer than you’re used to. Reseller deliviers can range from anywhere between 2 days and 2 weeks – and even deliveries through their own channels can take a long time if you’re not a UK/USA resident.
Impulse offers a number of interesting games, albeit mostly obscure titles
Concluding
In between these four gaming channels I found a new copy of Mafia – and you could be finding your long-awaited PC classic right now. But don’t grow too hopeful just yet. There are a number of desireable PC games that you won’t be able to find, or not at reasonable prices. Notable examples include Omikron: The Nomad Soul, System Shock 2 and Planescape Torment.
Still, you’ll be able to find a lot of awesome games. If you’re low on cash, then these golden oldies are the ideal way to get your gaming fix without spending too much money. And if you just want to know what the big deal is about some of those classic PC games – like Duke Nukem 3D, Freespace 2 or Mafia – now you can find out!
I received my copy of Mafia about a week after ordering it through a reseller on Play.com. I’m not a fan of mafia-themed movies or games at all, but somehow Mafia transcends that and just manages to hold your attention until you’ve played through. And even then the temptation to start over again is firmly present, in spite of its relatively linear singleplayer campaign. I played through it in a single weekend and fully intend to go through another run before Mafia II is released, later this year.
Have you had any experiences with older games that you want to play, but can’t seem to find anywhere? Or have you found your game thanks to one of the services mentioned here? Please do leave a comment!
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Mafia…
My all time favorite game !