Cav's Place

As other sources were already announcing yesterday, GOG.com‘s DRM-Free Time Machine Sale just started, so there go my plans of writing the next protest update today, since even simple curiosity will make me follow it, as well as the relevant forum thread. Then again, considering the other things I had to do and keep an eye on, writing that post was unlikely either way, so I definitely don’t mind the additional excuse.

According to the announcement, one game, or in some cases one bundle, if the game in question is sold bundled with others, will be listed for each year between 1983 and 2013, though if they didn’t make a mistake when stating that the sale will include a total of 30 games it appears that one year will be skipped. Currently a few people, myself included, have asked about this on the relevant forum thread and somebody said that a range of 1983 to 2013 does not include 2013, so the last game in the sale will be one released in 2012, but the only official answer, posted hours later, first seemed to admit that they made a mistake and 31 games would be a reasonable assumption, but then said that anything can happen, so I’m still unsure.
The first item is The Zork Anthology, since it includes the first Zork game, and the timer was initially set to one and a half hours, each user being able to add or subtract one second and each purchase automatically adding three seconds. If all games will follow the same pattern, I’d expect the sale to end in about 48 hours or less, though particularly popular titles may drag on for a while.

Here is the list of games. Not sure if I’ll keep this updated for the entire duration, it’ll definitely be difficult to do so without some sort of script, but I’ll probably add them all at the end anyway, though in that case the exact start and running times may be less accurate. Times not marked in any way are known to be accurate to less than a minute, those marked with * are based on available information and estimated with a high degree of confidence to be no more than one or two minutes off, if at all, while any marked with ** are rougher estimates that I can’t exactly guarantee aren’t up to several minutes off. Note that the listed release years don’t seem to necessarily match the initial release dates of the games in question.

1983: The Zork Anthology (for Zork I) for $1.79 (70% off). Started at 2:00 PM* GMT on January 28, ran for one hour and 40 minutes*.
1984: Ultima 1+2+3 (probably for Ultima II, which was the first one released on the PC) for $1.49 (75% off). Started at 3:40 PM GMT on January 28, ran for 54 minutes.
1985: King’s Quest 1+2+3 (for King’s Quest II perhaps, if not some re-release of King’s Quest I) for $2.99 (70% off). Started at 4:34 PM GMT on January 28, ran for 38 minutes.
1986: Might and Magic 6-Pack: Limited Edition (for Might and Magic I) for $2.49 (75% off). Started at 5:12 PM GMT on January 28, ran for three hours and 22 minutes.
1987: Space Quest 1+2+3 (either for Space Quest II or for the updated re-release of Space Quest I) for $2.99 (70% off). Started at 8:34 PM GMT on January 28, ran for 33 minutes. Shortest running time.
1988: Police Quest 1+2+3+4 (possibly for Police Quest 2) for $2.99 (70% off). Started at 9:07 PM GMT on January 28, ran for 44 minutes.
1989: SimCity 2000 Special Edition (for SimCity, even if it’s not included) for $1.49 (75% off). Started at 9:51 PM GMT on January 28, ran for three hours and 40 minutes.
1990: Wizardry 6+7 (for Wizardry 6) for $1.49 (75% off). Started at 1:31 AM GMT on January 29, ran for one hour and 29 minutes.
1991: Wing Commander 1+2 (for Wing Commander II, I assume) for $1.49 (75% off). Started at 3:00 AM GMT on January 29, ran for one hour and 55 minutes*.
1992: Star Control 1+2 (for Star Control II) for $1.49 (75% off). Started at 4:55 AM* GMT on January 29, ran for one hour and 49 minutes*.
1993: Cannon Fodder (for itself) for $1.49 (75% off). Started at 6:44 AM GMT on January 29, ran for one hour and 18 minutes.
1994: Jagged Alliance (for itself) for $1.19 (80% off). Started at 8:02 AM GMT on January 29, ran for one hour and 25 minutes*.
1995: Crusader: No Remorse (for itself) for $1.49 (75% off). Started at 9:27 AM* GMT on January 29, ran for one hour and 35 minutes*.
1996: Tomb Raider 1+2+3 (for Tomb Raider I) for $1.99 (80% off). Started at 11:02 AM GMT on January 29, ran for three hours and six minutes.
1997: Carmageddon Max Pack (for Carmageddon) for $1.49 (85% off). Started at 2:08 PM GMT on January 29, ran for one hour and 31 minutes.
1998: Rayman Forever (for itself) for $1.49 (75% off). Started at 3:39 PM GMT on January 29, ran for one hour and 44 minutes.
1999: Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver (for itself) for $1.49 (75% off). Started at 5:23 PM GMT on January 29, ran for one hour and 17 minutes.
2000: Deus Ex GOTY Edition (for Deus Ex) for $1.99 (80% off). Started at 6:40 PM GMT on January 29, ran for six hours and 21 minutes. Longest running time.
2001: Gothic (for itself) for $2.49 (75% off). Started at 1:01 AM GMT on January 30, ran for one hour and 39 minutes.
2002: Serious Sam: The First Encounter (possibly for Serious Sam: The Second Encounter, even if that’s also in the catalog and not bundled) for $0.59 (90% off). Started at 2:40 AM GMT on January 30, ran for two hours and 52 minutes.
2003: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (for itself) for $2.49 (75% off). Started at 5:32 AM GMT on January 30, ran for one hour and 51 minutes.
2004: Thief: Deadly Shadows (for itself) for $2.49 (75% off). Started at 7:23 AM GMT on January 30, ran for one hour and 37 minutes.
2005: FlatOut (for certain releases of itself, I guess) for $1.19 (80% off). Started at 9:00 AM GMT on January 30, ran for one hour and 26 minutes.
2006: Heroes of Might and Magic 5 Bundle (for Heroes of Might and Magic V) for $4.99 (75% off). Started at 10:26 AM GMT on January 30, ran for one hour and 31 minutes.
2007: Sam & Max Save the World (for itself) for $2.99 (90% off). Started at 11:57 AM GMT on January 30, ran for one hour and 49 minutes.
2008: The Witcher: Enhanced Edition Director’s Cut (for The Witcher: Enhanced Edition) for $1.99 (80% off). Started at 1:46 PM GMT on January 30, ran for four hours and 12 minutes.
2009: Torchlight (for itself) for $1.49 (90% off). Started at 5:58 PM GMT on January 30, ran for 57 minutes.
2010: Amnesia: The Dark Descent (for itself) for $1.99 (90% off). Started at 6:55 PM GMT on January 30, ran for three hours and 36 minutes.
2011: Unepic (for itself) for $2.49 (75% off). Started at 10:31 PM GMT on January 30, ran for two hours and 57 minutes.
2012: Legend of Grimrock (for itself) for $2.24 (85% off). Started at 1:28 AM GMT on January 31, ran for two hours and four minutes.
2013: Spelunky (for itself) for $3.74 (75% off). Started at 3:32 AM GMT on January 31, ran for two hours and 12 minutes*.

While The Witcher: Enhanced Edition Director’s Cut was up, a user posted a link to a spreadsheet that includes the exact running time for each title, obtained by logging the script calls to switch games. It was made for personal use and includes some other information as well, but once that was made public all of these other efforts, including this post and the list posted on the forum, became quite useless and pointless. Still, since I had gotten that far, I decided to keep going to the end like this as well, but below you’ll see the games ranked according to the running time listed in that spreadsheet, since the margin for error, while not completely eliminated, is almost certainly much lower and this method definitely avoids ties as well. For completeness’ sake, I also included the running time determined by me and the one that appears in the list posted on the forum, between parentheses and separated by a slash, the time determined by me being first. The year each game “represented” is also listed between parentheses, after the title.

1. Deus Ex GOTY Edition (2000) – 6:21:24 (6:21 / 6:22)
2. The Witcher: Enhanced Edition Director’s Cut (2008) – 4:12:05 (4:12 / 4:12)
3. SimCity 2000 Special Edition (1989) – 3:39:18 (3:40 / 3:39)
4. Amnesia: The Dark Descent (2010) – 3:35:29 (3:36 / 3:35)
5. Might and Magic 6-Pack: Limited Edition (1986) – 3:22:24 (3:22 / 3:22)
6. Tomb Raider 1+2+3 (1996) – 3:05:42 (3:06 / 3:06)
7. Unepic (2011) – 2:57:42 (2:57 / 2:57)
8. Serious Sam: The First Encounter (2002) – 2:51:31 (2:52 / 2:51)
9. Spelunky (2013) – 2:11:47 (2:12 / 2:11)
10. Legend of Grimrock (2012) – 2:04:00 (2:04 / 2:04)
11. Wing Commander 1+2 (1991) – 1:54:54 (1:55 / 1:55)
12. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2003) – 1:51:01 (1:51 / 1:53)
13. Star Control 1+2 (1992) – 1:48:40 (1:49 / 1:49)
14. Sam & Max Save the World (2007) – 1:48:30 (1:49 / 1:48)
15. Rayman Forever (1998) – 1:44:02 (1:44 / 1:45)
16. The Zork Anthology (1983) – 1:40:51 (1:40 / 1:41)
17. Gothic (2001) – 1:38:51 (1:39 / 1:38)
18. Thief: Deadly Shadows (2004) – 1:36:46 (1:37 / 1:36)
19. Crusader: No Remorse (1995) – 1:35:25 (1:35 / 1:35)
20. Heroes of Might and Magic 5 Bundle (2006) – 1:31:25 (1:31 / 1:31)
21. Carmageddon Max Pack (1997) – 1:30:52 (1:31 / 1:30)
22. Wizardry 6+7 (1990) – 1:29:19 (1:29 / 1:29)
23. FlatOut (2005) – 1:26:04 (1:26 / 1:24)
24. Jagged Alliance (1994) – 1:24:44 (1:25 / 1:25)
25. Cannon Fodder (1993) – 1:18:18 (1:18 / 1:18)
26. Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver (1999) – 1:17:32 (1:17 / 1:17)
27. Torchlight (2009) – 0:57:26 (0:57 / 0:57)
28. Ultima 1+2+3 (1984) – 0:53:22 (0:54 / 0:53)
29. Police Quest 1+2+3+4 (1988) – 0:44:21 (0:44 / 0:45)
30. King’s Quest 1+2+3 (1985) – 0:37:55 (0:38 / 0:38)
31. Space Quest 1+2+3 (1987) – 0:32:46 (0:33 / 0:33)

Needless to say, I greatly underestimated how well some titles will sell when I said I expected the sale to end in about 48 hours or less, seeing as it lasted for some 63 hours and three quarters. But at least, if you compare the running times I listed to those that appear on the list posted on the forum, mine were closer to those on the spreadsheet ten out of the 15 times the two didn’t match, and one of the remaining five was a tie.

It seems that all those who kept lists were caught unprepared by the end of the sale, everyone except the person keeping the spreadsheet apparently being asleep or, either way, not at the computer at that very moment, myself included since I had estimated the last game to last at least a few minutes longer. Unfortunately, the script used for the spreadsheet failed as well, so Spelunky’s exact running time was an estimate. My own estimate was either 2:11 or 2:12, however, so the error margin is clearly a matter of seconds and makes no difference in the classification, the only issue being that it’s slightly disappointing to fail to track accurately just at the very end. Not that it’s the only time I personally had to estimate, of course, in fact being the fourth, if you also count the exact start time of the sale, but I’m referring to everyone… Not that there was any point whatsoever in trying to track this accurately, of course.