Games without CDs

There’s a new game delivery technology available, and if you have a broadband Internet connection it is well worth looking into. You connect to a server and download all the game software, but you still play it locally. Usually, you pay a monthly usage fee, with unlimited play for any of the available games. The two major players in the market are GameTap and Comcast Games on Demand, with Valve (the Half-Life folks) offering their own delivery system called Steam. I’ve subscribed to all three for at least a couple of months now, and here’s what I’ve found out.

Comcast Games On Demand

http://gamesoduser.comcast.net/gamesondemand

Part of the Comcast Cable Internet empire, but I don’t think you need to have Comcast as your ISP to get it, just a broadband connection. Some of the games it downloads are huge! It uses IE as its user interface, with the Player being an ActiveX component that actually downloads and runs the game.

• System requirements: Any Windows (32 bit) PC, using IE 5.x and DirectX 8. It downloads the EXEtender Player, which is 4mb in size. After that, it depends on the game.
• Pretty solid selection of trailing edge Windows games. Full list (not recently updated, though) can be found here.
• Plenty of kids games. My girls have enjoyed many of the games, including the My Little Pony, I Spy, and Putt Putt.
• Browser based ActiveX component, so it is geared towards Internet Explorer. Problems if you use FireFox or other alternate browser. Not impossible to workaround, but it requires more work. The Player offers to create a shortcut, but it is an HTML shortcut, which launches your default browser, which doesn’t help if it isn’t IE. I create a special IE shortcut and add the link to the game page on the Games On Demand web site.
• You can schedule downloads for later. Partial downloads possible for many games. Total downloads run from 10mb to 1+gb.
• Support is spotty. A forums group, but little official notice. Support calls have taken quite some time.
• No problems playing most games. Some ask for a CD and the described work arounds don’t seem to help. Removing and re-installing the games did seem to help in the few case it came up.
• Account allows up to two players simultaneously, and full multiplayer connection allowed. Of course, due to trailing edge games, not much action on servers. Project:Snowblind had just a couple populated servers.
• Nearly 300 games currently online. They add 3-5 each week. These run the gamut from small little arcade titles (Chicken Invaders) to big games like Neverwinter Nights and Second Sight. Each game’s web page gives you a short run down of the game, some screenshots, and, rarely, a link to a PDF version of the manual, along with a button to launch the ActiveX player. It also gives you a quick rundown of the game’s system requirements and whether your system meets those requirements.
• Reasonable control. Let’s you specify where to store downloaded games. Easily remove games. Reasonably fast getting them.
• Two tiers of membership. $15 / month is the “Unlimited Play Pack”, allowing access to all the games, while there is an $8 / month “Kids Play Pack”, which just gives you access to the Kids games section.
• For most games, you are on your own as far as how to play. Some games have a downloadable instruction manual, but most don’t even have a simple description of the keys. Luckily, Replacementdocs.com can often come to the rescue. I like instruction manuals!

All in all, a solid system for playing trailing edge games. Lots of interesting hidden classics, along with a plethora of entertaining kids games. I’ve downloaded and been a real game dilettante with over a dozen games, with plenty more I’m anxious to try. If only it wasn’t so tied to the ActiveX component and had better tech support.

GameTap

Web site: http://www.gametap.com

GameTap is a division of Turner Broadcasting system. You download a full screen player, which has a funky user interface used to choose which game you want to play. It also has some other multimedia content, like movie trailers and “GameTap Entertainment, the first broadband network … devoted to video games”. You’ll need a Windows PC newer than Windows 98 to play GameTap.

• Mostly old games. No, I mean old games, like Atari 2600, Magnavox Odyssey, etc.
• Can play games while downloading others. Good for playing old arcade hits while downloading bigger Windows games
• Arcade Classics: 50 Asteroids, Battlezone, Zaxxon, Pacman, Defender, Joust, lots of the classics, faithfully ported
• Windows games: 37 games, older ones, kids. The usual suspects like the first two Splinter Cells, Rainbow Six, Pharoah, Panzer General II
• 4 Different Sega categories - Game Gear, Master System, Genesis and 32x, Dreamcast. Lots of the usual suspects here too, including Phantasy Star II, Sword of Vermillion, all of the Sonic games, 2 Ecco the Dolphin
• 3 Intellivision games
• 55 Atari 2600 games. All too faithfully ported. Not sure why you would play any of these for very long!
• No network multiplayer capability. One login, one player, no connectivity.
• Seems fast enough getting the games, but takes forever to update the list of games (well, 3 minutes or so feels like forever).
• US$15 / month
• Good descriptions of the game, with some interesting history, and quick list of how to play it and keyboard shortcuts but no complete documentation.

Overall, an interesting system, but the games are beyond old, more like museum artifacts. You can wax nostalgic all you want, but playing the old Atari 2600 games just doesn’t make my heart race! They’ll need to work on getting more recent games before they can compete with Comcast for a real gamer’s dollar.

Steam

http://www.steampowered.com/

Valve Software’s game delivery system.

• System Requirements: Windows 400mhz PC, and you’ll need a broadband connection. Much more demanding for actually playing Half-Life 2, of course!
• The Steam player sits in your system tray, popping up a few small windows when asked. Select a game and you’re off to the races.
• Mostly just Half-Life, Half-Life 2 and their mods, like Counter Strike and Day of Defeat. Bigger plans haven’t materialized.
• Has worked okay for me, but plenty of complaints from others. Could be just percentages working against it, as there are a vast number of users. Major credit card billing snafu when Half-Life 2 first came out, but seems to have settled down.
• No monthly cost, just pay for the game’s you want to play. Half-Life 2 costs US$40, Half-Life costs US$10, while the new Darwinia costs $20.
• Some control over where the downloaded software goes, but not enough for me.
• Includes full access to the Source SDK, including the Hammer world editor and Face Poser
• Darwinia recently added to the lineup, with more “third world” games promised.

So I’ll be sticking with the Comcast Games on Demand system. I am an inveterate dabbler in games - I love to try out new games, see what makes them tick, but I don’t often play them all the way through. And as I’m normally a trailing edge kind of game anyway, I feel right at home with the GoD offerings. And it really works with the kids too. When they get bored, it is very easy for them to try another offering. So if you have the disk space, the broadband connection, and don’t mind playing games that are a bit long of tooth, be sure to check out one of these services.

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