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When you speak of classic PC gaming, Age of Wonders will no doubt come into the conversation. You can now get all this gaming goodness on Impulse DRM-free!
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Sorry, I just don't understand this mentality. It's like saying "what do you mean, I have to have a computer that runs this stupid game?" You need a computer, you need an OS, you are telling me that a delivery system is too much "control" now? The issue of advertising is silly also. They advertise so customer buy from them so you can have the game in your little paws in the first place. They are a for profit business. They provide a service or product to make money and in turn they can pay for things like the very forum you are reading. It's kind of a give and take thing.
Oh well, this whole issue makes me parched...I need some water. Wait- I need a glass to drink the water...screw it...I'm not drinking!
Impulse maybe DRM friendly, but GoG it is not. It makes no sense to even claim that it is. GoG gives you an exe and you're good to go for as long as the OS can handle that file.
Okay, that's all fine and dandy then. "Stardock: Let us use our web browser instead of Impulse to download games." *crickets*
A "computer" game will not run without a "computer".
A computer game (at least since pong) will not run with some sort of operating system architecture.
A computer game will run without Impulse.
See the difference? See why someone would, I don't know, be a little bothered by that?
I've seen a lot of people rationalize how Impulse is not DRM, but I have yet to see someone tell me why I actually need it to run. You can't have it both ways: you can't tell me Impulse does not restrict my game-play in any way, but then argue that it is necessary.
If you're using Impulse because of customer loyalty or you just want to contribute something to Stardock, I have no problem with that. That's your choice. But don't tell me it's DRM free, because it isn't. They are Managing the Rights of Digital software using their own client. Whether that happens constantly or one time doesn't change that fact. I'm a 1s and 0s kind of person, I see things in shades of true or false.
You are right. My bad here. I remember Triumph Studios announcing that they were making an expansion for AoW2 but apparently they changed it to a full blown sequel for the release. BTW. points 1 and 2 can apply to an expansion as well. There were a number of expansions that were stand alone as well. However, this is apparently not the case here.
It is their way of making sure that the people downloading the game are those that has paid (or they are at least logged into the account of someone who has). Why should they support downloading through a web browser when they already have the means of doing the same thing that is being used for programs that can gain from having a special downloader (programs the get updates)?
As a note, Impulse is far less of a hardship that the original copy protection the game had which checked for the disc and took forever to do so, and did not play well with even the most minimal of virtualization (running in compatiblity mode prevented it from running).
All I want to know is do all 3 AOWs run without problems on windows 7 home 32bit.
The non-Impulse versions are said to run well on Windows 7 64 bit, and the re-released versions seem to have been overhauled to improve compatibility with new versions of Windows (they have a directory for .Net binaries that did not exist before).
A computer game will run without an internet browser.
You can not buy (and therefore not run) a game from GOG without an internet browser.
GOG isn't an option, either, I'm afraid.
I would say yes. I have windows 7 64 bit, just installed the impulse versions of all games, and launched each game. All appear to be working quite nicely. So, I'd say pretty much 99.9% chance you won't have any issue on win 7 32.
GaelicVigil, I think your arguments about Impulse are pointless. The last point made about needing a browser to download anything, is cogent. Taking this illogic even further, by your thinking, running your machine on Windows is a form of DRM upon any software because you cant play your games without it. Needing computer chips to run your computer is DRM, etc, etc. Maybe you are ideologically opposed, but ideology in the absence of logic is pure foolishness.
I would also like to know what resolutions each game supports before buying. I am running 1920x1080 native right now... I have missed these games so much, lost all three when I moved the family from the city to the countryside.
Not that big, Shadow Magic (the newest) gets to 1600xSomething. At least not when in Fullscreen mode. To my knowledge it can reach any size when windowed (I always use windowed mode), and it is not hard to navigate with the minimap. Windowed mode also fixes some graphical errors without disabling Direct3D and losing some effects. That said, some parts of the UI (unit images for the selected party, which are bitmaps) do not stretch well, though most of it looks fine.
Anyone had trouble paying with PayPal? I've tried three times now, and it fails to process, telling me that my order was neither submitted, nor was I charged for it. I am, of course, glad to hear that it caught whatever the error was, and that I was not accidentally charged.. but I still really want the games. 
I believe every one of those games gave me the option to choose 1920x1080. So i did. You should be all set. H
Didn't use Paypal on this one, just payed with Amex and it went through with no problems. I usually use Paypal to pay though and didn't run into problems back then. Maybe they had some server problems or something. Just make sure you don't order it many times and pay for it - many times.
Really? Mine does not, but maybe that is because my system does not support that resolution. I guess it is checking with Windows about what is availible so it should be able to do any setting.
Went ahead and picked this up since I loved AoW back in the day, but somehow never got into Shadow Magic.
Are people using mods with the Impulse version of this? I've been looking through AoW Heaven, and it looks like there are lots of good mods...but I may have to *gasp* mess around with DOS prompts and other such things that I haven't touched since the 20th century.
Some mods (e.g. Warlock Rules) modify the execuables, and therefore may not work with the re-released versions. I hear that they at least cause the game to want you to insert the CD.
The Trilogy is excellent so far. I picked it up off of Impulse and I must say that I'm very impressed.
It's been a long time since I've played these classic games.
If you can't use the mods on AoW Heaven though that would be a major disappointment. 
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