GameTap ~ Has anyone else tried it?

[Ivo]

i'm just playing the free stuff. that Neo Geo shmup "burning star" is among the best I"ve played.

Blazing Star you mean? Grabbing it now.

That is definitively a nice shooter.

Is it in the "free" version of Gametap?

Ivo.

[Mozgus]

Just wanted to say GameTap is getting generous lately. There's some big games for free right now.

http://www.gametap.com/home/play/free.html

Hitman 1, 2, 3, Tomb Raider Legend, Psychonauts, Second Sight, Blood Omen 2. These should all be tried by everybody. And then there's the usual pickins of retro.

[Ivo]

Just wanted to say GameTap is getting generous lately. There's some big games for free right now.

http://www.gametap.com/home/play/free.html

Hitman 1, 2, 3, Tomb Raider Legend, Psychonauts, Second Sight, Blood Omen 2. These should all be tried by everybody. And then there's the usual pickins of retro.

Are these time limited offers or do the free things stay there for play later? I'm just wondering if I should budget time for one of these games.

Ivo.

[Mozgus]

Just wanted to say GameTap is getting generous lately. There's some big games for free right now.

http://www.gametap.com/home/play/free.html

Hitman 1, 2, 3, Tomb Raider Legend, Psychonauts, Second Sight, Blood Omen 2. These should all be tried by everybody. And then there's the usual pickins of retro.

Are these time limited offers or do the free things stay there for play later? I'm just wondering if I should budget time for one of these games.

Ivo.

You can see on the list there how long they will remain free. Although some of these games I swear have been free ever since I first joined, so I would assume they'll stay free longer than this says.

[ExedExes]

Rather than being called out for making a new thread about it, I'm gonna give this thread a super necro-bump.

I was a member of Gametap since 2007. Notice I said was. I canceled my subscription this week.

When I finally got broadband in 2007, one of the first things I wanted to do was to check this service out after seeing so many ads that promised "classic games through your broadband connection". I signed up as a Free user, got their software, and was amazed at even the selection of games you got for free that were rotated out. At the time, there were games for:

Arcade
Atari 2600
Neo-Geo
Sega Master System
SG-1000
Commodore 64
Genesis
Game Gear
Saturn (!)
Dreamcast (!!)
DOS
Windows

This was the largest collection of games assembled on the planet at this time. Also, the publishers they signed up for it!

Atari
Activision
EA
Sega
Capcom
Konami
Midway
SNK
G-Mode (Data East)
Take 2 Interactive
Namco
Sierra
Eidos
and many more.

2007 game of Blazing Star (free with ad support)

Once I saw that they had nearly 1500 games (at one point) I got a paid account right away.

First game I played? Zaxxon. Heck yes. But, to see them actually emulate all these consoles, and to play as much or as little as you want, BLISS! I discovered so many great games from them. I played so many Saturn games (Panzer Dragoon, and they also had Zwei!) because I was really unfamiliar with it. But the best thing were the PC games. It was where I was introduced to the great Deus Ex. 3D Pinball series from Sierra. Mafia (the first game). Vietcong (an FPS). Tomb Raider Legend. Many, many more games.

The software was easy to use and had a lot more than just games. They also had Gametap TV, with interviews and clips about the featured games. I remember a new interview they had with Howard Scott Warshaw which he said he created one of the best games and then the worst game for the 2600. They also had contests and trivia every week. I won one of their prize packages which included the Guinness Book of World Records Gamers Edition 2008. Lots of hours of entertainment.

Gametap was originally created and ran by Turner Broadcasting, and things were great under them. However, by the end of 2008, they were looking to sell. A service similar to Gametap that was being run in Europe, Metaboli out of France, bought them in early 2009. The transition period was one of uncertainty and sadness. Earlier, EA took down access to all their games, losing nearly 200-300 in the catalog. Other publishers would eventually follow suit.

By the time Metaboli took over, we were promised a much better experience. Gone was the Gametap Player software, in was a Java-based web application in which downloads and organization of games would be easier. Plus, we still had all those classic arcade and console games. In 2010, another blow was struck to Gametap, as Sega and Capcom pulled their games from the service, so no more console and arcade games by them.

When all hope seemed lost, they did the right thing in signing a deal with Epic Games, bringing all the Unreal Tournament titles to the service. This is where I first played UT 99 and UT 2004 (still do!) and did that for years.

Time has not been kind to Gametap, as our European overlords still lost many American publishing licenses and added games by obscure European publishers, more casual and puzzle games, and more simulation/management titles. A lot of these games I was totally unfamiliar with, and the genres I didn't like much. Also, many of these no longer ran on my somewhat dated hardware. UT2004 still did, so I was happy.

Then I discovered GOG.com. I have made quite a few purchases with them this year for Together Retro games, and I saw they had UT2004 for $9.99, no DRM, no going to the website to launch it, and I completely own it. Fearing that the Epic license may be pulled, and for me to be able to have full access to the game directory (something Gametap didn't allow until about a year or two ago) was a big deal, as I could save maps and mods and not have to lose them. Last week, I put the $10 down for UT2004. This week, I said goodbye to Gametap. Many people have also followed suit.

Gametap was once great, but it is going down fast, and is continuing to. I was wondering maybe if anyone else was also on from 2007 on and what they thought of the service. It was great for the time, but now it's really nothing but a copy of what they have on their European owner's site now. A sad story indeed.

[Mozgus]

Thanks for the trip down memory lane with those pictures. If anyone knows where to download the gametap seasons of Space Ghost Coast 2 Coast, I'd be grateful. They seem to have no backups anywhere online, which is very sad.

[ExedExes]

The Sam & Max game seasons are still around elsewhere right? I was playing those like crazy too. They were Gametap exclusives at the time!

They also had all the Serious Sam games. Those were great FPS.

Oddly enough, they had Exed Exes to play in the arcade section, but the emulation NEVER WORKED RIGHT for me. I had contacted support and all they could say was that it might have been a corrupt DLL, but still, the game I love so much I couldn't play. I just had to play the others

[Fragems]

If your an unreal fan you should check out the Unreal Anthology. Picked it up a few years ago at gamestop. At they time they had it listed for $2.50 so I nabbed it .

You can still find it at some walmarts in the PC section for $10 and Amazon has it as well.

Unreal Anthology contains the original Unreal with the Return to Na Pali expansion pack , Unreal Tournament GOTY edition, Unreal II, and UT2004 Editors Choice.

[ExedExes]

If your an unreal fan you should check out the Unreal Anthology. Picked it up a few years ago at gamestop. At they time they had it listed for $2.50 so I nabbed it .

You can still find it at some walmarts in the PC section for $10 and Amazon has it as well.

Unreal Anthology contains the original Unreal with the Return to Na Pali expansion pack , Unreal Tournament GOTY edition, Unreal II, and UT2004 Editors Choice.

Now if GOG had that, it would be a slam dunk, they only have those games individually priced at $9.99. I really hate to say it, but I'm SO glad I'm done with Gametap. Just one issue after the other. Any former users really need to read the forums there just to see how bad the service is being mishandled. Even on their new download-to-own digital service, people are having problems. It's so nice to actually OWN UT2004 now and not have to deal with going to the website, waiting for the plugin to start up, go to the game list, and launch it, which took much longer than a simple desktop icon.

[fastbilly1]

Now if GOG had that, it would be a slam dunk, they only have those games individually priced at $9.99.

Wait till Christmas time and they will do a big sale and they will drop in price to either 2.49 or 4.99 (depends on if it is a day sale or just part of the big sale). I bought UT99 and 2k4 through them since I got tired of messing with the discs. I still havent grabed Unreal 1&2, but they are next on the list - I still play UT99 and 2k4 fairly regularly. UT99 is usually one of the first things installed on all of my pcs.