If these games are all old DOSbox games, then there can be strange video card specific interactions with DOSbox also. There is a graphics setup utility that comes with DOSbox which GOG includes Galaxy links and start menu links for for most games I've noticed. That gives high level configuration to the most common options, but there is also the ability to hand-edit the DOSbox config files for each individual game to tweak many settings. I've had to tweak some of these by hand for some games to get the best experience. In some cases you can actually improve some games' experience greatly by doing this. For example I was able to make the original Tomb Raider game run in 2048x1536 resolution, something unheard of when the game came out. Lots of other tweaks are possible also.

Most likely there is a problem between your video driver settings and DOSbox and/or Glide/OpenGL wrapper libraries that might be included with the games for example. This may only affect certain games, because I don't think all of GOG's games all use the same version of DOSbox. I believe they get a game working with it and then generally leave it at that version of DOSbox, while newer games they add to the catalogue may end up getting newer versions of DOSbox. They may also update DOSbox with a given game from time to time if it may improve things, but I don't think they ever synchronize the release of DOSbox with every single game as that would be a monumental effort to track DOSbox across that many games. So, you could get different results with some games than others.

Realize too that with the insane amount of hardware out there in terms of video cards, and other hardware, it is amazing that these ancient games are able to be made to keep running on modern hardware, however sometimes there are glitches and corner cases that are almost impossible to test for every possible combination of computer, video card, video driver version that people might have and to then eliminate all possible bugs/glitches that one might experience. So it is not a matter of carelessness, or "not caring if a game works or not so we'll sell it anyway", but rather that it is impossible to guarantee that every game will work on every possible hardware combination without any flaws at all. So it is important to know that there can always be problems with games like this, and one should always expect that there is a possibility they may have to troubleshoot an old game and try some tinkering to get it to work - even though GOG themselves does their best effort to do all of that for us, they can't get it perfect for everyone 100% of the time either.

But that is why they have an excellent support team, to try to help users to sort these problems out, and that''s also why they have an excellent return policy - so that if they can not get the game to run properly for someone, then the person may be eligible for a refund as long as they meet the terms of the refund policy time limits and other factors. In general this means when you buy a game, install it right away and try to get it to work, if it doesn't work the contact GOG support immediately to get them to help get it working. If they're unable to do so, request a refund.

Personally from my own experience though, there's almost always a way to get these darn games to work, it just takes some perseverance and sometimes some good googling. :)

As I read your post I remembered back when I first got these games, and had to make "boot disks" for different games to get them to work. I remember spending 2 weeks making boot disks to get a game to run, and when I finally got to run, the game sucked. lol If I remember correctly this took a little extra care to get running back in the day. Looks like I should get this Galaxy that people are talking about and try that.

Keep in mind that Galaxy doesn't affect the way the games work or their graphics at all, it's just a convenient program to download, install, update and launch games, track and show their achievements and other similar stuff, and integrates the GOG storefront and friend chat etc. Ideally, and ultimately the goal of Galaxy client, Steam client and other gaming clients is to provide an integrated user interface for managing one's game library, purchases, configuration to a degree, communication with friends, and other useful utility functions related to the gaming experience. Some folks really appreciate this functionality, while others see it as evil unnecessary bloatware, and others see it as both. :)

I was opposed to gaming clients for a long time mostly from the perspective of DRM and also saw them as an attempt by game companies (ok it was only Valve at the time) to try to take control over the gaming experience and force people to use their system. Nowadays I do think that some of the gaming companies try to use their clients to force people into a walled garden that they try to control and require, but some of them are somewhat balanced overall (although that too depends on one's individual perspective). I don't mind Steam client and think that the client itself attempts to improve the gaming experience and make life easier for the gamer rather than trying to get in the way or control people. To be clear for others reading, I am referring to the client itself, not Steamworks which is where the Steam APIs some games use come into play, including the optional DRM component (CEG). The client itself though is just a useful utility. I don't feel so kind towards Ubisoft's Uplay or EA's Origin though, as they both feel like walled garden prisons to me.

GOG Galaxy client though has a totally different vibe to it for me of pure optional convenience. One can take it or leave it and still play all of their games which I like, even though I do prefer to have a client these days. While it's beta right now and rough around the edges, I think it holds a lot of promise and will blossom into something really great as time goes on. Some will still like it and others will hate it, but that's normal for both and to be expected all along the journey. :)

Yeah, I went to the Galaxy page and didn't install it. It sounded a lot like Steam. I noticed playing a game through Steam, that it slowed things down, there were more glitches having to go through an extra layer BS for no good reason. I played the game without Steam and it went much better. I did notice with Steam, that if the Steam client is not running any game you bought from Steam will not work. You just get a message saying, I am paraphrasing here, "No Steam, No Game." Plus the fact that they do not support the products they sell. I am no fan of Steam. I plan to buy No Mans Sky from Gog instead of Steam. Gog hasn't back to me yet, the plan is to write off the game for now. I do appreciate all the help I got here, tried everything but using the original drivers for my video card. Figured I don't want to possibly bork a lot other things just for one game.

That's not really true, sure some games are designed and built by their developers/publisher to use Steamworks CEG DRM, and/or use other 3rd party DRM however there are many DRM-free games on Steam that do not require Steam client in order to play the game. You need the Steam client to install the game because that's how Steam works, but it isn't needed to play a large number of games. One may need to edit shortcuts or make other minor configuration changes in order to launch these games without Steam, but it's certainly doable. There is a website that tracks DRM-free games on Steam: http://steam.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_DRM-free_games

Aside from that, there's also a thread here on GOG on how to play Steam games offline as well:
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/how_to_run_steam_games_offline_forever_tutorial/page1

Steam doesn't slow games down, it is a storefront, an installer+updater with convenience features such as social networking etc, but the games do not play "inside Steam", they're launched by the client and play on their own. If they use Steam's APIs that is to implement things like achievments, trading cards, multiplayer matchmaking and other similar things none of which have anything to do with performance really. If someone is playing a game purchased on Steam and it is slow, talk to the developers to optimize their slow game, don't blame it on Steam which really has nothing to do with the performance of games.

Likewise, GOG Galaxy is a web browser just like Steam Client is a web browser. That acts mainly as the storefront, and as an HTML based widget toolkit to design and display a user interface. The user interface is used to download/install/update games and provide social networking features. These features are in common with Steam, Origin, Uplay and other clients but they are completely independent of the video games themselves and have no impact whatsoever on the performance of the games which run as separate unrelated processes. Games that link to the Galaxy API to provide achievements and multiplayer matchmaking use that API solely for those services, and they have zero impact on performance either.

To be clear, I'm no Steam fanboi although I do use it, and I'm not playing devil's advocate for them either. You've stated some things about Steam that are simply not true however (concerning performance of games, and the requirement to use Steam to play them which is only partially true for individual games that decide to require it - Steam itself does NOT require games to require it, it is up to the game developer what they decide to do), so I felt the need to correct that. Either way, what Steam does or does not do for any particular game is completely irrelevant to what GOG Galaxy does or does not do because even though they both are gaming clients that support similar overlap of certain specific features, they go about doing it in entirely different ways with different motivations and fundamental philosophical differences. So drawing conclusions about what Galaxy is or does based on what Steam is or does is just fear mongering not based in reality.

Give it some time, and don't keep submitting/pinging the support ticket (that tends to move it to the back of the queue). GOG just finished a major sale, so support is probably still swamped with tickets.

If you haven't heard back from them within a week, let us know; it would probably be time to ping a blue.

Got an email from Gog tech support. It stated the obvious, told me to try everything we talked about here. So this definitely a dead issue and a dead game. Though I did notice that I can Ctrl Alt Del and not end the program or end task manager and use the box that task manager puts the game in. It's kind of a work around, I tried playing like that last night and it was working as long as I kept everything open.

Sounds like you've jumped to giving up on support waaay too fast.

Let them know you've tried the solution offered, that it didn't work, and see what they come up with next. When I needed some help with DK2, it took a few back and forth trial solutions, and then I got kicked up to a next tier guy who was able to provide a working solution pretty quickly.

This game is worth some effort.

Give up AFTER they've given up.

Giving up on support is a learned behavior, that's the way it goes. The most you can expect is one maybe 2 responses, and of those, 90% of the time would be responses to something totally unrelated, like "game running dark, the answer is when the game locks up you should." Though the years of "did they even read the email" type of responses, I expect very little from support. In fact I expect the worst possible outcome.
All have to say is: Try Elite Dangerous, start it with Steam and let Steam track your hours of play. Then run the game without the Steam client being aware of it and not tracking it. Then tell me there is NO difference in the way it runs and no difference in the number of times it crashes. If you do that, there is a real good chance you would be lying.

You're cherry picking one part of what I said then providing an example that doesn't apply to that and making it out as if it was an all black or all white issue when in fact it is grey. Are there games on Steam that have DRM in them? Yes, absolutely. Are there games on Steam which wont run if you are disconnected from Steam? Yes, for developers who have decided to make that a mandatory part of their game - absolutely.

Do all games on Steam do this? Nope. Do all games on Steam have DRM? Nope. Does the game you mentioned do it? You tell me. Have I made any claims towards the game you have highlighted in a manner contrary to what you're saying about it? Nope, I'm neutral as I have no idea about that game whatsoever.

I do however own DRM-free games on Steam, and there is a public list of them which is kept up to date by the wider Steam gaming community out there, and there is also a list of games on Steam that do have DRM that can run offline no problem, tracked right here in our own neighbourhood on GOG forums. Do these facts that there are DRM-free games and DRM games on Steam both of which can run without being connected to Steam negate the equal fact that there are games on Steam that do have DRM and can not run without Steam running or otherwise being connected to the Internet at all times in order to play them?

Nope. In fact, both cases are true. There are games that run fine from Steam - without Steam and without being connected online, and there are games that require you to use Steam and be connected on line. It isn't one way or the other, it is both - and that is a hard fact you can take to the bank. If anyone believes otherwise, then they're either not paying attention to reality, or they're sticking their head in the sand.

I point I was making wasn't about DRM, it was about Steam's front end and how much it takes to run it. Elite Dangerous is a game that you must be connected to either Frontier or Steam. I merely used it as an example of how much resources Steam takes. I don't care about the DRM, had I known about having to have a connection to play, I may not have bought it. But that wasn't the point, is was Steam's excessive resource drag on your system, because in an earlier post you said "steam doesn't slow down games" it certainly does slow them down, if you are running it though Steam's front end.

Well, I finally got it. Gog pointed out I was using an old version. I updated the game which I thought I did before all this, and was able to use the OpenGL graphic setting to fix it. Gog kept telling me to change the DosBox settings, which wasn't working, since there "configurator wasn't working. But in the end it work out, so all is good.

Glad that you got your game to work! I hope that you also learned a valuable lesson along the way too, which is to not cast judgment or blame on GOG when a game doesn't work. Sometimes it doesn't work due to user error. Now think for a bit about how many minutes or hours GOG support tried to help you solve the problem and what wages they would be paid for their job, and subtract that from the price of the game and you can start to see how GOG's service and support is fantastic - even when the problems we have with games are caused by ourselves and not by GOG.

Now think about if you had actually finalized your original decision to never buy games here again. Ultimately that would have only hurt you, and not GOG whom offers fantastic customer service unlike any other gaming retailer online or offline, even for games that they are not the publisher nor developer of.

WIth that in hindsight, even if one does come across a game that they can't get working on their computer, GOG will do everything they can to try to get it to work which is more than can be said for any other store, and even if the game ends up not working there is a chance that one can get a refund also. If anything, these are the best reasons to KEEP shopping at GOG even if you DO get a game that does not work at some point and it is not caused by user error but is a legitimate bug in the game itself or the way it is packaged by GOG. You wont get any better service out there in the industry.

Food for thought anyway. :)

Yeah, they do have good support, especially with the low prices they have. I don't know how I got the old version, I was updating my games, and somehow i got an old version. Anyway I do plan to buy No Man's Sky here on Gog instead of Steam, probably going to preorder for the first time ever.

Good to hear things turned around for you. :) I too made the first game pre-order in my life here on GOG.com last year also, a few days before The Witcher 3 came out I was humming and hawing as to whether or not it would run on my GPU. Then an incident occurred in the marketplace that sparked and heightened my sense of customer loyalty to both GOG and CDPR and I went ahead and bought the game with the pre-order discount. First and only time I've ever done something like that, and while I'm unlikely to do that in general for games I'm certainly lined up and waiting for CDPR's next game(s) in the pipeline with money in hand now. Both sibling companies have the best support I've experienced from gaming companies to date so for me personally and my own experiences with them they have achieved a level of trust unmatched by their peers in the industry to date. Looking forward to their goodies in the future. :)