if only someone did gamepads for mac, i would play darkstalkers via gametap forever.

kyle

I'll give them $50 and an extra DVI cable.

Do we have a deal?

mva5580

That would certainly explain why the international version of the service doesn't exist.

XanderSan

Here's hoping for a buyer that backs Vista 64 support.

I'll start the bidding at $1.

Tyber_Zann

Hopefully someone can pick up Gametap, because that is a pretty solid game subscription service, if i do say so myself.

danterandal19

@Asfad: I'll third that sentiment. I loved GameTap until I upgraded to Vista64, and our love become incompatible : (

razorangelwings

@Tyber_Zann: Amen to that. I'd use it pretty heavily if it had Vista 64 support. Don't feel like dual booting into XP just for Gametap :(

Asfad

Seems Game Tap is going to be tapped out, shame.

neojames82

@riffleraffle: Probably more people willing to pay for a service where they can play all the new games for one monthly fee (and not get the shaft if the game is terrible or doesn't work with their configuration) than people who are jonesing for the classic fix.

If they're cool with being a niche player in the market, focusing on classic games is fine. If they want to grow the business, yeah, they probably need to attract the modern-day FPS crowd somehow.

jallen

Gametap got my cancellation when they stopped focusing on old games and made huge deals about us getting to play games like "Clive Barker's Jericho" and "Turning Point: Fall of Liberty"

riffleraffle

I kinda wish that it'd be merged with Steam or something. Damn, that'd be awesome.

kubevubin

This had better not mean bad times for GameTap... I love that service.

ShaggE

MS bought Gametap huh.

Gam3r

@razorangelwings: Does x64 make that much difference? I'm on a Centrino duo with 2gb RAM here, still running XP MCE.

superbabyproject

@ShaggE: Seconded. I've been quite happy with my Gametap subscription, especally with the addition just a couple of weeks ago of Freespace 2. It's got a great selection of old and new games, and I've been using it to play not only some of my favorite Neo Geo games, but also a bunch of Windows games I missed out on way back in the day, like the aforementioned Freespace and Deus Ex.

tayaya

YES brother... YES... (Hulkamania snorts) nWo 4 life brother, Ted Turner will take the spray paint can and mark the nWo all over that worthless no good GameTap wuss, watcha gonna do brother when Billionaire Ted kicks your ass GameTap... brother...

Hulkamaniac

Never was too fond of Gametap, they constantly ignored Europe with the quality titles for a start, and in a market with competitors like Steam, they really never stood a chance.

Gofthick

Love Gametap in theory, but yeah, the execution is flawed. I have to remember to disconnect or turn off my external DVD burner which is mapped to X: every time I start it up, and for some reason (DRM?) the main executable seems to shoot up to 100% CPU use on me all the time, causing the games themselves (running as their own EXE) to slow way down.

It's a great idea, with sort of decent implementation... I'm just afraid any buyer wouldn't really take the time/money/effort needed to really clean up the codebase and get it running smoothly.

Justin42

Gametap is great, to a point.

However; some of the aspects of it are fundamentally broken. X, Y and Z drives cannot be mapped because Gametap uses them as dedicated ghost drives for running their DRM locked games. Vista support is dismal, 64-bit support is dead in the water. Games known to run fine under 64-bit vista (such as Civ 4) cannot be installed through gametap on a vista 64 system because ... well, who knows why; some pissant programmers can't update their DRM engine to work properly under an OS that's been live for over a year.

Right now, the only reason I have XP on dual-boot is because Valve hasn't updated the Steam SDK to work with the latest Speech SDK in vista; and Gametap is a giant pile of fail in Vista 64bit.

Clockw0rk

Hey, I've been trying to give them my money but they never wanted it.

Pssst, Gametap. Support 64-bit!

Darkest Daze

@superbabyproject: No. Not much of one, especially if you're running two gigs of RAM. There are a few programs that are specifically tailored to take advantage of a 64-bit OS, but the differences for most common users are negligible, at best.

JustThisGuy

Noo! Dammit! This was my Capcom / SNK fighters catalog! It better stay in some way, shape or form.

Why must the good stuff always disappear? I'm getting sad flashbacks of Sega Channel, now. :(

TheJinManCan

Hope whoever picks it up open it worldwide so it has a chance at survival.

syl1985

I had a subscription to GameTap, but I had to cancel it. Luckily, they made some of their games free, & I turned back to GameTap when I got my new Vista laptop. But, I got bored with them, because there wasn't any new free games coming out. Also, their "challenge" online matchmaking thing wasn't that good. Maybe it would work better for me if I had friends there. :(

P.S.: My GameTap ID is the same as my screenname here.

dawimp523

@kyle: I use an XBox 360 wireless gamepad on Gametap with both my Mac and PC, thanks to the USB wireles dongle. It works perfectly on both platforms, so there's your solution right there.

KoolAidMan

@TheJinManCan: Oh, I loved The Sega Channel. 12.95 got me around 50 games a month, and even though I had to go to work the next morning I still stayed up the night before to see the games change over. Ultimately I had to drop it when I didn't have the time to dedicate to it, and it was dropped from Time-Warner soon after. But still have fond memories of it.

relic1980

@razorangelwings: Fourth-ed, a friend started up a gametap subscription, so I give it a spin and the specs all match, except "32 bit version of windows" gets a big fail. For...well every game I tried, I'd start a subscription myself if it supported Vista64. I wonder if that's a reason it's not doing so hot, vista is pretty penetrated now, and 64 bit CPUs have been prevalent for at least 4 years now.

Talleh

It's always a shame when a place to enjoy games shuts down...

JustOneFix

I like the free subscription! W00t for more free games!

Crawl to China

@Tyber_Zann:
Here's another reply for hoping for x64 support. They blame the issues on Exent; however, if you go to Exent's site they have partner links. One of their partners is a French site that works like Gametap and it says they support Vista x64. The other thing is that they have a 9 Euro base or 19 Euro premium service. The premium service offers games like Assassin's Creed, Grid, and other brand new games. It's just a shame that the games are the French versions only otherwise it would be worth getting a subscription.

@kyle:
Have you tried plugging in a standard USB gamepad? With Windows and Linux they will see the controller and just start working. The only time there are issues is if you need to load drivers to support rumble. But the d-pad, analog sticks, and buttons as work as normal.

SScorpio

I wonder what this means for Sam & Max? After all, the games were funded by GameTap.

RussellAspasia

What a bunch of wankers they are. I mean, that "international" support has been a long time coming; there's a bunch of us who would happily give them money for the service, but they just. cant. seem. to. launch. it.

Any business so incompetent as to not arrange for a way for its customers to pay it deserves to go bust.

gblock