Expack2's Guide to Getting Your Old Games Running Without Their CDs
 

For those of you who've been wanting to learn my secrets to getting games running without their CDs, I've posted a guide on GOG.com which details how to make the games contained within run without their CDs. Enjoy! :D

You might find this a bit useful for getting specific subdirectories auto-mounted regardless of their real location on HDD: http://www.abandonia.com/vbullet/showthread.php?t=28560

Indeed, that would be nice! I'll be sure to look into using your tool, Fifth. In the meantime, it seems like no-one on GOG.com is interested in running games without using CDs or disc images...which is odd, since this usually makes things easier to archive in a compressed format.

They have an aversion to what might be in some way linked to piracy. Many of their members get rather agitated about anything that could be linked to being a dirty pirate.

Hmm...I see. I do note in the instructions to use the actual CD(s) for the games in question, so I thought that it wouldn't be seen as such - especially since I wanted to help others get the old games they owned working without CDs or disc images. Oh, well. :/ I guess I'll just re-post and maintain the guide here.

Have a search through their forums and see if you can find one talking about our site, it is about half and half saying we are pure scum who should all be eaten alive for daring to pirate PQ1.

But I am looking forward to this guide here, I am sure I have a few games I wouldn't mind saving from their old CDs.

I've successfully re-posted my guide here on Abandonia. It can be found at http://www.abandonia.com/vbullet/showthread.php?t=28678

Different audience.
To run abandonware in DOSBox (or even in Windows), one usually needs some technical aptitute - or at the very least, learning capacity - and willingness to invest some effort in the process.
To run games purchased from GOG, one needs only to know which icon to click to run the game and the instalation process is likewise effortless. The unfortunate side effect is that standard features of DOSBox (virtual drive, keymapper etc) could as well be deep magic for a fair part of their customer base (be it due to laziness or complete lack of technical skills).

Tl;dr: We enjoy tinkering, they enjoy not having to do it.