Obsolete games no longer subject to copyright...

[FortisVir]

linky: Wired News

What does this mean? It means that you are now legally allowed to "archive" games that are no longer obtainable because they are obsolete.

 

[DarkelP]

This has been going on for agaes.....its called abandonware theres loads of sites out there with it.

 

[dis]

Awesome

 

[FortisVir]

Originally posted by DarkelP
This has been going on for agaes.....its called abandonware theres loads of sites out there with it.

You consider games like SimCity to be abandonware?

 

[DarkelP]

Originally posted by FortisVir
You consider games like SimCity to be abandonware?

Well not yet, becasue you can still buy it on CD, but i mean games like monkey island 1 and such, untill you cant buy the game on cd basically, then I think its ok to get free. And when games like H&D come out for free, thats always good....shame H&D was rubbish, i didnt like that.

 

[iamironsam]

I think a better thread would be "Obsolete game that the pathetic publisher is still trying to make some dough off of..."

 

[dis]

Does that include like NES and SNES roms? You can still technically find them at game traders, but they're all used.

 

[Frank]

The Old King's Quest games are abandonware...I think....well if they aren't then I've been a bad bad boy

 

[DarkelP]

anything before like the playstation and n64 is abandonware i believe, and most of the old games. Basically, if you cant buy it anymore, its abandonware, because the publisher isnt selling it.

 

[dawdler]

Abandonware rocks!!!
http://www.the-underdogs.org/ have a very neat compilation (and no it aint an illegal warez link, everything there is legal). Not all are available for download though, there are lots of new games there too with just links to buy. Discworld is cool though

 

[DarkelP]

The underdogs is a great site, i go there often. And no its not warez, or illegal, its totally legal and has excellent old school games.

 

[FortisVir]

Originally posted by DarkelP
Well not yet, becasue you can still buy it on CD, but i mean games like monkey island 1 and such, untill you cant buy the game on cd basically, then I think its ok to get free.

I agree. Think about how many sites have been shutdown that host downloads from the snes or sega. Like the companies will still make profits off of these systems, sheesh. When Mame.dk got shutdown a while back, that was a sad day ;( .

Hopefully this will allow us to enjoy the classics of gaming. :cheers:

 

[Mr. Redundant]

Originally posted by dawdler
Abandonware rocks!!!
http://www.the-underdogs.org/ have a very neat compilation (and no it aint an illegal warez link, everything there is legal). Not all are available for download though, there are lots of new games there too with just links to buy. Discworld is cool though

OMG thank you so much for that link.... so... many... old games

wow.. talk about nostalgia

awesome.

 

[DarkelP]

^^^ exactly, i havent seen a nes system or game for sale for over 10 years kinda thing, so whats the point of not giving it away for free? Its a part of gaming history, without these games, this forum wouldnt even be here. Without tetris and pong, we wouldnt have HL2 at all! so i think it should be free for everyone to enjoy.

 

[The Dark Elf]

Originally posted by DarkelP
Well not yet, becasue you can still buy it on CD, but i mean games like monkey island 1 and such, untill you cant buy the game on cd basically, then I think its ok to get free. And when games like H&D come out for free, thats always good....shame H&D was rubbish, i didnt like that.

yup DarkeIP has the idea. I think its just an unwritten law at the moment with abandonware. While in the eyes of the law it is still technically illegal to get software thats out of the loop - the cost of duplication for this old games will far outweigh profits. So the companies who made them, if their still around (and many aren't now). Will usually turn a blind eye as it means they get their old games out there, that they'd never put money into nowadays, and it doesnt' cost them anything, they then continue to work on their current games. Some companies even do it themselves, David Braben and his Elite series, he made them shareware? And available for download. People will download and play them, but very few would go out and buy them today, they had their run, made him and Frontier Developments a lot of money. And now continues to get a few fans by giving it away.

Course there's always exceptions to the above, just to make things confusing for everybody and it all changes if they decide to release updated versions, or package them in a collection or something. Or even include them as part of another game. Maniac Mansion I believe was abandonware at one point, briefly Because then in Day of the Tentacle the original was included in full. So it couldn't any longer be classed as adandonware but instead the dreaded warez... come to think of it now, isn't day of the tentacle now abandonware? heh go figure

Though the title of this thread is a little misleading. Copyright will still remain and those who made the games continue to own all rights to them, or the rights are passed onto a parent company if they've been bought out or whatever. So just because Blood is now apparantly abandonware, doesn't mean for a second I could make a version of it and call it my own.

oh and while I was writing that, look at all what you guys wrote, quite posting so quickly! lol

 

[dis]

Thanks for the link, didn't know about underdogs.

 

[DarkelP]

Nice speech Fenric, and they say you spam, tsk!

Funny thing is, in like 10 years time....maybe.....HL2 will be abandonware, along with all the latest games out there. Only thing is, due to the modding community, abandonware may start to lag. Mods have managed to keep HL selling for over 5 years now, most games would of gone into abandonware now, but i doubt HL is going to be abandonware anytime soon. Not that im againts mods or anything, far from it, but mods are one of the main reason most games sell, so we wont be seeing much new abandonware for awhile...which is a shame, but hey, long live 16-bit oldy classics!

 

[Mr. Redundant]

seriously, that underdogs site just made my day

Im perusing all the games I used to play in mah younger days.

damn us old farts

 

[dis]

Dude, this site kicks ass. Thanks a lot!

edit: i'm downloading Freespace 2 - it was a fun game a while ago...

 

[DarkelP]

Exactly, these sites just bring back my first days of gaming, like jet set willy (a bloody classic game, one of my top faves) and bomberjack....these games made me the gamer i am today, and im eternelly greatful to all of them, and there makers.
I think abandonware helps the newest generations see how there chosen hobby started, and its great to see how far we've become.
And theres always that gem you find, that is actually more fun to play then half the games out today.....mines jet set willy!

 

[The Dark Elf]

Originally posted by DarkelP
Nice speech Fenric, and they say you spam, tsk!

Funny thing is, in like 10 years time....maybe.....HL2 will be abandonware, along with all the latest games out there. Only thing is, due to the modding community, abandonware may start to lag. Mods have managed to keep HL selling for over 5 years now, most games would of gone into abandonware now, but i doubt HL is going to be abandonware anytime soon. Not that im againts mods or anything, far from it, but mods are one of the main reason most games sell, so we wont be seeing much new abandonware for awhile...which is a shame, but hey, long live 16-bit oldy classics!

yeah things like HL just keep going.. Imagine what things will be like when the HL1 source code finally becomes open source like Doom and Quake did. Look what guys did with those, GLDoom, Quake with spec, lum, normal maps. updated huge textures on both, 3D monsters in Doom, the list goes on. God knows what would be done with the HL1 engine, might be old but its still got a lot of life left in it even once it goes open source (which I imagine it will someday soon)

 

[DarkelP]

Yep, just imagine HL2 when the proper full source code comes out, the possibliltys are endless. I've seen people againts abandonware, but the fact is, without abandonware, most of these games would of gone into obscurity, and no one would know of half of the game's. Which i think would suck, becasue as I've said many times, these games are classics and started the whole gaming scene that we've got now.

LONG LIVE ABANDONWARE!

 

[Mr. Redundant]

JET SET WILLY!
I cant even tell you how many hours I wasted in front of my commodore 64 playing that game...

 

[The Dark Elf]

Originally posted by DarkelP
Yep, just imagine HL2 when the proper full source code comes out, the possibliltys are endless. I've seen people againts abandonware, but the fact is, without abandonware, most of these games would of gone into obscurity, and no one would know of half of the game's. Which i think would suck, becasue as I've said many times, these games are classics and started the whole gaming scene that we've got now.

LONG LIVE ABANDONWARE!

Can you imagine what other engines will be like when HL2 goes open source.. say 5/7 years from now or something. It's weird to think in a few years the source engine will be considered old hat and the HL1 engine ancient heh and you can bet we'll all still be playing spectrum games on emulators

 

[DarkelP]

I know, Jet Set Willy was the classic platformer game....ah the memorys, makes me tingly inside just thinking about it...then manic miner

 

[DarkelP]

Originally posted by Fenric1138
Can you imagine what other engines will be like when HL2 goes open source.. say 5/7 years from now or something. It's weird to think in a few years the source engine will be considered old hat and the HL1 engine ancient heh and you can bet we'll all still be playing spectrum games on emulators

I deffinelty will still play emulators and such, becasue they hold so many memorys. And its almost sad how engines become outdated so quickly....ah well.

by the way, i love your avatar Fenric

 

[The Dark Elf]

Originally posted by DarkelP
I deffinelty will still play emulators and such, becasue they hold so many memorys. And its almost sad how engines become outdated so quickly....ah well.

by the way, i love your avatar Fenric

hehe thanks

and yeah same here with the emulators, doesn't matter how cool and fancy games get, I'll always fancy a game on the speccy, knightyme or spellbound, or bubblebobble or cybernoid etc. etc. etc. too many great games back then to leave behind . Or classic Amiga games, Agony, Shadow of the Beast 1 & 2 (didn't like the third) ... and another one, but I think I'll not mention that game, cause I just realised how cool it would make as a mod haha.

 

[FortisVir]

For me, the emulator can be a way to complete a game you dropped a loooooong time ago.

For example, when the snes was in it's prime, I was playing Super Mario World a lot, but for some reason I never beat Bowser. (Hey I was like 10, give me a break ). Well I beat him about 6 months ago and even though the game was about 20 times easier than I remembered, I still got a sense of satisfaction.


Oh and dis - FS2 = best space game ever. Sheesh I played that game forever. Downloaded new ships, missions, campaigns, even got pretty good with the editor, FRED2.

 

[MultiVaC]

Oh my god, FreeSpace is abandonware? It seems like yesterday I was anticipating it like crazy. Oh well, I guess no FreeSpace 3

*SPOILER*








They really need to make a 3rd one, to tie up all the loose ends. Think about it: Can the Knossos technology stabilize the jump node to Earth? What's with the Shivans and Gamma Draconis? What happened to Admiral Bosch? What about the Capella supernova?




*SPOILER*

 

[L33731]

OMFG OMFG OMFG OMFG OMFG



Goldeneye 007 for N64 is Abandonware?????


That was the best damn gam3 for it's time.. It's the one that got me started on FPS's

OMFG OMFG OMFG OMFG OMFG OMFG OMFG OMFG YES !!!

 

[DarkelP]

Originally posted by Fenric1138
hehe thanks

and yeah same here with the emulators, doesn't matter how cool and fancy games get, I'll always fancy a game on the speccy, knightyme or spellbound, or bubblebobble or cybernoid etc. etc. etc. too many great games back then to leave behind . Or classic Amiga games, Agony, Shadow of the Beast 1 & 2 (didn't like the third) ... and another one, but I think I'll not mention that game, cause I just realised how cool it would make as a mod haha.

Exactly, emulators help to give ideas for mods, so great mods of old games get made, which is excellent. Abandonware has so many uses, it would be stupid to attempt to stop it.

 

[MultiVaC]

Is anyone playing FreeSpace 2 online? Or is that community pretty much dead? If there are people playing, I'm going to reinstall it

 

[Dr. Freeman]

omg!

what a good link!!! thanks

seriously.. this site reminds me of the old days.. wow..