Abandonware - Giving away those fine leather jackets for free

[Lt Plonker]

Inspired by untitled_london's music downloading thread.


Guybrush. Piracy. See. See what I'm doing here? *snigger*

Abandonware, for those who have not happened across it, is a term applied to software – primarily computer games – that are considered to be eligible for free distrubution because the software no longer available to buy or get hold of very easily.

Home of the Underdogs is a non-profit site dedicated to the preservation and promotion of underrated PC games (and a few non-PC games) of all ages: good games that deserve a second chance after dismal sales or critical reviews that we feel are unwarranted.*

All sounds rather peachy. But the ESA doesn't think so.

Isn't it OK to copy games that are no longer distributed in the stores or commercially exploited?

No, the current availability of a game in stores is irrelevant to its copyright status. Unlike trademarks, copyrights are not considered abandoned if they are no longer enforced. Copyrights do not enter the public domain just because they are no longer commercially exploited or widely available. Therefore, the copyrights of games are valid even if the games are not found on store shelves, and copying or distributing those games is a copyright infringement.


Haven't the copyrights for old games (like Atari & Commodore) expired?

U.S. copyright laws state that copyrights owned by corporations are valid for 95 years from the date of first publication. Because video & computer games have been around for less than three decades, the copyrights of all video and computer programs will not expire for many decades to come.

Seeing how many software developers are unlikely to reanimate older classics**, could Abandonware be seen as the 'Robin Hood' of piracy? Or is it just the same as downloading music or films from the interweb? Should gamers be patient and petition older games for revival? Should there be more of an effort made to establish links between the fans and the software companies?

I'm in it for the adventure games, myself. I may have folder of 'abandonware' games, but I'd still actually buy them if they were re-released. You still can't beat owning a proper authorised version of a game, along with the manual and all the odds and ends they used to put in the boxes. There's nothing worse than having to start up DOSBOX everytime I want to play Gabriel Knight, or do without the sound in Police Quest. It's a shame that some of these companies neglect their older releases.


There's classic adventure gaming right there.

So, over to you lot.


*Although HOTU makes it clear that abandonware is illegal and they will work with the publishers and copyright holders in order to persuade them to make their games available. http://www.the-underdogs.org/faq.php#a4


**Although, Revolution Software are one of the few companies reacting to, and cooperating with, abandonware sites by releasing Lure of the Temptress and Beneath a Steel Sky as freeware, in conjunction with SCUMMVM. Maxis have also made an effort in re-releasing a lot of their sim games.

[glitch]

The main argument against abandonware is that with the increased performance of smaller handheld devices like mobile phones, older games can be ported to them. This is why you see older games like Breakout, Burger Time etc. available as Java downloads for your mobiles.

The only thing with that is, they have to be entirely rewritten for the new platforms. One of my friends has been working on a release of Speedball for Java phones and although he had to rewrite everything from scratch, he was provided with "the entire ST, Amiga and PC sourcecode in ASM and relevant graphics, plus file format converters for the (very old) files."

Companies don't like older games being made available easily available, as it's easier* to reverse-engineer those and rewrite them for mobiles etc. and make a profit from them.

I've not really used abandonware, but love the idea of it. Also, if anyone knows how to get old-school games working on XP without doing a dual boot, please share as I picked up a copy of G-Police on the PC from eBay, and not even the install file will load.

* compared to writing a modern game from scratch anyway. It's still a lot of effort to reverse engineer, rewrite and get them running bug-free.

[skibz]

if anyone knows how to get old-school games working on XP without doing a dual boot, please share

A program called 'DosBox' is your best bet for that, I think. It won't run on my computer as I'm about five years behind the times, but my brother says it does him fine for all his retro needs.

[Garfield And Friends]

It's legal if you delete the software before 24 hours. *






* Bullshit

[Kendo Nagasaki]

You could also try Abandonloader, it helps to get those old games working in NT/XP.

http://www.angelfire.com/realm/zeroone/


And get VDMSound as well, it makes the old game sound work.

http://ntvdm.cjb.net/

[Purple Tentacle]

http://www.scummvm.org/

ScummVM for all your glorious Lucasarts needs.

[PyramidHead]

http://www.scummvm.org/

ScummVM for all your glorious Lucasarts needs.

The PocketPC version is very good too. A monkey in your pocket, if you will...<groan>