Classics for free

By XavierHyde
in PC Gaming

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Rookie

evktalo

Posted
Posted
Can't say for sure about Aklabeth, but Ultima IV seems to be free only for distribution through at least this site. I've tried getting in touch with Origin, which isn't exactly easy, and my only contact inside EA isn't likely to know who to talk to regarding Origin's games (since he's attached to a different branch of EA).

Well, that's a genuine vague e-mail permission that site has got, the usual. Good! Good to know, thanks. :-)

A fan of Powball mailed me about this shareware Arkanoid/Breakout game, wondering if there was a free full legal copy around.. I remembered the game myself, so I did a search - and what do you know, I did find out the author HAS released it as freeware!

That alone made my day - if every game was like that - but what, ironically, lifted my spirits more, were the bitter words at the bottom of the page directed towards WebFoot Technologies etc:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/ant-man/powball_index.html

Could it be that more games released by them are back in their authors' copyright controls? I've been dreaming of a freeware TwinBlox!

--Eino

Neowinian

elaine

Posted
Posted

hi everybody !

terrifc good work you got here in the last two years :woot:

i'm a staff member of an italian site dedicated to old games http://www.oldgamesitalia.com/

it started as a typical abandonware site but almost a year ago we decided to have on our pages just "legal" stuff.

our aim is the preservation of old videogames' software, the promotion of a cultural movement in defense of artistic value of videogames.

some times ago it occured to us the idea to form a sort of "trust" with other similiar sites to ask softwarehouses and developers of classic games to release their goldies as freeware or, at least, to allow free download in order to preserve the survival of these games.

a month ago one of us wrote to housemarque to ask the liberation of "alien incident"

that is the answer he got

Hello there,

Thanks for your interest in our games. Initiatives you are pursuing (preservation of games) is a great cause and we have been asked this before. I'll have to answer the same as before. We are such a small company that we do not have the time right now it would need to sort this thing out (legal issues, finding out executables of the game, etc.) as we need to do the current projects and sell the next ones. I am supportive for your efforts,  but unfortunately we can not contribute to this at this time.

Thanks again for your contact.

Kind regards,

Ilari Kuittinen

CEO

Housemarque

it occured to our minds that maybe somebody else was doing the same as we wanted to, so we search the web looking for such actions and we found you.

we appreciate your work, since we share the same idea that a polite question always matters. at least deserves a polite explanation that helps understanding.

well, the first thing i want to say is that we'd like to collaborate with you and your project.

second : we posted links to this thread and to liberated games but a lot of our visitors don't speak english (or at least not so well :D ) so we ask you the permission to translate parts of this threads, in particular the answers of the softwarehouses

third : one of us tested all your links and found some not working. moreover we were thinking about translating and reorganizing the list with other criteria's order (genre/age/softewarehouse). so i'm asking the permission to use your stuff. we'd like to share our work (when we'll finish it) with you.

very soon i'm going to write to liberated games to make similiar proposal.

i hope i didn't broke any rule of this forum and of this thread (if i did, please edit, i didn't mean it)

elaine

Experienced

XavierHyde

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)
hi everybody !

terrifc good work you got here in the last two years  :woot:

From everybody having posted (useful stuff) on this thread: thanks for the recognition!

i'm a staff member of an italian site dedicated to old games http://www.oldgamesitalia.com/

it started as a typical abandonware site but almost a year ago we decided to have on our pages just "legal" stuff.

our aim is the preservation of old videogames' software, the promotion of a cultural movement in defense of artistic value of videogames.

Me, I focus more on the historic and technical merits of the games I choose to pursue.

But I always feel uneasy when someone uses the words "abandonware" and "legal" together. Abandonware, by definition, can't be legal until some 30-40 years into the future depending on when the game was made, since copyrights for this type of works last for 50 years. In addition, when a developer says his games can be distributed for free, he is actively liberating them, not abandoning them. So I much prefer the construction "previously commercial software officially gone freeware", or just "officially liberated software", for short.

some times ago it occured to us the idea to form a sort of "trust" with other similiar sites to ask softwarehouses and developers of classic games to release their goldies as freeware or, at least, to allow free download in order to preserve the survival of these games.

Good idea, but perhaps a little hard to organize if things are to be done in a coordinated manner. Still, when it comes to liberating games, I tend to not share information on a game until it's been liberated. So far, it's worked beyond expectation. If I were to go tell someone else about what's in the works, it might get out too early and the release might not happen because of it. I can say there are a few very good games about to be liberated, but I'm not at liberty to discuss any of them with anyone else until the release has been made. Do believe me though, when I say it'll be great stuff!

a month ago one of us wrote to housemarque to ask the liberation of "alien incident"

that is the answer he got

As I'm sure you've seen by now, I've been in touch with him too. :) He's actually been talking about releasing more of their back catalogue for free, but as he said they're not able to do so at this time. I'm keeping in touch with him regularly though, as he has asked me to remind him of our discussion from time to time.

a polite question always matters. at least deserves a polite explanation that helps understanding.

My approach exactly. :)

well, the first thing i want to say is that we'd like to collaborate with you and your project.

Right now I'm up to my ears in my day job, so I'd really like to just do things my way when I have the time so as not to let this project take too much of my free time. Don't get me wrong, though - do stick around, borrow my links and whatever.

second : we posted links to this thread and to liberated games but a lot of our visitors don't speak english (or at least not so well  :D ) so we ask you the permission to translate parts of this threads, in particular the answers of the softwarehouses

Sure, not that there are that many replies yet. :D

third : one of us tested all your links and found some not working. moreover we were thinking about translating and reorganizing the list with other criteria's order (genre/age/softewarehouse). so i'm asking the permission to use your stuff. we'd like to share our work (when we'll finish it) with you.

No problem, feel free to borrow my links. If you've found broken links in the top post, please PM me, listing the broken links, and I will edit the top post accordingly.

And welcome to Neowin!

Edited by cappuchok
Enthusiast

EugeneE3RD

Posted
Posted

I was just checking out Liberated Games ( http://liberatedgames.org/ ) & they have mentioned that several more commerical/shareware games have been re-released as freeware.

ImagiSOFT, Inc. has released their commerical DOS games called Chinese Checkers, Redhook's Revenge! & WARI - The Ancient Game of Africa. You can download these games from http://www.imagisoft.com/games.htm , these games require passwords & the passwords are listed at http://www.imagisoft.com/games.htm . According to Liberated Games , only ImagiSOFT, Inc. is allowed to distrubute their games, you are not allowed to upload these games to any websites, ftp servers, et al.

According to Liberated Games, the shareware Windows Windows-only space combat simulator written in DarkBASIC called Star Wraith 2 has been re-released as freeware. You can download this game from http://darkbasic.thegamecreators.com/?m=showcase_view&i=64 & also from http://liberatedgames.org/game.php?game_id=77 .

Beforewarned, games written in Darkbasic (Darkbasic is a commerical Basic compiler which supports Directx) requires a pretty modern comp, I don't know what the requirements for Star Wraith 2 is but the page at http://darkbasic.thegamecreators.com/?f=system_requirements has the system requirements for the Darkbasic compiler so don't try to run any games written in Darkbasic if your comp is lower than the specs listed at http://darkbasic.thegamecreators.com/?f=system_requirements . But the requirements are different for everygame written in Darkbasic.

Enthusiast

EugeneE3RD

Posted
Posted
Scorched Earth: Mother of all Games

The only thing the shareware doesn't do is allow you to have the special tank (3 cannonballs/shot). That's it. When you can have funky bombs, who needs that!

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This thread is only for commerical/shareware games which have been re-released for free download. Scorched Earth is shareware & it has nothing to do with this thread, it was never released as freeware & this game is off-topic for this thread.

This thread was created to list commerical/shareware games which have been re-released for free download, Scorched Earth is shareware & you have to purchase the game to play the whole thing so it has no place in this thread.

  • 2 weeks later...
Grand Master

revvo

Posted
Posted
This thread is only for commerical/shareware games which have been re-released for free download. Scorched Earth is shareware & it has nothing to do with this thread, it was never released as freeware & this game is off-topic for this thread.

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Off-Topic? Yes, your post, not mine.

Play it before trying to look smart, then you'll see why I consider it as freeware. It's not like today's shareware products that have a timelimit like 30 days or feature limitations. The only limitation this game has is that we can't play with the special tank (but computer/AI players can). This is a very tiny limitation if you ask me and that's why I call it freeware. I'm sure others who have played Scorched Earth will agree.

Experienced

XavierHyde

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Off-Topic? Yes, your post, not mine.

Play it before trying to look smart, then you'll see why I consider it as freeware. It's not like today's shareware products that have a timelimit like 30 days or feature limitations. The only limitation this game has is that we can't play with the special tank (but computer/AI players can). This is a very tiny limitation if you ask me and that's why I call it freeware. I'm sure others who have played Scorched Earth will agree.

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I have to make a comment here. Scorched Earth has not been officially released as freeware by the author. It is still shareware. The unregistered version has an admittedly tiny limitation, but it is still a limitation as compared to the registered version. Had the full registered version been released as freeware by the author, I would have considered it on-topic (though it was never commerical in the "boxed" sense, so I would probably not include it in the top post (though there are some notable exceptions, and Scorched Earth could be one of them if properly released as freeware). But as it is, Scorched Earth does not fit the requirements to be on-topic in this thread.

Anyway, thanks for contributing, even though you could certainly have taken some time to find a title that had truly been re-released as freeware.

Enthusiast

EugeneE3RD

Posted
Posted
Off-Topic? Yes, your post, not mine.

Play it before trying to look smart, then you'll see why I consider it as freeware. It's not like today's shareware products that have a timelimit like 30 days or feature limitations. The only limitation this game has is that we can't play with the special tank (but computer/AI players can). This is a very tiny limitation if you ask me and that's why I call it freeware. I'm sure others who have played Scorched Earth will agree.

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First of all, if you would have even read this thread, you will have known that this thread is only for commerical/shareware software which have been freeware. And before you call me smart, I have added lots of content to this thread, I have listed lots of commerical/shareware software which has been re-released as freeware to this thread so I know more about this thread. The only thing you did was make a post about a shareware game.

I went to the site which you had linked in your post & it mentioned that the game is shareware so it does make it off-topic for this thread.

I'm not the one acting smart, it is you. You can call Scorced Earth whatever you want to but it is still shareware. Now, if Scored Earth was re-released as freeware, it would be on topic but since it is shareware, it has no place in this thread.

Enthusiast

EugeneE3RD

Posted
Posted

Well, I'm getting back into the software finding mood & I found several commerical/shareware games which have been re-released as freeware.

Squeaky Software has released their shareware game called TANKS as freeware. The game can be downloaded from http://homepage.ntlworld.com/rik.griffin/tanks.html . This is not a Windows/DOS game. TANKS requires a computer running RISC OS 3.1 , you might be able to run on Windows/DOS using an emulator which emulates the RISC OS.

Mark Carter released his shareware PC Cricket games as freeware several years ago. The games are Sticky Wicket & World Cup Cricket. These 2 games can be downloaded from http://cricket.mark.carter.name/ .

  • 2 weeks later...
Enthusiast

EugeneE3RD

Posted
Posted
I want free Mario and Sonic  :cry:

D3ft0ne

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That will probably never happen since Nintendo keeps a tight hand on the Mario games & also Sega keeps a tight hand on Sonic.

If you have a Playstation 2, there is a commerical collection called Sonic Mega Collection Plus which includes the Sonic games from the Sega Genesis & the six Sonic games from the Game Gear. I bought Sonic Mega Collection Plus several weeks ago at Circuit City & it's an excellent collection.

If you own a Gamecube, you can get a commerical collection of Sonic games in the Sonic Mega Collection.

If you don't own a PS2 or Gamecube then I can't help you.

Experienced

XavierHyde

Posted
  • Author
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One of the games from Jeff Tunnell's GarageGames site has gone open source under the Mozilla Public License. It's "Robot Battle", a programming game where you write your own robots to compete with friends and other users across the net. Sort of a programmer's "Robot Wars", really, with a bit of "Conway's Game of Life" thrown in. And don't worry if you're not really a programmer - this game contains extensive tutorials and in fact it's a rather fun way to learn the basics of programming!

As it was never commercial in the "boxed edition" sense, I'm reluctant to add it to the top post, so I'll just link to it here: robotbattle.com

Have fun, everyone!

Enthusiast

EugeneE3RD

Posted
Posted
The link for Masterblaster registration keys doesn't work... anyone know if the author has deliberately removed it or not?

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It seems like the author removed the Amiga pages but you can see an archived version of the page which contains the registration keys & it is located at http://web.archive.org/web/20040302102814/...iga/index.shtml

I just purchased Amiga Forever (download version) this morning so I can now enjoy the Amiga games in this thread. I never owned an Amiga so this will be an experience.

Community Regular

Hexlord

Posted
Posted
That will probably never happen since Nintendo keeps a tight hand on the Mario games & also Sega keeps a tight hand on Sonic.

If you have a Playstation 2, there is a commerical collection called Sonic Mega Collection Plus which includes the Sonic games from the Sega Genesis & the six Sonic games from the Game Gear. I bought Sonic Mega Collection Plus several weeks ago at Circuit City & it's an excellent collection.

If you own a Gamecube, you can get a commerical collection of Sonic games in the Sonic Mega Collection.

If you don't own a PS2 or Gamecube then I can't help you.

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If one looks hard enough, there are places where you can buy PC ports of the earlier Sonic games. As for Mario... you can get the GBA versions.. :)

Experienced

XavierHyde

Posted
  • Author
Posted
If one looks hard enough, there are places where you can buy PC ports of the earlier Sonic games. As for Mario... you can get the GBA versions.. :)

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Still: they're not free, or at least not yet. So let's keep the thread on topic, shall we? :D

Enthusiast

EugeneE3RD

Posted
Posted

This post has nothing to do with games but with commerical apps re-released for free download.

Xbasic is a Basic compiler for Windows/Linux. It was originally sold as commerical software but it was re-released as open source several years ago. The original re-release of Xbasic is at http://www.maxreason.com/software/xbasic/share.html (this is the original Xbasic release. The downloads here are very old).

http://xbasic.sourceforge.net/ contains the new releases of Xbasic which is being worked on by people since it is open-source.

Borland has re-released their old commerical programming software for free download. The progs are:

Turbo Pascal v5.5

Turbo C++ version 1.01

Turbo C version 2.01

Turbo Pascal v3.02

Turbo Pascal v1.0

These are old programming languages but it's great that Borland is releasing a part of history. These are famous programming softwares & these can be downloaded from http://bdn.borland.com/museum/ , you have to register with Borland (for free) to be able to download these classic programming softwares.

Watcom C/C++ which used to be commerical software is now open-source. You can get downloads of this prog at http://www.openwatcom.org/

Borland has also released their commerical programming software called C++ Builder for free. This is the command line version which means that if you don't like typing in commands to compile your source code, you will have to download an IDE. The downloads for this prog are at http://www.borland.com/products/downloads/...d_cbuilder.html , there are several downloads, you want to click on the link which says compiler.

The BD Software C Compiler has been re-released as public domain. This is a C compiler released in 1979 for CP/M-80 systems. Yes, I know this is an old compiler for a very old comp/os but it a part of history & the author has made it public domain (in 2002). The prog's downloads are at http://www.bdsoft.com/resources/bdsc.html .

Enthusiast

EugeneE3RD

Posted
Posted
Ya just gotta get Crimsonland. Top-down shooter with pickups galore. Only 8.5 mb.

This is a link to the last freeware version, 1467_crimsonland_v140.exe.

http://gamehippo.com/download2/download2_1467.shtml

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Thanks, I've kind of forgotten about this game. Here is a little history of the Crimsonland game for anyone who cares. Crimsonland began as a freeware game but sometime during the game's development, the author turned Crimsonland into shareware. The older versions listed in CoolCatBad's post are the freeware versions. Versions of Crimsonland released after v1.40 are shareware.

Enthusiast

EugeneE3RD

Posted
Posted

About 4 years ago, Marble-Eyes Development released their Amiga game called Genetic Species for free download. They uploaded the game onto Aminet & it can be downloaded from http://www.aminet.net/search.php?path=game/actio&start=50 . The game is very large, it is 19 .lha files, you have to download all of the files starting with GS-FullGame01.lha & ending with GS-FullGame19.lha.

If you don't believe that the game is free, Marble-Eyes Developmen mentions about the uploading of their game at http://www.marble-eyes.dk/gs/news.html under 28-june-2001 .

The files on Aminet are not disc images, they are pure Amiga files, if you want to run on UAE or Fellow, you will have to convert them yourself.

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