Classics for free

[EugeneE3RD]

hey guys, i downloaded One Must fall, but cant get the sound to work properly. i got Asus A7n8x-e delux with nforce 2 Ultra 400 (onboard sound) what config should work?

586253068[/snapback]

I would suggest downloading VDMSound from http://sourceforge.net/projects/vdmsound/ . VMDSound is a soundcard emulator which can help to get sound working on games.

[EugeneE3RD]

Neil Kendall who is an ex-c64 programmer who produced C-64 games for the links of Alternative Software & Codemasters from 1985-1989 has archived many of his old titles & made them freely avaliable on his website. The games where produced under the company name of Quantum Logic Systems.

These games were thought to be completely lost ntil a few disks were discovered by Chris Mossop in late 2003. Chris Mossop worked on some of the Quantum Logic Systems games. These games can be downloaded from http://www.logan-5.co.uk/QLS/ .

[EugeneE3RD]

Wyrmkeep Entertainment has released their commerical Amiga first-person adventure game called Labyrinth of Time for free download. You can download this game at http://www.wyrmkeep.com/labyrinth/amiga.html. Beforewarned, this game is a very large download. The page above says that the download is 170 MB but my Internet downloader says it's almost 181 MB.

I suggest that anyone who wants to download this game to get an Internet download with has restart support. I'm on dial-up (can't get broadband in my area) but I'm still going to download this game.

[XavierHyde]

@ EugeneE3RD: A very nice find! On a related note, these guys also released the source code of classic adventure game "Inherit the Earth" to the ScummVM project for porting.

[EugeneE3RD]

@ EugeneE3RD: A very nice find! On a related note, these guys also released the source code of classic adventure game "Inherit the Earth" to the ScummVM project for porting.

586308420[/snapback]

That's great news. I own the original DOS CD version of Inherit The Earth, I found it in a compilation page at a local store which sells stuff that other stores weren't able to get rid off.

It's great that ScummVM will be able to play Inherit The Earth in the future since this game doesn't run on Windows XP comp & even Dosbox can't run it.

[XavierHyde]

That's great news. I own the original DOS CD version of Inherit The Earth, I found it in a compilation page at a local store which sells stuff that other stores weren't able to get rid off.

It's great that ScummVM will be able to play Inherit The Earth in the future since this game doesn't run on Windows XP comp & even Dosbox can't run it.

586309681[/snapback]

I believe Wyrmkeep did do an official commercial Win32 port of Inherit the Earth recently, with high-resolution graphics and new music. However, to provide playability for owners of the original ItE DOS versions, who might not want to buy the new version, Wyrmkeep released the source to ScummVM. Very decent of them.

[EugeneE3RD]

As for a "family tree" of companies and mergers, it's all in my head right now. I have been very busy tracing the rights of games I wanted to have released, and tracking down the original developers. I'm going to organize this into an online database some time in the future IF time permits, but right now I'm too busy with life to take on such a big task (says I... :laugh: ).

There are good ways to trace the company relations though. Home of the Underdogs maintains a good company database listing company history and mergers, and Mobygames is a good place to look as well. If all else fails, the company has likely been bought out by either Infogrames (who insist on calling themselves Atari), EA or VUGames. :D

2310834[/snapback]

I just wanted to comment on this idea. I think that it's a great idea & as you mentioned, a good amount of companies have been bought out by the big companies. EA owns Maxis & Origin Systems. Infogrames (aka Atari) owns Accolade, Wizardworks, Microprose, Legend Entertainment & probably other companies.

But the biggest hurdle comes from the fact that there are many game companies around the world which went out of business &, unfortuntely, & no-one knows who really owns the copyrights to the games. For example, Capstone/Intracorp (Intracorp owned Capstone, both of these were game companies). Capstone made games such as William Shatner's Tekwar, Corridor 7, Witchaven, et al. Capstone/Intracorp went bankrupt in 1996 & closed down. Last year, someone contacted Les Bird who was one of the programmers for Capstone Software & Les Bird doesn't know who currently owns the copyrights.

[EugeneE3RD]

I emailed several shareware companies/author's to see if they would released their old shareware games which they are no longer selling anymore as freeware. As of right now, I only got a replay back from shareware author named Ron Heuse about old shareware game called Reaping The Dungeon & here is his replay/my original email:

Hello and thanks for the Email. Yes actually :) It crossed my mind a few

times to upload it to www.download.com the full version. I have re-named it

to "Dungeon Rogue" for reasons of perhaps doing a proper graphical version

one day so this is another reason why I considered putting Episode 2 up for

free. Not sure how many people really are into "dungeon crawlers" of that

type anymore but I do still get an Email now and then.

Ron Heuse

ron@heuse.com

www.heuse.com

----- Original Message -----

From: "Eugene Esterly III" <genew@fast.net>

To: <ron@heuse.com>

Sent: Thursday, August 04, 2005 4:58 PM

Subject: Reaping the Dungeon

> Dear Mr. Ron Heuse,

>

> I saw over at the Dosgames RPG archive that you made a game years ago

> called Reaping the Dungeon which you released as shareware years ago.

> Well, since it looks like you are no longer selling the game, have you

> thought of uploading the registerd version fo Reaping The Dungeon to the

> Internet for people to download & play since you are no longer selling

> the game.

>

So, from his email, it looks like he uploaded Reaping The Dungeon under the name od Dungeon Rogue. You can download Dungeon Rogue from http://www.download.com/Dungeon-Rogue/3640...4-10188306.html .

[EugeneE3RD]

The person who runs the shareware game company called Albino Frog Software, Inc. has released several of his shareware/retail games for free download & the games are Pulse, Helious/Helious 2 & Tom & Jerry.

The download page for Pulse includes the shareware version along with a download of the registration key & it is located at http://www.allabout.com/afs/software/games/pulse.htm

The page for Helious includes the download of the shareware game called Helious along with Helious 2. Helious 2 was given to people who registered Helious but you can now download Helious 2 & it is located at http://www.allabout.com/afs/software/games/helious.htm

Tom & Jerry was a retail game but the publishers been dead for 5 yrs so the author has released the game for free download & it can be downloaded from http://allabout.com/13282 .

Edited August 5, 2005 by EugeneE3RD

[EugeneE3RD]

I got an email back from shareware author Everett Kaser & it doesn't look good. I wrote to him about his old game called Snarf & here is his replay/my original email & here is it is:

Hi, Eugene.

EEI> I was reading on the Dosgames archive

EEI> that you once had a shareware game

EEI> called Snarf which you sold years ago.

EEI> Well, I looked at your site at & I see

EEI> that you are no longer selling Snarf anymore.

EEI> Have you thought of putting the registered

EEI> version of Snarf online since you no longer

EEI> sell it anymore.

Thanks for the suggestion!

I may someday do that, but I *DO* still sell the

game (about once every two years... :-). More

importantly, since I earn my living from the games

I write, I'm not willing to release the game freely

to the general public at this time. I *DO* make it

available to certain of my customers at special times,

so it does still have some value to me.

Best wishes,

Everett

==============================================================

Everett Kaser Software Puzzle and Logic Games for PCs

POB 403

Albany OR 97321-0117 email: everett@kaser.com

phone: 1-541-928-5259 web: www.kaser.com

==============================================================

So Everett Kaser seems unwilling at this time to release his old shareware games for free download but that's okay.

[EugeneE3RD]

I got a response back from Software Diversions which handles the library of the shareware game company called Moraff Games (formally known as Moraffware) about their old DOS Rpg's & here is their response/my original question:

Moraff's World and Dungeons of the Unforgiven are still available for $19. That gets you both games, and also includes the much older Moraff's Revenge (the first Moraff game). These games are available by download. You can order by credit card or by mail. To order by credit card, email, fax or phone your order to:

(877) 241-6677 (voice phone US and Canada)

(813) 862-0258 (voice phone international)

(813) 862-0299 (fax)

sales@softwarediversions.com (email)

To order by mail, please send a check or money order for $19 US to:

Software Diversions, Inc.

PO Box 46817

Tampa, FL 33647

United States

Be sure to include your name, address, and phone number, and ask for the 'Dungeon Games'.

Thank you,

Software Diversions, Inc.

www.softwarediversions.com

genew@fast.net wrote:

>Contact:

>

>First Name: Eugene

>Last Name: Esterly III

>Email: genew@fast.net

>O/S: Win XP Home

>Product: The older games published under the MoraffWare label

>Problem:

>I see that Moraff Games no longer sells the older MoraffWare games. The games that I am referring to are:

>

>Dungeons of The Unforgiven

>Moraff's Revenge

>Moraff's Stones

>Moraff's World

>

>I am asking if Moraff Games would re-release the registered versions of these 4 games for free download since they are no longer being sold. Basically put, Moraff Games should put the registered versions of these 4 games online as a gift by to the gaming community.

>

>

>

>

So basically, the old Moraffware games are still being sold even though they don't mention it on their website so they will not release their older games for free download.

[Garrett Socling]

Moraffware is still being sold? *boggle*

[EugeneE3RD]

Moraffware is still being sold? *boggle*

586336954[/snapback]

Yep, according to the email that I received, the old Moraffware games are still being sold & yes, it does kind of boggle the mind seeing that the old Moraffware games are DOS based & support the old videocards of yesterday, CGA, MCGA, EGA, VGA, et al.

[G4M3R]

CGW has 102 games you can download for free ranging from full versions of abandonware, trial versions of retail games, commerical and fan made addons for modern titles and more. A lot of the games listed have been posted here already, but I'm sure there are some that have not.

LINK

[EugeneE3RD]

I emailed several shareware companies/author's to see if they would released their old shareware games which they are no longer selling anymore as freeware. As of right now, I only got a replay back from shareware author named Ron Heuse about old shareware game called Reaping The Dungeon & here is his replay/my original email:

Hello and thanks for the Email. Yes actually :) It crossed my mind a few

times to upload it to www.download.com the full version. I have re-named it

to "Dungeon Rogue" for reasons of perhaps doing a proper graphical version

one day so this is another reason why I considered putting Episode 2 up for

free. Not sure how many people really are into "dungeon crawlers" of that

type anymore but I do still get an Email now and then.

Ron Heuse

ron@heuse.com

www.heuse.com

----- Original Message -----

From: "Eugene Esterly III" <genew@fast.net>

To: <ron@heuse.com>

Sent: Thursday, August 04, 2005 4:58 PM

Subject: Reaping the Dungeon

> Dear Mr. Ron Heuse,

>

> I saw over at the Dosgames RPG archive that you made a game years ago

> called Reaping the Dungeon which you released as shareware years ago.

> Well, since it looks like you are no longer selling the game, have you

> thought of uploading the registerd version fo Reaping The Dungeon to the

> Internet for people to download & play since you are no longer selling

> the game.

>

So, from his email, it looks like he uploaded Reaping The Dungeon under the name od Dungeon Rogue. You can download Dungeon Rogue from http://www.download.com/Dungeon-Rogue/3640...4-10188306.html .

586329763[/snapback]

Well, I checked out Dungeon Rogue & Ron Heuse was correct, it is Reaping The Dungeon with a new name. The 2nd episode of Dungeon Rogue, formally, Reaping The Dungeon was also released as freeware except the only way to get episode 2 is if you have a website, put a link to Ron Heuse's website at www.heuse.com & email Ron Heuse & he will give you episode 2 of Dungeon Rogue.

[XavierHyde]

CGW has 102 games you can download for free ranging from full versions of abandonware, trial versions of retail games, commerical and fan made addons for modern titles and more. A lot of the games listed have been posted here already, but I'm sure there are some that have not.

LINK

586353068[/snapback]

A very nice selection, but only one of all those games was ever even remotely commercial: Tyrian 2000 (already listed in this thread, I believe). The other games which "look" commercial (Maniac Mansion, King's Quest, Zak McKracken etc) are all fan-made freeware remakes and as such do not qualify for this thread.

Anyway, thanks! That list should keep many of us happy for a while!

[EugeneE3RD]

Lee Bamber has released his commerical Amiga games for free download. The games are:

Relics Of Deldroneye 1 FULL GAME

Relics Of Deldroneye 1.5 FULL GAME

Relics Of Deldroneye 2 FULL GAME

These are Amiga games which were developed by Lee Bamber & sold thru F1 Licenceware. F1 Licenceware is no longer in business so Lee Bamber has released the above games for free download. These games can be downloaded from http://www.aminet.net/search.php?path=game/role&start=250 . The above games are traditional point'n'click graphic adventures.

Ben Bosco has released his commerical Amiga games for free download. The games are:

The World of Magic I FULL GAME

The World of Magic II FULL GAME

These are Amiga games which were developed by Ben Bosco & thru F1 Licenceware. F1 Licenceware is no longer in business so Ben Bosco has released the above games for free download. These games can be downloaded from http://www.aminet.net/search.php?path=game/role&start=350 . The above games are traditional point'n'click graphic adventures.

The source code to Quake 3 is being released under the GPL. Only the code is GPL, the Quake 3 data is not GPL, so you can't download the Quake 3 data but you can download the Quake 3 source code & since it is GPL, you can use the code to make commerical games. This was reported at https://www.neowin.net/comments.php?category=gamers&id=29933 . The source code to Quake & Quake 2 was also released years ago under the GPL.

[mattmatik]

But the biggest hurdle comes from the fact that there are many game companies around the world which went out of business &, unfortuntely, & no-one knows who really owns the copyrights to the games. For example, Capstone/Intracorp (Intracorp owned Capstone, both of these were game companies). Capstone made games such as William Shatner's Tekwar, Corridor 7, Witchaven, et al. Capstone/Intracorp went bankrupt in 1996 & closed down. Last year, someone contacted Les Bird who was one of the programmers for Capstone Software & Les Bird doesn't know who currently owns the copyrights.

586321517[/snapback]

Man, I would love to get Witchaven again. That was a great game and one of my first FPS-type experiences.

Do you have any information on Lands of Lore? I know they recently came out with a new version, but I'm looking for the very first Lands of Lore that came on 6 floppies.

[EugeneE3RD]

Man, I would love to get Witchaven again. That was a great game and one of my first FPS-type experiences.

Do you have any information on Lands of Lore? I know they recently came out with a new version, but I'm looking for the very first Lands of Lore that came on 6 floppies.

586373228[/snapback]

The only thing which I can say is too check out EBAY for Witchaven & Lands Of Lore.

Witchaven is a good game. I own both Witchaven & Witchaven 2, owned them since 1996. Checking out EBAY for used copies of Witchaven is one of the only ways to legally get this game since Capstone Software has been out of business since 1996 & no-one knows who currently owns the copyrights, not even Les Bird, Les Bird was one of the programmers for Capstone.

Lands of Lore was developed by Westwood Associates & published by Avalon Interactive in 1993.

I believe that Westwood Associates owns the games. They developed these Lands Of Lore games:

Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos (1993)

Lands of Lore: Guardians of Destiny (1997)

Lands of Lore III (1999)

I own a copy of Lands of Lore: Guardians of Destiny & it says Westwood Associates on the CD case & it also has their name printed on the game CD's. Well since Westwood Associates owns the rights to Lands Of Lore, this puts the ownership of the Lands Of Lore games in the hands of Electronic Arts because Electronic Arts bought out Westwood several years ago. Electronic Arts seems unwilling to release their older games for free download.

Edited August 14, 2005 by EugeneE3RD

[EugeneE3RD]

Several years ago, Topologika Ltd released their old MS-DOS Interactive fiction games for free download. The games which they released are:

Acheton

Avon

Countdown to Doom

Return to Doom

Last Days of Doom

Hamil

Hezarin

Murdac

Philosophers Quest

Spy Snatcher

These games can be downloaded from http://www.ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/phoenix/pc/ .

[EugeneE3RD]

During 1998, the game author named Phassine released his Commodore 64 games for free download. These games were published during the late 1980's/early 1990's in Finnish magazines. The only way to get these games was to purchase the magazines but since 1998, the author has allowed his games to be downloaded for free & you can download them from http://users.tkk.fi/~phassine/C64/C64.html .

Last year, I posted about Jeff Minter giving permission for his old games to be allowed to be downloaded from the Internet. Well, I found an archive which has his games & you can download them from http://ftp.funet.fi/pub/cbm/c64/games/Llamasoft/ .

PC64 is an old DOS emulator which emulates the Commodore 64. It was originally released as shareware but the author released the emulator for free download during 1997. This emulator is real old but it might be usefull to people who might have an older computer. You can download it from http://ftp.funet.fi/pub/cbm/crossplatform/emulators/pc64/ .

I know that I mentioned in one of my previous posts that Polarware (formally Penguin Software) released their old games for free download. Well, their website didn't list the Atari ST version of Crimson Crown but you can download it from http://ifarchive.jmac.org/indexes/if-archi...sXatari-ST.html . The Atari ST version is also legal to download.

The games created by G.H. Larsen have become public domain in 2002. The games are:

The Nine Dancers

The Puppet-Man

The G.H. Larsen games above are for the BBC computer & they can be downloaded from http://ifarchive.jmac.org/indexes/if-archiveXgamesXbbc.html .

I also mentioned in a previous post that Scott Adams allows his old adventure games to be downloaded for free. You can get his Commodore 64 adventure games from http://ifarchive.jmac.org/indexes/if-archi...XgamesXc64.html .

Acornsoft release their Interactive Fiction game called Gateway for free download. You can get in from http://ifarchive.jmac.org/indexes/if-archi...XgamesXbbc.html . This game is for the BBC computers.

Several mail order/shareware PC adventure games have been re-released for free download. The games are:

Humbug version 5.0

The Return to the Colossal Cave

Stellar Agent

The Wade Wars: Book III

Treasury of Zan

Zenobi Software has made their old games avaliable for people to download personal use only. Zenobi make their games available for personal use only and may not be compiled on to a CD or other media for resale. You can download the Zenobi software games from http://ifarchive.jmac.org/indexes/if-archi...sXspectrum.html . The Zenobi games are for the Sinclair Spectrum computers. Zenobi Software has a website which is located at http://pages.123-reg.co.uk/balrog-7274/zen...ware/index.html & http://www.zenobi.co.uk/ .

The list of games which Zenobi Software allows to be downloaded are at http://www.wurb.com/if/company/58 .

[XavierHyde]

Lands of Lore was developed by Westwood Associates & published by Avalon Interactive in 1993.

I believe that Westwood Associates owns the games. They developed these Lands Of Lore games:

Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos (1993)

Lands of Lore: Guardians of Destiny (1997)

Lands of Lore III (1999)

I own a copy of Lands of Lore: Guardians of Destiny & it says Westwood Associates on the CD case & it also has their name printed on the game CD's. Well since Westwood Associates owns the rights to Lands Of Lore, this puts the ownership of the Lands Of Lore games in the hands of Electronic Arts because Electronic Arts bought out Westwood several years ago. Electronic Arts seems unwilling to release their older games for free download.

586374929[/snapback]

Westwood was, unfortunately, disbanded last year. Most of the Westwood staff went one of two different ways: Some moved to EA's Los Angeles studio. Others stayed in Vegas and formed Petroglyph Games, who are now developing a Star Wars RTS. I've spoken to some of the developers who were involved with Lands of Lore, and even though they want to update and/or release it and several other games from that time period which are based on the same technologies, it seems there is some contract between EA and the previous owner of Westwood (some Viacom company) that in practice prevents EA from releasing existing code from Westwood's projects.

[EugeneE3RD]

I contacted the old video game company called Omnitrends who is no longer in the video game business about their old games & here is what they said:

Web Search: Credit Rating Vitamins Dating Trivia

<Mailbox for geneewe@anonymous.to>

Cellular Computer Singles Travel Personal Finance Weight Training

#1 out of 2 messages in <MAIN : Inbox>.

Reply Reply All Forward Delete Close

Move Message To:

Subject: RE: Old Omnitrend games

Date: Mon, 15 Aug 2005 13:03:56 -0400

From: "Carbone, Thomas R." <tcarbone@omnitrend.com>

To: "Eugene Esterly III" <geneewe@anonymous.to>

Eugene:

I'm sorry, but these games are still in copyright. There is a planned

CD release of all our old games coming up next year.

Regards,

Tom Carbone

tcarbone@omnitrend.com

860-673-8910

-----Original Message-----

From: Eugene Esterly III [mailto:geneewe@anonymous.to]

Sent: Saturday, August 13, 2005 7:17

To: Sales

Subject: Old Omnitrend games

I'm sorry if this is the wrong email address but this is the only one

which I see on Omnitrend's site other than a technical support email

address.

During the late 1980's/early 1990's, Omnitrend was a game company &

made

several games. I'm writing this email to see if Omnitrend would allow

their games to be distrubuted on the Internet for free download. The

games which I am referring to

are:

Breach

Breach 2

Paladin 1

Rules of Engagement 1

Universe 1

Universe 2

Universe 3

I am asking if Omnitrend will allow the free distubution of the above

games on the Internet for free download.

Thanks for your time.

Sincerly,

Eugene Esterly III

------------------------------------------------------------

ANONYMOUS EMAIL -- ANONYMOUS SURFING -- COMPLETE INTERNET PRIVACY Get

your free account: http://www.anonymous.to

Move Message To:

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[EugeneE3RD]

I got another reponse from another company which I emailed about their older games & here is what was mentioned:

Web Search:

<Mailbox for geneewe@anonymous.to>

[Ad]

#1 out of 1 messages in <MAIN : Trash>.

Reply Reply All Forward Delete Close

Move Message To:

From: Carol Sheppard <CSheppard@superscape.com>

To: "'geneewe@anonymous.to'" <geneewe@anonymous.to>

Subject: RE: Superscape Other enquiry

Date: Tue, 16 Aug 2005 10:37:53 +0100

Hi Eugene,

Many thanks for your enquiry. At the moment we do not have plans to

distribute these titles freely, but we thank you for your interest in

our

games, and hope that you will continue to check the website for new

titles

released.

regards

Carol Sheppard

-----Original Message-----

From: geneewe@anonymous.to [mailto:geneewe@anonymous.to]

Sent: 13 August 2005 12:01

To: web-webmaster@superscape.com

Subject: Superscape Other enquiry

Name: Eugene Esterly III

Email: geneewe@anonymous.to

Enquiry: Dear Superscape,

I was doing research on old video game companies & I saw on the NET

that you

once created games under the name of Incentive.

I am wondering if you will allow your old games to be distrubuted on

the NET

for free download. The games which I am referring to are:

3D Construction Kit

3D Construction Kit 2

Castle Master 1

Castle Master 2: The Crypt

Dark Side

Driller

Total Eclipse

I think that it would be a great idea to allow these games to be

distrubuted

on the Internet for free download.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerly,

Eugene Esterly III

Sex: Male

Age range: 26-35

Operator: none

Device: none

Country: United States

Favourite Game: none

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[EugeneE3RD]

Well, the source code to Quake 3 has been released under the GPL. This has been reported at https://www.neowin.net/comments.php?category=gamers&id=30038 .

Only the source code to Quake 3 has been released under the GPL. The game data is now free so you have to purchase the Quake 3 game to get the data files.