Classics for free

By XavierHyde
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Grand Master

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Thanks for your tireless work on this subject cappuchok, I wouldnt have a clue where to start in all of this, and what you are doing is appreciated.

Just thought I'd say that as you are doing a LOT of work here ...

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XavierHyde

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hey where can i download GTA Classic mentioned at the first post

Clicky :D

Be warned though, the size of the download is a fat 328 MB and Rockstar has limited the amount of concurrent connections to their server so you might have to retry a few times.

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Crazy_Seb

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I would love to see the Amiga version of BlueBrother's: SpeedBall 2 to be free as well one day....

And also Transport Tycoon as well - but I already own that and works under Win2K with a 3rd party patch.

ss1.

Dang! I want transport tycoon soooooo bad. Any ways of obtaining it? :cry:

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XavierHyde

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,Apr 30 2003, 07:52] who knows if Duke Nukem 3d is abandonware? because I want to play it again

Duke 3D isn't abandonware, per se. It's just open source, you can download the source for the engine from 3DRealms. There are also several ports of it available now, check previous entries in this thread for more info.

AFAIK, you still need to have an original copy of the game to use these engines, so they have somewhere to grab the data files from.

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XavierHyde

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Freespace 2 is a  great game:

http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?id=4150

ss1.

when did freespace 2 go free???

Can't say, and I can't find any info on the official site, but I know that the Underdogs have never offered a game that they know to be still in print. I'm sure if Volition wants to have the game rereleased, Underdogs will remove the game files and put a reference to an online store (it has been known to happen before).

And I recommend using some filter when surfing the Underdogs, Proxomitron is a good choice. It turns out some banners from the service Underdogs uses to serve their ads wants to install PrecisionTime (nasty bugger of a spyware from Gator). ;)

  • 2 weeks later...
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XavierHyde

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Hello again, everyone.

Just a short message to say I've not gone AWOL. I'm still on the Classic Gaming case, but since I'm now rather busy with my new job I've slowed the pace of this project a little. :blush: It's still my hope that I will get some help from anyone on this forum who is "in the know". Needless to say, a project like this is hard to run without good contacts. Sadly, I have yet to see more than one who have actually announced that he has contacted a company on his own.

Never fear, though. I'm still determined to achieve the goals I've set up for this project, and that anyone here who might want to help out will post here what companies they've contacted and so on.

On a brighter note, I'd just like to encourage anyone who has an interest in Amiga games (or small and good PC games for that matter) to go to

The Thalion Webshrine

and get some 20 awesome classics from the now-defunct german developer Thalion. These are officially approved downloads, and Alex Holland who runs the site (no, he's not a Thalion member but he knows some of them) is currently working with the CAPS Project to create fully restorable 100% intact floppy images of Thalion's games. My two favourites among these games are Atomix and DragonFlight - great classics! :cool:

Edited by cappuchok
  • 2 weeks later...
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XavierHyde

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A brief update and a tidbit for all retro-gamers out there:

I'm hard at work gathering email adresses to important people at the target companies (the target list is also growing), and organizing a database for checking in/out companies as the project moves on. I'm still waiting for this community to wake up and start sending me info that might help me, though. Possibly, I'll set up a webpage with the database where you can send me any helpful info you've got. But I've not decided yet.

And while I'm busy, here's a tidbit that totally slipped by me without me noticing :wacko: :

On the 1st of April, Revolution released their first game, "Lure of the Temptress". Yes, that's right! :woot: You can download it and check out the installation instructions at the clicky below. If you download the English version, Revolution have even been kind enough to remove the manual protection. French and German users get the manual included in the download.

So don't wait! Just clicky!!!

Enjoy! :cool:

Grand Master

Schmoove

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God... I just downloaded my all-time favorite game for the old computers :rolleyes:.... And I can't get it to work! :angry: I try to run it... Doesn't work... I do it in Win 95 compatibility... Doesn't work.... I run it in the command prompt.... I get an error - Runtime Error 200 at 0002:24ED.

And it ****es me off even more that I have an old computer downstairs that has it on it, but I can't use the computer becasue I'm pretty sure the PS/2 port exploded or something. :(

[Edit] Someone else wanna try it? The game's called "Tyrian". I found it on that site that was posted before.... freeoldies.com or something. :unsure:

If it is a really old game you can just install VMWare/Virtual PC, install MS-DOS in a virtual machine and run your games

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XavierHyde

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God... I just downloaded my all-time favorite game for the old computers :rolleyes:.... And I can't get it to work! :angry: I try to run it... Doesn't work... I do it in Win 95 compatibility... Doesn't work.... I run it in the command prompt.... I get an error - Runtime Error 200 at 0002:24ED.

And it ****es me off even more that I have an old computer downstairs that has it on it, but I can't use the computer becasue I'm pretty sure the PS/2 port exploded or something. :(

[Edit] Someone else wanna try it? The game's called "Tyrian". I found it on that site that was posted before.... freeoldies.com or something.  :unsure:

If it is a really old game you can just install VMWare/Virtual PC, install MS-DOS in a virtual machine and run your games

Or you could try and find "Tyrian 2000". I think I tried this in XP once and it worked just fine. Also, I believe Tyrian 2000 is freeware nowadays. I've seen it around, though I can't remember where. If anyone knows differently feel free to correct this... :blush:

Grand Master

Evil Dragon

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God... I just downloaded my all-time favorite game for the old computers :rolleyes:.... And I can't get it to work! :angry: I try to run it... Doesn't work... I do it in Win 95 compatibility... Doesn't work.... I run it in the command prompt.... I get an error - Runtime Error 200 at 0002:24ED.

And it ****es me off even more that I have an old computer downstairs that has it on it, but I can't use the computer becasue I'm pretty sure the PS/2 port exploded or something. :(

[Edit] Someone else wanna try it? The game's called "Tyrian". I found it on that site that was posted before.... freeoldies.com or something.?:unsure::

If it is a really old game you can just install VMWare/Virtual PC, install MS-DOS in a virtual machine and run your games

Or you could try and find "Tyrian 2000". I think I tried this in XP once and it worked just fine. Also, I believe Tyrian 2000 is freeware nowadays. I've seen it around, though I can't remember where. If anyone knows differently feel free to correct this... :blush::

Err, see... The thing about that is - I kinda wanted this game specifically, because it had this song on it that I used to listen to all the time, and I've totally forgotten what it sounds like.:pp Mostly I just wanted to hear it again (but the game's still fun, it's just that a newer version probably isn't gonna be the same).://

Btw - I've tried all kinds of DOS emulators, and none of them support this kind of thing for some reason.:pp

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XavierHyde

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Scorched Earth was the first game I've ever played that I got into.

Besides of course nibbles and gorilla (qbasic)

Scorched Earth... aah, those were the days! It's impossible to play these days without a slowdowner though (tried XP SP1 on a P4? ;) ). I've heard there are several remakes around, even in 3D, but they're not quite the same.

I believe there's a good Gorillas remake for the GBA, that and an emulator, and ah the memories. :cool:

Grand Master

Jason the Eighty Eighth

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i would love to download (i can't find these at shops :() these old Sierra games:

- Kings Quest

- Police Quest

- Jones in the Fast Lane

and of course, Scorched Earth.

www.scorch2000.com

Scorch Earth online (can play other people). if anyone thinks they 0wn, they haven't seen me... :shifty:

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XavierHyde

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i would love to download (i can't find these at shops ) these old Sierra games:

- Kings Quest

- Police Quest

- Jones in the Fast Lane

Well, Sierra are rather jealous about their old software copyrights (unlike Team 17 :yay:) but there's a nice remake of KQ1 and KQ2 at Tierra. Sierra haven't said anything about it so I assume it's legal.
Abandonware is still illegal to download - it is still under copyright laws etc...

Yes, but technically, that's not always true. It's not illegal to download in most countries. It is, however, illegal to host it and offer it for download.

Abandonware is a poor word, because it's too broad a term - and above that, it's not a recognized term outside the gamer community. It certainly includes a lot of games and apps that I personally would consider too new to need preservation. It also includes a lot of really really old titles which are really in need of preservation, and that have been declared abandoned by their own makers, or titles for which the makers have given a free license of distribution to various websites. When a company talks about one of its titles as abandonware, it really says it doesn't mind its distribution as long as noone makes money from it.

Abandonware is not what this thread is about, though most of the games mentioned are technically 'abandonware'. Their makers simply don't mind, or even approve of the preservation initiatives, and as long as they do that, noone else is going to complain about it.

When reviewing this thread, keep in mind that any games that I link to (I can't take responsibility for others, obviously) are legal downloads. I've been in touch with most of the companies involved in those games, and others are hosted by sites that have a very strict inclusion policy and can show official licenses for each and every game they offer. Some, like The Underdogs, don't have the official approval of some included companies, but they are very fast in removing a game if they get complaints (how do you think they've managed to survive this long!) and they don't offer downloads if a game is still available for purchase somewhere on the net. The Underdogs is the only known retrogaming site on the web to carry the patch for LucasArts' Loom, an official floppy-CD upgrade not even available from LucasArts' own site, but officially created by LucasArts for the purpose of serving its customers who have purchased the floppy version. Other sites, most notably Back 2 Roots, have acquired valid licenses for most of the games they offer (others are freeware or demos).

team 17 aint those guys the ones that did worms!
Yes. Not to mention a long line of other excellent games starting with Full Contact. I'm going to contact Martyn Brown again soonish, to make sure he doesn't forget what he's said (read up on this thread if you didn't catch it).
Tyrian was awesome. And yeah, Tyrian 2000 works with newer OS's, anyone know where to get a working DL link though? Seems like they've all gone offline...

One word: Google.

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XavierHyde

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Darn - I need to edit my last post but it won't accept that, so here goes again (sorry everyone!)

(Cut out parts that weren't edited)

Abandonware is still illegal to download - it is still under copyright laws etc...
That's not always true. It's not illegal to download in most countries. It is, however, illegal to host it and offer it for download.

And 'abandonware' is a poor word, because it's much too broad a term - and above that, it's not a recognized term outside the gamer community. It certainly includes a lot of games and apps that I personally would consider too new to need preservation. It also includes a lot of really really old titles which are really in need of preservation, and that have been declared officially abandoned by their own makers, or titles for which the makers have given a free license of distribution to various retrogaming websites.

Abandonware is not what this thread is about, though most of the games mentioned are technically 'abandonware'. Their makers simply don't mind, or even approve of the preservation initiatives, and as long as they do that, noone else is going to complain about it.

When reviewing this thread, keep in mind that any games that I link to (I can't take responsibility for others, obviously) are (to the best of my knowledge) legal downloads. I've been in touch with most of the companies involved in those games to get confirmation that they don't mind, and others are hosted by sites that have a very strict inclusion policy and can show official licenses for each and every game they offer. Some sites, like The Underdogs, don't have the official approval of some included companies, but they are very fast in removing a game if they get complaints (how do you think they've managed to survive this long!) and they don't offer downloads if a game is still available for purchase somewhere on the net. The Underdogs is the only known retrogaming site on the web to be trusted by LucasArts to distribute their semi-official floppy->CD upgrade for Loom. While The Underdogs have attracted unwelcome attention from the IDSA at several occasions, they have always been quick to comply with any complaints AND have the obvious trust of most of IDSA's members or the site would have been shut down long ago. Other sites, most notably Back 2 Roots, have acquired valid licenses for most of the games they offer (the others are freeware or demos). I personally wouldn't trust many other sites mentioned by some posts, since they can't show licenses, and some, while offering many officially abandoned games, also carry some games which I know still to be commercially available.

I'll say again: This thread is about preserving games through active contacts with its makers, and about encouraging companies to release their old games for free through official channels, rather than forcing the users to preserve these games through potentially objectionable means.

I hope this clears up some confusion. On a final note, I hope the word 'abandonware' is never mentioned again in this thread beyond this point. It's simply not a very accurate term.

Tyrian was awesome. And yeah, Tyrian 2000 works with newer OS's, anyone know where to get a working DL link though? Seems like they've all gone offline...

Just google for it. I won't say it's legal, because I don't know, and I certainly won't link directly to it. :unsure:

I do, however, want to recommend a cool Finnish game called "the Reap", which is a quite awesome arcade shooter. It's still available on several low-price brands across the world, I believe. It's makers have a patch available at their site (check under the Games section) if you can't get it working with XP. Please contact them and ask them to release their previous Amiga releases (Stardust, Super Stardust and Elf Mania) for download on their site as well, while you're visiting their site. :happy:

To all readers:

If you find a game you'd like to download, first look around the net to see if you can purchase it new anywhere. If you can't, please consider dropping the company a mail asking for a full free release on their website. And if you do download an oldie, don't put it on your own site without the approval of the game's creators. Remember: unless we play this one by the book, noone wins. So let's tell our favourite companies what we think, in a nice manner, and let them answer our questions. If they don't reply in our favour at first, let's respect that and ask nicely again after a while. If we do, then maybe they'll change their mind and realise that their fans are good, honest people, deserving of a little treat. If we can also convince them of the additional publicity such freeware releases gives (just take Rockstar's GTA as an example) maybe they'll be even more willing to consider our suggestions.

Keep the faith. :alien:

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