Classics for free

By XavierHyde
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XavierHyde

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@evktalo: Nice to see you posting again, Eino! If you do contact the former Legend Entertainment staff (which I have yet to find, sadly) would you also ask them about their stance on releasing the rest of their old "graphics-enhanced" text adventures? There were certainly a lot of them, and none of them to the best of my knowledge works under WinXP. If those games (Spellcasting series, Eric the Unready, Gateway series etc) could be released - with source - under a suitable license, chances are someone will be willing to create a portable engine so we can play those gems on our Palms, Linux/BSD boxen, Windows Whatever-Edition and so on.

Also, I don't buy the "Atari" part... :) Infogrames hijacked the Atari brand name and has been busy destroying it ever since. Period. This doesn't exactly improve my opinion of Infogrames as a company... :x

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XavierHyde

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Status update time:

I'm currently working on organising the top post into a database for easy searching and reference, where I can trace company contact attempts, updates and stuff like that. I'll make it so it outputs reports to BBcode in order to simply cut and paste to the top post. Dunno how long this will take considering I'm rather busy with other things ATM, but I hope the reorganisation will make the top post easier to navigate and easier for me to maintain.

As for progress, more games have been released to Squirminator2K's Team17 fansite. That's about all I can think of off the top of my head. Stay tuned!

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XavierHyde

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Agreed, Star Trek Judgement Rites was definitely a high point in Interplay's history. Unfortunately, their website seems to have gone defunct, and while I've been trying to find an email address to someone who was involved in developing the game, I've failed so far.

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XavierHyde

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Small update: I've tracked down and mailed Brian Fargo, who was the executive producer of Star Trek Judgment Rites, concerning the release of this and possibly other old Interplay titles. Hopefully I'll get some reply. If not, well, at least I've tried.

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evktalo

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Hi there,

I've mailed SSG if they still offer the free download of their game The Ardennes Offensive - couldn't find it on their new site.

I also finally mailed Bob Bates about Gateway, if it's freeware or not. I don't think so, but maybe we'll get a confirmation.

I also mailed the admin of bombs-away.net, who have had - I think it's legal - free download of the old B-17 Flying Fortress by Microprose. The site is now on a hiatus, it seems.. I sent a query if they're going to host the file in the future.

Hopefully, I'll get some replies.

Let's keep our fingers crossed about the Star Trek game. :)

--Eino

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evktalo

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Got QUICK back from Bob Bates!

I'll quote a part of his reply:

Hi Eino,

Like most IP stuff, this is complicated.

The Gateway games were licensed products (based on Frederik Pohl's series),

and Legend had the rights to distribute them only for a certain period. We

did do a limited promotion where it was free for a certain period of time,

but only for that period of time.

Today, it's unclear who owns the rights to the games, although I am trying

to sort that out.

So I wouldn't characterize the games as abandonware, but neither are they

in the public domain.

I'm not sure what he means with "abandonware" - legal or illegal - but I think it's clear enough that the game was not meant to be redistributed.

I asked about that "sorting out" thing which surely intrest us! ;) Here's again a part of the reply:

I am working to re-acquire the rights to some of the Legend games, but

realistically, I don't see any chance of the licensed games ever becoming

available.  I may one day be able to shake loose the non-licensed games (The

Spellcasting Series, Timequest, Eric the Unready, and Mission Critical), but

only time will tell.

Cheers,

--Bob

Since Gateway itself includes material licenced from Pohl, getting a licence to rerelease it would probably be hard and/or costly.

I'm glad I finally mailed him!

--Eino

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XavierHyde

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That's good, Eino. Good to get some info on those games. I'd settle for the non-licensed Legend games, if he can work that out. Of course, all of them would be even better. :) We'll just have to wait and see.

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Mando

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These aren't original games released for free, but shouldn't be missed anyway :)

Warblade Great PC sequel to the Amiga classic Deluxe Galaga.

Giant Sisters PC version of Great Giana Sisters. One of my favourites :)

669768[/snapback]

Warblade is almost as good as Galaga AGA which was around for the good old A1200 :yes:

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XavierHyde

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http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?id=4965

This is a classic in every sense of the word, for all the wrong reasons. I advise those of you who missed it first time, to download it and just see where it all went wrong.

585143571[/snapback]

Daikatana is still commercial, has not been released as freeware, and the download you're linking to is not verifiably legal (unless you can provide some communication with the developer or publisher of Daikatana that says it's officially freeware.).

Not sure if this has been posted yet, but I once owned this game...it's great Mario Kart knockoff, really fun.

Skunny Kart

Not freeware. If you look at the page it distincly says it's shareware, which means it's not appropriate for this thread. MAYBE if it had once been shareware but now re-released as freeware, I'd consider it, but as things look now it's not within the scope of this thread.

In other news, GTA 2 has been re-released as freeware. I can't get the form to work, but at least it's there. My guess is their form server got slashdotted. Oh well.

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toastyghost

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Daikatana is still commercial, has not been released as freeware, and the download you're linking to is not verifiably legal (unless you can provide some communication with the developer or publisher of Daikatana that says it's officially freeware.).

As far as I know, Underdogs check out all their downloads before making them publicly available. There are a lot of games listed on there that just refer you to a site where its available for purchase.

I'd email ION Storm, but I'm pretty sure John Romero wouldn't want to be reminded that he made it.

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Grand Master

G4M3R

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Agreed, Star Trek Judgement Rites was definitely a high point in Interplay's history. Unfortunately, their website seems to have gone defunct, and while I've been trying to find an email address to someone who was involved in developing the game, I've failed so far.

585051439[/snapback]

Excellent game. I brought the limited edition version years ago and still have it :)

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EugeneE3RD

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http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?id=4965

This is a classic in every sense of the word, for all the wrong reasons. I advise those of you who missed it first time, to download it and just see where it all went wrong.

585143571[/snapback]

toastygoast,

The game you are linking to is not freeware, it is warez. Daikatana was never released as freeware. This thread is for commerical/shareware software which has been released as freeware by the owners of the software. Daikatana was never released as freeware so it doesn't belong in this thread.

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EugeneE3RD

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Not sure if this has been posted yet, but I once owned this game...it's great Mario Kart knockoff, really fun.

Skunny Kart

585143719[/snapback]

Skunny Kart is not freeware, it is shareware & if you download the full version from the Internet then it is warez & it is not allowed in this thread. This thread is about commerical/shareware games which have been released as freeware.

Abandonware is not freeware, it is warez. Just because software is not sold anymore, it doesn't make it freeware. Commerical software can only be released as freeware if the owners of the software gives permission & in the case of warez/abandoneware, the owners of Skunny Kart didn't give permission.

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XavierHyde

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Eloquently put, Eugene.

I seem to remember already having said all that about those two games, but nevertheless it can't be emphasized strongly enough. Thanks for assisting me in keeping the thread on topic. :)

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EugeneE3RD

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Eloquently put, Eugene.

I seem to remember already having said all that about those two games, but nevertheless it can't be emphasized strongly enough. Thanks for assisting me in keeping the thread on topic. :)

585175076[/snapback]

Your welcome. BTW, I haven't been looking for software for this thread over the past couple of months but it's still great to see this thread is still around. I've been playing the commerical PC game called Elder Scrolls 3:Morrowind recently & it has been taking a lot of my free time.

I like to give thanks to Bethesda Softworks for releasing Elder Scrolls: Arena as freeware because it gives gamers a free game to play but also it shows how far the Elder Scrolls games have come since Elder Scrolls: Arena was released in 1994 for DOS.

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evktalo

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I'd love it if someone could confirm Ultima IV (and Aklabeth) is a proper freeware release (and not a promotional limited time freeware download). It seems that Origin has been diminished into taking care of Ultima Online, Richard Garriot no longer works there and EA owns Ultima. They're not easily reachable, are they? :-)

OF COURSE there's no proper licence file with the Ultima IV release stating "this is freeware" or "this is not freeware, do not copy this around".

Well, many independent shareware titles which have been released as freeware by their authors still have their original DO NOT COPY THIS REGISTERED VERSION ABOUT OR WE'LL COME TO YOUR DOOR AND KNOCK YOU OUT -licence files intact.

It's sometimes difficult to tell what releasers intentions are with each release! Oh well. :)

--Eino

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XavierHyde

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I'd love it if someone could confirm Ultima IV (and Aklabeth) is a proper freeware release (and not a promotional limited time freeware download). It seems that Origin has been diminished into taking care of Ultima Online, Richard Garriot no longer works there and EA owns Ultima. They're not easily reachable, are they? :-)

OF COURSE there's no proper licence file with the Ultima IV release stating "this is freeware" or "this is not freeware, do not copy this around".

Well, many independent shareware titles which have been released as freeware by their authors still have their original DO NOT COPY THIS REGISTERED VERSION ABOUT OR WE'LL COME TO YOUR DOOR AND KNOCK YOU OUT -licence files intact.

It's sometimes difficult to tell what releasers intentions are with each release! Oh well. :)

--Eino

585260773[/snapback]

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).

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