Classics for free

[LordOfLA]

Hey all!

Just stumbled accross this thread while looking for summat else :)

ANyway those who were/are Atari ST fans may want to check out http://www.atari.st/ has a few emulators and alot of atarist games (I'd say most are from the pirate floppies and CD's) whthere it's legal or not I dont know, but I've not seen them post anything saying copyright owners had asked them to remove stuff.

LordOfLA

[seba79]

1040 STE r0X :p

[XavierHyde]

About the Atari platforms, I can tell you that both Thalion and Cinemaware provides disk images for Atari ST. Check the top post in the thread for links.

And this is just a reminder to everyone: this project is really picking up speed now, so go check the top post every once in a while, as just the last week has brought many updates and encouraging news. We now have the following high-ranking business profiles working on getting free releases (some also updated) of their companies' old games:

Michael Legg, Petroglyph (formerly Westwood Studios)

Matthieu Saint-Denis, Dreamcatcher Europe (formerly Cryo)

Ilari Kuittinen, Housemarque (which is Bloodhouse and Terramarque for the ones who remember)

All these three companies were the very top (and still are) of their respective genres. That they have even bothered to reply to my requests is encouraging, that they have all made promises to further the preservation of their games is even more incredible. Now if only Martyn Brown would jump on the bandwagon we'd certainly have some serious momentum. :cool:

[Fugi]

ok....

[XavierHyde]

This is just in:

The ScummVM team are going to release another classic adventure game as freeware with the next major release of ScummVM. No word yet of which game it might be, but seeing their close cooperation with Revolution and the fact that they are adding support for at least the first two Broken Sword games, it may be safely assumed that it is one of those titles that are in the pipeline.

[XavierHyde]

Before anyone mentions that Rockstar released Wild Metal Country today, I've already added it to the top post. :sleep:

[DigitalN.]

dang, you beat me to it.....

9 days earlier :rofl:

[XavierHyde]

Added Habitat North to the list of up-and-coming companies that have promised to work for the preservation of their games once they're pulled from the shelves.

I've always been a fan of companies that release source code to their old games and I will try to make sure that we do the same after a title is no longer commersially viable.

Sounds encouraging, no? :)

[sting3r]

you forgot 3 of the greatest shooters

Soldat- http://www.soldat.pl

Americas Army- http://www.americasarmy.com

RTCW Enemy Territory- http://www.enemyterritorey.com

[XavierHyde]

you forgot 3 of the greatest shooters

Soldat- http://www.soldat.pl

Americas Army- http://www.americasarmy.com

RTCW Enemy Territory- http://www.enemyterritorey.com

No, I did not "forget" them. I do know about them, but they are not covered by the scope of this thread, which is "previously commercial games gone freeware (or open-source) and companies that support this campaign", as well as related discussion and news, or course.

So thanks, but maybe you can help me think of some games that I've missed that really are covered by the scope of this document?

Soldat :: Not freeware, hence it will not be listed, at least not until such time as it is released as freeware. The website you linked to has not been reachable for some time.

America's Army :: Not a commerical game gone freeware, hence it will not be listed.

Enemy Territory :: Not a commercial game gone freeware, hence it will not be listed. Website warning: The website you linked to (excluding "bad speeling" :) ) is held by a domain squatter and tries to hijack Internet Explorer's searchpage/homepage settings.

[XavierHyde]

Some new updates are listed in the top post, so go check it out. :shifty:

In other news, I'm trying to establish contact with Origin and SSG and open up discussions about Warlords, Wing Commander and Privateer. We'll see how it ends up. Stay tuned.

And for the good of the gaming community, I encourage everyone to help me out here... post your progress, and feedback and ideas... or just good links - but make sure they're legal.

[evktalo]

Hi cappuchok and everyone..

I work, with others, on the Finnish retrogaming site/e-zine Pelikapseli. Back in 1999, the then-webmaster, Janne Kauppila acquired permissions to host downloads of the Dynamix adventures <b>Rise of the Dragon</b> and <b>Heart of China</b>, along with <b>Warhead</b>, a space sim by Glyn Williams, now of I-War fame.

Some time after Janne retired, we started wondering about the legal status of these downloads, and this week I finally sought the guy out and asked. And yes, he still had the e-mails.

Glyn Williams said he wouldn't mind Warhead being released as freeware, and said "From a legal point of view - I believe that all the rights should have reverted to myself. (And I owned the copyright)." What the e-mail says in the end, however is that Glyn doesn't mind Pelikapseli hosting the download of Warhead.

Jeff Tunnel was ok with it, but suggested that Janne should check with the legal department of Sierra. Janne asked Sierra if they'd mind Pelikapseli offering these games for download, and I have an e-mail from Jim Veevaert, VP of Marketing / Sierra saying "Sure, I don't see a problem with it."

This was back in autumn of 1999. I'm sure Glyn and Jeff support our cause, but I think they should be contacted again - maybe with a more general freeware release in mind. Getting in touch with Sierra sounds like the hard part. :)

--Eino

PS.

Janne used actually to be a webmaster for a site called Retroactive, which did what Legal Abandonware does now.

PPS.

I think the "ultimate" form of a "legal abandonware" is the copyright holder themselves assembling a proper freeware download package, with a licence text file et al. That takes some effort and dedication, and deserves a fair chunk of kudos.

[XavierHyde]

@ evktalo: that sounds very good.

I will attempt to make contact with Sierra. As you probably know, Sierra was one of the very first game companies to release a previously commercial title as freeware (they released the game Mystery House for Apple II as freeware already in 1987). They also pioneered the modern retro freeware wave when they released Betrayal at Krondor and Red Baron on their website a few years ago.

Assuming I (or you, evktalo) can get in touch with them, I think they will be willing to support our effort with more freeware releases. Just imagine an authorized freeware version of The Incredible Machine 3.0... :yes:.

So, I will try to make contact, but I'd also appreciate it if you (evktalo or anyone with the proper connections) made an attempt also. :)

Currently my effort is geared towards making contact with whoever owns the Warlords copyrights now (a company named Infinite Interactive). Progress has at least been made in that SSG was kind enough to provide me with a pointer to who owns the rights now. :)

[evktalo]

A few links:

Imagination, a small Finnish shareware developer, has rereleased all their titles as freeware. They're all DOS games. It looks like the site might not be there for very long.

http://www.ee.oulu.fi/~taur/

Bloodlust Software, the authors of the NESticle NES emulator did likewise, rereleasing at least the games Executioners and Time Slaughter (a fun gory-cartoony fighting game a'la Street Fighter 2 & Mortal Kombat) as freeware. Unfortunately their homesite seems to be down.

On the other news, Enemy Nations' homepage says now this:

"There are locations where you can download the full game for free. However, we are not presently aware of where any are (so please don't e-mail us and ask)."

So I suppose it's still considered freeware, but nobody knows where to get it. :) Which is no surprise, hosting a popular download a size of a CD-ROM must be expensive.

--Eino

[XavierHyde]

Thanks evktalo, I'll check those out tomorrow and perhaps list them in the top post.

Enemy Nations was released on BitTorrent a while ago, so there should be plenty sources out there. Oh well, I guess they'll find another place to host it.

And if they don't, I have a few ideas. :)

[XavierHyde]

Check top post for updates. :D

[djgramma]

Anyone know of any games like Whiplash? Not Carmageddon or anything like that, Whiplash was an awesome racing game and I wonder if anyone can direct me to a demo of some kind. I lost my cd a while back (not that it even worked now) and I can't buy anything off the net right now. Any help would be much appreciated.

Cheers

[XavierHyde]

Anyone know of any games like Whiplash? Not Carmageddon or anything like that, Whiplash was an awesome racing game and I wonder if anyone can direct me to a demo of some kind. I lost my cd a while back (not that it even worked now) and I can't buy anything off the net right now. Any help would be much appreciated.

Cheers

Found the Whiplash demo @ Gamesdomain. Use mirror 4, it's SUNET's lightning fast ftp mirror (if you like, you can just copy the link and change the url type to http).

HEADLINE NEWS: TEAM 17 GIVES DISTRIBUTION RIGHTS FOR OLD TITLES TO BACK2ROOTS.ORG!

The news at back2roots.org state: "The kind people over at Team 17 permitted us to upload three of their games: Full Contact, Project-X and Superfrog. Enjoy these games from a legendary Amiga company for free!"

This also includes the CD version of Superfrog - so go get it! :woot: :yes: :cool:

In other news, Acid Software released the Ultimate Blitz Basic CD for free download at back2roots.org. No, it's NOT the PC version. :no:

I didn't add this to the top post since back2roots.org is already listed.

[XavierHyde]

Word is out from the ScummVM team that the next freeware game will NOT be Broken Sword 1 or 2, nor in fact any Revolution game. That's very interesting news - what game might it be!? We'll just have to wait and see, I guess. :cool:

I have also found contact info for the current holder of the Dune and Lost Eden assets lost from Cryo, so if he responds you'll be the first to know. :)

Edited January 22, 2004 by cappuchok

[sting3r]

No, I did not "forget" them. I do know about them, but they are not covered by the scope of this thread, which is "previously commercial games gone freeware (or open-source) and companies that support this campaign", as well as related discussion and news, or course.

So thanks, but maybe you can help me think of some games that I've missed that really are covered by the scope of this document?

Soldat :: Not freeware, hence it will not be listed, at least not until such time as it is released as freeware. The website you linked to has not been reachable for some time.

America's Army :: Not a commerical game gone freeware, hence it will not be listed.

Enemy Territory :: Not a commercial game gone freeware, hence it will not be listed. Website warning: The website you linked to (excluding "bad speeling" :) ) is held by a domain squatter and tries to hijack Internet Explorer's searchpage/homepage settings.

Sorry... and OMFG i didnt know that the et page had a search page changer... sorry sorry

[XavierHyde]

Sorry... and OMFG i didnt know that the et page had a search page changer... sorry sorry

The real ET page does not. The page you reffered was a simple domain squatter page with all the usual crap and no ET related info at all.

In project-related news, I have established contact with people inside Sierra and Electronic Arts. We'll see what comes out of it.

[Starman]

This is a great thread.

Games I'd like to see resurrected, but not "updated" with all these bells and whistles...I mean just get it to work as they did on the original systems:

Shufflepuck Cafe. I never did beat some of those ******s. I wanted to smack the little guy that laughed at you.

Hardball. Classic baseball game.

Rogue. NOT the ASCII version we all know and love, the graphical version for the Atari ST. NICE graphics and it breathed life into an old game.

Phantasie. Not the best game made, but reminds me a lot of playing it in college.

Starflight I. What a damn wicked game. Won't run on today's systems without tweaks. I'd rather have a nice updated version. Hours and hours of playing this in college.

Montezuma's Revenge. This game had me addicted for hours.

Demon Attack. 'Nuff said. Bloop bloop bloop bloop...

There was this one game for the Atari 800 whose name I can't remember. You had this, I'd like to call it a land skimmer, and your goal was to shoot down this black fortress that loomed in the distance. You'd fly into these red clouds which stole your energy, or yellow ones that gave energy to you. Damn cool game. Real nice music. It had two names for some reason and I'm blanking on both.

Temple of Apshai. Classic.

Encounter. Battle Zone-type game. The only problem with it was that level-to-level minigame where you had to dodge these blobs coming at you. Damn, I hated them, and if you got hit you had to play the previous level all over again. Nice AI for an Atari 800.

Mike

[XavierHyde]

Rogue: You might want to read this page which contains comments and information from one of the authors. Unfortunately, he cannot provide binaries. Still, an interesting read.

Phantasie: Might be happening, or it might not. Don't get your hopes up, but as I have established contact with at least two of the original developers I will inquire if the source can be released. :)

[XavierHyde]

Updated the top post, so go check it out.

On a related note, I remember the squad action game "Evolva" being released as freeware with a gaming magazine a few years ago. I'll attempt to track down the developers and ask what the status of the game is today.

We might soon see more Team17 titles online courtesy of fan site Dream17. The site maintainer is currently waiting for the go-ahead from Martyn Brown, so let's hope he gets the 'all systems go' soonish.

For developers (you know who you are), Housemarque released their sound system Housemarque Audio System v1.12 (previously known as MIDAS Audio System, primarily for use in games and demos) as freeware for non-commercial usage. Here's the clicky.

If anyone knows how to get in touch with Sensible Software, don't hesitate to send me a PM!

Edited February 3, 2004 by cappuchok

[Jason the Eighty Eighth]

does anyone know where i can download Kings Quest 1 and Heroes Quest 1? i can't find it anywhere :(

Edited February 8, 2004 by Jason the Eighty Eighth