Abandonware..?

[Munerift]

I came across a concept the other day of "Abandonware," (older but still good games avaliable for free download) and havnt been able to make my way back to legit sites with these --I accessed them from work the other day, and now I'm home --games on them without having come across any "w_4  r-3  z" sites. (name deconstructed so net-spiders wont index this site for that term)

Anyone have any experience and/or know where to go? I'm not looking for the newest games, they all tend to be on the older side (1996 and younger, though I've seen a very rare 2000 sometimes...)

[Xepher]

From what I understand, "abandonware" is really tricky to prove as legit. It has to be the intellectual property of a company that no longer exists. That's pretty rare, as usually a company gets bought out by another, rather than completely disappearing. As such, I've never seen any good games that are actually abandonware games. All my favorites from the early computer game era (like Commander Keen) are owned by companies that still claim them. I saw CK on a bunch of "abandonware" sites for years, and then about 2 years ago, ID actually started SELLING it again. Something like a 5 dollar download that they wouldn't provide tech support for, but still... They own it.

Anyway, I know that's not really useful, so I'll conclude by saying that no, I don't really know any good abandonware sites. Sorry.

[dragyn]

Whoah, I've actually heard of Commander Keen.  Played one episode of it, once.  Can't remember which episode it was, though.

[Xepher]

It was the coolest game in it's day. Beat the pants off mario. There were five "main" episodes. 1-3 were oldschool, NES level graphics. 4-5 were really revolutionary at the time. With multiple background layers that scrolled bast, characters that weren't confined to "blocks" and my favorite... Keen, if he came up short on a jump, could GRAB ONTO AN EDGE! I mean, seriously? Didn't you always hate hitting mario's toe on the far ledge and then sliding into the abyss? Oh, and keen had guns, a hilarious plot, and a pogo stick! Oh, and it's own alphabet, which was a simple 1:1 mapping to english. So if you learned 26 symbols, you could read "galactic alphabet" the same speed you read english. It was a secret area to find the school-room with the translation, but if you learned it, there were all sorts of signs throughout the games that were actually useful tips. Ones that said things like "Self Destruct Button ->" and such. :-)

[Omega0]

http://www.freeoldies.com/index.php?lang=us  Is pretty good at listing old games & where to find them, as well as indicating which ones are still held by a company & where to purchase them.

In most cases though, you can usually find a remake somewhere that has no strings attached and plays nice with a newer OS (sadly I've yet see a good Keen remake though).

[DC Bueller]

There is a site, Home of the Underdogs, but it's having some issues currently regarding downloads and the like...you're more than welcome to try your luck.
http://www.the-underdogs.info/
I've gotten quite a few games from there, both on the actual disk/CD or from their site.  If there's something that you see that doesn't seem to download properly, let me know and I might have it somewhere lying around.
Yeah, I know I haven't been around lately...life's busy.

[Chow]

...http://www.the-underdogs.info/...

that's where I get my stuff

[Databits]

"remakes" that use the originals artwork or sound are still not legit, no matter how much people say they are. So even if someone remade the game code wise and used the artistic elements of the original, it's still using copyrighted material for it (remember when I posted the images for my stupid java game asking on advice? It's because they were original images that I did so I wouldn't be attached to any company).

[willsan]

Speaking of remakes...

Anyone here remember Oxyd?  There's a remake called Enigma, I just downloaded it and got sucked in for an hour playing through the first 16 levels. http://www.nongnu.org/enigma  (open source, runs on Mac, Linux, Windows, and BSD)