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[Sonlirain]

Abandonware... i think Westwood/EA released the friest Red Alers and Dune 2000 for free (or was it only Command and Conquer... not sure now).
Anyway all of them are good games.

Daggerfall was released for free some time ago.
And sometimes when a company bites the dust they release (some of) their games for free to enjoy like it's the case with warzone 2100.

[BigD145]

Abandonware... i think Westwood/EA released the first Red Alert and Dune 2000 for free (or was it only Command and Conquer... not sure now).
Anyway all of them are good games.

Daggerfall was released for free some time ago.
And sometimes when a company bites the dust they release (some of) their games for free to enjoy like it's the case with warzone 2100.

None of which are abandonware. The company released them for free.

[miauw62]

Guys. The Toad disaproves of adbandonware. A lot. So this may be locked soon.

[Sonlirain]

Abandonware... i think Westwood/EA released the first Red Alert and Dune 2000 for free (or was it only Command and Conquer... not sure now).
Anyway all of them are good games.

Daggerfall was released for free some time ago.
And sometimes when a company bites the dust they release (some of) their games for free to enjoy like it's the case with warzone 2100.

None of which are abandonware. The company released them for free.

Well in legal terms a game to become abandonware must be at least 20 (70?) years old.
It must also be abandoned so if someone sells it or provides support (GoG) then it cant go abandonware.
Basically abandonware is a good smoke screen to hide behind when pirating older games.

There are some interesting old games noone really cares about anymore tho like Autoduel.

[itisnotlogical]

If there is no way to legally buy the game, then I consider it abandonware. Even if I were to buy a used copy, none of the money would go to anybody who made the game. For example, quite a few early Sonic games are available on Steam, directly from Sega. They're not abandonware because the current owners of Sonic are still making money from a legal purchase. Same story with things like the Virtual Console, XBLA or PSN.

On the other hand, as far as I know, there is no way to buy A Mind Forever Voyaging, either a download or a boxed physical copy. Nobody owns the rights to it, or else they're sitting on the copyright with the intent of never releasing it. If I could buy this game anywhere, then somebody please let me know. I would love to support anybody who would still sell a text adventure game, especially one as unusual as AMFV.

One caveat to my outlook is that the availability of used copies influences my decision to buy a copy or download. If there's a handful of copies of (insert really rare game) for $90 USD on eBay and that's all I can find, I'll definitely download because that's overcharging from somebody who has no link to the publishers nor developers. If I can find a $10 copy at some used vidya store though, I'll buy it. One reason to buy used copies is that a legit copy on the original hardware is always better than emulation. Another reason is to support physical used game stores, which in a lot of cases is the only way to get some new-but-not-on-store-shelves games.

Is it legal? No. Is it fair? The way I do it, I think so.

That said, check out Leather Goddesses of Phobos, A Mind Forever Voyaging and the Spellcasting series. All of them are excellent adventure games written by Steve Meretzky. They blow any "____ Quest" game by Sierra completely out of the water, both in terms of writing and in puzzle quality. If Infocom had made a smoother leap into the graphical era, then Sierra would have just been a small, unfunny blip on the radar in comparison.

[chaoticag]

The topic is starting to get a bit deraily, think we should have it changed to best classical games? I'd be pretty interested in hearing about the good old ones. Kinda wish there'd be something like Darklands made today. Shame they lost the source code.

[motorbitch]

metall fatique is a great rts - but a bitch to make it run on todays hard and software.

[scrdest]

Covert Action, hands down. There's not a single modern game that simulates spying that good - the focus nowadays is on the 'dudes named J.B. do action movie stuff' school of spy fiction, whereas Covert Action actually has you bugging rooms, photographing documents, codebreaking... And then it's procedurally generated.

It does have some parts that could be improved - your agent appears to be somewhat dense when you find out that an agent whose rank is Researcher, is a building inspector, and is connected to other people in the plot involving a break-in, which you are trying to stop might, in fact, have the role of Researcher in the plot. The driving minigame is also pretty weak and not particularly useful, so it's overshadowed by the other three.

Oh, and it's pretty easy to get it to work on new systems, at least with D-Fend Reloaded, it runs fine with just the standard setup.

[h3lblad3]

It's not just weak, you will never use it. Anything you can get from driving can be gotten from pretty much any other method more efficiently.
There's just no point at all in it.
With that being said, Covert Action is amazing and I love it so much.

That, and Hidden Agenda. I love HIdden Agenda, too. It's not a spy game, though. It's a "try not to die leading post-revolutionary Caribbean nation" simulator.
And on that note, Crisis in the Kremlin is good. And Shadow President.

[Aoi]

With that being said, Covert Action is amazing and I love it so much.

That, and Hidden Agenda. I love HIdden Agenda, too. It's not a spy game, though. It's a "try not to die leading post-revolutionary Caribbean nation" simulator.
And on that note, Crisis in the Kremlin is good. And Shadow President.

Have you tried Fate of the World (not abandoned, by any stretch)? With what you've listed, it might be right up your alley.

[h3lblad3]

I have Fate of the World. And it is SO HARD.
Well, for someone who is too lazy to spend a lot of time staring at the charts it provides.

There was an interesting Let's Play going on of it over at Something Awful, though. I don't know if it's still going.

[murphyslaw]

Time for semantics. I define "abandonware" as not being obtainable in a first hand sale.

Can console games be "abandonware"?

IE: Most PS2/PS1, almost all XBOX, and some Nintendo titles, as well as much Sega System stuff.

Quite a few are available for purchase everywhere from the Wii store to Steam. The majority, however, are just as "abandoned" as any "abandonware" PC game.

Guys. The Toad disaproves of adbandonware. A lot. So this may be locked soon.

While on the subject of console games, how about emulation? I'm surprised there isn't a Bay12 emulation general thread.

[Sharp]

Abandonware isn't about software that is out of copyright, as stated copyright for works can be for a long long long time so there really isn't any game out there that would be lapsing in copyright.

Abandonware is what it sounds like, it's software that has been abandoned, it is no longer available for purchase and is un-supported. It does breach some copyright law but typically abandonware is not sold which means any legal action is a take-down notice or cease and desist, not a suit for money.

The onus is on copyright holder to protect their copyright, much like trademark holders have to protect their trademark from becoming common use, the internet police won't do anything unless the copyright holder makes a complaint. Legally abandonware is dubious however morally I would say it is pretty clear, given that the alternative is the software dies out.

I think some copyright holders actually like abandonware sites as it let's them know if there is still interest in the software enough to start selling it and supporting it.

Abandonware is not piracy unless the software is being sold or told by copyright holder not to distribute work, still illegal as it's not freeware but not piracy, and morals are subjective unlike laws which are objective. That being said your not going to go to jail or pay any fine for downloading abandonware but you can be subject to fine/jail if you pirate software.

[scrdest]

There is also what I'll dub trapware - old old games that are still being sold by the original company, most notably Wolfenstein 3D.

[a1s]

There is also what I'll dub trapware - old old games that are still being sold by the original company, most notably Wolfenstein 3D.

I'd like to know the etymology of that word (trapware). i.e. why "trap"?