New games become legal to download!

Message

Music Head · #1 Post by **Music Head** » Wed Jan 03, 2007 2:04 am

According to, i'm pretty sure the most popular abandonware site on the net the following games are now classified as abandonware and free to download due to the new year!

Just as many of you are aware of, we here on (removed name) follows strict rules regarding what is and what is not considered abandonware. For games protected by ESA, age is an important factor, and for the first time we are delighted to share with you a list of games that are now considered to fall outside ESA's active protection period.

This will be a New Year's tradition from now on, and we hope that you are just as thrilled about this as we are. All in all (removed name) has, once again, become the proud hoster of 25 "new" games.

The following games are now considered abandonware:
4-D Boxing (aka 4D Sports Boxing)
7 Colors
Advantage Tennis
Adventures of Willy Beamish, The
Albion
Alone in the Dark
Altered Beast
Angel Devoid: Face of the Enemy
Angst: Rahz's Revenge
Are We There Yet?
Azrael's Tear
Big Red Racing
Castle of Dr. Brain
Castlevania
Celtic Legends
Chuck Yeager's Air Combat
Commander Keen 6: Aliens Ate My Baby Sitter!
Crusader: No Regret
Discworld II: Mortality Bytes!
EcoQuest: The Search for Cetus
EF2000
EF2000 Special Edition
First Samurai, The
Gobliiins
Great Courts 2
Heart of China
Hovertank
Hoyle Official Book of Games: Volume 3
Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure
Immortal, The
Imperium Romanum
J.R.R. Tolkien's Riders of Rohan
John Madden Football II
Jones in the Fast Lane (aka Keeping Up With Jones)
(Not the AB game)
Killing Cloud, The
Kingdom 2: Shadoan
Kingdom O' Magic
Laura Bow in: The Dagger of Amon Ra
Loom
M.A.X.: Mechanized Assault and Exploration
Magic Candle II: The Four and Forty, The
Masterblazer
Mega lo Mania
MegaRace 2
Mixed Up Fairy Tales
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
Normality
Nova 9: Return of Gir Draxon
P-38 Lightning Tour Of Duty
P-80 Shooting Star Tour Of Duty
Perfect General, The
Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and The Flame
Privateer 2: The Darkening
Quest for Glory II: Trial By Fire
Rescue Rover
Rescue Rover 2 (aka Dognapped!)
Rocketeer, The
Sand Warriors
Sargon 5: World Class Chess
Secret of Monkey Island, The
Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe
Settlers II: Veni, Vidi, Vici, The
(Not the AB game)
Shattered Steel
Shelia Rae the Brave
Simpsons Arcade Game, The
Simpsons: Bart's House of Weirdness, The
Spacewrecked: 14 Billion Light Years From Earth
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game
UEFA Euro 96 England
Unnecessary Roughness '96
Unreal (1991)
Virtual Snooker
Wargame Construction Set III: Age of Rifles 1846-1905
World Championship Soccer (aka World Cup Italia 90)

As always, please note that the status of the above games can change later.
Now, go out there, and enjoy the new year and all it brings!

I removed the site's name because I wasn't sure if I was allowed to post it.

haradan · #2 Post by **haradan** » Wed Jan 03, 2007 7:20 pm

Well, I don't know much about laws and copyrights issues, but I seriously doubt that all these games are now "abandonware". Do you think Vivendi will let go off titles like QFG2, Castle of Dr. Brain, Laura Bow, etc? I think they'd rather bundle all of them into some "collection" and re-release it before losing the copyright. Just my opinion, though.

MusicallyInspired · #3 Post by **MusicallyInspired** » Wed Jan 03, 2007 7:34 pm

Well if they care so much then they should. If not it's their own fault. My own personal opinion.

Sinister · #4 Post by **Sinister** » Wed Jan 03, 2007 8:10 pm

Well the veracity of that claim (and that list has to be examined).

The truth is that there have been changes in the recognition of what is abandonware, hence a lot of old games previously protected may now fall under that category.

There was an article talking about this subject and the particular ruling of the courts regarding this matter, but i cant for the life of me remember the link.

The basis of the new arguement was that games no longer for sale, not receiving support of any kind from its creator (company) that could only be run through means of emulation would fall under the category of abandonware.

AsianMusicGuy · #5 Post by **AsianMusicGuy** » Wed Jan 03, 2007 11:48 pm

the games listed ESA contracts ran out at the turn of the year
for the record.

Vroomfondel · #6 Post by **Vroomfondel** » Sun Jan 07, 2007 9:21 pm

If you read furthur into the post, you'll begin to understand how it all works. From what I understand, the QFG games listed and LB are good until Vivendi does something with them, such as release a collection package, in which case they're no longer abandonware.

-Vroom