Shagger Posted June 12, 2021 Share Posted June 12, 2021 (edited) I just though I'd take a moment to introduce the VGR community to this fantastic website Abandonware Games. They host ROMs for a large variety of older PC, Console and even Arcade games that are free to download and play. As the name suggests, they only host games that are no longer sold or supported by thier respective publishers, making what they do 100% legal. And these are quality games from big name publishers/developers Like EA, Konami, Capcom and so on. I've picked up Aladdin, Red Alert 2 and Sim City 3000 from Abandonware already, and they do work. Obviously, some of these titles will need emulators to work on modern systems, so be mindful of that before you download any of these ROMs, especially the console games. For example, I used RetroArch with it's inbuilt DosBoxPure plugin to get Aladdin to play. Free free to share what games you have picked up or want to pick up on Abandonware, and most importantly, how you got these games to work on your system to help us all out. Happy retro Indulgences everyone! Edited June 12, 2021 by Shagger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrik Posted June 12, 2021 Share Posted June 12, 2021 Man, i never thought i'd find some games there like "Scarface the world is yours" or "Battlefield 1942", thanks a lot! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Blackangel Posted June 12, 2021 Share Posted June 12, 2021 (edited) It sucks that you have to go by year, but that does help kinda narrow it down, I guess. It will also make it possible for me to upload videos on the classic games I'm wanting to do to my YouTube channel. I wasn't able to figure out how to do it without pointing a video camera at my TV, but I knew there was a better way. However since I hate emulation, I wanted to just use the actual system. I just didn't know how to go about it. Still don't without using the emulators. I know you can't ask for everything, but they are missing key games that I wanted to do. My only real complaint is that there is no actual mention of Nintendo, which would make it a lot easier to search for certain games. Edited June 12, 2021 by The Blackangel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazycrab Posted June 12, 2021 Share Posted June 12, 2021 1 hour ago, The Blackangel said: My only real complaint is that there is no actual mention of Nintendo, which would make it a lot easier to search for certain games. I don't believe they host any Nintendo games on there. Nintendo are really don't like people sharing ROM's of their games, in fact the owner of a ROM sharing website just got sued by Nintendo for over $2 million and lost. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m76 Posted June 12, 2021 Share Posted June 12, 2021 Legally speaking a game no longer being supported / sold does not make it legal shareware. Oh, I absolutely think they should be, but unfortunately that is not the reality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazycrab Posted June 12, 2021 Share Posted June 12, 2021 1 hour ago, m76 said: Legally speaking a game no longer being supported / sold does not make it legal shareware. Oh, I absolutely think they should be, but unfortunately that is not the reality. Technically your correct, but if the publisher is not making any revenue from the product then it's not worth their time or money to issue a DMCA takedown against the website so they generally don't bother. Even this is assuming the copyright holder is still in business which many of them aren't in the case of these old games. I mentioned Nintendo earlier but they sell their older games on the new systems as well as throwback consoles like the NES and SNES classic. So they are far less tolerant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shagger Posted June 12, 2021 Author Share Posted June 12, 2021 1 hour ago, m76 said: Legally speaking a game no longer being supported / sold does not make it legal shareware. Oh, I absolutely think they should be, but unfortunately that is not the reality. True, but the worst case scenario here is a publisher can send a takedown request, abandonware games takes the game in question down, that's the end of the matter. What I meant is that the website is law abiding and perfectly safe and legal for people to use. Abandonware only host games that are not supported, so that's why the companies don't bother and, honestly, unless the copyright holders do still sell the game, legal action against these kind of sites is less likely to hold up in court. If companies as insatiably greedy as EA and as insanely petty as Konami don't come after abandonware, that means the have some understanding of what is and what isn't OK. Obviously, Nintendo take the pettiness well beyond even what Konami could imagine, but we all know what they're like and will be a footnoted as the extreme in this kind of discussion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
killamch89 Posted June 13, 2021 Share Posted June 13, 2021 I'll definitely be adding this one to my list as it does have quite an extensive list of games. I notice that there aren't any Nintendo games though...I'm kidding, I don't want be sued 2.1m like that guy from Rom universe either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m76 Posted June 13, 2021 Share Posted June 13, 2021 12 hours ago, Crazycrab said: So they are far less tolerant. That's putting it mildly. I'd call nintendo greedy, selfish, evil, out of touch, and then some. And that is the reason I pride myself on never having owned or even played anything from them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heatman Posted July 20, 2021 Share Posted July 20, 2021 On 6/12/2021 at 12:27 PM, Patrik said: Man, i never thought i'd find some games there like "Scarface the world is yours" or "Battlefield 1942", thanks a lot! Yeah, it's a very good one. I know it because I also got it as well and been enjoying it ever since. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
