Craig Beers PC Video Editor	Now Playing: Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos (PC), Final Fantasy Tactics (PS2) Thinks This Game Will Never Be Released: Team Fortress 2: Brotherhood in Arms (PC)

Don't Leave Old Games to the Orphanage

One of the perpetual discussions you'll find in the PC forum is about piracy. Recently, the topic shifted to abandonware. It's such a great topic for debate. Technically, it's a black-and-white issue, but should it be? We have a feature that discusses abandonware here. There is plenty of commentary by game developers, publishers, and players in this article. I'd like to throw in my own opinions and feelings about the subject as well.

You can sometimes find old games on eBay.

All of these properties place abandonware in a unique position. Game publishers will state that it's a black-and-white issue. Downloading old games is illegal because it's copyrighted material. And hey, it's true. I completely understand their position because if they want to redistribute the older game in the future (like Nintendo did with Metroid and Zelda), then they won't be as successful if that game is already available in the public domain.

Or sometimes not.

Game companies aren't proactively doing anything to solve this problem. Once again, I totally understand their position on why they don't continue to manufacture older games. The low demand simply doesn't warrant the expenditures. But the fact that some of the companies actively pursue sites that host old games is disappointing. While I find their dedication to protecting copyrights commendable, the fact that they don't do anything to solve the problem at hand is inexcusable.

There are a few things that game publishers could do to help with the problem. First, they could simply host the older games on their own servers with a pay-per-download model. Older games are much smaller in size than their modern-day counterparts. For example, DragonStrike is 800K in size. It certainly won't break the company's back to have it on an FTP somewhere. Most companies already have the ability to purchase games off their site directly, so it shouldn't be too hard to build something for older titles. Second, they could have people ask them directly if they can get the older game. This is especially viable if the company is merely worried about their copyright being infringed. For example, I could just send an e-mail to some support guy over at id and ask if I can download Commander Keen and play it. Remember that one excuse publishers use is to claim that demand doesn't warrant reissues. Well, if demand is truly that low, then both of the above solutions shouldn't be too much of a drain on the company's resources. In return, they'd get loyalty from a gaming consumer. I know people have commended Sierra on releasing Betrayal at Krondor for free when Betrayal in Antara was released. That's something I certainly remember, and it's a positive thought about the company. That kind of easy publicity has got to be worth something.

As a gamer, you can't really do anything if you're looking for an old copy of the game besides scour sites like eBay. But if you already own a copy of the old game and can't run it, then there are a few things you can do within legal boundaries. First, you can find or build an old computer. My family still has our old 486 computer in a closet. Or you could dig up an old 5.25-inch drive and install it into your computer. Or it would cost you about $50 to buy an entire ancient system. Second, people could get together to do something like the Exult project for Ultima VII. Anyone who remembers that game knows about its horrible memory manager that made it so hard to run in DOS and impossible in Windows. The Exult team made a program that runs the engine on Windows systems. The cool thing about it is that it requires the base game, so there shouldn't be any real legal grounds against it. I'm so appreciative of their effort because I have used it many times.

As you can see, both sides of the equation can't just sit idle on the matter. It's not just a black-and-white issue until people actively take part in doing something about it. And people should--games are a treasure trove of history and ideas. If we lose that knowledge because of a game company's stubbornness, that will be a sad day. And consumers shouldn't let old games just die. Some of it may cost you money, but at least you are doing the right thing.