Don't games become free after a time period?

Dolby

Dolby

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I heard somewhere that games and certain software become free after a time. Is this true?

I'm looking at downloading Police Quest 1 and I can't get it anywhere - despite it being 21 years old :/
 
I own a copy of PQ 1 ... drop me an email addy and I will send you a copy of the game.
 
Games are free if:
1) The developer decides so
2) Someone strikes a deal with the developer
3) Copyright & Intellectual rights run out, which would be somewhere round about the year 2057.
 
Google : the home of the underdogs, www.bhlegend.com , abandonware or any such and you can find almost any old game I have tons at one stage I was attempting to make www.theoldagehome.com but i got over zealous writing revue's and such and just burnt myself out and got bored.

J
 
Farcry & Rayman Raving Rabbits are officialy free but only to EU & US residents :(
 
Abandonware is a very touchy issue. Alot of people seems to think that if the developer stops selling the actual game it becomes abandoned and free to download/copy. The fact is that until the developer actually announces that it is free, its still bound by copyright.

Edit: I have recently seen a collection box for sale with all of the old sierra games for sale. Including PQ, SQ and LL at Incredible Connection for a cheap price.
 
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Thanks tibs - I managed to download it off the site I mentioned (legally or illegally?).

Have you had issues playing it in XP though? I use that DOSbox emulator which seems to play in a Windows box only :/
 
None of the LucasArts games are free / abandonware. Neither are the Sierra ones.
That's because both companies continue to make money on them.
Because they are good
And also means they can be got illegally quiet easy due to their popularity

Problem is when you want an old game that is not popular / never was popular and is not for sale. The game just does not exist then for download. Then you go to ebay.
 
as said above, look for the home of the underdogs, or do a search for abandonwarez - or grab MAME - if you're into arcade gaming..
There's literally hundreds, if not thousands of games out there, which aren't being sold anymore, and although technically 'illegal' - I seriously doubt that anyone is going to bother to come after you for old gamez.

I collect up old adventure games (there was a thread a while back, where I listed some of the titles I had) - but whatever you're into, you can find the older gamez around..
often they're better games than the modern titles, as the game market 'back then' wasn't geared so thoroughly towards ADD 13 year olds, like it is now.

As for hunting down obscure titles - just about everything that I've hunted for, I've managed to find - either via abandonwarez sites, or via torrents.

Here's a simple tip - do a search on google, but just list the game title+ the word 'torrent' - (eg 'Ascendancy torrent') you'd be amazed at what old obscure classic titles you can find, which you might have thought no one else would be into.
 
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