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Download Abandonware: Free Old School Computer Games
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They don’t make games like they used to huh? Well, back when I was a kid I remember going over a friend’s house to play Star Control 1. The game was really really simple, you controlled a ship and tried to blow up the other ship. There were scenario games too where you explored the galaxy (represented by white periods on the screen!) and battled based on a scenario. That game was Star Control 1 and I loved it. When I finally got a computer, I discovered that Star Control had a second and a third and I devoured those games too. Between Star Control and practically every Sierra game (from Kings Quest to Quest for Glory), I had a ball playing those old school games. Well, now you can download all those games because they’re considered Abandonware.
What’s Abandonware? According to Wikipedia, “Abandonware is computer software which is no longer being sold or supported by its copyright holder. Sometimes, it is used as a blanket category for any software over a certain age, usually five years.” Abandonware is the keyword you need to search with if you want to find copies of all those old school games that aren’t sold in stores anymore. Is abandonware legal? Technically probably not, but since you can’t buy it you have no choice but to download it.
If you want a good Abandonware site (you won’t have to register, donate, be asked to wait because you didn’t donate, or any other of the red tape-esq hoopla other download sites make you sit through), visit Abandonia or XTC Abandonware. I downloaded all the Star Controls, Masters of Orion, Quest for Glory 1,2, 3, a whole slew of other Sierra games and a whole bunch of other old favorites. Enjoy your weekend!
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Thanks for the site. There are some classics amongst the list.
Interesting – first time for me to hear about this term, but not surprising since I don’t play games anymore…but may have to try some of the old ones I did enjoy in my younger days.
Sigh… Star Control. Good stuff.
The last game I ever played was the first Quake. Played it, got nauseous from all the up and down movement, never played another computer game again. Weird, now that I think of it.
Why is my site name striked through?
Latis – I guess at the time when I checked your site might have been down, I probably striked it through because I thought you should it down.
I can’t seem to install MOO properly…
Sorry Jon, I’m afraid I can’t help you on that one.
Hey, thanks for the sites. I got Quest for Glory 1, both 1989 and 1992 versions, however they dont seem to work as it comes up with an error when i try to run it, saying “system does not support full screen mode, choose close to terminate” and i cant go further. any ideas what problem is?
You might need a DOS emulator to run those games, try DOS Box:
http://www.dosbox.com/
I just wish that the copyright laws mandated the escrowing of source code and it’s publication when the software is no longer supported (Windows 98 in the public Domain, anybody?
)