You can’t buy Zak McKraken anywhere anymore, except maybe eBay, and it isn’t supported by Lucasarts in anyway because it’s so old and outdated. An example of this might be an old game like Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders, one of Lucasarts' first graphical adventures. While abandonware is generally just taken to mean an old game that can be downloaded for free, it actually isn’t that simple – there are a few different types of abandonware games.įirstly, a game can be labelled as abandonware if it’s so old that a company no longer supports or sells the game in anyway but the license-holder is still viable. Basically, the legality of abandonware varies.To first get to grips with abandonware and understand the ethics of this whole miasmic mess it’s important to realise what qualifies a game as abandonware. Except there are some cases when it definitely is legal, or is certainly illegal. Is Abandonware Legal?Technically, no, abandonware is not legal. We’re not that well rewarded though, so we thought a better idea would be to once and for all sum up the ethics of abandonware games, as well as point out some great sites and must-have games.
If we got a pound for everytime someone asked us if abandonware was legal or not then we’d probably have made enough to buy some of the games we’ve downloaded. Naturally then, there’s a lot of confusion on the issue of abandonware. Just because a game is old doesn't mean it is automatically abandonware
There are even some egregiously greedy companies that will happily hunt you down and sue you for downloading their old games.
#Old abandonware games Pc
Unfortunately though, abandonware is a bit of a thorny issue in PC gaming circles and, while some developers are happy to give away the licenses on their back catalogues and let players enjoy them for free, others aren’t so kind-hearted. These games have been abandoned, hence the name. Much of this is down to the merit of abandonware – the online distribution of games that are no longer available for sale or are owned by companies that have gone out of business. That’s true for console gamers too of course and we know loads of people who’ve hung on to their original GameBoys and Mega Drives, but being primarily PC gamers we’re in the unique position of being able to get a lot of our favourite old gamers easily and for free. We know that, while Crysis is all very pretty and fun, there’s a lot of nostalgic joy to be had by going back to some of the old Infocom titles. Abandonware: Ethics and EssentialsAs PC gamers, we tend to be as much about the good games of old as the up and coming new releases.
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