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Plus, trees get knocked over quite often; hurricanes, theunderstorms, gales, snow, etc.

Are "theunderstorms" linked to theunderdogs in any way? ;)

Sure brings back memories. I've never seen the ads before but the thrill of borrowing a cartridge and running back home from school to check it out was simply amazing.

The underdogs web site lists a lot of "classic" PC games which bring back similar memories.

This is completely contradictory to what the UDRP has done for Hong Kong-based company "Ultimate Search, Inc."

Case 1: Poetry site.
Case 2: PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Case 3: WBW
Case 4: Home of the Underdogs.

And you'd better believe there are lots more cases in which these cybersquatters have taken over sites without retribution.

ZZT!

Yeah, so I was in elementary school when it was made and I just found out about it. But it's fun!

• For old dos games, you might need Bochs
• Abandonware: Classic Trash
• ,
• theunderdogs.org, abandonware.universal.av7.net,
• arcade emulation: mame.net, mame.dk, mamefans.metropoliglobal.com
• To code new games that run on DOS/Win32/*nx/BeOS, use allegro.

• MPAA
• RIAA
• NAB
• BSA
• IDSA - stoopid anal idsa protecting 15 yr old dos games LOL!!

Reminds me of Daggerfall.

Command HQ was preceeded by Modem Wars in 1988, also by Ozark Softscape, that was an overhead view real-time head-to-head (modem or serial cable) strategy game that felt an awful lot like WarCraft does now. There may have been little on the building side, but this was *the* head to head game to spawn them all.
The expertise of Modem Wars was used to create Command HQ, which Microprose collaborated on. The eventual result was the 1992 Global Conquest, which was the first four-player network game released by a major publisher"

So say thank you to Dani Bunten for them all, that's where the interface really started :)

The true RTS pioneer was Dan Bunten. I was absoultly astounded after reading the article on gamespot that Dan Bunten's games Modem Wars (1986), Command HQ (1988), and Global Conquest (1990) were not even mentioned. Dan Bunten was awarded a lifetime achievement award by the Internation Game Developers Association in 1998.

Tragically Dan Bunten abandoned the field and changed his pronoun to her (and his name from Dan to Danielle) in 1991. Dani Bunten passed away in 1998 of metastatic lung cancer at the young age of 49.

A good history of Dani Bunten's accomplishments is available from The Underdogs. Also here in Google cache

The best RTS I remember I have played is Super Dune 2 <http://www.theunderdogs.org/game.php?name=Supe r+Dune+2>. It has everything I wanted, including diffuculty, it is somewhat of a challenge where as Dune 2 was children's play.

Cool game - Any connection between you and the people who made Alpha Waves back in 1990?

How do u get [bochs] to emulate ps2???

First of all, it won't work with PS2 titles released in 2000 or later because those titles are designed for a different platform: Sony PlayStation 2. Bochs emulates IBM Personal System 2; many PS/2 titles released before 1994 work in Bochs. However, there are still thousands of titles on abandonware sites such as this that run on IBM PS/2.

Once you know you have an IBM title and not a Sony title, just read the Bochs manual to learn how to install DR DOS or FreeDOS and then read the game's manual to learn how to install it to Bochs's virtual drive.

> I hope you all have the ability to spend the holidays with the ones who mean the most to you:
> even if those are friends like Solid Snake or Rikku

Hmm. Does a bowl of Jell-O, a copy of *Divi Dead*, and a DVD of *Virtual Porn Sex with Asia* count? Hehe.

No, no sulking alone with masturbatory foods and computer games today. :-) I'm about to leave to get together with the family, as most of us are, but I thought I'd give a big "Merry Non-Denominational Winter Vacation" to the whole /. community first.

That said, who here saw the Christmas episode of *Futurama* on Sunday, the one which the execs at Fox refused to air last year? Pretty hilarious. Pity what dicks the executives were in not showing it in the first place. :-(

Merry Christmas!

It's a very nice game, with sleek graphics though there is nothing more than a few pictures at best.
the game isn't realistic at all (not opengl style cracking like the movie 'hackers' , but not real either)

Though the game gets pretty repetitive, it does have an external plot, and is very nice.
For a nice review check out the home of the underdogs' review
Another game that is being exclusivly published over the net is pontifex, better known as bridge builder 2, which is an awesome and very addictive game.

It's a very nice game, with sleek graphics though there is nothing more than a few pictures at best.
the game isn't realistic at all (not opengl style cracking like the movie 'hackers' , but not real either)

Though the game gets pretty repetitive, it does have an external plot, and is very nice.
For a nice review check out the home of the underdogs' review
Another game that is being exclusivly published over the net is pontifex, better known as bridge builder 2, which is an awesome and very addictive game.

Avalon hill was dying, and hasbro bought them out. As is usual with hasbro, they can't decide whether to kill them off, or keep them around. For a while they just let them sell back stock, but lately I have been seeing more and more of their old games on the market. The cry in shame is that Avalon Hill can sell the expansion to Civilization (Advanced Civilization) but not the original board game. Presumably, this is because of a dispute with Sid Meyer, or Activision, or whoever held the rights to the civilization computer game at the time.

BTW, at The Underdogs you can still get the Advanced Civilization computer game, there are some bugs, but also patches to fix most of them. Not to far from the board game.

Oh and of course, if you haven't played it, go to home of the underdogs and pick up Wing Commander: Privateer, which is probably the best freelancing game ever made. Truly a delight.

Rather, This one

I think that you may enjoy reading the scratchware manifesto, which urges a return to the gameplay we loved in the older games...

> At 04:00 PM 9/28/01 -0400, William Adams wrote:
> A long while ago, Chex did a Doom clone where the weapon was a teleporter or some such and one was rounding up stray serial bits (I got the CD with a box of cereal my wife brought home, but've ever played it
> (moderating this thread, so couldn't post)
> William

Thanks!
A quick trip to Google reveals this: http://www.theunderdogs.org/game.php?name=Chex+Que st
I'm downloading it right now.

Personally I am in love with lode runner. I have never played lode runner 3d for the n64, but I have a copy of the mad monks revenge, which I originally played under windows 95. I played and beat it under win95, and twice under win98 (I ran 98 for a long time, and that OS made it through two or three of my main machines). ANYTHING by lucasarts is fair game (day of the tentacle and indiana jones and the fate of atlantis are two that I own and have played frequently). The original warcraft and then warcraft two got more play from me than starcraft plus every FPS I ever played. I just reinstalled warcraft II on my machine yesterday, actually.

Check out some of these truly excellent abandonware sites for some good games:

The Underdogs

BumbleB

The Abandonware Ring

I can't load the pages up, but I'm willing to bet they never included Rocket Jockey.

This game is just amazing... it's one of the few where it's actually fun to try for a high score after you've finished it.

More people need to play this. ('Cause I *need* a sequal... ;)

Check it out: http://www.theunderdogs.org/game.php?name=Rocket+J ockey , tho it's not quite the same without the soundtrack. :)

This will be lost in the 600+ message shuffle, but Cosmology of Kyoto is an awesome "game" that is really more of an experience. Not challenging, but pretty. Check the underdogs for it.

although I actually prefer his "horror" novels (the supernatural Minnesota books) over his science fiction novels. His sci-fi always seemed a little drab to me, but when his books are ground in a contemporary setting, everything seems much more live and extraordinary.

This is a link to a very comprehensive Disch site, and here is one to Amnesia, an Infocom-style text adventure that he wrote back in the mid-'80s (and cites in Dreams).

- - - - -

The The game can be located at The Home of the Underdogs . I'm also aware of an Apple ][ version, but I couldn't say where to find it.

The Underdogs provides downloads and reviews of the best underrated games for PCs and other platforms. Particularly relevant is their Hall of Belated Fame.

The Underdogs provides downloads and reviews of the best underrated games for PCs and other platforms. Particularly relevant is their Hall of Belated Fame.

Oh no oh no oh no.

Thanks for the link to the Underdogs. I can't believe I never found it before. Also, thanks for causing me to lose my free time for the next three years or so.

There is repository of Infocom walkthroughs at the Infocom Walkthrough Archive.
I used to maintain it before I went off to college, but I handed it down quite a few years ago.
Additionally, the Underdogs have a company profile posted at the Infocom Profile.

.... One world, one web, one program - Bill Gates

underdogs
Abandonware Oasis (has a search engine) The Abandonkeep Gaming Depot
DOS Graveyard Adult Games - Plenty of jerkables here

Isn't it OK to copy games that are no longer distributed in the stores or commercially exploited?

No, the current availability of a game in stores is irrelevant to its copyright status. Unlike trademarks, copyrights are not considered abandoned if they are no longer enforced. Copyrights do not enter the public domain just because they are no longer commercially exploited or widely available. Therefore, the copyrights of games are valid even if the games are not found on store shelves, and copying or distributing those games is a copyright infringement. (From http://www.idsa.com/piracy.html)
What exactly are the IDSA doing wrong here? People should write to the member companies and ask them to change their corporate policies, not flame the ISDA. The companies signed up because they didn't want their IP put on the web for download.. you're allowed to complain to them but you can't just ignore them because you don't like what they have to say. The ISDA are doing what they're paid to do. They hit high profile sites because it is easy, low risk (they clearly have legal right whatever the moral viewpoint) and sends a message. If they let these high profile sites go it whould imply acceptace of copyright devalument after, say, 6 years or so. The members don't want that.

I know people here get very worked up about GPL violations, well these guys appear to be engaged in wholesale licence violation. Its not as if these companies aren't trading anymore or that these games have no value. Companies like Namco still make good money from 20yr old games being sold today. Maybe EA want to put Gunship in thier next flight sim as a secret sub-game in the air traffic control system computer (Day of the tenticle anyone?). These guys were giving Gunship away, which devalues such a promotion.

Am I missing something or is this whole "Abandonware" tag being abused. Who says these games are Abandoned? Doesn't that happen when the Publisher/whoever formally Abandons it, or changes the licence or the copyright expires? Maybe if they go bankrupt (although such rights usually find a buyer even then). There are examples of companies releasing old IP because they don't need it, think its good PR, had a fit of humanity etc.. but this site doesn't look like a repository of that to me.

I don't see the IDSA overstepping any marks here. This one of the roles they exist to carry out. Complaining to the members makes sense. If you alert them to a market for old games them may make them a $1 dload...

I have a hard time taking a self-proclaimed "troll" seriously, but....

Just because something *can* be done, doesn't mean it's right

It doesn't mean it's "wrong" (by whose definition? The lawmakers who were paid off by Big Money?), either. Learn some logic before you try arguing.

It'll just encourage companies to crack down on even the semi-legit sites like The Underdogs

There is no such thing as "semi-legit". The Home of the Underdogs is "illegal". Does that make it wrong? I think not. If a game is no longer sold, how are you hurting the company by downloading it? If for example, you downloaded Ultima 7 (my previous example), you might like enough to buy Origin's current offerings: Ultima 9 or Ultima Online. Your argument sounds suspiciously like the RIAA whining about Napster users not buying CDs when the exact opposite is true.

Abandonware helps users and companies! It's not a zero-sum game.
-- Floyd

• The Home of the Underdogs - The best archive of x86 games that didn't get the fame they deserved.
• Some amazing Atari 800 emulators, and a ton of games for them, and a FAQ

and suffered from a lack of marketing check out http://www.theunderdogs.org

Vermifax

The Home of the Underdogs

It's a killer site. Though it doesn't have any ROMs of old arcade games (making this post slightly off-topic), it has all the lost and forgotten classics. Check it out.

An amazing abandonware site