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Grand Theft Auto 2 Released for Free

Posted by Zonk on from the hos-hos-hos dept.

Darragh_IRL writes "In true Christmas spirit, Rockstar Games has released the PC version of GTA2 for free on their website." From the page: "GTA2 expanded on the top-down, open-ended crime world gameplay formula with a host of new features including the advent of multiple rival gangs - seven, to be exact, including the Yakuza, Scientists, Looneys, Rednecks, Zaibatsu, the Russian Mob and Hare Krishnas. Earn your respect with each gang. Reap the benefits with all manner of shady work-for-hire gigs contracted your way. And climb your way to the top of the criminal pile."

53 comments

  1. Considered abandonware? by darkani · · Score: 1, Interesting

    What exactly are the rules for downloading abandonware?

    1. Re:Considered abandonware? by thryllkill · · Score: 1

      Well, since this is released by the company that made it I am pretty sure the rule is to download it at your will, as soon as their server cools down.

      Now there might be different rules for abandonware not released into the open by the owner.

      --

      Note to self: No more arguing with the faithful.

    2. Re:Considered abandonware? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The rule is: unless you rightfully paid for your copy, don't.

    3. Re:Considered abandonware? by isorox · · Score: 1

      In many countries, including the UK, you are arguably you are allowed to download it. You are not, however, allowed to upload it. Same as any other copyrighted work.

      "Abandonware" is something made up by pirates (ooh-arr) to justify their actions.

    4. Re:Considered abandonware? by milkman_matt · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "Abandonware" is something made up by pirates (ooh-arr) to justify their actions.

      However, it is a legit 'thing' though, in my mind. I purchase all of my games, I like to support people for their services. However, recently, I think in a /. story, I stumbled upon Sarien and was re-hooked on all of the old Sierra games. Sierra isn't going to re-release things like LSL1 (they tried with LSL for the consoles, but that game can't compare.) and all of the quest games. Especially Hero's Quest 1 (which I STILL can't find.) Anyhow, upon stumbling upon this program I've now been able to play all of the old Sierra games that got me into computer gaming to begin with. I would GLADLY buy copies of these games if they were still for sale. God knows they'd be 5 or 10 bucks a pop. But they're not for sale anymore, it wouldn't be worth it for Sierra to publish even 1 more copy, the costs just wouldn't add up. However, if they would offer downloads on their website for $2 or $3, I would gladly purchase a copy of each. Unfortunately, they don't, so I had to search for copies elsewhere.

      PS: I did have copies of each of these games, but that was 10+ years ago, I have no idea where they are now or whether or not they'd still be any good.

    5. Re:Considered abandonware? by Violet+Null · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Legally, "abandonware" doesn't exist. If the copyright holder doesn't release it, it's not legal for you to swap the stuff around. Doesn't matter if it's not in print anymore. Doesn't matter if the copyright holder has no plans to ever get another red cent from it again. If the copyholder doesn't say you can do it, then you can't.

      Now, morally, a lot of people feel that trading abandonware is (less wrong|more legitimate), since it is, indeed, not stealing profits from anyone. But there's still no legal backing.

    6. Re:Considered abandonware? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Abandonware doesn't legally exist. The closest thing to it is to just wait until the games become part of the Public Domain, but this usually takes more than one human lifetime for some reason...

    7. Re:Considered abandonware? by Tarison · · Score: 1

      Try looking for it under the name "Quest for Glory". They had to change the name due to legal issues related to the "Hero Quest" board game. The other good thing about Sarien, is that there's a lot of fan-made games that are compatible with the same interpreter. There's a bunch of them at The Ultimate AGI & SCI Website. FYI :)

    8. Re:Considered abandonware? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Here is
      Grand
      Theft
      Auto
      2
      v1.03
      patch
      cracked-O RiGiN.exe

      magnet:?xt=urn:sha1:D6YDZYHXJ6DD5MY36ODGTL6AL5UY VP OP&dn=Grand.Theft Auto.2.v1.03.patch.cracked-ORiGiN.exe

      sig2dat://|File:Grand.Theft.Auto.2.v1.03.patch.c ra cked-ORiGiN.exe|Length:174702592%20Bytes,%20170608 KB|UUHash:=Da7ocJrXHpD0nlYjGctkyvTAzog=|

      ed2k://|file|Grand.Theft Auto.2.v1.03.patch.cracked-ORiGiN.exe|174702592|d1 1a16f56e8d6c74edb8b3ab10529d14|

    9. Re:Considered abandonware? by milkman_matt · · Score: 1

      Try looking for it under the name "Quest for Glory". They had to change the name due to legal issues related to the "Hero Quest" board game. The other good thing about Sarien, is that there's a lot of fan-made games that are compatible with the same interpreter. There's a bunch of them at The Ultimate AGI & SCI Website. FYI :)

      Thanks for the response, and yeah I had looked for it under both names, mostly under "Hero's Quest" though. I really wanted the one before they had to change the name, back when it was blocky and text based ;). The best results I found were for "Hero's Quest So you want to be a hero" which got me close, but there was 1 site that said they had it, I just didn't trust the hoops they wanted one to jump through for membership. But damn I did love that game. hehe.

      I'll have to check out the fan-made games though, thanks for the link.

    10. Re:Considered abandonware? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Unfortunately as if this writing (27 December) the server still hasn't cooled down - This is getting annoying.

  2. Bittorrent by keeleysam · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Hopefully they were smart enought to use bittorrent, because then they MIGHT avoind MAJOR slashdotting, because we all know /.+500MB file=DISASTER!

    --
    Nothing for you to see here, Please move along.
    1. Re:Bittorrent by supersuckers · · Score: 5, Insightful
      PLEASE NOTE that while this game may be downloaded for free by all who register by filling out the form on this page, it is NOT freeware and may not be mirrored or duplicated by any third parties without express written consent from Rockstar Games.
      So I'd say.. no chance of a torrent coming from them.
    2. Re:Bittorrent by keeleysam · · Score: 1

      AND there is no chance of anybody mirroring it for them... seems they are asking for a /.'ing

      --
      Nothing for you to see here, Please move along.
    3. Re:Bittorrent by Smidge204 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I fail to see how that clause prevents BitTorrenting the file, if they control the .torrent file and the tracker.

      Not that clauses like that ever actually stopped anyone before, obviously...
      =Smidge=

    4. Re:Bittorrent by AvitarX · · Score: 1

      I'm sure as hell not letting anyone download something from me if I said I expressly wouldn't mirror it.

      --
      Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
    5. Re:Bittorrent by Smidge204 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      But you are not a mirror. At best you are acting as a cache, since you would still use their tracker server to gain access to the material and you would still have to go to them to get the .torrent file in the first place. It's stil a single point of download that they can control.

      I'm sure they wouldn't mind shedding the bandwidth bill off on others if they didn't have to sacrifice the ability to remove access to the file at any time.
      =Smidge=

    6. Re:Bittorrent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Slashdot has nothing to do with this. The servers been hammered since well before slash linked this story.

      Hell, almost every other site posted this well before \.

    7. Re:Bittorrent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Jeez, it's still /.'ed two days later. Un-fucking-believable. I say throw up a torrent and be done with it already.

  3. hey by MoistVomit · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Considering the price, I think this will be the gift I give my friends for the holidays.

  4. Problems.. by WhatAmIDoingHere · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Can anybody connect to this? I'm having problems when I click submit.

    --
    Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
  5. This is an 'updated' version of GTA2 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This version should work with 'modern' hardware & OSes

  6. /.'ed already? by deemaunik · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Yep. Dead links, dead forms, dead everything. Successfully slashdotted. Damn!

    1. Re:/.'ed already? by srlxprmntln · · Score: 1

      Nooooo....Hrm...they have GTA 1, do they have GTA: London also?

    2. Re:/.'ed already? by BrynM · · Score: 0
      According to firefox:

      "The operation timed out while trying to reach THE ONE SHINY SPOT IN YOUR WHOLE DAMN DAY!!!!!!"

      Sorry, had to vent. That feels better now. I'll try again in a few days.

      --
      US Democracy:The best person for the job (among These pre-selected choices...)
  7. Hopefully better than the freebie GTA1 release by damyata · · Score: 1

    I don't think I was alone in finding that the free release of GTA 1 was unplayable thanks to the frame limiter being a wee bit broken. With the limiter on it stuttered a load and with it off you seemed to be on some kind of stimulant (or depressant depending on whether you think you are the character or observing him. Pretty tall order to think you are the character in GTA 1 though.)

    1. Re:Hopefully better than the freebie GTA1 release by cjpez · · Score: 1

      Weird. Their free release of GTA1 worked just fine using Wine on Linux. And they say that Linux isn't a viable Gaming system. *pshaw*

      --
      Al Qaeda has ninjas!
    2. Re:Hopefully better than the freebie GTA1 release by ashground · · Score: 1

      That's interesting, since I downloaded the free release of GTA1 and have passed it around, and I've only seen it run into problems on one computer (it crashed when you exited).

    3. Re:Hopefully better than the freebie GTA1 release by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I had a different problem with the freebie GTA1 on WinXP. The second time I ran the game after installation, I could get to the menu screens, but it would crash to the desktop if you tried to actually play. I found that the PLAYER_A.DAT was being corrupted by the game itself somehow, so I wrote a batch file to replace it with the original DAT file after every session. (That means that, if I want to try to beat the game again, I have to keep the game open between sessions... at least it Alt-Tabs well!)

      Anybody else see this problem?

  8. Use it at your next LAN party by XzeroR3 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I remember back in the day playing this game with 6 people online (via ipx) and it being one of the best multiplayer experinces I've ever had (even with all the lag, the netcode was rather horrid).

    I remember getting clashing with another player who had the gang powerup. I whipped out my flamethrower and managed to keep him at bay... but another player ran us both over but his victory was short lived as I set his car on fire and he exploded shortly thereafter...

    Also, the MP maps are very small, which help add to the frenzy.

    1. Re:Use it at your next LAN party by slashrogue · · Score: 1

      I remember one map where it was basically a race to see who could get to the tank at the military supplies shop first. From there, take the tank to the military base and destroy all of the other tanks so that no one else can get one, then go out and destroy! It was fun.

  9. I knew It by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    I wake up to a friendly email from Rockstar saying I can download GTA2 for free. Little did I know the server was completely inoperable! Immediately after I went to games.slashdot.org and my suspicions were proved true!

    Now you all have the game before me! I desire to curse but I shall hold it back...grrrrrr......

    1. Re:I knew It by lazybeam · · Score: 1

      Attempting to "hack" the system, but run into these errors:

      Warning: filesize() [function.filesize]: Stat failed for /home/rockstargames/balancer.rockstargames.com/cla ssics_downloads/GTA2INSTALLER.ZIP (errno=2 - No such file or directory) in D:\HTTP\RockstarNew\classics\gta2\gta2_dl.php on line 8

      Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at D:\HTTP\RockstarNew\classics\gta2\gta2_dl.php:8) in D:\HTTP\RockstarNew\classics\gta2\gta2_dl.php on line 10

      Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at D:\HTTP\RockstarNew\classics\gta2\gta2_dl.php:8) in D:\HTTP\RockstarNew\classics\gta2\gta2_dl.php on line 11

      Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at D:\HTTP\RockstarNew\classics\gta2\gta2_dl.php:8) in D:\HTTP\RockstarNew\classics\gta2\gta2_dl.php on line 12

      Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at D:\HTTP\RockstarNew\classics\gta2\gta2_dl.php:8) in D:\HTTP\RockstarNew\classics\gta2\gta2_dl.php on line 13

      Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at D:\HTTP\RockstarNew\classics\gta2\gta2_dl.php:8) in D:\HTTP\RockstarNew\classics\gta2\gta2_dl.php on line 24

      Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at D:\HTTP\RockstarNew\classics\gta2\gta2_dl.php:8) in D:\HTTP\RockstarNew\classics\gta2\gta2_dl.php on line 25

      Warning: readfile(/home/rockstargames/balancer.rockstargame s.com/classics_downloads/GTA2INSTALLER.ZIP) [function.readfile]: failed to create stream: No such file or directory in D:\HTTP\RockstarNew\classics\gta2\gta2_dl.php on line 28

      Are people downloading it via PHP, instead of a normal file transfer?

      --
      --
      no sig for you. come back one year.
  10. For sale still.. by WhatAmIDoingHere · · Score: 1

    Best Buy still has GTA2 on the shelves for sale at the low low price of 9.99!

    --
    Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
  11. Sorry, it's not an Xmas gift. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This isn't an Xmas gift... they've had GTA2 for download for at least the last 6 months now...

  12. Gang Warfare by th3walrus · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I wish they would bring back to the GTA series the idea of choosing a gang and earning street rep from them. This is the sole thing that makes GTA2 shine above and beyond any other game in the series in my opinion.

    When they beefed up the linear storyline with GTA3, I felt that they lost something great with actually being able to choose which gang you took missions for and which gang you were out to destroy. Not everyone likes being forced by the storyline to run with the Yakuza or be on the hunt for the Jamacian gang.

    So I highly recommend playing GTA2 if you haven't before and that sounds like something you'd be into.

    1. Re:Gang Warfare by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I wish they would bring back to the GTA series the idea of choosing a gang and earning street rep from them.

      Have you played San Andreas? You get street cred for various things, you can recruit people into your gang and take over neighbourhoods with turf wars.

    2. Re:Gang Warfare by th3walrus · · Score: 1

      Yes, but you still don't get to choose your gang like you did in GTA2. You're stuck with the gang your character used to hang with (at least for as far through the game as I've gotten, which granted isn't very far).

      I liked GTA2 because each city had 5 or so gangs and from the start you got to pick any one of those 5 to belong to. Even better, you could totally be a bastard and jump ship to a rival gang in the middle of the game, all because you wanted to and not because a linear storyline made you.

    3. Re:Gang Warfare by Carrot007 · · Score: 1

      I think you'll find it was 3 gangs per city.

      --
      +----------------- | What is the question!
  13. praise be by evilmousse · · Score: 3, Interesting


    thank you, rockstar games, you've demonstrated to be a fine videogame company in every circumstance i've yet to come accross your name.

    i enjoyed gta2 immensely when it was originally released, and though i likely haven't the time to accept your very generous offer of getting it again for free, i appreciate it so very much.

    i will be paying special attention to your releases, and eagerly anticipate the next red dead revolver. do more stuff with capcom, PLEASE. that SO sounds like a winning combination of the best of western and eastern gaming.

    (see, this is how advertizing should be: get people to like you enough to want to tell others.)

    1. Re:praise be by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      In response to your sig:
      please.. PLEASE no more soviet russia or korea jokes.
      In Soviet Korea, only old people complain about YOU
  14. Wine? by The_Dougster · · Score: 1

    Anybody tested this with Wine or Cedega? I see on the Transgaming site they have both GTA1 and GTA3 rated at 4 stars, but GTA2 isn't rated. I presume that it will probably work. I've never played any of these GTA games, but they seem to be popular.

    --
    Clickety Click ...
  15. I run a dual box for situations like this by Pluvius · · Score: 1

    I personally find that on WinXP, GTA Classic stutters horribly, but on Win98 it works fine.

    Rob

  16. Works better under linux by ReKleSS · · Score: 1

    Wine (both free and cedega) can play it just fine, and there are no frame rate issues. Just leave the frame rate limiter on and go. Pity I can't remember how I finished the first level in under 5 mins...
    -ReK

    --
    md5sum -c reality.md5
    reality: FAILED
    md5sum: WARNING: 1 of 1 computed checksum did NOT match
  17. Still borrowing this. by shadowzero313 · · Score: 0

    Maybe I should give my friend his GTA2 CD back now. It's only been a year or two since I grabbed it.

  18. Well too bad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    that the submit form doesn't work due to 'missing variable'. I hope their port had better testing than their webpage...

  19. Shitty Webdesign by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Their website looks like total garbage in Firefox.

    1. Re:Shitty Webdesign by Catnapster · · Score: 1

      Speak for yourself, it looks fine for me under 1.0.

      --
      The world can be wrong today for once.
    2. Re:Shitty Webdesign by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      its probably the proxomitron filter. The default filters.

  20. Use a junk Email account by thirty2bit · · Score: 0, Redundant

    When R* released GTA1 as free download, I made up a temporary Hotmail account for registration, using some dumb combination of letters and numbers, like 'ju5t1ntth3gam3'. I didn't trust the wording on the download page. Well, two days later I had 15 fresh spams.

    Note the fine print on the page: "NOTE: The information you provide on this form may be collected even if you are not eligible to download the game"

    It may be a Christmas gift, but there could be tinsel attached.

    1. Re:Use a junk Email account by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      every hotmail account gets spam. microsoft probably sold you out first.

  21. GET IT HERE!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Here is
    Grand
    Theft
    Auto
    2
    v1.03
    patch
    cracked-O RiGiN.exe

    magnet:?xt=urn:sha1:D6YDZYHXJ6DD5MY36ODGTL6AL5UY VP OP&dn=Grand.Theft Auto.2.v1.03.patch.cracked-ORiGiN.exe

    sig2dat://|File:Grand.Theft.Auto.2.v1.03.patch.c ra cked-ORiGiN.exe|Length:174702592%20Bytes,%20170608 KB|UUHash:=Da7ocJrXHpD0nlYjGctkyvTAzog=|

    ed2k://|file|Grand.Theft Auto.2.v1.03.patch.cracked-ORiGiN.exe|174702592|d1 1a16f56e8d6c74edb8b3ab10529d14|