Back in the day, I was very involved with the “abandonware” scene. Hell, I just checked and for a few of the more obscure games, they are still my “release” almost two decades later. While I’ve always been skeptical if playing CyClones (not one of “mine”) in 2000, 2010, or even 2020 is “preservation” so much as “I am so glad games aren’t like this anymore”, the idea that someone could never play CyClones because it would never be available for sale again bothered me (again, holy shit GoG).
And the better abandonware sites had very specific rules on what could be uploaded. Nothing with a release on Steam or from within the last decade, etc. The sister site was for that.
So imagine my surprise when CD Projekt announce GoG and it is exactly what I want. Hell, it even has the benefit of “installing games is easy” which worked well since Neverwinter Nights (Bioware) is what made me love digital distribution. And the minimal DRM model is appreciated to this day.
And almost overnight, every single abandonware site updated their rules to allow for gog releases and basically every single game sold on that site was uploaded.
Its why, to this day, I consider anyone who argues any form of “righteousness” with piracy to be full of shit. Hate DRM and that we can have our games taken away at any moment? Then why are you dicking over one of the only companies who are pushing back on that? Hate that we can’t buy awesome early Raven games? Then why did you just pirate one that you could buy? I still lean toward ignorance on stuff like “the creator is a fucked up pedophile” or “this only exists on netflix streaming” but I am under no illusions that will continue even if Watsuki had all the rights and royalties taken away right this very moment or Netflix opened up a DRM free store where you can download UHD rips of everything.
As to answer the OP: Basically any torrent site with games?
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“Fun story”:
Back in the day, I was very involved with the “abandonware” scene. Hell, I just checked and for a few of the more obscure games, they are still my “release” almost two decades later. While I’ve always been skeptical if playing CyClones (not one of “mine”) in 2000, 2010, or even 2020 is “preservation” so much as “I am so glad games aren’t like this anymore”, the idea that someone could never play CyClones because it would never be available for sale again bothered me (again, holy shit GoG).
And the better abandonware sites had very specific rules on what could be uploaded. Nothing with a release on Steam or from within the last decade, etc. The sister site was for that.
So imagine my surprise when CD Projekt announce GoG and it is exactly what I want. Hell, it even has the benefit of “installing games is easy” which worked well since Neverwinter Nights (Bioware) is what made me love digital distribution. And the minimal DRM model is appreciated to this day.
And almost overnight, every single abandonware site updated their rules to allow for gog releases and basically every single game sold on that site was uploaded.
Its why, to this day, I consider anyone who argues any form of “righteousness” with piracy to be full of shit. Hate DRM and that we can have our games taken away at any moment? Then why are you dicking over one of the only companies who are pushing back on that? Hate that we can’t buy awesome early Raven games? Then why did you just pirate one that you could buy? I still lean toward ignorance on stuff like “the creator is a fucked up pedophile” or “this only exists on netflix streaming” but I am under no illusions that will continue even if Watsuki had all the rights and royalties taken away right this very moment or Netflix opened up a DRM free store where you can download UHD rips of everything.
As to answer the OP: Basically any torrent site with games?
i cant afford a vpn ;-;
There are free VPNs out there such as ProtonVPN. :)
thanks for the suggestion! i use proton quite a bit, however afaik it doesn’t support torrenting
You mean GOG, not GoG. The O stood for Old. :)
Ah yes, Heretic and Hexen are certainly abandonware /s
I know you probably mean Shadowcaster though.
Doom is great.
…
I mentioned “CyClones” by name. And fifteen years ago, it was completely unfathomable that it would ever show up anywhere for purchase.
Hold on, CyClones was a Raven game? I didn’t even know it existed.