know of any good sites to download old DOS games?

Hey everyone!

I've been playing some old DOS games lately using the DOS
emaluator found at http://www.dosbox.com/ .


And I was wonderiing if any of you know of any good sites where
I can download free DOS games besides http://www.dosgames.com/

Because although the dosgames site has plenty of games, it is
missing some of the classics like Wizardry, and ultima.


If you know of any I would certainly appreciate if you listed them
^_^

Thanks!

The Mighty WERDNA(Lord Of Darkness)

Google the terms "abandonware" and "games" and see what you come up with.

If you choose to download some, make an informed decision about entering into what some would refer to as a "legal grey area", at least.

Of course, you could always buy some not-quite-as-old games from somewhere like Good Old Games if you wanted to. Much less grey, if grey is something that bothers you.

http://www.abandonia.com has quite a few. Don't know whether they've got the ones you want though.

http://www.the-underdogs.info/

http://www.dosgamesarchive.com/

Shareware, freeware, demos and PD

the last two i visited required me to fill in some survey to find the missing words to activate my 3-5 downloads, so be warned you might have a long lying session ahead of you

i used someone i dont like's postal address so he got all the junk and i got the urls :)

Ur-Quan masters is probly the best

then you have system-shock

Might and Magic 1+2

Theme hospital

There's no such thing as abandonware.

Its a term invented by.... oh, let's say 'pirates' for want of a better term... to use when they want to reproduce copyrighted material when they think there's little to no chance of being caught. But at the end of the day, "old DOS games" are still protected by Copyright.

Just thought I'd mention.

Lol Thanks everyone!

And funny idea Ginger Tea ^_^ (I'm not sure if I would actually do that
but its something to think about. LOL)

What about http://www.oldgames.sk/en/

Are they a good site?
(If so, I would kind of like to download Wizardry 4, The Return of
WERDNA)

The Mighty WERDNA(Lord Of Darkness)

Yes there is, just because its borderline legal doesnt mean it doesnt exist. :P

While its a legal grey area, personally i am all for it, as i believe in the old "it aint stealing if no one wants it" (or renews copyright) as long as it is distributed non profit.

I am 110% in favor of the proposed "after abandonment" legislation for digital media. If the media is not re-declared as copyright after 10 years of total inactivity (rather than 100) then copyright should be dropped. After all, 10 years in computing is 100 years in everything else.

Otherwise great works will vanish forever.

Anyway, there are many of them (sites) but i would watch out for viruses. I have on occasion played a few oldies in a VM on my linux box (to be on the safe side :)

I don't mind people pirating old games if you have no other means of buying it legally (except maybe the odd occasion on ebay). Let's face it, it's the only way you'll be able to play it again.

I absolutely Agree with both of you!

I'm for it all the way, because it does allow us to play old classics, that
we would never have really been able to play otherwise!

I've been able to play such classics as rogue,adventure, and Pirates!
Games I would never have been able to play if it wasn't for these
sites ^_^(I was born in 1989 and thus missed a lot of classic games.)

Anyways, thanks again for your help everyone! I really appreciate it.

The Mighty WERDNA(Lord Of DOSness)

While we're on the subject, I have a few nostalgic DOS videos in the making. Check http://www.dosnostalgia.com in a few weeks.
I'm planning a series of videos on games, apps and a lot of other DOS related things.

Oh cool!

I shall definetly check that out ^_^

Abandonware is illegal and immoral. That's why every Sunday night after I take out the trash I sit on my porch with a broomstick to chase the garbage pickers away.

I mean even though I don't want it anymore, its still MY stuff so its perfectly logical to do this.

People who don't own any IP of value are in favour of devaluing it? What a shock. Next you'll be telling me that turkeys are against Christmas.

LOL :D

LOL indeed!

If they don't want it anymore, then We should be able to take it!

Its like recycling.(Sort of)

Most of the games of covered era are still buyable for example from Amazon. I checked and such mentioned titles as Pirates! and System Shock (1) are available.

Games like Theme Hospital are still sold at stores, at least here in Finland. I know because I bought it a couple of year ago. :)

What's harded is games of the still older era. Try finding a copy of Panzer Strike. :(

If I'm correct, I belive there is such a thing as an abandonware law. Anyway, my view is, if nobody will sell it for money, then the value is nil, therefore the abandonwre sites are really selling it for free. If you don't want pepole playing your games, go to the ESA and become one of those morons (It took me three minutes to find an apropriate word for the ESA).

On a lighter note, are there any sites which have really old games that will run on an 8Mhz machine with no mouse?

Copyrights of software created ages ago have in many cases switched owners through company takeovers and bankruptcies. In many cases the lawful owner of copyright doesn't even know about it. Not to mention they probably miss the possibility to reproduce the product or even provide support.

In such a case, the legal grey area has it's place. In my world at least. It is actually quite a cheap way to preserve these 'historical items'.

I was of the opinion that if there was a way/site to buy the software Underdogs would list that site as where to get it, and would not host a dowload of it.

Havnt they in fact removed downloads when the copyright owner has re-ininstated thier own download based on dowload numbers from Underdogs?

I know we are mostly talking about DOS here, but if you remember the Amega kickstarts where all removed as soon as someone claimed continuing copyright. These sites need the continued support of the industry, so that in ten years time I can D/L farcry 2 from them ;)

if its for an out of date machine like the speccy and amiga, then they probably sold all they ever were going to sell of the original tapes and disk's and probably recycled the rest in one way or another and could be viewed in the same way as 2nd hand games are in gamestation etc ... the game has been sold 10 times but the publisher only got paid once
funny thing is most adf's ive got ended up being the cracked versions so everyone wanting amiga games for free for winUAE is probably backed up by the "well i didnt pay for it when i had it originally" mentality ;)

now some games have been given a lick of paint and re released in some form or another, but i dont think anyone downloading a game like jetset willy would be undermining potential sales of jetset willy for the 360 should it come out

a total opposite would be the movies
it took me an age to track down some betamax movies on DVD, some are so old the alot of people including those involved in its making probably forgot about it, the movie no matter how old and on what format will still be the same, a 1950's movie will still be a 1950's movie on bluray in 2008

but some games are tied to a certain era and never see the light of 'official' remakes or ports and as said up there, the rights changed hands on some games due to lables folding that even if you wanted to buy the rights no one knows whos they are to sell