8-Bit Games !!!!

[LordLemmi]

Sticky that plz xD it´s really great !!!!

I think everyone love that ! :)

[SwiftSpear]

I still prefer an emulator because it's much easier to bind keys to my controller pad.

Still, great find.

[CarRepairer]

Keymappings are wrong. Z should be A and X should be B.

[KDR_11k]

Er, is that legal?

[LordLemmi]

i think so !

[KDR_11k]

"All games are assumed abandonware"

Yeah, right, especially the ones that are still being sold, eh?

[SinbadEV]

The term "abandonware" is something people use to make themselves feel better about pirating old games. Personally I just use the "their rich enough as it is and I don't want to spend money on something that was released 20 years ago" argument to make myself feel better.

There are a few (very few) games for which the rights holder has expressly disclaimed the rights to the software... but most of these were released as Freeware to start with.

[KDR_11k]

"Abandonware" usually means "noone cares" (it's no longer sold and the copyright holder hasn't complained). Nintendo definitely cares as regular crackdowns on NES pirate cart sellers in malls show.

[SwiftSpear]

Abandonware basically just means that the owner of the title has stopped pursing piracy of the game. It's like, if I find my commercial game on a mainstream website, am I likely to try to get them to stop distributing it or not? If the answer is no, then the project is abandonware. Most games don't ever reach a point where it's entirely legal to distribute them, but the game's abandonware sites target either belong to companies that are collapsed, and thus have no money for legal pursuits, and licenses that they can't find clear ownership of.

There's always going to be sites that pirate games irrelevant of what the owners want, but abandonware sites are very responsive. They are actively trying to appease the game companies, all it generally takes is a request and they will keep a game off their lists. Simply put, it's not worth it for companies to pursue legal disputes for games that aren't making them any money any more.

Console games are a bit more strict...

A: Console games generally have been made by bigger companies, many of which are still around to defend the licenses
B: Many old console games are being ported to new handheld consoles, and in the unforeseeable future, likely to cellphones.
C: The most popular old console games are still represented in active licences, mario, zelda, whatnot, all have modern sequels.

[KDR_11k]

At least some Abandonware sites actively remove downloads when the game is still available for purchase. This site knows there's a legal way to purchase them (hell, they even state so in the footer!) and knows that the copyright holder hasn't abandoned the IP in any way. They shouldn't wait for the lawsuits to arrive before removing the games, they should just look what's still being sold and remove that immediately, as well as anything high profile (i.e. likely to be sold again soon). Final Fantasy, Super Mario Bros, etc are really games that you'd have to be insane to call abandonware.

All in all I think we should remove the link like all other links to warez sites. There's no way people didn't know Mario wasn't abandonware.

[SwiftSpear]

At least some Abandonware sites actively remove downloads when the game is still available for purchase. This site knows there's a legal way to purchase them (hell, they even state so in the footer!) and knows that the copyright holder hasn't abandoned the IP in any way. They shouldn't wait for the lawsuits to arrive before removing the games, they should just look what's still being sold and remove that immediately, as well as anything high profile (i.e. likely to be sold again soon). Final Fantasy, Super Mario Bros, etc are really games that you'd have to be insane to call abandonware.

All in all I think we should remove the link like all other links to warez sites. There's no way people didn't know Mario wasn't abandonware.

Agreed.