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Wikipedia

Abandonware

January 23, 2023

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Abandonware is a product, typically software, ignored by its owner and manufacturer, and for which no official support is available.[1]

Within an intellectual rights contextual background, abandonware is a software (or hardware) sub-case of the general concept of orphan works. Museums and various organizations dedicated to preserving this software continue to provide legal access.[2]

The term "abandonware" is broad, and encompasses many types of old software. Definitions of "abandoned" vary, but in general it is like any item that is abandoned – it is ignored by the owner, and as such product support and possibly copyright enforcement are also "abandoned".[3]

Types

Commercial software unsupported but still owned by a viable company
The availability of the software depends on the company's attitude toward the software. In many cases, the company which owns the software rights may not be that which originated it, or may not recognize their ownership. Some companies, such as Borland, make some software available online,[4] in a form of freeware. Others, such as Microsoft, do not make old versions available for free use and do not permit people to copy the software.
Commercial software owned by a company no longer in business
When no owning entity of a software exists, all activities (support, distribution, IP activities etc.) in relationship to this software have ceased. If the rights to a software are non-recoverable in legal limbo ("orphaned work"), the software's rights cannot be bought by another company, and there is no company to enforce the copyright. An example of this is Digital Research's original PL/I compiler for DOS:[5] which was considered for many years as without an owner; Micro Focus, which acquired Novell, which had bought Digital Research's assets, owns this old PL/I compiler, but has a more up-to-date PL/I offering.[6]
Shareware whose author still makes it available
Finding historical versions, however, can be difficult since most shareware archives remove past versions with the release of new versions. Authors may or may not make older releases available. Some websites collect and offer for download old versions of shareware, freeware, and (in some cases) commercial applications. In some cases these sites had to remove past versions of software, particularly if the company producing that software still maintains it, or if later software releases introduce digital rights management, whereby old versions could be viewed as DRM circumvention.[citation needed]
Unsupported or unmaintained shareware
Open source and freeware programs that have been abandoned
In some cases, source code remains available, which can prove a historical artifact. One such case is PC-LISP, still found online, which implements the Franz Lisp dialect. The DOS-based PC-LISP still runs well within emulators and on Microsoft Windows.
Orphaned code
The source code or executable might still be available but the author is unknown or only identified by a dead email or equivalent and there is no realistic prospect of finding the owner of the IP.

Implications

If a software product reaches end-of-life and becomes abandonware, users are confronted with several potential problems: missing purchase availability (besides used software) and missing technical support, e.g. compatibility fixes for newer hardware and operating systems. These problems are exacerbated if software is bound to physical media with a limited life-expectancy (floppy disks, optical media etc.) and backups are impossible because of copy protection or copyright law. If a software is distributed only in a digital, DRM-locked form[7] or as SaaS, the shutdown of the servers will lead to a public loss of the software. If the software product is without alternative, the missing replacement availability becomes a challenge for continued software usage.

Once a software product becomes abandonware, there is a high risk that the source code becomes lost or irrecoverable even for its original developers, as multiple cases have shown.[8] One of many examples is the closure of Atari in Sunnyvale, California in 1996, when the original source codes of several milestones of video game history (such as Asteroids and Centipede) were thrown out as trash, some of which were later recovered.[9][10]

Unavailability of software and the associated source code can also be a hindrance for software archaeology and research.[11]

Response to abandonware

Early abandonware websites

As response to the missing availability of abandonware, people have distributed old software since shortly after the beginning of personal computing, but the activity remained low-key until the advent of the Internet. While trading old games has taken many names and forms, the term "abandonware" was coined by Peter Ringering in late 1996.[12] Ringering found classic game websites similar to his own, contacted their webmasters, and formed the original Abandonware Ring in February 1997.[12] This original webring was little more than a collection of sites linking to adventureclassicgaming.com. Another was a site indexing them all to provide a rudimentary search facility. In October 1997, the Interactive Digital Software Association sent cease and desist letters to all sites within the Abandonware Ring, which led to most shutting down. An unintended consequence was that it spurred others to create new abandonware sites and organizations that came to outnumber the original Ring members. Sites formed after the demise of the original Abandonware Ring include Abandonia, Bunny Abandonware and Home of the Underdogs. In later years abandonware websites actively acquired and received permissions from developers and copyright holders (e.g. Jeff Minter, Magnetic Fields[13][14] or Gremlin Interactive[15]) for legal redistribution of abandoned works;[16] an example is World of Spectrum who acquired the permission from many developers and successfully retracted a DMCA case.[17][18][19][20]

Archives

Several websites archive abandonware for download, including old versions of applications which are difficult to find by any other means. Much of this software fits the definition of "software that is no longer current, but is still of interest," but the line separating the use and distribution of abandonware from copyright infringement is blurry, and the term abandonware could be used to distribute software without proper notification of the owner.

The Internet Archive has created an archive of what it describes as "vintage software," as a way to preserve them.[21] The project advocated for an exemption from the United States Digital Millennium Copyright Act to permit them to bypass copy protection, which was approved in 2003 for a period of three years.[22] The exemption was renewed in 2006, and as of 27 October 2009, has been indefinitely extended pending further rulemakings.[23] The Archive does not offer this software for download, as the exemption is solely "for the purpose of preservation or archival reproduction of published digital works by a library or archive."[24] Nevertheless, in 2013 the Internet Archive began to provide antique games as browser-playable emulation via MESS, for instance the Atari 2600 game E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.[25] Since 23 December 2014 the Internet Archive presents via a browser based DOSBox emulation thousands of archived DOS/PC games[26][27][28][29] for "scholarship and research purposes only".[30]

Starting around 2006, The Library of Congress began the long-time preservation of video games with the Game canon list.[31][32] In September 2012 the collection had nearly 3,000 games from many platforms and also around 1,500 strategy guides.[33][34] For instance, the source code of the unreleased PlayStation Portable game Duke Nukem: Critical Mass was discovered in August 2014 to be preserved at the Library of Congress.[35][36][37]

Since around 2009 the International Center for the History of Electronic Games (ICHEG) has taken a five-pronged approach to video game preservation: original software and hardware, marketing materials and publications, production records, play capture, and finally the source code.[38] In December 2013 the ICHEG received a donation of several SSI video games, for instance Computer Bismarck, including the source code for preservation.[39][40] In 2014 a collection of Brøderbund games[41] and a "virtually complete" Atari arcade machine source code and asset collection was added.[42][43]

In 2010 Computer History Museum began with the preservation of source code of important software, beginning with Apple's MacPaint 1.3.[44][45][46] In 2012 the APL programming language followed.[47] Adobe Systems, Inc. donated the Photoshop 1.0.1 source code to the collection in February 2013.[48][49] The source code is made available to the public under an own non-commercial license. On March 25, 2014, Microsoft followed with the donation of MS-DOS variants as well as Word for Windows 1.1a under their own license.[50][51] On October 21, 2014, Xerox Alto's source code and other resources followed.[52]

In 2012 a group of European museums and organizations started the European Federation of Game Archives, Museums and Preservation Projects (EFGAMP) to join forces to "Preserve Gaming Legacy".[53][54] Also in Japan video game software archival happens since several years.[55]

In 2012 the MOMA started with archiving video games and explicitly tries to get the source code of them.[56]

There are also some cases in which the source code of games was given to a fan community for long-time preservation, e.g. several titles of the Wing Commander video game series[57][58][59] or Ultima 9 of the Ultima series.[60]

Community support

In response to the missing software support, sometimes the software's user community begins to provide support (bug fixes, compatibility adaptions etc.) even without available source code, internal software documentation and original developer tools.[61] Methods are debugging, reverse engineering of file and data formats, and hacking the binary executables. Often the results are distributed as unofficial patches. Notable examples are Fallout 2,[62] Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines[63] or even Windows 98.[64] Windows XP would also get a community support via unofficial service pack, with POSReady registry hack, as well as Windows 2000 receiving a fanmade extended kernel[65].[66] For instance in 2012, when the multiplayer game Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance became unsupported abandonware as the official multiplayer server and support was shut down,[67][68] the game community itself took over with a self-developed multiplayer server and client.[69][70][71][72]

Re-releases by digital distribution

With the new possibility of digital distribution arising in mid-2000, the commercial distribution for many old titles became feasible again as deployment and storage costs dropped significantly.[73] A digital distributor specialized in bringing old games out of abandonware is GOG.com (formerly called Good Old Games) who started in 2008 to search for copyright holders of classic games to release them legally and DRM-free again.[74][75] For instance, on December 9, 2013 the real-time strategy video game Conquest: Frontier Wars was, after ten years of non-availability, re-released by gog.com, also including the source code.[76][77]

Arguments for and against distribution

From proponents

Proponents of abandonware preservation argue that it is more ethical to make copies of such software than new software that still sells. Those ignorant of copyright law have incorrectly taken this to mean that abandonware is legal to distribute, although no software written since 1964 is old enough for copyright to have expired in the US.[78] Even in cases where the original company no longer exists, the rights usually belong to someone else, though no one may be able to trace actual ownership, including the owners themselves.

Abandonware advocates also frequently cite historical preservation as a reason for trading abandoned software.[12] Older computer media are fragile and prone to rapid deterioration, necessitating transfer of these materials to more modern, stable media and generation of many copies to ensure the software will not simply disappear. Users of still-functional older computer systems argue for the need of abandonware because re-release of software by copyright holders will most likely target modern systems or incompatible media instead, preventing legal purchase of compatible software.

From opponents

Those who oppose these practices[who?] argue that distribution denies the copyright holder potential sales, in the form of re-released titles, official emulation, and so on. Likewise, they[who?] argue that if people can acquire an old version of a program for free, they may be less likely to purchase a newer version if the old version meets their needs.

From game developers with sympathy with abandonware

Some game developers showed sympathy for abandonware websites as they preserve their classical game titles.

[...] personally, I think that sites that support these old games are a good thing for both consumers and copyright owners. If the options are (a) having a game be lost forever and (b) having it available on one of these sites, I'd want it to be available. That being said, I believe a game is 'abandoned' only long after it is out of print. And just because a book is out of print does not give me rights to print some for my friends.

— Richard Garriott, [79]

Is it piracy? Yeah, sure. But so what? Most of the game makers aren't living off the revenue from those old games anymore. Most of the creative teams behind all those games have long since left the companies that published them, so there's no way the people who deserve to are still making royalties off them. So go ahead—steal this game! Spread the love!

— Tim Schafer, [80]

If I owned the copyright on Total Annihilation, I would probably allow it to be shared for free by now (four years after it was originally released)

— Chris Taylor, [81]

Law

In most cases, software classed as abandonware is not in the public domain, as it has never had its original copyright officially revoked and some company or individual may still own rights. While sharing of such software is usually considered copyright infringement, in practice copyright holders rarely enforce their abandonware copyrights for a number of reasons – chiefly among which the software is technologically obsolete and therefore has no commercial value, therefore rendering copyright enforcement a pointless enterprise. By default, this may allow the product to de facto lapse into the public domain to such an extent that enforcement becomes impractical.[82]

Rarely has any abandonware case gone to court, but it is still unlawful to distribute copies of old copyrighted software and games, with or without compensation, in any Berne Convention signatory country.[83]

Enforcement of copyright

Old copyrights are usually left undefended. This can be due to intentional non-enforcement by owners due to software age or obsolescence, but sometimes results from a corporate copyright holder going out of business without explicitly transferring ownership, leaving no one aware of the right to defend the copyright.

Even if the copyright is not defended, copying of such software is still unlawful in most jurisdictions when a copyright is still in effect. Abandonware changes hands on the assumption that the resources required to enforce copyrights outweigh benefits a copyright holder might realize from selling software licenses. Additionally, abandonware proponents argue that distributing software for which there is no one to defend the copyright is morally acceptable, even where unsupported by current law. Companies that have gone out of business without transferring their copyrights are an example of this; many hardware and software companies that developed older systems are long since out of business and precise documentation of the copyrights may not be readily available.

Often the availability of abandonware on the Internet is related to the willingness of copyright holders to defend their copyrights. For example, unencumbered games for Colecovision are markedly easier to find on the Internet than unencumbered games for Mattel Intellivision in large part because there is still a company that sells Intellivision games while no such company exists for the Colecovision.

DMCA

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) can be a problem for the preservation of old software as it prohibits required techniques. In October 2003, the US Congress passed 4 clauses to the DMCA which allow for reverse engineering software in case of preservation.

"3. Computer programs and video games distributed in formats that have become obsolete and which require the original media or hardware as a condition of access. ...The register has concluded that to the extent that libraries and archives wish to make preservation copies of published software and videogames that were distributed in formats that are (either because the physical medium on which they were distributed is no longer in use or because the use of an obsolete operating system is required), such activity is a noninfringing use covered by section 108(c) of the Copyright Act."

— Exemption to Prohibition on Circumvention of Copyright Protection Systems for Access Control Technologies[84]

In November 2006 the Library of Congress approved an exemption to the DMCA that permits the cracking of copy protection on software no longer being sold or supported by its copyright holder so that they can be archived and preserved without fear of retribution.[85][86]

US copyright law

Currently, US copyright law does not recognize the term or concept of "abandonware" while the general concept "orphan works" is recognized (see Orphan works in the United States). There is a long-held concept of abandonment in trademark law as a direct result of the infinite term of trademark protection. Currently, a copyright can be released into the public domain if the owner clearly does so in writing; however this formal process is not considered abandoning, but rather releasing. Those who do not own a copyright cannot merely claim the copyright abandoned and start using protected works without permission of the copyright holder, who could then seek legal remedy.

Hosting and distributing copyrighted software without permission is illegal. Copyright holders, sometimes through the Entertainment Software Association, send cease and desist letters, and some sites have shut down or removed infringing software as a result. However, most of the Association's efforts are devoted to new games, due to those titles possessing the greatest value.[87]

EU law

In the EU in 2012 an "Orphan Works Directive" (Directive 2012/28/EU) was constituted and is transferred into the member's laws. While the terminology has ambiguities regarding software and especially video games, some scholars argue that abandonware software video games fall under the definition of audiovisual works mentioned there.[88]

Copyright expiration

Main article: List of countries' copyright lengths

Once the copyright on a piece of software has expired, it automatically falls into public domain. Such software can be legally distributed without restrictions. However, due to the length of copyright terms in most countries, this has yet to happen for most software. All countries that observe the Berne Convention enforce copyright ownership for at least 50 years after publication or the author's death. However, individual countries may choose to enforce copyrights for longer periods. In the United States, copyright durations are determined based on authorship. For most published works, the duration is 70 years after the author's death. However, for anonymous works, works published under a pseudonym or works made for hire, the duration is 120 years after creation, or 95 years after publication, whichever comes first. In France, copyright durations are 70 years after the relevant date (date of author's death or publication) for either class.

However, because of the length of copyright enforcement in most countries, it is likely that by the time a piece of software defaults to public domain, it will have long become obsolete, irrelevant, or incompatible with any existing hardware. Additionally, due to the relatively short commercial, as well as physical, lifespans of most digital media, it is entirely possible that by the time the copyright expires for a piece of software, it will no longer exist in any form. However, since the largest risk in dealing with abandonware is that of distribution, this may be mitigated somewhat by private users (or organizations such as the Internet Archive) making private copies of such software, which would then be legally redistributable at the time of copyright expiry.

Alternatives to software abandoning

There are alternatives for companies with a software product which faces the end-of-life instead of abandoning the software in an unsupported state.

Availability as freeware

Main article: List of commercial video games released as freeware

Some user-communities convince companies to voluntarily relinquish copyright on software, putting it into the public domain, or re-license it as free software (freeware). Unlike so-called abandonware, it is perfectly legal to transfer public domain or freely licensed software.

Amstrad is an example which supports emulation and free distribution of CPC and ZX Spectrum hardware ROMs and software.[89] Borland released "antique software" as freeware.[4][90] Smith Engineering permits not-for-profit reproduction and distribution of Vectrex games and documentation.[91]

Groups that lobby companies to release their software as freeware have met with mixed results. One example is the library of educational titles released by MECC. MECC was sold to Brøderbund, which was sold to The Learning Company. When TLC was contacted about releasing classic MECC titles as freeware, the documentation proving that TLC held the rights to these titles could not be located, and therefore the rights for these titles are "in limbo" and may never be legally released.[92] Lost or unclear copyrights to vintage out-of-print software is not uncommon, as rights to the No One Lives Forever series illustrates.[93][94]

Support by source code release

Main article: Source code escrow
See also: List of commercial video games with later released source code
See also: List of commercial software with available source code

The problem of missing technical support for a software can be most effectively solved when the source code becomes available. Therefore, several companies decided to release the source code specifically to allow the user communities to provide further technical software support (bug fixes, compatibility adaptions etc.) themselves,[95][96] e.g. by community patches or source ports to new computing platforms. For instance, in December 2015 Microsoft released the Windows Live Writer source code[97] to allow the community to continue the support.

Id Software and 3D Realms are early proponents in this practice, releasing the source code for the game engines of some older titles under a free software license (but not the actual game content, such as levels or textures). Also Falcon 4.0's lead designer Kevin Klemmick argued in 2011 that availability of the source code of his software for the community was a good thing:

I honestly think this [source code release] should be standard procedure for companies that decide not to continue to support a code base.

— Kevin Klemmick, interviewed by Bertolone, Giorgio (March 12, 2011). . Cleared-To-Engage. Archived from the original on March 18, 2011. Retrieved August 31, 2014.

The chilling effect of drawing a possible lawsuit can discourage release of source code. Efforts to persuade IBM to release OS/2 as open source software were ignored[98] since some of the code was co-developed by Microsoft.

Nevertheless, several notable examples of successfully opened commercial software exist, for instance, the web browser Netscape Communicator, which was released by Netscape Communications on March 31, 1998.[99] The development was continued under the umbrella of the Mozilla Foundation and Netscape Communicator became the basis of several browsers, such as Mozilla Firefox.[100]

Another important example for open sourced general software is the office suite StarOffice which was released by Sun Microsystems in October 2000 as OpenOffice.org[101] and is in continued development as LibreOffice and Apache OpenOffice.

There are also many examples in the video game domain: Revolution Software released their game Beneath a Steel Sky as freeware and gave the engine's source code to the authors of ScummVM to add support for the game. Other examples are Myth II,[102] Call to Power II[103] and Microsoft's Allegiance[96] which were released to allow the community to continue the support.

Museums

Museums, whether physical or virtual, provide a legal means for preserving what otherwise is an orphan work.[2]

WinWorld

WinWorld is an online museum that contains information about old computers and the software that was used with them.[104][105] The website also has screenshots and downloadable copies of old software.[106][107]

Vintage Computer (VCF)

Vintage Computer Federation also promotes the preservation of "obsolete" computers.[108]

See also

References

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  59. ^ . wcnews.com. April 3, 2012. Archived from the original on November 9, 2013. Retrieved January 14, 2013. As with Wing Commander I and Wing Commander III, we are pleased to announced that an extremely kind former EA/Origin employee has provided a copy of the Wing Commander IV source code for our preservation efforts! We can't offer it for download at this time, but it is now preserved for future use.
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  65. ^ https://msfn.org/board/topic/183216-bwc-windows-2000-extended-kernel-version-v30i-released-120122/
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  69. ^ "Forged Alliance Forever official site". Retrieved August 25, 2013.
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  72. ^ You're in charge! - From vital patches to game cancellations, players are often intimately involved. November 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine by Christian Donlan on Eurogamer "Supreme Commander fans released Forged Alliance Forever and gave the game the online client it could otherwise only dream of. I haven't played it much, but I still got a tear in my eye when I read about the extents these coders had gone to. There's nothing quite so wonderful to witness as love, and this is surely love of the very purest order. [...] SupCom guys resurrect a series whose publisher had just gone under." (2013-11-02)
  73. ^ Walker, John (November 21, 2007). . Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Archived from the original on May 12, 2014. Retrieved January 10, 2013. Gabe: The worst days [for game development] were the cartridge days for the NES. It was a huge risk – you had all this money tied up in silicon in a warehouse somewhere, and so you'd be conservative in the decisions you felt you could make, very conservative in the IPs you signed, your art direction would not change, and so on. Now it's the opposite extreme: we can put something up on Steam, deliver it to people all around the world, make changes. We can take more interesting risks.[...] On Steam there's no shelf-space restriction. It's great because they're a bunch of old, orphaned games.
  74. ^ Caron, Frank (September 9, 2008). . Ars Technica. Archived from the original on September 12, 2011. Retrieved December 27, 2012. [...] [Good Old Games] focuses on bringing old, time-tested games into the downloadable era with low prices and no DRM.
  75. ^ Bennet, Tom (September 16, 2015). "How GOG.com Save And Restore Classic Videogames". rockpapershotgun.com. from the original on January 22, 2016. Retrieved January 22, 2016. Preservation of old games involves more than just an extra patch. The journey from dusty unplayable relic to polished, cross-platform installer is a minefield of technical and legal obstacles. The team at Good Old Games remain the industry leaders in the restoration of classic PC games, tasked with reverse engineering code written more than 20 years ago [...] "Source and game code is an extremely rare commodity for us," explains Paczyński. "Older titles have often gone through so many different hands that no one knows who has the original code anymore, or it no longer exists in any usable form." With source files lost forever, the team's only recourse is to retrofit retail code taken from a boxed copy of the game.
  76. ^ GOG.com (December 9, 2013). "Classic Gem Promo: Conquest: Frontier Wars". CD Projekt. from the original on September 13, 2016. Retrieved August 31, 2014.
  77. ^ Conquest: Frontier Wars on GOG September 3, 2014, at the Wayback Machine on robertsspaceindustries.com
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  94. ^ g4tv staff (May 30, 2011). "The Lost History of System Shock". g4tv.com. from the original on January 13, 2013. Retrieved May 30, 2012. Looking Glass Studios closed in 2000, a year after System Shock 2's release, and the copyright to the series went into the hands of an insurance company. That left EA with only the System Shock name, but no actual development rights.
  95. ^ Largent, Andy (October 8, 2003). . insidemacgames.com. Archived from the original on October 12, 2013. Retrieved November 24, 2012. With the release of Homeworld 2 for the PC, Relic Entertainment has decided to give back to their impressive fan community by releasing the source code to the original Homeworld.
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  97. ^ Microsoft open-sources Live Writer, beloved but abandoned blogging tool June 12, 2016, at the Wayback Machine by Peter Bright on Ars Technica "Opening the app means that it'll get some much-needed maintenance." (2015)
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  106. ^ example: Crosstalk XVI, released 1982, predecessor to Crosstalk Mk.4: "Crosstalk XVI 3.3x". WinWorld.
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  108. ^ Vintage Computer Festival#Purpose

January 23, 2023
abandonware, this, article, possibly, contains, original, research, please, improve, verifying, claims, made, adding, inline, citations, statements, consisting, only, original, research, should, removed, march, 2022, learn, when, remove, this, template, messag. This article possibly contains original research Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations Statements consisting only of original research should be removed March 2022 Learn how and when to remove this template message Look up ware in Wiktionary the free dictionary Abandonware is a product typically software ignored by its owner and manufacturer and for which no official support is available 1 Within an intellectual rights contextual background abandonware is a software or hardware sub case of the general concept of orphan works Museums and various organizations dedicated to preserving this software continue to provide legal access 2 The term abandonware is broad and encompasses many types of old software Definitions of abandoned vary but in general it is like any item that is abandoned it is ignored by the owner and as such product support and possibly copyright enforcement are also abandoned 3 Contents 1 Types 2 Implications 3 Response to abandonware 3 1 Early abandonware websites 3 2 Archives 3 3 Community support 3 4 Re releases by digital distribution 4 Arguments for and against distribution 4 1 From proponents 4 2 From opponents 4 3 From game developers with sympathy with abandonware 5 Law 5 1 Enforcement of copyright 5 2 DMCA 5 3 US copyright law 5 4 EU law 5 5 Copyright expiration 6 Alternatives to software abandoning 6 1 Availability as freeware 6 2 Support by source code release 7 Museums 7 1 WinWorld 7 2 Vintage Computer VCF 8 See also 9 ReferencesTypes EditCommercial software unsupported but still owned by a viable company The availability of the software depends on the company s attitude toward the software In many cases the company which owns the software rights may not be that which originated it or may not recognize their ownership Some companies such as Borland make some software available online 4 in a form of freeware Others such as Microsoft do not make old versions available for free use and do not permit people to copy the software Commercial software owned by a company no longer in business When no owning entity of a software exists all activities support distribution IP activities etc in relationship to this software have ceased If the rights to a software are non recoverable in legal limbo orphaned work the software s rights cannot be bought by another company and there is no company to enforce the copyright An example of this is Digital Research s original PL I compiler for DOS 5 which was considered for many years as without an owner Micro Focus which acquired Novell which had bought Digital Research s assets owns this old PL I compiler but has a more up to date PL I offering 6 Shareware whose author still makes it available Finding historical versions however can be difficult since most shareware archives remove past versions with the release of new versions Authors may or may not make older releases available Some websites collect and offer for download old versions of shareware freeware and in some cases commercial applications In some cases these sites had to remove past versions of software particularly if the company producing that software still maintains it or if later software releases introduce digital rights management whereby old versions could be viewed as DRM circumvention citation needed Unsupported or unmaintained shareware Open source and freeware programs that have been abandoned In some cases source code remains available which can prove a historical artifact One such case is PC LISP still found online which implements the Franz Lisp dialect The DOS based PC LISP still runs well within emulators and on Microsoft Windows Orphaned code The source code or executable might still be available but the author is unknown or only identified by a dead email or equivalent and there is no realistic prospect of finding the owner of the IP Implications EditIf a software product reaches end of life and becomes abandonware users are confronted with several potential problems missing purchase availability besides used software and missing technical support e g compatibility fixes for newer hardware and operating systems These problems are exacerbated if software is bound to physical media with a limited life expectancy floppy disks optical media etc and backups are impossible because of copy protection or copyright law If a software is distributed only in a digital DRM locked form 7 or as SaaS the shutdown of the servers will lead to a public loss of the software If the software product is without alternative the missing replacement availability becomes a challenge for continued software usage Once a software product becomes abandonware there is a high risk that the source code becomes lost or irrecoverable even for its original developers as multiple cases have shown 8 One of many examples is the closure of Atari in Sunnyvale California in 1996 when the original source codes of several milestones of video game history such as Asteroids and Centipede were thrown out as trash some of which were later recovered 9 10 Unavailability of software and the associated source code can also be a hindrance for software archaeology and research 11 Response to abandonware EditEarly abandonware websites Edit As response to the missing availability of abandonware people have distributed old software since shortly after the beginning of personal computing but the activity remained low key until the advent of the Internet While trading old games has taken many names and forms the term abandonware was coined by Peter Ringering in late 1996 12 Ringering found classic game websites similar to his own contacted their webmasters and formed the original Abandonware Ring in February 1997 12 This original webring was little more than a collection of sites linking to adventureclassicgaming com Another was a site indexing them all to provide a rudimentary search facility In October 1997 the Interactive Digital Software Association sent cease and desist letters to all sites within the Abandonware Ring which led to most shutting down An unintended consequence was that it spurred others to create new abandonware sites and organizations that came to outnumber the original Ring members Sites formed after the demise of the original Abandonware Ring include Abandonia Bunny Abandonware and Home of the Underdogs In later years abandonware websites actively acquired and received permissions from developers and copyright holders e g Jeff Minter Magnetic Fields 13 14 or Gremlin Interactive 15 for legal redistribution of abandoned works 16 an example is World of Spectrum who acquired the permission from many developers and successfully retracted a DMCA case 17 18 19 20 Archives Edit Several websites archive abandonware for download including old versions of applications which are difficult to find by any other means Much of this software fits the definition of software that is no longer current but is still of interest but the line separating the use and distribution of abandonware from copyright infringement is blurry and the term abandonware could be used to distribute software without proper notification of the owner The Internet Archive has created an archive of what it describes as vintage software as a way to preserve them 21 The project advocated for an exemption from the United States Digital Millennium Copyright Act to permit them to bypass copy protection which was approved in 2003 for a period of three years 22 The exemption was renewed in 2006 and as of 27 October 2009 update has been indefinitely extended pending further rulemakings 23 The Archive does not offer this software for download as the exemption is solely for the purpose of preservation or archival reproduction of published digital works by a library or archive 24 Nevertheless in 2013 the Internet Archive began to provide antique games as browser playable emulation via MESS for instance the Atari 2600 game E T the Extra Terrestrial 25 Since 23 December 2014 the Internet Archive presents via a browser based DOSBox emulation thousands of archived DOS PC games 26 27 28 29 for scholarship and research purposes only 30 Starting around 2006 The Library of Congress began the long time preservation of video games with the Game canon list 31 32 In September 2012 the collection had nearly 3 000 games from many platforms and also around 1 500 strategy guides 33 34 For instance the source code of the unreleased PlayStation Portable game Duke Nukem Critical Mass was discovered in August 2014 to be preserved at the Library of Congress 35 36 37 Since around 2009 the International Center for the History of Electronic Games ICHEG has taken a five pronged approach to video game preservation original software and hardware marketing materials and publications production records play capture and finally the source code 38 In December 2013 the ICHEG received a donation of several SSI video games for instance Computer Bismarck including the source code for preservation 39 40 In 2014 a collection of Broderbund games 41 and a virtually complete Atari arcade machine source code and asset collection was added 42 43 In 2010 Computer History Museum began with the preservation of source code of important software beginning with Apple s MacPaint 1 3 44 45 46 In 2012 the APL programming language followed 47 Adobe Systems Inc donated the Photoshop 1 0 1 source code to the collection in February 2013 48 49 The source code is made available to the public under an own non commercial license On March 25 2014 Microsoft followed with the donation of MS DOS variants as well as Word for Windows 1 1a under their own license 50 51 On October 21 2014 Xerox Alto s source code and other resources followed 52 In 2012 a group of European museums and organizations started the European Federation of Game Archives Museums and Preservation Projects EFGAMP to join forces to Preserve Gaming Legacy 53 54 Also in Japan video game software archival happens since several years 55 In 2012 the MOMA started with archiving video games and explicitly tries to get the source code of them 56 There are also some cases in which the source code of games was given to a fan community for long time preservation e g several titles of the Wing Commander video game series 57 58 59 or Ultima 9 of the Ultima series 60 Community support Edit In response to the missing software support sometimes the software s user community begins to provide support bug fixes compatibility adaptions etc even without available source code internal software documentation and original developer tools 61 Methods are debugging reverse engineering of file and data formats and hacking the binary executables Often the results are distributed as unofficial patches Notable examples are Fallout 2 62 Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines 63 or even Windows 98 64 Windows XP would also get a community support via unofficial service pack with POSReady registry hack as well as Windows 2000 receiving a fanmade extended kernel 65 66 For instance in 2012 when the multiplayer game Supreme Commander Forged Alliance became unsupported abandonware as the official multiplayer server and support was shut down 67 68 the game community itself took over with a self developed multiplayer server and client 69 70 71 72 Re releases by digital distribution Edit With the new possibility of digital distribution arising in mid 2000 the commercial distribution for many old titles became feasible again as deployment and storage costs dropped significantly 73 A digital distributor specialized in bringing old games out of abandonware is GOG com formerly called Good Old Games who started in 2008 to search for copyright holders of classic games to release them legally and DRM free again 74 75 For instance on December 9 2013 the real time strategy video game Conquest Frontier Wars was after ten years of non availability re released by gog com also including the source code 76 77 Arguments for and against distribution EditFrom proponents Edit Proponents of abandonware preservation argue that it is more ethical to make copies of such software than new software that still sells Those ignorant of copyright law have incorrectly taken this to mean that abandonware is legal to distribute although no software written since 1964 is old enough for copyright to have expired in the US 78 Even in cases where the original company no longer exists the rights usually belong to someone else though no one may be able to trace actual ownership including the owners themselves Abandonware advocates also frequently cite historical preservation as a reason for trading abandoned software 12 Older computer media are fragile and prone to rapid deterioration necessitating transfer of these materials to more modern stable media and generation of many copies to ensure the software will not simply disappear Users of still functional older computer systems argue for the need of abandonware because re release of software by copyright holders will most likely target modern systems or incompatible media instead preventing legal purchase of compatible software From opponents Edit Those who oppose these practices who argue that distribution denies the copyright holder potential sales in the form of re released titles official emulation and so on Likewise they who argue that if people can acquire an old version of a program for free they may be less likely to purchase a newer version if the old version meets their needs From game developers with sympathy with abandonware Edit Some game developers showed sympathy for abandonware websites as they preserve their classical game titles personally I think that sites that support these old games are a good thing for both consumers and copyright owners If the options are a having a game be lost forever and b having it available on one of these sites I d want it to be available That being said I believe a game is abandoned only long after it is out of print And just because a book is out of print does not give me rights to print some for my friends Richard Garriott 79 Is it piracy Yeah sure But so what Most of the game makers aren t living off the revenue from those old games anymore Most of the creative teams behind all those games have long since left the companies that published them so there s no way the people who deserve to are still making royalties off them So go ahead steal this game Spread the love Tim Schafer 80 If I owned the copyright on Total Annihilation I would probably allow it to be shared for free by now four years after it was originally released Chris Taylor 81 Law EditIn most cases software classed as abandonware is not in the public domain as it has never had its original copyright officially revoked and some company or individual may still own rights While sharing of such software is usually considered copyright infringement in practice copyright holders rarely enforce their abandonware copyrights for a number of reasons chiefly among which the software is technologically obsolete and therefore has no commercial value therefore rendering copyright enforcement a pointless enterprise By default this may allow the product to de facto lapse into the public domain to such an extent that enforcement becomes impractical 82 Rarely has any abandonware case gone to court but it is still unlawful to distribute copies of old copyrighted software and games with or without compensation in any Berne Convention signatory country 83 Enforcement of copyright Edit Old copyrights are usually left undefended This can be due to intentional non enforcement by owners due to software age or obsolescence but sometimes results from a corporate copyright holder going out of business without explicitly transferring ownership leaving no one aware of the right to defend the copyright Even if the copyright is not defended copying of such software is still unlawful in most jurisdictions when a copyright is still in effect Abandonware changes hands on the assumption that the resources required to enforce copyrights outweigh benefits a copyright holder might realize from selling software licenses Additionally abandonware proponents argue that distributing software for which there is no one to defend the copyright is morally acceptable even where unsupported by current law Companies that have gone out of business without transferring their copyrights are an example of this many hardware and software companies that developed older systems are long since out of business and precise documentation of the copyrights may not be readily available Often the availability of abandonware on the Internet is related to the willingness of copyright holders to defend their copyrights For example unencumbered games for Colecovision are markedly easier to find on the Internet than unencumbered games for Mattel Intellivision in large part because there is still a company that sells Intellivision games while no such company exists for the Colecovision DMCA EditThe Digital Millennium Copyright Act DMCA can be a problem for the preservation of old software as it prohibits required techniques In October 2003 the US Congress passed 4 clauses to the DMCA which allow for reverse engineering software in case of preservation 3 Computer programs and video games distributed in formats that have become obsolete and which require the original media or hardware as a condition of access The register has concluded that to the extent that libraries and archives wish to make preservation copies of published software and videogames that were distributed in formats that are either because the physical medium on which they were distributed is no longer in use or because the use of an obsolete operating system is required such activity is a noninfringing use covered by section 108 c of the Copyright Act Exemption to Prohibition on Circumvention of Copyright Protection Systems for Access Control Technologies 84 In November 2006 the Library of Congress approved an exemption to the DMCA that permits the cracking of copy protection on software no longer being sold or supported by its copyright holder so that they can be archived and preserved without fear of retribution 85 86 US copyright law Edit Currently US copyright law does not recognize the term or concept of abandonware while the general concept orphan works is recognized see Orphan works in the United States There is a long held concept of abandonment in trademark law as a direct result of the infinite term of trademark protection Currently a copyright can be released into the public domain if the owner clearly does so in writing however this formal process is not considered abandoning but rather releasing Those who do not own a copyright cannot merely claim the copyright abandoned and start using protected works without permission of the copyright holder who could then seek legal remedy Hosting and distributing copyrighted software without permission is illegal Copyright holders sometimes through the Entertainment Software Association send cease and desist letters and some sites have shut down or removed infringing software as a result However most of the Association s efforts are devoted to new games due to those titles possessing the greatest value 87 EU law Edit In the EU in 2012 an Orphan Works Directive Directive 2012 28 EU was constituted and is transferred into the member s laws While the terminology has ambiguities regarding software and especially video games some scholars argue that abandonware software video games fall under the definition of audiovisual works mentioned there 88 Copyright expiration Edit Main article List of countries copyright lengths This article needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Abandonware news newspapers books scholar JSTOR November 2022 Learn how and when to remove this template message Once the copyright on a piece of software has expired it automatically falls into public domain Such software can be legally distributed without restrictions However due to the length of copyright terms in most countries this has yet to happen for most software All countries that observe the Berne Convention enforce copyright ownership for at least 50 years after publication or the author s death However individual countries may choose to enforce copyrights for longer periods In the United States copyright durations are determined based on authorship For most published works the duration is 70 years after the author s death However for anonymous works works published under a pseudonym or works made for hire the duration is 120 years after creation or 95 years after publication whichever comes first In France copyright durations are 70 years after the relevant date date of author s death or publication for either class However because of the length of copyright enforcement in most countries it is likely that by the time a piece of software defaults to public domain it will have long become obsolete irrelevant or incompatible with any existing hardware Additionally due to the relatively short commercial as well as physical lifespans of most digital media it is entirely possible that by the time the copyright expires for a piece of software it will no longer exist in any form However since the largest risk in dealing with abandonware is that of distribution this may be mitigated somewhat by private users or organizations such as the Internet Archive making private copies of such software which would then be legally redistributable at the time of copyright expiry Alternatives to software abandoning EditThere are alternatives for companies with a software product which faces the end of life instead of abandoning the software in an unsupported state Availability as freeware Edit Main article List of commercial video games released as freeware Some user communities convince companies to voluntarily relinquish copyright on software putting it into the public domain or re license it as free software freeware Unlike so called abandonware it is perfectly legal to transfer public domain or freely licensed software Amstrad is an example which supports emulation and free distribution of CPC and ZX Spectrum hardware ROMs and software 89 Borland released antique software as freeware 4 90 Smith Engineering permits not for profit reproduction and distribution of Vectrex games and documentation 91 Groups that lobby companies to release their software as freeware have met with mixed results One example is the library of educational titles released by MECC MECC was sold to Broderbund which was sold to The Learning Company When TLC was contacted about releasing classic MECC titles as freeware the documentation proving that TLC held the rights to these titles could not be located and therefore the rights for these titles are in limbo and may never be legally released 92 Lost or unclear copyrights to vintage out of print software is not uncommon as rights to the No One Lives Forever series illustrates 93 94 Support by source code release Edit Main article Source code escrow See also List of commercial video games with later released source code See also List of commercial software with available source code The problem of missing technical support for a software can be most effectively solved when the source code becomes available Therefore several companies decided to release the source code specifically to allow the user communities to provide further technical software support bug fixes compatibility adaptions etc themselves 95 96 e g by community patches or source ports to new computing platforms For instance in December 2015 Microsoft released the Windows Live Writer source code 97 to allow the community to continue the support Id Software and 3D Realms are early proponents in this practice releasing the source code for the game engines of some older titles under a free software license but not the actual game content such as levels or textures Also Falcon 4 0 s lead designer Kevin Klemmick argued in 2011 that availability of the source code of his software for the community was a good thing I honestly think this source code release should be standard procedure for companies that decide not to continue to support a code base Kevin Klemmick interviewed by Bertolone Giorgio March 12 2011 Interview with Kevin Klemmick Lead Software Engineer for Falcon 4 0 Cleared To Engage Archived from the original on March 18 2011 Retrieved August 31 2014 The chilling effect of drawing a possible lawsuit can discourage release of source code Efforts to persuade IBM to release OS 2 as open source software were ignored 98 since some of the code was co developed by Microsoft Nevertheless several notable examples of successfully opened commercial software exist for instance the web browser Netscape Communicator which was released by Netscape Communications on March 31 1998 99 The development was continued under the umbrella of the Mozilla Foundation and Netscape Communicator became the basis of several browsers such as Mozilla Firefox 100 Another important example for open sourced general software is the office suite StarOffice which was released by Sun Microsystems in October 2000 as OpenOffice org 101 and is in continued development as LibreOffice and Apache OpenOffice There are also many examples in the video game domain Revolution Software released their game Beneath a Steel Sky as freeware and gave the engine s source code to the authors of ScummVM to add support for the game Other examples are Myth II 102 Call to Power II 103 and Microsoft s Allegiance 96 which were released to allow the community to continue the support Museums EditMuseums whether physical or virtual provide a legal means for preserving what otherwise is an orphan work 2 WinWorld Edit WinWorld is an online museum that contains information about old computers and the software that was used with them 104 105 The website also has screenshots and downloadable copies of old software 106 107 Vintage Computer VCF Edit Vintage Computer Federation also promotes the preservation of obsolete computers 108 See also EditList of commercial games released as freeware List of commercial software with available source code List of commercial video games with available source code Orphaned technology Out of print Software archaeology Software release life cycleReferences Edit How abandonware works How Stuff Works June 15 2015 Retrieved January 19 2019 a b Greg Costkyan May 18 2000 New Front in the Copyright Wars Out of Print Computer Games The New York Times Krauth Kosta November 2005 Abandonware Princess Maker 2 PC Zone No 160 a b EDN Museum embarcadero com Archived from the original on February 22 2009 Retrieved August 22 2016 The Unofficial CP M Web Site www cpm z80 de Archived from the original on February 3 2016 Retrieved December 23 2015 PL I modernization Agnello Anthony John February 19 2014 Nothing Lasts Forever Confronting the Problem of Video Game Preservation usgamer net Archived from the original on July 2 2015 Retrieved July 10 2015 Andersen John January 27 2011 Where Games Go To Sleep The Game Preservation Crisis Part 1 Gamasutra Archived from the original on April 22 2013 Retrieved January 10 2013 Ciolek Todd October 17 2012 Among the Missing Notable Games Lost to Time 1up com Archived from the original on October 26 2015 Retrieved June 19 2015 Barenblat Adam July 25 2008 Sega Can t Find The Source Code For Your Favorite Old School Arcade Games Kotaku Archived from the original on December 20 2013 Retrieved December 1 2013 Sterling Jim May 28 2012 Silent Hill HD was made from incomplete code Destructoid Archived from the original on October 16 2013 Retrieved April 13 2022 Oh my Silent Hill HD Collections Sucked Because Konami Lost The Source Code Game Overviews May 28 2012 Retrieved April 13 2022 Kingdom Hearts 1 Data Is Lost Square Had To Recreate Everything For HD Siliconera June 15 2013 Archived from the original on January 1 2017 Retrieved April 13 2022 Schreier Jason July 7 2017 Nobody Can Find The Source Code For Icewind Dale II Kotaku Retrieved October 5 2021 Parrish Kevin July 7 2009 Atari 7800 Source Code Rescued Atari released the source code for the 7800 console and games tomsguide com Archived from the original on April 22 2014 Retrieved January 9 2012 7800 Games amp Development atari museum com 2009 Archived from the original on July 6 2009 Retrieved January 9 2012 Kuchera Ben March 17 2014 Finding treasures in the code Why the source code of classic games matters even to non coders polygon com Archived from the original on March 20 2014 Retrieved March 20 2014 a b c The Abandonware Ring FAQ The Official Abandonware Ring 2006 Archived from the original on March 28 2007 Retrieved August 22 2016 Permissions on lemon64 com Mr Chip MF DL on c64gg com archived Gremlin Graphics World Archived from the original on April 2 2016 Retrieved April 23 2016 Games on Amiga Forever The following is a list of the major sites which include thousands of downloadable Amiga games with permission of the copyright holders Amiga Future Amigaland Ami Sector One Back to the Roots Borrowed Time Dream17 Gremlin Graphics World Games Coffer world of spectrum gets a visit from the idsa Archived May 31 2012 at the Wayback Machine on slashdot org Games anti piracy bot fingers ZX Spectrum archive site Archived May 7 2010 at the Wayback Machine on theregister com by John Lettice 7 Mar 2003 ARCHIVE COPYRIGHTS AND DISTRIBUTION PERMISSIONS Archived April 17 2016 at the Wayback Machine on worldofspectrum org Cases filed against World of Spectrum IDSA DMCA 922932 14 2 2003 result case retracted ARCHIVE DISTRIBUTION PERMISSIONS SOFTWARE HOUSES on worldofspectrum org The Internet Archive Classic Software Preservation Project Internet Archive Archived from the original on October 19 2007 Retrieved October 21 2007 Internet Archive Gets DMCA Exemption To Help Archive Vintage Software Archived from the original on October 20 2007 Retrieved October 21 2007 Library of Congress Copyright Office October 28 2009 Exemption to Prohibition on Circumvention of Copyright Protection Systems for Access Control Technologies PDF Federal Register 27 206 55137 55139 Archived PDF from the original on December 2 2009 Retrieved December 17 2009 Library of Congress Copyright Office November 27 2006 Exemption to Prohibition on Circumvention of Copyright Protection Systems for Access Control Technologies Federal Register 71 227 68472 68480 Archived from the original on November 1 2007 Retrieved October 21 2007 Computer programs and video games distributed in formats that have become obsolete and that require the original media or hardware as a condition of access when circumvention is accomplished for the purpose of preservation or archival reproduction of published digital works by a library or archive A format shall be considered obsolete if the machine or system necessary to render perceptible a work stored in that format is no longer manufactured or is no longer reasonably available in the commercial marketplace Robertson Adi October 25 2013 The Internet Archive puts Atari games and obsolete software directly in your browser The Verge Archived from the original on October 27 2013 Retrieved October 29 2013 Ohlheiser Abby January 5 2015 You can now play nearly 2 400 MS DOS video games in your browser Washington Post Archived from the original on January 7 2015 Retrieved January 8 2015 Each New Boot a Miracle Archived January 9 2015 at the Wayback Machine by Jason Scott December 23 2014 collection softwarelibrary msdos Archived June 28 2015 at the Wayback Machine in the Internet Archive December 29 2014 Graft Kris March 5 2015 Saving video game history begins right now Gamasutra Archived from the original on March 7 2015 Retrieved March 5 2015 Internet Archive s Terms of Use Privacy Policy and Copyright Policy December 31 2014 Archived from the original on January 3 2015 Retrieved January 8 2015 Access to the Archive s Collections is provided at no cost to you and is granted for scholarship and research purposes only Chaplin Heather March 12 2007 Is That Just Some Game No It s a Cultural Artifact The New York Times Archived from the original on November 7 2016 Retrieved September 27 2013 Joseph Bernstein October 27 2014 Meet The Men Trying To Immortalize Video Games BuzzFeed Archived from the original on March 23 2016 Retrieved August 22 2016 Owens Trevor September 26 2012 Yes The Library of Congress Has Video Games An Interview with David Gibson blogs loc gov Archived from the original on March 31 2014 Retrieved January 18 2013 dave gibson on nodontdie com March 18 2016 Trevor Owens August 6 2014 Duke s Legacy Video Game Source Disc Preservation at the Library of Congress Archived August 13 2014 at the Wayback Machine Library of Congress Library of Congress discovers unreleased Duke Nukem game Archived August 13 2014 at the Wayback Machine on eurogamer net Starr Michelle August 6 2014 Unreleased Duke Nukem source code found at Library of Congress cnet com Archived from the original on August 11 2014 Retrieved August 12 2014 A cache of recently acquired video games at the Library of Congress turned up a true find the source code for unreleased PSP game Duke Nukem Critical Mass Dyson Jon Paul C October 13 2010 ICHEG s Approach to Collecting and Preserving Video Games museumofplay org Archived from the original on August 26 2014 Retrieved August 22 2014 Nutt Christian December 16 2013 Strategic Simulations Inc founder donates company collection to ICHEG Gamasutra Archived from the original on May 11 2014 Retrieved December 22 2013 Dyson Jon Paul C December 16 2013 The Strategic Simulations Inc Collection ICHEG Archived from the original on December 24 2013 Retrieved December 22 2013 Tach Dave March 4 2014 Broderbund founder donates collection including Myst Prince of Persia to Museum of Play polygon com Archived from the original on June 12 2014 Retrieved August 13 2014 Good Owen S April 22 2014 Museum acquires virtually complete source code from Atari s arcade heyday polygon com Archived from the original on August 19 2014 Retrieved August 13 2014 A Museum Just Acquired 22 Pallets of Atari History Archived July 1 2015 at the Wayback Machine on giantbomb com by Patrick Klepek April 30 2014 MacPaint and QuickDraw Source Code Computer History Museum July 20 2010 Archived from the original on August 22 2012 Hesseldahl Erik July 20 2010 Apple Donates MacPaint Source Code To Computer History Museum businessweek com Archived from the original on February 9 2012 The quest to save today s gaming history from being lost forever Ars Technica June 1 2015 Archived from the original on January 17 2016 Retrieved January 17 2016 Jobs sent a one line e mail saying it was a good idea and it was done the next day Spicer recalled Having an internal advocate is key Shustek Len October 10 2012 The APL Programming Language Source Code computerhistory org Archived from the original on October 7 2013 Retrieved October 15 2013 Bishop Bryan February 14 2013 Adobe releases original Photoshop source code for nostalgic developers theverge com Archived from the original on January 17 2014 Retrieved October 15 2013 Adobe Photoshop Source Code CHM Blog Computer History Museum www computerhistory org Archived from the original on May 7 2014 Shustek Len March 24 2014 Microsoft Word for Windows Version 1 1a Source Code Archived from the original on March 28 2014 Retrieved March 29 2014 Levin Roy March 25 2014 Microsoft makes source code for MS DOS and Word for Windows available to public Official Microsoft Blog Archived from the original on July 21 2014 Retrieved March 29 2014 NB While the author and publishers claim the package would include MS DOS 1 1 and 2 0 it actually contains SCP MS DOS 1 25 and a mixture of files from Altos MS DOS 2 11 and TeleVideo PC DOS 2 11 McJones Paul October 21 2014 Xerox Alto Source Code The roots of the modern personal computer Software Gems The Computer History Museum Historical Source Code Series Computer History Museum Archived from the original on January 2 2015 Retrieved January 8 2015 With the permission of the Palo Alto Research Center the Computer History Museum is pleased to make available for non commercial use only snapshots of Alto source code executables documentation font files and other files from 1975 to 1987 European Computer and Video Game Archives and Museums Joining Forces to Preserve Gaming Legacy Archived January 18 2016 at the Wayback Machine computerspielemuseum de on March 26 2012 British Library starts videogame website archive project Archived January 18 2016 at the Wayback Machine on independent co uk by David Crookes February 13 2012 Professor races against time to preserve Japan s video game culture Archived January 18 2016 at the Wayback Machine by TAKAFUMI YABUKI September 22 2013 Moore Bo May 30 2013 All Hell Broke Loose Why MoMA Is Exhibiting Tetris and Pac Man Wired wired com Archived from the original on September 8 2015 Retrieved January 18 2016 The end goal is to acquire the game s original source code which can be quite difficult to pry away from secretive gamemakers If that s not possible at first Antonelli at least wants to wedge her foot in the door We re going to stay with them forever she said They re not going to get rid of us And one day we ll get that code BIG NEWS Wing Commander I Source Code Archived wcnews com August 26 2011 Archived from the original on November 9 2013 Retrieved January 14 2013 Thanks to an extremely kind donation from an anonymous former EA Origin developer the source code to the PC version of Wing Commander I is now preserved in our offline archive Because of our agreement with Electronic Arts we re not allowed to post recovered source code for download but rest easy knowing that the C files that started it all are being kept safe for future reference Our offline archive contains material that has been preserved but which can t be posted including other source code and budget data from several of the games Wing Commander III The Source Code wcnews com September 13 2011 Archived from the original on December 3 2013 Retrieved January 14 2013 As we celebrate Wing Commander III s first widespread retail availability since the late 1990s we would like to mention for anyone that we have the game s source code in our offline archive We know it s frustrating for fans who could do amazing things with this to read these updates but it s also in everyone s best interests to remind EA that we have the raw material from which they could port Wing Commander III to a modern computer or console Just let us know Wing Commander IV Source Code wcnews com April 3 2012 Archived from the original on November 9 2013 Retrieved January 14 2013 As with Wing Commander I and Wing Commander III we are pleased to announced that an extremely kind former EA Origin employee has provided a copy of the Wing Commander IV source code for our preservation efforts We can t offer it for download at this time but it is now preserved for future use WtF Dragon November 26 2014 Ultima 9 The Source Code ultima codex Archived from the original on November 25 2015 Retrieved October 28 2015 As we continue to mark the occasion of Ultima 9 s fifteenth anniversary I m pleased to announced that the seemingly dormant Ultima Source Code Offline Archival Project USCOAP has finally borne some fruit the Ultima Codex has added the source code for Ultima 9 to its offline archive Voyager April 8 2007 Ultima The Reconstruction Fanpatches reconstruction voyd net Archived from the original on May 11 2013 Retrieved May 28 2011 Fan patches are those packages released by an Ultima fan to either repair bugs in a game that were never fixed by Origin solve platform compatibility issues or enhance the gaming experience Sines Shawn January 8 2008 Fallout 2 Restoration Project gamefront com Archived from the original on October 13 2013 Retrieved April 3 2011 Meer Alec July 15 2011 Undying Vampire Bloodlines Patched Anew Rock Paper Shotgun Archived from the original on May 10 2014 Retrieved August 2 2011 Bloodlines was essentially abandoned by its publisher after its developer closed a few months after release but the fans have just kept on going fixing things improving things digging up locked away extra content Dirscherl Hans Christian November 29 2005 Nicht tot zu kriegen Win 98 Service Pack 2 1 in German PCWelt de Archived from the original on October 12 2013 Retrieved January 10 2013 Einige Informationen zu diesem kuriosen Update Pack Da Microsoft nie ein Servicepack fur Windows 98 SE Zweite Ausgabe herausgebracht hat hat ein Programmierer aus der Turkei kurzerhand sein eigenes Servicepack fur Windows 98 SE Anwender erstellt Es beinhaltet alle Windows 98 SE Updates von der Windows Update Seite und weitere Updates sowie Verbesserungen https msfn org board topic 183216 bwc windows 2000 extended kernel version v30i released 120122 https archive org details windows xp SP4 GPGNet Services Update 2 GPGnet has been shutdown Archived September 3 2014 at the Wayback Machine on gaspowered com Hafer T J November 19 2012 Community made Forged Alliance Forever keeps Supreme Commander multiplayer alive PC Gamer Archived from the original on September 3 2014 Retrieved August 28 2014 The official multiplayer servers for Supreme Commander Forged Alliance have been decommissioned for a while now but fortunately the community driven Forged Alliance Forever has emerged Forged Alliance Forever official site Retrieved August 25 2013 Editorial staff June 2013 Forging On Supreme Commander has returned a changed game preview PC Gamer 240 86 87 Thursten Chris March 27 2013 PC gamer pod cast 87 PC Gamer Archived from the original on November 3 2013 Retrieved August 25 2013 You re in charge From vital patches to game cancellations players are often intimately involved Archived November 4 2016 at the Wayback Machine by Christian Donlan on Eurogamer Supreme Commander fans released Forged Alliance Forever and gave the game the online client it could otherwise only dream of I haven t played it much but I still got a tear in my eye when I read about the extents these coders had gone to There s nothing quite so wonderful to witness as love and this is surely love of the very purest order SupCom guys resurrect a series whose publisher had just gone under 2013 11 02 Walker John November 21 2007 RPS Exclusive Gabe Newell Interview Rock Paper Shotgun Archived from the original on May 12 2014 Retrieved January 10 2013 Gabe The worst days for game development were the cartridge days for the NES It was a huge risk you had all this money tied up in silicon in a warehouse somewhere and so you d be conservative in the decisions you felt you could make very conservative in the IPs you signed your art direction would not change and so on Now it s the opposite extreme we can put something up on Steam deliver it to people all around the world make changes We can take more interesting risks On Steam there s no shelf space restriction It s great because they re a bunch of old orphaned games Caron Frank September 9 2008 First look GOG revives classic PC games for download age Ars Technica Archived from the original on September 12 2011 Retrieved December 27 2012 Good Old Games focuses on bringing old time tested games into the downloadable era with low prices and no DRM Bennet Tom September 16 2015 How GOG com Save And Restore Classic Videogames rockpapershotgun com Archived from the original on January 22 2016 Retrieved January 22 2016 Preservation of old games involves more than just an extra patch The journey from dusty unplayable relic to polished cross platform installer is a minefield of technical and legal obstacles The team at Good Old Games remain the industry leaders in the restoration of classic PC games tasked with reverse engineering code written more than 20 years ago Source and game code is an extremely rare commodity for us explains Paczynski Older titles have often gone through so many different hands that no one knows who has the original code anymore or it no longer exists in any usable form With source files lost forever the team s only recourse is to retrofit retail code taken from a boxed copy of the game GOG com December 9 2013 Classic Gem Promo Conquest Frontier Wars CD Projekt Archived from the original on September 13 2016 Retrieved August 31 2014 Conquest Frontier Wars on GOG Archived September 3 2014 at the Wayback Machine on robertsspaceindustries com Hollaar Lee 2002 Copyright of Computer Programs Archived from the original on July 11 2008 Retrieved August 7 2008 Saltzman Marc 2002 Flashbacks For Free The Skinny On Abandonware gamespot com p 4 Archived from the original on 2006 Retrieved December 29 2012 Saltzman Marc 2002 Flashbacks For Free The Skinny On Abandonware gamespot com p 4 Archived from the original on 2006 Retrieved December 29 2012 Saltzman Marc 2002 Flashbacks For Free The Skinny On Abandonware gamespot com p 5 Archived from the original on 2006 Retrieved December 29 2012 Hirtle Peter B November 2003 Digital Preservation and Copyright Thesis Cornell University hdl 1813 53 Miller Ross US Copyright Office grants abandonware rights Archived from the original on January 28 2008 Retrieved January 2 2008 Exemption to Prohibition on Circumvention of Copyright Protection Systems for Access Control Technologies Archived September 28 2012 at the Wayback Machine by LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Copyright Office 37 CFR Part 201 Docket No RM 2002 4E October 2003 U S Copyright Office Anticircumvention Rulemaking www copyright gov Archived from the original on November 23 2013 Boyes Emma November 27 2006 Abandonware now legal Changes in copyright rules let gamers break copy protection on old games in some circumstances GameSpot com Archived from the original on March 25 2014 Retrieved January 11 2013 King Brad January 19 2002 Abandonware Dead Games Live On Wired Archived from the original on October 25 2012 Retrieved April 2 2007 Maier Henrike 2015 Games as Cultural Heritage Copyright Challenges for Preserving Orphan Video Games in the EU PDF JIPITEC Humboldt Universitat zu Berlin p 120 Archived PDF from the original on January 18 2016 Retrieved January 18 2016 Lawson Cliff August 31 1999 Amstrad ROM permissions comp sys amstrad 8bit Retrieved January 19 2013 1 What exactly do you have to do to use Sinclair ROMs in an emulator such as acknowledgements etc Amstrad are happy for emulator writers to include images of our copyrighted code as long as the c opyright messages are not altered and we appreciate it if the program manual includes a note to the effect that Amstrad have kindly given their permission for the redistribution of their copyrighted material but retain that copyright CDN Museum borland com Archived from the original on July 25 2008 Retrieved December 29 2012 Vectrex System History The Mini Arcade Vectrex Museum Archived from the original on December 7 2013 Retrieved June 21 2014 Savetz Kevin September 17 2001 Can Abandonware Revive Forgotten Programs byte com Archived from the original on February 13 2012 Retrieved March 8 2007 Moore Bo March 27 2015 Lost in limbo on the hunt for PC gaming s abandoned classics PC Games Archived from the original on May 6 2015 Retrieved May 1 2015 The saga of No One Lives Forever s resurrection has been a rollercoaster of ups and downs The problem was it was just the trademark no one was quite sure who held the game s copyright Digging into dead or forgotten IPs is tough work These games came from an era when big name publishing was the only model for success Even though many of the games on this list were made by small dedicated studios they still relied on companies like EA to get to market But as studios were swallowed or shut down the rights of their beloved games often got lost in the shuffle It s unfortunate that so many of them are still lost today simply due to the apathy of the rights holder g4tv staff May 30 2011 The Lost History of System Shock g4tv com Archived from the original on January 13 2013 Retrieved May 30 2012 Looking Glass Studios closed in 2000 a year after System Shock 2 s release and the copyright to the series went into the hands of an insurance company That left EA with only the System Shock name but no actual development rights Largent Andy October 8 2003 Homeworld Source Code Released insidemacgames com Archived from the original on October 12 2013 Retrieved November 24 2012 With the release of Homeworld 2 for the PC Relic Entertainment has decided to give back to their impressive fan community by releasing the source code to the original Homeworld a b Colayco Bob February 6 2004 Microsoft pledges Allegiance to its fanbase gamespot com Archived from the original on December 10 2013 Retrieved July 22 2011 The release of the source code came in response to the enthusiasm of Allegiance s small but dedicated fanbase Microsoft s Joel Dehlin commented that the development team has been amazed at the level to which some of the Allegiance fans have remained hard core We re astounded at the progress that has been made at creating new factions hosting new servers replacing authentication etc It seems that Allegiance hasn t really died With that in mind we re releasing the Allegiance source code to the community Microsoft open sources Live Writer beloved but abandoned blogging tool Archived June 12 2016 at the Wayback Machine by Peter Bright on Ars Technica Opening the app means that it ll get some much needed maintenance 2015 Reed Michael February 7 2008 I m Glad That IBM Declined to Release the OS 2 Source OSNews LLC Archived from the original on February 21 2014 Retrieved May 30 2012 NETSCAPE ANNOUNCES PLANS TO MAKE NEXT GENERATION COMMUNICATOR SOURCE CODE AVAILABLE FREE ON THE NET Netscape Communications Corporation January 22 1998 Archived from the original on April 1 2007 Retrieved August 8 2013 BOLD MOVE TO HARNESS CREATIVE POWER OF THOUSANDS OF INTERNET DEVELOPERS COMPANY MAKES NETSCAPE NAVIGATOR AND COMMUNICATOR 4 0 IMMEDIATELY FREE FOR ALL USERS SEEDING MARKET FOR ENTERPRISE AND NETCENTER BUSINESSES MOUNTAIN VIEW Calif April 1 PRNewswire Netscape Communications and open source developers are celebrating the first anniversary March 31 1999 of the release of Netscape s browser source code to mozilla org Netscape Communications March 31 1999 Archived from the original on March 26 2014 Retrieved January 10 2013 The organization that manages open source developers working on the next generation of Netscape s browser and communication software This event marked a historical milestone for the Internet as Netscape became the first major commercial software company to open its source code a trend that has since been followed by several other corporations Since the code was first published on the Internet thousands of individuals and organizations have downloaded it and made hundreds of contributions to the software Mozilla org is now celebrating this one year anniversary with a party Thursday night in San Francisco Proffitt Brian October 13 2000 StarOffice Code Released in Largest Open Source Project linuxtoday com Archived from the original on October 16 2013 Retrieved January 10 2013 Sun s joint effort with CollabNet kicked into high gear on the OpenOffice Web site at 5 a m PST this morning with the release of much of the source code for the upcoming 6 0 version of StarOffice According to Sun this release of 9 million lines of code under GPL is the beginning of the largest open source software project ever Wen Howard June 10 2004 Keeping the Myths Alive linuxdevcenter com Archived from the original on April 6 2013 Retrieved December 22 2012 fans of the Myth trilogy have taken this idea a step further they have official access to the source code for the Myth games Organized under the name MythDevelopers this all volunteer group of programmers artists and other talented people devote their time to improving and supporting further development of the Myth game series Bell John October 1 2009 Opening the Source of Art Technology Innovation Management Review Archived from the original on March 30 2014 Retrieved December 30 2012 that no further patches to the title would be forthcoming The community was predictably upset Instead of giving up on the game users decided that if Activision wasn t going to fix the bugs they would They wanted to save the game by getting Activision to open the source so it could be kept alive beyond the point where Activision lost interest With some help from members of the development team that were active on fan forums they were eventually able to convince Activision to release Call to Power II s source code in October of 2003 Home winworldpc com WinWorld online museum of vintage abandoned and pre release software Y Combinator company 2018 example Crosstalk XVI released 1982 predecessor to Crosstalk Mk 4 Crosstalk XVI 3 3x WinWorld WinWorld Safe Need Kaypro 2000 DOS 3 21 July 4 2017 Archived from the original on February 24 2020 Vintage Computer Festival Purpose Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Abandonware amp oldid 1134911538, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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