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@darth When you borrow only one person can play the game at a time .So it doesnt take away from sales. When people pirate there is no such limitation and thus discourages purchases.
@freemo @darth I agree with that statement, however what I don't get is when companies who released games 20 years ago try to clamp down on people sharing them as abandon ware. That really is a victimless crime because the game is not on sale anymore. If someone is selling copies of abandon ware though that is a different matter. They're profiting from someone else's work.
Depends on the game. There are plenty of super old games still being sold and making money off of that have been refreshed for new platforms (even with no visual changes).
Now i know there is some abandonware that hasnt been sold in decades, but I would image the idea is that at some point someone might revive them but if the games are free then they loose that opportunity.
@freemo @davespice @darth Yeah that's not abandonware then, by definition. =) Abandonware is software that isn't being sold, never mind updated for modern platforms, and doesn't look like it'll see a revival because e.g. the company went out of business a decade or two ago.
You can buy a lot more old *stuff* these days on GOG or Steam or whatever, so there's a lot less abandonware than there used to be. Heck, I just rebought Earth 2150, and am loving playing through it again!
If it is abandonware as you describe it (the owning company no longer exists) then it is free and unrestricted to download and you cant get in trouble for it.
Only the person who owns the software can sue you or file a claim against you.
Im the creator of the original distributed network for rom exchange back in the day.
@freemo @AGTMADCAT @darth Nice one, I only recently realised one of the underlying functions of emulators when I started getting into repairing retro hardware. Especially with jamma arcade boards sometimes you need to test the romset in MAME, or at least bitwise compare them to the MAME versions to check for corruption. Some arcade boards have been saved by piecing together the romset from various different machines that way. It's a real essential tool for keeping things alive.
@freemo @davespice @darth Depends on the country, but I'm theory yes! Sometimes a chain of companies bought up the IP or distribution licenses when the company was liquidated, and it becomes more complicated legally. It can be a mess sometimes.
If a company bought it up then that means its not abandonware. Someone owns the rights still and therefore may wish to resell it as a remake in the future.
@freemo @AGTMADCAT @darth and this brings the discussion neatly to... Emulator ROMS! Dan dan daaaaaaahhhhnnn!!!