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Are websites like old-games.com piracy?


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My wife and I were discussing games of our youth, and of course I'm going to bring up my favorite game, the game that started it all for me: The Faery Tale Adventure. While I was looking for screenshots, I discovered that the game had a sequel: Halls of the Dead. While looking for screenshots of that, I found a place where I could download all of my old favorites; old-games.com. But there's no download fee, no membership fee. Please pardon my noobish question, but isn't that piracy? I'd love to play the sequel that I feel slight shame for not knowing the existence of, but if downloading it for free is piracy, I sure as heck am not going to be one of those gamers. 

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5 hours ago, Gilberticus said:

My wife and I were discussing games of our youth, and of course I'm going to bring up my favorite game, the game that started it all for me: The Faery Tale Adventure. While I was looking for screenshots, I discovered that the game had a sequel: Halls of the Dead. While looking for screenshots of that, I found a place where I could download all of my old favorites; old-games.com. But there's no download fee, no membership fee. Please pardon my noobish question, but isn't that piracy? I'd love to play the sequel that I feel slight shame for not knowing the existence of, but if downloading it for free is piracy, I sure as heck am not going to be one of those gamers. 

It depends on whether it is considered 'abandonware' or whether the owners refuse to allow it to be released as abandonware. I had a quick look at old-games.com and some of their games are abandonware, but some aren't. So I would say it is up to you whether you download a particular game from there or not. Difficult choices mate and not necessarily any definitive answer. My personal opinion would be to see if you can buy the game from the owners, if not then download. I f you can buy then I wouldn't download as it is probably pirating.

Edited by podgie_bear
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Good to know, thank you for the response. Hmm, I think it's better to err on the side of caution. A few of my customers have told me "no, man, go for it!" but these are the same people that I argue rockhounding rights about. If you're out in the wilderness or a field or anywhere else that you don't personally own, you can't just go pocketing everything you find. It doesn't matter if it's gold, fossils, minerals, or even a grubby sandstone; if the land doesn't belong to you, it belongs to somebody (atleast in my neck of the woods). Unless that land's specifically designated as a free spot for us to rockhound, it means we just stole. Should I be able to steal if it's unclear of who the property owner is, or if the property owner isn't there to tell me not to take it? What if the property owner died and the county/next of kin hasn't claimed the land yet; does that mean I can just strip the property of anything cool that I find in the dirt? What if the property owner is unaware of the object's worth? Or, what if the property owner is unaware that it exists on their property? Should I be able to pilfer a plowed field just because the farmer didn't check his field? Are any of these really "grey areas", or are some of us better at doing the mental gymnastics required to justify theft?

 

Anyway, thank you for the response, Podgie :)

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Downloading a game, which is not free, is not stealing in the same sense as stealing an object. The difference is: If you steal something, the owner does not have it anymore. That's not the case if you download. You do infringe on the copyright, but that's different for the law.

That said, the game you search for is in fact abandonware: http://www.abandonia.com/en/games/306/Faery+Tale+Adventure+II+-+Halls+of+the+Dead.html

Abandonia is a serious website, which is around for decades. They can be trusted for their classifications as abandonware.

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I agree about Abandonia, they have a good reputation for honesty. I know of games that they hosted as abandonware, but that GOG picked up the rights for and started selling. As soon as GOG did so, Abandonia took those games out of their catalogue and said that they were no longer abandonware and that they wouldn't carry them anymore.

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