Former commercial games released as Freeware

[amigapd]

Hi,

I was wondering if there is an accurate list of Amiga commercial games which have officially been classified now as Freeware (meaning they can be included on websites for download and freely exchanged as long as no profit is made from their distribution)

Adrian Cummunings has clarrifed the situation with his games from Mutation Software in his recent interview for my site http://www.amigapd.com/interview-adrian-cummings.html

I know Revolution games (Beneath a Steele Sky) is officially Freeware
http://www.revolution.co.uk/

The following publishers have sites for there games but it is unclear if they are now freeware:

Team 17 games are available on the Dream 17 fan site - unclear if 17 Bit games are freeware
http://www.dream17.info/downloads.php?cat=1

Cinemaware on games on the following site - but unclear if games are freeware
http://www.cinemaware.com/vault.asp?vault=games

Gremlin games now appear to be on this website - unclear if freeware as site states they have obtained permision only for themselves to distribute.
http://gremlinworld.emuunlim.com/amiga.htm

The following are available for free download but are not available as public domain.

Factor Five - games can be downloaded for free but are not available as Public Domain -
http://www.factor5.de/downloads.shtml

Apologies if this has been discussed before but I couldnt see a thread doing a quick search. The reason for starting this post is that I would like to add a section to my website which clarrifies the freeware situation of former commercial games.

If there are any programmers on the EAB site who would like to release their former commercial work as Freeware and would be interested in having a page dedicated to their work similar to the one for Adrian Cummings then please PM me. Thanks in advance.

[s2325]

http://translate.googleusercontent.c...6tYPFrL6SqdwyQ

[James]

Aqua:

http://aminet.net/search?query=Aqua_

Eat The Whistle:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/etw/...inary/3.0beta/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/etw/files/etw-data/3.0/

Genetic Species:

http://aminet.net/search?query=GS-FullGame

[Korodny]

Originally Posted by amigapd

I was wondering if there is an accurate list of Amiga commercial games which have officially been classified now as Freeware (meaning they can be included on websites for download and freely exchanged as long as no profit is made from their distribution)

There are only very few games which have been classified as "Freeware". In most cases, the publisher just gave one particular site (Back2Roots, Dream17, Aminet) permission to host the game. This does not mean that everybody else can distribute the game aswell.

I know this is nitpicking, but you asked

[James]

Fields Of Battle can be distributed anywhere according to the in-game registration info:

lha:

http://www.amigafuture.de/downloads....ail&df_id=3576

adf:

http://www.amigafuture.de/downloads....ail&df_id=3577

[antonvaltaz]

The website 'Amiga Flame' put together such a list, although as Korodny points out most of these games were only given permission to be downloaded from a particular website (the list points out which ones).

http://www.amigaflame.com/amiretro.htm

I don't know how up to date it is - the 'news' section of the website was last updated two years ago.

Interestingly, I thought that Ami Sector One had fully merged with Back To The Roots before it shut down, but there are many games listed here which were not transferred to Back To The Roots, including (it seems) most or all of Electronic Arts' back catalogue. Don't know if that's because EA had a change of heart, or what...

[amigapd]

Originally Posted by Korodny

There are only very few games which have been classified as "Freeware". In most cases, the publisher just gave one particular site (Back2Roots, Dream17, Aminet) permission to host the game. This does not mean that everybody else can distribute the game aswell.

I know this is nitpicking, but you asked

No that's fine - I am currently in contact with a couple of programmers who might be willing to release their work as Freeware - I will hopefully update over the next few weeks.


I think we now have three categories to work with:

Clearly stated Freeware -

Revolution games (Beneath a Steele Sky + Lure of the Temptress) is officially Freeware - I also have an email from Revolution games confirming this
http://www.revolution.co.uk/

Mutation Software

http://www.amigapd.com/interview-adrian-cummings.html

Fields Of Battle can be distributed anywhere according to the in-game registration info:

lha: http://www.amigafuture.de/downloads....ail&df_id=3576

adf:http://www.amigafuture.de/downloads....ail&df_id=3577

Aqua:

http://aminet.net/search?query=Aqua_


Free to download but the agreement is between the publisher and one specific website:

Team 17 games are available on the Dream 17 fan site - unclear if 17 Bit games are freeware
http://www.dream17.info/downloads.php?cat=1


Gremlin games now appear to be on this website - unclear if freeware as site states they have obtained permision only for themselves to distribute.
http://gremlinworld.emuunlim.com/amiga.htm

Core + some other companies are available exclusively from back2roots
http://www.back2roots.org/Disks/

I assume this is the correct category for S2325's link
http://translate.googleusercontent.c...6tYPFrL6SqdwyQ


Genetic Species Is this from Aminet only ??
http://aminet.net/package/game/actio/GS-FullGame01_



Only available to download for free from the publisher

Factor Five - games can be downloaded for free but are not available as Public Domain -
http://www.factor5.de/downloads.shtml

Eat The Whistle:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/etw/...inary/3.0beta/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/etw/files/etw-data/3.0/

Cinemaware on games on the following site - but unclear if games are freeware
http://www.cinemaware.com/vault.asp?vault=games

[Galahad/FLT]

Exile ECS version is allowed to be distributed, but that permission can be recalled at anytime by the original author.

As for EA giving free reign on their past Amiga back catalogue, I find that extraordinarily hard to believe, they don't give anything away.

[amigapd]

[quote=Galahad/FLT;753055]Exile ECS version is allowed to be distributed, but that permission can be recalled at anytime by the original author.

quote]

How do you know about Exile's distribution?

I tried contacting the Audiogenic via their website http://www.audiogenic.com/ but the contact email is not working

Interestingly the website would suggest they are still selling their original amiga titles - http://www.audiogenic.com/otheram.htm even though you currently can't contact them.

Update -
I am guessing this is the page refering to Exile's distribution

http://thunderpeel2001.com/exile/

I would love to interview Peter as I remember playing Exile on the BBC Micro which was the first computer I played on as a child - its amazing to think it was possilbe to do all the physics with 32K memory.

UPDATE 2
I have added a page to my website which will provide links to these freeware sites to make it easier for people looking for legal sites to download amiga games from http://www.amigapd.com/freeware.html - the aim of Amigapd is to still focus on public domain but whilst interviewing programmers if they are willing to make their work available as freeware then they will be included on the site - similar to Adrian Cummings page.

[Retro1234]

Originally Posted by amigapd

the aim of Amigapd is to still focus on public domain

Thats good news! I like that your site focuses on PD theres already loads of sites you can download commercial Amiga games/addonware, I dont think many would clase them as PD.

[ma693541]

@amigapd, check this out, looks that someone likes to steal other peoples hard work and ideas;

Amiga Future looks for copyright holders

As you all know we release full versions of commercial and shareware titles on the Amiga Future
homepage and the cover CD.

The type of software doesn't matter, i.e. games, applications, drivers or CDs. We want to preserve
all commercial titles.

To do this in a legal way we need the permission of the individual copyright holders.

The biggest problem is to find the copyright holders.

That's why we ask you to help.

Do you stay in contact to copyright holders of shareware or commercial software?
Do you know some in person or did you have contact with someone a short time ago?

Then please drop us an email at: (email deleted)

Also we look for someone who can help us establishing contacts to some italian, french and american
companies. This means ideally someone who has a origin there and could phone those companies.

(homepage deleted)

---

AndreasM

[antonvaltaz]

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

As for EA giving free reign on their past Amiga back catalogue, I find that extraordinarily hard to believe, they don't give anything away.

I'd have thought so too, but Exotica seem to have a mirror of the old Ami Sector One site and they're all listed as being legally available.

http://www.exotica.org.uk/mirrors/ami_sector_one/

Mind you Activision's old games are all listed as being legally free to download from BTTR, and I guess they'd be as unlikely as EA to give anything away.

Makes me wonder if the successor companies to other major publishers or developers who *aren't* on any of these lists (e.g. Ocean, Renegade, Psygnosis, Bitmap Brothers, Sensible Software) would release their games if asked. Also I wonder why some games from a company were released but not others (e.g. Hero Quest was released but not Hero Quest II).

[amigapd]

Originally Posted by antonvaltaz

Makes me wonder if the successor companies to other major publishers or developers who *aren't* on any of these lists (e.g. Ocean, Renegade, Psygnosis, Bitmap Brothers, Sensible Software) would release their games if asked. Also I wonder why some games from a company were released but not others (e.g. Hero Quest was released but not Hero Quest II).

Would be good if all publishers had a section for retro downloads like Cinemaware / Factor 5 - could be a useful marketing tool as they could gain a feel for which of their old games still have a loyal following and could be worth up dating for handhelds / mobiles or even a full update for the new consoles-

Wonder if reason for games not being included is that the original disk images are lost or corrupt - Seems mad that in a digital age we are prepared to lose digital media just due to a lack of effective archiving.

The page I ve added just list the webpage name and the publisher they have an agreement with to distribute the games - In an ideal world I would list the games as well but I still have to finish categorising the PD games as I ve only finished up to F and this is my main focus. I think however it is important to have a page clarrifying freeware / abandonware as I think most people don't fully appreciate the distinction and also I think it is better to direct people to sites which have taken the time to contact the publishers and obtain permission to host their games rather than support other sites which have just assumed it is ok to offer every single game for download.

[Galahad/FLT]

Ocean I think turn a blind eye, certainly on Oceans official site they don't seem to object, but I guess Infogrammes actually owns it all now so its technically they that have the final say.

[James]

Originally Posted by amigapd

Genetic Species Is this from Aminet only ??

According to HOL Genetic Species is freeware and is available on Megaupload and Back To The Roots too.

http://hol.abime.net/2716

Eat The Whistle is opensource and so should be freely distributable as long as the GPL licence is included...??

Sourcecode:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/etw/files/etw-sources/

[AndreasM]

Originally Posted by ma693541

@amigapd, check this out, looks that someone likes to steal other peoples hard work and ideas;

steal ideas?

we make this many years... nothing new

[protek]

Are the sanctioned game images original or cracked? Don't you need originals for WHDLoad?

[a1k3k]

Is there a site where some sort of list is kept for Amiga games and apps originally released commercially but are now officially re-released as freeware? Or that have had the blessing of the publisher/copyright holder for people to use without any moral qualms?

[a1k3k]

I did a bit of searching and came up with these so far:

https://www.exotica.org.uk/mirrors/a...one/g_dl_0.htm
http://dream17.abime.net/softography.php
http://gremlinworld.emuunlim.com/amiga.htm
http://gamescoffer.co.uk/amigagames.php
http://www.factor5.com/
https://www.amigafuture.de/app.php/dlext/index

[lilalurl]

The two above posts were merged with an older thread about the same topic.