Yesterday, I was just going about my day when I looked over, and saw my brother playing Warcraft on his computer. This is Warcraft 1 we're talking about, not World of Warcraft, or even Warcraft 3. I didn't know it was even possible to play these games anymore. But, since I was proven wrong to my face, I decided to look into getting these games. Of course, the major question I had was whether it was legal to even get these games? Obviously, most of the games I had played in the past are no longer being sold (Lords of the Realm 2, Command and Conquer, Red Alert), but I wondered if it was ok for me to grab them from wherever I could find them. Thus, I began my research.
Almost immediately, I stumbled upon the wikipedia page for abandonware - software developed for obsolete software, which are no longer being supported or sold. While some titles are still technically under copyright, and so downloading them are actually considered copyright infringement, companies rarely enforce these rights. Simply put, technically, it is breaking the law, but no one cares.
On a related note, audio and video codec formats are also copyrighted material. This is why legitimate software which use them can be quite expensive. Thus, the open-source software (like Linux) which use these codecs are technically also violating copyright. However, because there is no profit being made, copyright holders don't enforce their copyright rights... Quite shocking, yes.
With that question out of the way, the next question was: where do I get these games? Does anyone even still care about them? Luckily for me, and for others who grew up playing computer games in the '90s, there seems to be wide support for these games. They definitely have not faded into obscurity. There are some people who have meticulously kept these games available. With an emulator like DosBox, which even works in Linux (not to mention Windows), I was happily reliving my past experiences conquering Europe in Lords of the Realm 2, which is a VERY good game, I might add. There is a whole aspect of economics in this game which is rarely found in war games. This game is very educational in teaching people about trade-offs, a concept for real life.
Anyhow, this is what I've been up to recently, in addition to the usual stuff that I do - develop WPF programs as a way to learn the language, read Life-studies and the Bible, and work out.
Almost immediately, I stumbled upon the wikipedia page for abandonware - software developed for obsolete software, which are no longer being supported or sold. While some titles are still technically under copyright, and so downloading them are actually considered copyright infringement, companies rarely enforce these rights. Simply put, technically, it is breaking the law, but no one cares.
On a related note, audio and video codec formats are also copyrighted material. This is why legitimate software which use them can be quite expensive. Thus, the open-source software (like Linux) which use these codecs are technically also violating copyright. However, because there is no profit being made, copyright holders don't enforce their copyright rights... Quite shocking, yes.
With that question out of the way, the next question was: where do I get these games? Does anyone even still care about them? Luckily for me, and for others who grew up playing computer games in the '90s, there seems to be wide support for these games. They definitely have not faded into obscurity. There are some people who have meticulously kept these games available. With an emulator like DosBox, which even works in Linux (not to mention Windows), I was happily reliving my past experiences conquering Europe in Lords of the Realm 2, which is a VERY good game, I might add. There is a whole aspect of economics in this game which is rarely found in war games. This game is very educational in teaching people about trade-offs, a concept for real life.
Anyhow, this is what I've been up to recently, in addition to the usual stuff that I do - develop WPF programs as a way to learn the language, read Life-studies and the Bible, and work out.
Written on April 26, 2010