This actually makes a lot of sense. If none of these companies are willing to claim ownership of the IP, then “pirating” the games has no risk… since nobody is willing to claim ownership of the IP. Well played!
Also, I’m stoked to play these games! I never did when they came out but the reviews were so good I wanted to.
The term for this is “abandonware”
Not really. There’s a lot of abandonware where the IP holders still pull out the lawyers.
ehhh i hear you, “abandonware” can be defined as “software which is no longer supported or updated”, but that is a very broad definition. I think one could also define abandonware as “software which is no longer supported or updated, and which has no clear IP owner anymore”, and I think that that is the colloquial definition for a lot of people. I think we need a new word for one of these two definitions.
I propose “orphanware” for that subset of abandonware that has no clear owner.
Consistent with the broader term “orphan work”.
Fair point. I think there needs to be a legal definition of IP’s that no longer have a claimant and therefore go public domain by default. If nobody can show ownership then nobody owns it.
lord, if only we lived in a world where things made sense…
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It’s in the name after all. “No one lives forever”. Ironic.
I know it was very original and different back in the day, but is it really one of the “best game ever”?
Everything is of course subjective. But it was a unique concept and execution. With solid gameplay and decent graphics in an era known for originating the boomer shooter and all its clones.
If you crave run and gun, probably not. But if you enjoy the kitschy, retro James Bond, Secret Agent aesthetic. And very early, but decent female protagonist. It’s a lot of fun.
The writing, setting and concept were charming and the art direction is good which means despite being polygonally challenged I don’t mind the way it looks. Great soundtrack too. That being said I tried playing it earlier this year for the first time and it just struck me as one of those games that have aged like fine milk mechanically. It really really wants you to be a stealthy spy sneaking around and being non-lethal yet the stealth gameplay felt terrible, and going guns blazing wasn’t particularly fun either as gunplay in these old games is hard for me to enjoy having gotten used to modern FPSes. And it doesn’t help that the guns blazing approach forces you to listen to a constant soundtrack of blaring alarms, which frankly was hard for me to deal with.
I couldn’t make myself finish it despite really wanting to be able to say I’ve played it, but maybe I’ll give it another go some day. At least I don’t think it’s all that long.
polygonally challenged
(⁀ᗢ⁀)
I always enjoy reading your comments!
That can definitely be said about a lot of classics from that era. Things have changed a lot since then for better and for worse. It’s an absolutely unique experience, though. I would love to see a more modern take on it if it were possible.
For me in general I think FPS games have aged the worst. There is such a big part of the pleasure that comes from animations, gunplay, recoil implementation, enemy AI, ragdolls, hit effects… I have a much easier time playing something like Fallout 1&2 - which are even older but have mechanics that are more timeless.
But yeah it was definitely a time in gaming where technological advancements felt like they were happening at an exponentially increasing pace. Comparing games from 2000 with just a few years later is like night and day. Splinter Cell came out only two years after NOLF and that’s a stealth game that’s aged spectacularly. And even Monolith’s own F.E.A.R. came out in 2005 and feels like one of the first truly modern shooters - one that still really holds up well.
Sometimes you are in the cult of a cult classic, and so that game feels like one of the best ever. I will still come out and say the same about my old faves, like Guild Wars 1 or Phantom Dust. I exaggerate to express how good I think these games were!
20 years for Most Wanted too. Can’t buy this legendary game anywhere, yarr.
The website they link to really needs https. There’s no reason not to have it since it’s free nowadays. Seems dodgy not to have it.
It really doesn’t, on a technical level.
You’re not sending them any data. None that they send you is unique to you. There’s no real benefit in encrypting it.
None that they send you is unique to you.
By not transporting via https you can not be sure about that, because you can’t be sure it’s them sending you the data.
An injecting proxy could add ads, or scams to the content.
It may not make a difference on the sending end, but it does on the receiving end.
There’s no real benefit in encrypting it.
When you request a website over http your ISP can intercept the request (this is how captive portals for free WiFi work, and the reason for the existence of pages like captive.apple.com to be HTTP-only). IIRC they can also insert whatever they want to on the web page, I believe there was a case a while back of ISPs doing that.
Oh, right. I forgot American ISPs are allowed to pull shit like that. I don’t think this would fly where I live. I also don’t use public WiFi, because why would I even
Eh, just pirate it.
That is the implicit message of the article.
Malware check please!
Hopefully the people behind GOG can figure out a way to bring these back in a legal manner :)
