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Old 19-02-2009, 08:25 AM   #32
TheChosen
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Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Lappeenranta, Finland
Posts: 2,236
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Time to raise this one back up, as the site is now offically dead.

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Love it or hate it, HotU was one of the (if not THE) most well-known Abandonware websites on the net. If you were looking for abandonware - HOTU had it. If you were looking for a massive archive with literally thousands of games to download and reviews to go with them - HotU had it. If you were looking for a rare or obscure title not found anywhere else on the internet... chances were HotU had it.
But over last three years HotU was dying a slow death, with no updates and the once-active community dwindling down until all that was left of it was the core of most die-hard supporters. In September last year the site went offline, only to return far diminished soon after, with none of the downloads or screenshots working anymore - reducing the once glorious abandonware archive to but a shadow of its former self.
A week ago, it went down again - and seems this time it's for good: according to a message posted by the site's owner on Twitter, it's webhost closed down due to bankrupcy, thus leaving HotU with no place to call home.
It's sad to see such an end for what was the best Abandonware site of - quite literally - the last decade.
Ladies and gentlemen, a minute of silence in the memory of the epic sprawl of gaming madness that was HotU.
I tried to google it around today, but got nothing. Usually when googling HOTU or Underdogs, its right up in the list, but now its gone. Even "Home of the Underdogs" now only gives sites where someone wrote about it.

However, several blogs have appearad, commenting on HOTU's demise. This really proofs that the site really meant something to people.

http://www.metafilter.com/79267/RIP-HotU
http://flashofsteel.com/index.php/2009/02/13/rip-hotu/

Notice how Abandonia gets mentioned too, as a "Next-best-thing-around" and "So called other Abandonware-site"

EDIT: Looking at further, I did found some google-linking to the site; To forum and to Gamebooks section. Still, google no more links up to the main site.
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