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[Juanca]

Originally Posted by The Fifth Horseman

Where did you hear those rumours, Juanca?
At the moment all we know is that it's down.
AFAIK there has been so statement from Sarinee (alias Underdogs, ie the site's founder) or any crew members on the matter yet.
Though, with the way HOTU has been gathering dust for over two years, it seems like an even toss to me.

Here
http://www.abandonwarering.com/forum...php?f=1&p=2679

[Dave]

It has been said, the car is moving, but anybody is driving it.
However I hope the site will be online again.

[The Fifth Horseman]

Originally Posted by Juanca

Here
http://www.abandonwarering.com/forum...php?f=1&p=2679

Nothing there about HOTU ending, Juanca. You probably misunderstood what "bakkelun" wrote - what he meant was that if the hosting service isn't paid for hosting space and bandwidth, it first takes the site offline and deletes the files some time later (how long that is depends on the webhost in question).
All that is based on the assumption that HOTUs downtime is due to the hosting bills being unpaid, which doesn't neccesarily have to be the case. There's a number of different possibilities.

[gufu1992]

This is what happens, when you want to get X-com:UFO for free. Don't mess with STEAM.:notrust:

[_r.u.s.s.]

i don't think they have fingers in it..

[Japo]

HOTU is down every semester, and every time rumors arise out of the blue that it's permanent and that of course it's some kind of plot from the powers that be.

Even when it's not down the service is sub-par... Just wait. This has happened before indeed, and for a longer time at least once if I remember right. Even the domain name (extension) was changed.

[einstein999999]

Hm, well, hopefully it'll be up again, sometime, then! I went on there two days ago to browse around for some games but wasn't able to connect to the server. I'd really like to go and find an old game I saw at a friend's house.

[red_avatar]

HOTU was the first site I discovered back in 1998 when I first tried Internet - I bought 60 3.5" disks (a CD Writer was still pretty uncommon back then) and filled them with dozens of games I always wanted to play but never got my hands on. HOTU was pretty new back then though, and was updated every week (imagine that!).

To be honest though, HOTU was always one of the less attractive Abandonware sites to use:
- only one download at a time with the risk of getting banned (and sharing one IP with 100 other PCs often meant that you DID get banned)
- 5kb/sec if you were lucky
- corrupted zip files
- having to enter a code before you were allowed to download
etc.

But HOTU had some rare gems that, back then, were nearly impossible to get ahold of. Things have changed, however, and many of the games on HOTU have found their way on other sites that are less draconion and more reliable. HOTU was always the mother of abandonware sites but it will be nearly 3 years since it last received an update and I fear it's time other sites take over. I personally haven't visited the site in months and it no longer has a place in my bookmarks either.