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[spunti]

Hello,

I'm new here and some games are under protection of ESA. But what does this practically mean for me? Can I download the game somewhere or is there no chance? Do I need to contact ESA directly for a download-link or the vendor?

If I cannot get the game, why it is listed here? There should be at least a way to filter out such games.

I'm using the German abandonia-website and get for ESA-games only some links to the ESA-website, which don't really help. I wounder that there isn't even explanation for ESA at another place of the abondonia-website. (Perhaps there are yet other such license-categories on this side which should be explaind somewhere.)
Since ESA is only a 3-character-word it cannot be searched in the forum here:-(

regards
spunti

[spunti]

Thanks for the link.
This means that there is no legal way to get an ESA-game, right?
(I'm not really shure about that. Perhaps it's because of my non-perfect English or nobody is interested to say it clearly.)

Hm, if there is no way and these games are listet here, perhaps you could better explain your definition of abandonware on your website. It seems to me that this isn't the common definition, because it actually is NOT abondaned.

By the way on your German-webseite you CANNOT order the games by availability. There are some categories to order by, even a category with no name, but no availability.

spunti

[a1s]

Originally posted by spunti@Aug 20 2005, 09:25 AM
It seems to me that this isn't the common definition, because it actually is NOT abondaned.

our defenition is that if a company no longer sells the game on the primary market (places like shops, but not for example like e-bay), and doesn't provide support for it, the game is considered abandoned.
Note that most ESA games are abandoned, but the won't let us host them, because technicaly abandonware isn't legal.

[Tom Henrik]

I see I have to clear something out.

1. ESA protected games CAN be downloaded from a few sites on the net, due to them having the rights to do so. We can not link to them however, because WE don't have the rights to host those or tell you where to get them.

2. Our definition of abandonware is more thorough than a1s listed:

• No-one is selling the game
• No-one is supporting the game
• No-one will get angry if we host the game

With the ESA games, ESA would be angry. Thus those games are NOT abandoned.

[TheChosen]

Originally posted by Tom Henrik@Aug 20 2005, 11:54 AM
1. ESA protected games CAN be downloaded from a few sites on the net, due to them having the rights to do so. We can not link to them however, because WE don't have the rights to host those or tell you where to get them.

Why dont we have rights?
Not enough bribe money? LOL

[Sebatianos]

Well there are some games that would fall under ESA protection, but we are offering them again.
I'm talking mostly about Civilization/Colonization - when ESA contacted us those games were taken down along with Sierra games (and other ESA protected games). But we are allowed to host some games made by Sid Meier, so those are now awailable to download. Many other games aren't.
It's got nothing to do with bribe money - if we get the right, we can host a game - otherwise we won't.

To answer spunti's question:
Why are those games up there?
We are more of a museum/technical support site. Abandonia isn't about free downloads (although we try to offer as many as possible). We are mostly about remembering great old games and help people remember them, get to know them, play them...

[a1s]

Originally posted by Sebatianos@Aug 20 2005, 12:13 PM
We are mostly about remembering great old games and help people remember them, get to know them, play them...

plus, we also have a forum full of fun people, who wite muliautor stories, and guess heros of games. it is, as they say, more fun than a barrel full of monkeys.

[spunti]

Thank you for your answers.
I will not ask again (though for me a software is still not abondaned, when there is someone who brings us to trial because of it), but it would be cool to explain it also to other poeple who are new on your website.

That there are legal Esa-download-sites somewhere in the web and you are not allowed to link to them is hard to believe. Perhaps they are only legal in some countries? I mean, we are in the internet and I can link to every legal thing I want...

spunti

[Kosta]

There are no ESA-legal sites. There are only "less popular" sites that didn't get their attention and distribute those games for free...

[The Fifth Horseman]

There are some sites which have higher level permissions that go above and beyond ESA (usually straight from the game creator).

One that you might check is Home of the Underdogs (just google the name). They have ESA permissions for a number of games.