Free old game downloads

Brian G Turner

Brian G Turner

Fantasist & Futurist
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While trying to find Allied General online for download (it's been officially free for a while) I couldn't find it no the original download site, but instead was directed to:

http://www.the-underdogs.org/

Seems like there are a lot of old PC games available for free download there - after catching Allied General I found they had the first X-Com (UFO: Enemy Unknown). Hurray! So I downloaded that - which isn't necessarily a good idea when you are supposed to be keeping to very tight deadlines. :D

Anyway, if you ever fancy chasing down some really old PC games, then take a look. You don;t have to be a member to download anything either. :)
 
I've managed to find a few golden oldies here myself including the excellent X-com. One word of caution: the site doen't like download managers so, if you're not on broadband (which I'm not) then the bigger game files can be a bit of a problem. In saying that, most of the older stuff is much smaller anyway.
Two of my particular favourites available here are Achtung Spitfire and Fifth Fleet.
 
A good one is Elder Scrolls Arena at elderscrolls.com
You can download the whole game in a 9 mb zip file.
 
Yeah I downloaded Elder Scrolls 1, but it's a ******* to set up. You need a dos emulator, and the sound didn't work when I eventually got it working, not to mention what the hell the controls were doing.
 
Try dosgamesarchive.com It has a lot of the early 90's DOS games that will work on our now super fast machines. I have been reliving some very fond memories playing some of the games (*sigh* The 90's). Most of the downloads are free and don't take long at all.
 
I may be wrong here but I think it may be legal to download games if you have owned them in the past. Or is it if you own them presently.:confused:
 
ravenus said:
Doom and Doom2?
AFAIK those games are still available commerically and it's illegal to download them for free.
Click to expand...

Not DOOM, it's under GPL licensing now IIRC, what you pay for is the packaging.
 
stelfox1 said:
I may be wrong here but I think it may be legal to download games if you have owned them in the past. Or is it if you own them presently.:confused:
Click to expand...

Owners of software are permitted to download or copy their purchases as back-up copies. If you do not presently own the software, you are required to delete any downloads after 24 hours. Actually, that is the basis of the counter lawsuit against the corporations in the music industry that are attempting to make burning albums impossible.

I don't think we are going too far yet, but keep in mind that we balancing on a thin line between the guise of finding back-up downloads and blantant attempts to simply get free games. The last thing we want to do is have Chronicles sighted for providing illegal downloads. :)
 
Leto said:
Not DOOM, it's under GPL licensing now IIRC, what you pay for is the packaging.
Click to expand...
I believe only the Doom engine source is available under the GPL, as are the Quake 1 & 2 engine sources. The 'wad' files for Doom (which contain the maps and artwork) are not included and you still have to own the game to play the original id maps AFAIK.
 
Possible. Some commercial Linux distribution includes the whole game.
 
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