written by Greg Melton on Tuesday, December 11, 2001

Re-discover outdated software titles from yesteryear

I've heard of freeware, shareware, postcardware, and liteware, but the term abandonware is new to me. After a little research on the topic of abandonware I discovered that just because software isn't being sold anymore doesn't mean you can't get a hold of it.

According to most abandonware sites a piece of software can be characterized as abandonware if it meets one of two criteria: Either the company that developed the software has gone out of business and didn't transfer the copyrights to a different organization or individual or the copyright holder has allowed the copyright to expire.

A looser definition of abandonware can be applied to a piece of software that's over five years old. Usually, software companies stop supporting a piece of software after a certain amount of time because they've either developed new titles and would like you to purchase those or advancements in hardware make it impossible to support a software title that was designed to run on older machines.

It turns out that most abandonware is games. This doesn't surprise me. Bigger gamemakers are always developing new games based on what hardware standards are going to be in the future. This means that games that were originally developed to run on an x86 platform are no longer going to receive support, updates, or even distribution by the manufacturer.

What's so great about old software?

Re-discovering old software titles from the past gives you a great sense of how far computer technology has advanced over the years. Just like arcade emulation, one of the best reasons to download a copy of an old game or software title is nostalgia. Abandonware is also a great way to play games you just can't buy anymore.

How do you get abandonware?

Just like everything nowadays, look to the Internet to get a hold of your favorite games and software titles from yesteryear. Here are two great resources to get you started in the world of abandonware and let you rediscover nostalgic software titles:

• The Underdogs is a great place to start if you want to track down some of the most popular abandonware titles.
• Abandonware Web ring holds the master list of almost every abandonware site on the internet. If there's a game out there you really need to find, this Web ring will come in handy.

Is abandonware legal?

Most abandonware is still considered illegal unless the publisher has re-released the software as freeware. US copyright laws state that copyrights owned by corporations are valid for 75 years from the date the software was first published.

So the current availability of a product is irrelevant to its copyright status. Software or other titles don't enter the public domain just because they are no longer commercially exploited or widely available.

Most certainly if a software title is still sold in stores it isn't going to be considered abandonware. Abandonware can be considered a huge gray area, so be aware of the issues.