3 ms·

Hell yeah! Jazz Jackrabbit 2 was amazing and I always thought it was sad it became abandonware.

leni536 3y ago
Same. I tried playing it on wine, but it was always a bit unstable for me and crashed. I never knew that there was a FOSS reimplementation. edit: Looks like this project started in 2017, but it made leaps in the last year. http://deat.tk/jazz2/release-notes http://deat.tk/jazz2/release-notes
Waterluvian 3y ago
I’ve always been curious… are there concrete definitions of “abandonware” in the various major jurisdictions? Or is it just a loose concept that remains legally dubious? I feel like “Adopt an Abandonware” would be a pretty great source of meaningful, educational, and productive projects for devs with extra cycles or looking to refine skills.
- fruckyt 3y ago
  [dead]
- qbasic_forever 3y ago
  There's mention of it in the DMCA if I remember correctly. It says DRM can be cracked if something isn't available to be sold anymore or something similar: https://www.wired.co.uk/article/dmca-game-preservation-exemptions-abandoned-games https://www.wired.co.uk/article/dmca-game-preservation-exemp...
- the_af 3y ago
  There is no legal definition of abandonware and everyone in the community knows and understands this. It's just a case of "the lesser evil": preserving games when nobody who owns them cares enough about them to sell them or make sure they can still be run. But legal? No.
  - stephen_g 3y ago
    I think few people would say it's a "lesser evil" but something that is morally fine and should be legal (when no money is changing hands). If you were, say, selling abandonware that's much more of a murky area, but just downloading a copy or giving people a copy of some data that is no longer sold - whoever has ended up with the copyright shouldn't be able to complain if they are not actually making it available for purchase - they shouldn't be able to claim any loss since by not selling it they are not being deprived of any revenue. Of course, part of this is only a problem because copyright terms became absurdly long - if we had sane copyright terms like strictly 25 or 30 years from publication a lot of this stuff would be public domain by now anyway.
    - the_af 3y ago
      I don't disagree that it's morally fine -- after all, the abandonware community wouldn't make the downloads available otherwise -- but it's still not legal. Home of the Underdogs used to get tons of aggressive cease and desist emails from ESA (then named IDSA), the group representing game publishers legally, and who supposedly are on the "side" of games. So aggressive in fact they sometimes got it wrong (like sending a C&D for a game which was public domain). And who was willing to take a stance and chance it? Back then the abandonware community was one of two things, I think: people who just wanted to download games (Warez or abandonware was the same to them) and proper members of the community, who'd rather see these games either commercially supported or made public domain. Both HOTU and Abandonia replaced download links whenever someone found a legal way to buy the games.
jsheard 3y ago
Does it count as abandonware if you can buy it on GOG today? https://www.gog.com/en/game/jazz_jackrabbit_collection https://www.gog.com/en/game/jazz_jackrabbit_collection https://www.gog.com/en/game/jazz_jackrabbit_2_collection https://www.gog.com/en/game/jazz_jackrabbit_2_collection Maybe it was abandoned for a time until GOG picked it up.
- WorldMaker 3y ago
  Though there's the fun twist that Epic has their own competing storefront now and it doesn't include either Jazz Jackrabbit game. What does it say about a company like Epic that their own storefront doesn't include most of their back catalog? It certainly feels abandoned if not abadonware.

Same. I tried playing it on wine, but it was always a bit unstable for me and crashed. I never knew that there was a FOSS reimplementation. edit: Looks like this project started in 2017, but it made leaps in the last year. http://deat.tk/jazz2/release-notes http://deat.tk/jazz2/release-notes

Waterluvian 3y ago

I’ve always been curious… are there concrete definitions of “abandonware” in the various major jurisdictions? Or is it just a loose concept that remains legally dubious? I feel like “Adopt an Abandonware” would be a pretty great source of meaningful, educational, and productive projects for devs with extra cycles or looking to refine skills.

fruckyt 3y ago
[dead]
qbasic_forever 3y ago
There's mention of it in the DMCA if I remember correctly. It says DRM can be cracked if something isn't available to be sold anymore or something similar: https://www.wired.co.uk/article/dmca-game-preservation-exemptions-abandoned-games https://www.wired.co.uk/article/dmca-game-preservation-exemp...
the_af 3y ago
There is no legal definition of abandonware and everyone in the community knows and understands this. It's just a case of "the lesser evil": preserving games when nobody who owns them cares enough about them to sell them or make sure they can still be run. But legal? No.
- stephen_g 3y ago
  I think few people would say it's a "lesser evil" but something that is morally fine and should be legal (when no money is changing hands). If you were, say, selling abandonware that's much more of a murky area, but just downloading a copy or giving people a copy of some data that is no longer sold - whoever has ended up with the copyright shouldn't be able to complain if they are not actually making it available for purchase - they shouldn't be able to claim any loss since by not selling it they are not being deprived of any revenue. Of course, part of this is only a problem because copyright terms became absurdly long - if we had sane copyright terms like strictly 25 or 30 years from publication a lot of this stuff would be public domain by now anyway.
  - the_af 3y ago
    I don't disagree that it's morally fine -- after all, the abandonware community wouldn't make the downloads available otherwise -- but it's still not legal. Home of the Underdogs used to get tons of aggressive cease and desist emails from ESA (then named IDSA), the group representing game publishers legally, and who supposedly are on the "side" of games. So aggressive in fact they sometimes got it wrong (like sending a C&D for a game which was public domain). And who was willing to take a stance and chance it? Back then the abandonware community was one of two things, I think: people who just wanted to download games (Warez or abandonware was the same to them) and proper members of the community, who'd rather see these games either commercially supported or made public domain. Both HOTU and Abandonia replaced download links whenever someone found a legal way to buy the games.

jsheard 3y ago

Does it count as abandonware if you can buy it on GOG today? https://www.gog.com/en/game/jazz_jackrabbit_collection https://www.gog.com/en/game/jazz_jackrabbit_collection https://www.gog.com/en/game/jazz_jackrabbit_2_collection https://www.gog.com/en/game/jazz_jackrabbit_2_collection Maybe it was abandoned for a time until GOG picked it up.

WorldMaker 3y ago
Though there's the fun twist that Epic has their own competing storefront now and it doesn't include either Jazz Jackrabbit game. What does it say about a company like Epic that their own storefront doesn't include most of their back catalog? It certainly feels abandoned if not abadonware.