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I actually wrote one of the comments included in this piece, and I'd like to encourage all of you to donate to the EFF so they can continue to work on important

I actually wrote one of the comments included in this piece, and I'd like to encourage all of you to donate to the EFF so they can continue to work on important issues like this. They do not pay their lawyers extravagantly, and most of the authors of this piece (myself included) were doing so, and will continue to do so, on a volunteer basis. The original document is at https://www.eff.org/document/eff-comments-dmca-exemption-abandoned-games https://www.eff.org/document/eff-comments-dmca-exemption-aba... You can donate to the EFF at https://supporters.eff.org/donate https://supporters.eff.org/donate And if you feel as if we missed something in the document, you will be able to comment to the Copyright Office yourself when there is an open call for comments in a few months. This work helps gamers on the outside, but really, it's helping the developers, both of the games and of the after-market patches. The original developers get to see their work live on, regardless of the business deals around their IP, and the fans who take the time to write these patches get to have some cover for their work. It's really a no-lose situation, and if an entity is couching it as otherwise, be suspicious. Finally, if you are hankering to play old PC games online, go download GameRanger http://www.gameranger.com/ http://www.gameranger.com/ It is amazing, and it is also an entirely one-man developed piece of software. He will happily support your game if you ask him, and will do so for free.

devindotcom 12y ago
Thanks for the recommendation, I hadn't heard of it - I recognize quite a few games on that list I wouldn't mind playing a match or two of.
- VonGuard 12y ago
  I believe Age of Empires 2 was rebooted on Steam because someone discovered there were about 3,000 games daily played on GameRanger, every day, for 5 years.
  - lotharbot 12y ago
    Descent was recently rebooted on Steam despite a much smaller community. I don't think they're particularly looking for big communities. (The Steam version of Descent is basically a Dosbox container. If it's a game you really loved, pick up the Retro source port to replace Dosbox. Instructions: http://descentchampions.org/new_player.php http://descentchampions.org/new_player.php )
    - PhasmaFelis 12y ago
      That site links to direct downloads of DXX-Rebirth and explains how to use them, but never actually links to the DXX-Rebirth home page. If you'd like to know what you're installing, go here: http://www.dxx-rebirth.com/ http://www.dxx-rebirth.com/ DXX-Rebirth is great, by the way, especially if you want to play with modern joysticks or gamepads. It's entirely unclear what the difference is between Rebirth and Rebirth-with-Retro-mod, which is annoying. I can at least confirm that unmodded Rebirth plays fine in single-player.
      - lotharbot 12y ago
        Retro was originally envisioned as a simple mod for Rebirth -- essentially a testing ground for fixes to be put into the next version. Over time, Rebirth development has slowed significantly (still hasn't incorporated the homing missile fix from August of 2013 [0]), and Retro has gotten pretty far ahead. It's now the de facto standard for the active multiplayer pilot community, including the Descent Rangers [1]. The developers of the two mods have different goals -- the Retro developer [2] is a competitive pilot [3] who wants the game to feel like the original with improvements in the metagame, while the Rebirth developer is a casual pilot who likes to make sweeping software architecture changes for stylistic reasons, which sometimes have unintended side effects. (No offense to zico; he's done a lot of good work and we're all grateful for it.) The key improvements in Retro: - homing missiles follow original trajectories (important for single player as well as multi!) - netcode fixed. Shots travel in the same direction for all players (Rebirth's compression algorithm introduced errors of up to 30 degrees in shot direction.) - gauss/vulcan ammo no longer duplicates inappropriately - raised network PPS limit (30 packets per second max; it's beautiful!) as well as other network fixes [4] - collision detection fixed. Shots which were almost exactly one frame away, and aimed at the edge of the ship, were detonating prematurely due to a vector math bug. - host options: add extra primary and/or secondary weapons, cap the number of secondary weapons allowed in the level, reduce vulcan ammo, allow players to select their own ship colors - improved calibration settings for joystick, mouse, and gamepads You can find more at the github page and the bountysource page [5]. ---------- [0] http://www.dxx-rebirth.com/frm/index.php/topic,1696.0.html http://www.dxx-rebirth.com/frm/index.php/topic,1696.0.html [1] http://descentrangers.com/Home http://descentrangers.com/Home [2] Disclosure: I'm married to the Retro developer. [3] Video from her perspective: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLuTJz-pDaM#t=263 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLuTJz-pDaM#t=263 . That's a girls-vs-guys team game with Lioness, against the legendary "kiln" (Mr_1994) and "Arch-Angel" (Stan), at the Descent in Denver LAN in August. [4] She wrote about the netcode fix here on HN, and one of the original developers showed up to comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8401086 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8401086 [5] https://github.com/CDarrow/DXX-Retro/issues https://github.com/CDarrow/DXX-Retro/issues and https://www.bountysource.com/trackers/2571293-cdarrow-dxx-retro https://www.bountysource.com/trackers/2571293-cdarrow-dxx-re... . "JinX mode" is a spectator mode JinX was working on before he died suddenly last March, which has been renamed in his honor.
frostmatthew 12y ago
For those unaware, in addition to donating directly you can also have 0.5% of your Amazon purchases go to the EFF as they are one of the available organizations for Amazon Smile[1]. [1] https://smile.amazon.com/ https://smile.amazon.com/
- BatFastard 12y ago
  Thanks that is a great tip. Just added EFF to my amazon profile!
AngrySkillzz 12y ago
Moreover, if you look at games as a nascent art form, this kind of work is very important. Art develops iteratively; new artists cut their teeth by studying the great works of the past. If some of these works become abandoned and inaccessible, how can we expect new game developers and designers to learn from them and use that knowledge to further the medium?
- Moru 12y ago
  We see the fruits of this since a while already. Or haven't you heard the cries of old gamers complaining that "I already played this game back in 1985, it's just new graphics on top."
Moru 12y ago
Or as a responsible game developer studio you could release the server for your 15 year old MMORPG to the fan base. Turbine is working on releasing the server and the tools for creating new content to the fans now after they finally stopped the monthly updates last year. http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/12/05/work-on-asherons-calls-player-run-plans-initiative-continues/ http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/12/05/work-on-asherons-cal...
- BatFastard 12y ago
  From what I understand it has to do more with taxes then being responsible. Once the game actually shuts down you get a tax write off for some of the costs involved. If you keep the game running in any form. the tax write off is not available.

devindotcom 12y ago

Thanks for the recommendation, I hadn't heard of it - I recognize quite a few games on that list I wouldn't mind playing a match or two of.

VonGuard 12y ago
I believe Age of Empires 2 was rebooted on Steam because someone discovered there were about 3,000 games daily played on GameRanger, every day, for 5 years.
- lotharbot 12y ago
  Descent was recently rebooted on Steam despite a much smaller community. I don't think they're particularly looking for big communities. (The Steam version of Descent is basically a Dosbox container. If it's a game you really loved, pick up the Retro source port to replace Dosbox. Instructions: http://descentchampions.org/new_player.php http://descentchampions.org/new_player.php )
  - PhasmaFelis 12y ago
    That site links to direct downloads of DXX-Rebirth and explains how to use them, but never actually links to the DXX-Rebirth home page. If you'd like to know what you're installing, go here: http://www.dxx-rebirth.com/ http://www.dxx-rebirth.com/ DXX-Rebirth is great, by the way, especially if you want to play with modern joysticks or gamepads. It's entirely unclear what the difference is between Rebirth and Rebirth-with-Retro-mod, which is annoying. I can at least confirm that unmodded Rebirth plays fine in single-player.
    - lotharbot 12y ago
      Retro was originally envisioned as a simple mod for Rebirth -- essentially a testing ground for fixes to be put into the next version. Over time, Rebirth development has slowed significantly (still hasn't incorporated the homing missile fix from August of 2013 [0]), and Retro has gotten pretty far ahead. It's now the de facto standard for the active multiplayer pilot community, including the Descent Rangers [1]. The developers of the two mods have different goals -- the Retro developer [2] is a competitive pilot [3] who wants the game to feel like the original with improvements in the metagame, while the Rebirth developer is a casual pilot who likes to make sweeping software architecture changes for stylistic reasons, which sometimes have unintended side effects. (No offense to zico; he's done a lot of good work and we're all grateful for it.) The key improvements in Retro: - homing missiles follow original trajectories (important for single player as well as multi!) - netcode fixed. Shots travel in the same direction for all players (Rebirth's compression algorithm introduced errors of up to 30 degrees in shot direction.) - gauss/vulcan ammo no longer duplicates inappropriately - raised network PPS limit (30 packets per second max; it's beautiful!) as well as other network fixes [4] - collision detection fixed. Shots which were almost exactly one frame away, and aimed at the edge of the ship, were detonating prematurely due to a vector math bug. - host options: add extra primary and/or secondary weapons, cap the number of secondary weapons allowed in the level, reduce vulcan ammo, allow players to select their own ship colors - improved calibration settings for joystick, mouse, and gamepads You can find more at the github page and the bountysource page [5]. ---------- [0] http://www.dxx-rebirth.com/frm/index.php/topic,1696.0.html http://www.dxx-rebirth.com/frm/index.php/topic,1696.0.html [1] http://descentrangers.com/Home http://descentrangers.com/Home [2] Disclosure: I'm married to the Retro developer. [3] Video from her perspective: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLuTJz-pDaM#t=263 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLuTJz-pDaM#t=263 . That's a girls-vs-guys team game with Lioness, against the legendary "kiln" (Mr_1994) and "Arch-Angel" (Stan), at the Descent in Denver LAN in August. [4] She wrote about the netcode fix here on HN, and one of the original developers showed up to comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8401086 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8401086 [5] https://github.com/CDarrow/DXX-Retro/issues https://github.com/CDarrow/DXX-Retro/issues and https://www.bountysource.com/trackers/2571293-cdarrow-dxx-retro https://www.bountysource.com/trackers/2571293-cdarrow-dxx-re... . "JinX mode" is a spectator mode JinX was working on before he died suddenly last March, which has been renamed in his honor.

frostmatthew 12y ago

For those unaware, in addition to donating directly you can also have 0.5% of your Amazon purchases go to the EFF as they are one of the available organizations for Amazon Smile[1]. [1] https://smile.amazon.com/ https://smile.amazon.com/

BatFastard 12y ago
Thanks that is a great tip. Just added EFF to my amazon profile!

AngrySkillzz 12y ago

Moreover, if you look at games as a nascent art form, this kind of work is very important. Art develops iteratively; new artists cut their teeth by studying the great works of the past. If some of these works become abandoned and inaccessible, how can we expect new game developers and designers to learn from them and use that knowledge to further the medium?

Moru 12y ago
We see the fruits of this since a while already. Or haven't you heard the cries of old gamers complaining that "I already played this game back in 1985, it's just new graphics on top."

Moru 12y ago

Or as a responsible game developer studio you could release the server for your 15 year old MMORPG to the fan base. Turbine is working on releasing the server and the tools for creating new content to the fans now after they finally stopped the monthly updates last year. http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/12/05/work-on-asherons-calls-player-run-plans-initiative-continues/ http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/12/05/work-on-asherons-cal...

BatFastard 12y ago
From what I understand it has to do more with taxes then being responsible. Once the game actually shuts down you get a tax write off for some of the costs involved. If you keep the game running in any form. the tax write off is not available.