I’m trying to locate a game that I had tons of fun with years ago. It probably sucked. I’m probably remembering better times than actually existed. But, gosh darn it, I’ve got a working 286 with a Hercules graphics card sitting here, I’ve bodged together a working (!) parallel-port link to my current-gen PC so I can dump files… I’m feeling the retro vibe. As it turns out, the hard drive (a Seagate 40 MB boat anchor) still works, amazingly. DOS booted just fine, Tetris works, WordPerfect (gah!) loads up… I just need my favorite game from that era to be ecstatic.
The game was Lightspeed. I’ve got all the Wikipedia links and such; I know all the sordid details about the fall of MicroProse. But I can’t find it on Ebay, and nobody I know of has it. Am I out of luck?
Is there anybody out there who sells out-of-print games? I mean, the company folded, they don’t even have a PO box anymore, let alone a website or phone number…
I know of a website for “abandoned” computer games. I have it bookmarked on my computer at home. My lunch hour is almost over, so I can’t search for it now, but I’ll look it up later tonight.
If you mean The Underdogs, it appears that they won’t let you download Lightspeed for legal reasons; see here. It probably won’t ever be available, since the company isn’t there to give permission ( or get any profits, but apparently that doesn’t matter ).
The site I’m thinking of is Abandonia. They specialize in old games that aren’t commercially available anymore. Unfortunately, they don’t seem to have Lightspeed, but perhaps you could find a similar game to trick out your “vintage” computer.
It is available on some abandonware sites (I found a copy) if you look hard enough. However, judging by the note at The Underdogs, I probably should not post a link. But it is out there.
I should point out that most abandonware sites are violating copyright laws with no legal justification for doing so. Encouraging the use of them is generally a bad idea.
That depends on your opinion of the rationality and morality of such laws, doesn’t it ? If all a copyright is doing is preventing anyone from using an idea/program/whatever, then that strikes me as a perversion of the whole idea behind copyrights, not to mention unethical and just plain stupid.
Friday, November 24, 2006
Copyright Office creates 6 DMCA exemptions
The Copyright Office has created six new exemptions to the hated Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which makes it a crime to break any digital lock, even if you’re doing so for a legitimate purpose.
[[Cut to Exemption 2]]
Computer programs and video games distributed in formats that have become obsolete and that require the original media or hardware as a condition of access, when circumvention is accomplished for the purpose of preservation or archival reproduction of published digital works by a library or archive. A format shall be considered obsolete if the machine or system necessary to render perceptible a work stored in that format is no longer manufactured or is no longer reasonably available in the commercial marketplace.
I just wanted to chime back in and say, I managed to find it for download – legally, as it happens. And it was the sequel, which I also had but had forgotten, Hyperspeed. Ahh, sweet memories… sniff
And thanks to everyone for the other links, too – the abandonware sites have been fueling a caffeine-driven orgy of retro gaming all weekend long. I didn’t know this stuff was still out there. Woohoo!
So anyway… if anyone else ever gets the urge to play Hyperspeed again, I can point you to the right place. You’ll need your manual as proof of purchase.
