Abandonware (suggestion)

Hi everyone,

I wonder if VGR tolerate playing game from abandonware websites or downloaded games from these same websites.
I have some examples :
https://www.abandonware-france.org/
https://www.myabandonware.com/
https://oldgamesdownload.com/
https://pcgamesabandonware.com/fr/jeux/1/2

The main purpose is to let anyone playing some old game not for sell anymore, which have fallen into the public domain. If VGR accept abandonware we could add a button or something else to help players to play or download the game.

abandonware does not mean legal, it's just sites that decide if games can be there. On the other hand, games can be made freely accessible or even in the public domain voluntarily and therefore legally by the publisher or developers. And as a result, we have an official version of the game. this is the difficulty of the not always identical versions found on the sites in addition to the legal side, because at least point of view VGR should not encourage unofficial products and piracy. It is true that this poses a problem with the accessibility of the games, but nothing prevents you from taking advantage of this game with its sites and waiting for an official / legal version of the game to add your records to VGR. Afterwards it is my point of view, I no longer have power over VGR

Hello Charlotte,

I understand the desire of replaying old gems that are no longer supported by any instance (currently or definitively ☹️), sadly even without concerning ourselves with the legal aspect of that request yet, free games that aren't licensed are forbidden. Now looking at your last link (PC Games Abandonware), I see several titles that are licensed like GTA, Command & Conquer or Virtua Cop. Those are still properties of their respective owners / editors / publishers /... and it would seem difficult to publish them without their consent. 

What you're asking for is too much of a case by case for VGR and I don't think we can simply just say "yes, go for it".
And all that being said, we could not assure that the game you've downloaded from abandonware-france would be the same as the one from oldgamesdownload.com, even if they have the same title there could be (voluntarily or not) changes.

But on a personnal note, as a lover of older games, I would not stop you from creating a topic about it and share some good references 🙂