Three retro Disney games are now on GOG with Linux support

Quoting: loggfreak

Quoting: liamdaweAbandonware is basically a made up term for pirates, it's not a real legal thing.

well yes and no, abandonware is software/games which aren't being sold anymore. if the company is not selling a product they can not make any money from it, therefor they don't lose any money if you download ( "pirate" ) it.

i would not consider this piracy since you wouldn't steal anything from them. You're not denying them their money. they simply don't give you an option to pay for it.

But GOG couldn't just swoop in, make the game run on modern systems, and sell it. GOG would get in a ton of legal hot water for doing something like that, even with most old games. GOG, like every other (legitimate) digital games store has to acquire the rights to sell any game from the original publisher, creator, copyright holder, or whatever. Compensation is definitely paid by GOG to the publisher/etc for the rights to sell the game; either a portion of every sale, or another arrangement. So by downloading these games for free instead of buying them on GOG, you definitely are "denying them their money."

In the few cases where GOG offers a game for free, the original creators might have put the game in the public domain of their own free will, or some other unusual situation like that. But no video game is anywhere near old enough to be put in the public domain automatically yet. It has to be done intentionally by the owner of the property. These being Disney games, they definitely were not given to GOG for free.


Last edited by InverseTelecine on 4 August 2016 at 8:36 pm UTC

We have already established that these Disney games GOG just added are no longer abandonware so loggfreak is not referring to these games when he says "they simply don't give you an option to pay for it." I'm sure we can all think of a few ancient games today that literally have no legal means of acquisition. Props to GOG for "liberating" these titles.

Quoting: InverseTelecineDoes anyone know if the version of Alladin is a PC port of the Sega Genesis title? I mean, was it at the time of the original release; I know GOG can't sell new Genesis ports (how cool would that be! :D )

I know the SNES and Genesis games were basically two totally different games, and I know this isn't a port of the SNES version because I played that one and he never carries a sword in it. In the screenshots he's carrying a sword, which makes me think maybe it's was a port of the Genesis version.

I was a SNES kid and the television advertisements for the Genesis versions used to taunt me, because it looked better than the SNES game! Ah, the old console wars. Good times! For some reason they never felt repulsive and horrible like modern console wars.

People have been mentioning that since Aladdin holds a sword in the PC version it must be the Genesis version that has been ported to the PC and that is the version that we have :)

Quoting: JudasIscariot

Quoting: InverseTelecineDoes anyone know if the version of Alladin is a PC port of the Sega Genesis title? I mean, was it at the time of the original release; I know GOG can't sell new Genesis ports (how cool would that be! :D )

I know the SNES and Genesis games were basically two totally different games, and I know this isn't a port of the SNES version because I played that one and he never carries a sword in it. In the screenshots he's carrying a sword, which makes me think maybe it's was a port of the Genesis version.

I was a SNES kid and the television advertisements for the Genesis versions used to taunt me, because it looked better than the SNES game! Ah, the old console wars. Good times! For some reason they never felt repulsive and horrible like modern console wars.

People have been mentioning that since Aladdin holds a sword in the PC version it must be the Genesis version that has been ported to the PC and that is the version that we have :)

As long as there wasn't any nebulous 3rd version of the game on PC at the time! But probably not! Thanks! :)

Quoting: AnxiousInfusionWe have already established that these Disney games GOG just added are no longer abandonware so loggfreak is not referring to these games when he says "they simply don't give you an option to pay for it." I'm sure we can all think of a few ancient games today that literally have no legal means of acquisition. Props to GOG for "liberating" these titles.

Yeah! You're exactly right. Those ancient games that you just can't buy anywhere are real abandonware games. Fair enough if the point was already clear. I just didn't want the idea floating around that a digital distributor could snap up an old game and sell it without licensing it officially. Isn't automatic Public Domain the life of the author +100 years or something insane like that?

I agree with loggfreak, there are some DOS and 8 bit games that have not been sold for decades, where demand is so low that they will never be commercially viable again. By us running such games on Linux the rights holders are not loosing revenue.

However, I do applaud the work that GoG do on getting old games to run smoothly on Linux, and will always buy from them (like in their recent sale) if they have the games I want, as I think they offer good value. For example, I recently purchased in GoG's sale a pack of 20 DOS pinball tables supported on 4 DOS executables, and as I prefer to use my standard config of DOSbox to having a separate DOSbox for each executable, I unpackaged them. I am pretty smart at doing this, but 3 hours later I still could not get one of the executables working smoothly, so I reverted back to using GoG's config and packaging. I could have downloaded the pinball games from an Abandonware web site, and spent many more hours messing about, but GoG's specialised skills offer much better value for me.

The $10 initial price for each Disney games does seem high, but the Grim Fendango remaster started as an expensive Disney game, but its price came down pretty quickly.

I already have Alladin and the Lion King on my Amiga! Guess that still counts as Abandonware, eh?

For all my old games I am using DBGL: DOSBox Game Launcher is a very nice launcher and very configurable and it covers all my needs :D

http://members.quicknet.nl/blankendaalr/dbgl/

Quoting: wolfyrionFor all my old games I am using DBGL: DOSBox Game Launcher is a very nice launcher and very configurable and it covers all my needs :D

http://members.quicknet.nl/blankendaalr/dbgl/

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Ugh. There's something yucky about that screenshot. Can't... quite... tell what it is...

:D :D

Quoting: wolfyrion10$ for a 90's game is too much!!!

All of these I consider them abandomware and I am not gonna spend a penny on them.
They should have been totally free from Disney or GOG as I can already play them on DosBox.

Absolutely. It's insane.