DOS Games Discussion

[Da_Goat]

Well, I've heard before that it's illegal to sell shareware, freeware or demos.....so my question is, how can you? I'm just skeptical that the IDSA didn't yell at you for this, rather than the whole distributing shareware for free.....

[emmzee]

Selling shareware is a sketchy area. That's one of the reasons why the DOSGAMES.com CD never happened. A lot of shareware authors have no problem charging a small fee if their game is included on a collection CD-ROM like that. However some others specifically state that they don't want their games to be sold, ever. Still others request to be emailed for permission before their games are included.

When I was working on the (now non-existent) DOSGAMES.com CD, I figured since I had space leftover that I could pile a bunch of old ZZT games on there to fill up the space. I then realized that I could fit the entire zzt.the-underdogs.org library on the CD! How cool would that be? But when I posted the idea in the forum several people had problems with the fact that I would be making money off selling the CD. In that case the authors of many of those games are either A) unknown or MIA. Getting permission to distribute them on a CD is then impossible.

*shrugs* I have a feeling this may turn into a pro-con abandonware sort of arguement. Which is fine as long as no links to abandonware content are posted.

Wow I've been posting here a lot lately heh.

[Jorrit]

People who buy the disc are not paying for the games that the CD includes. I wanted to give users with slow connections the possibility to obtain all games without downloading. It's of course also available for other people, for example people who don't like to download all games by hand. There's a graphical menu system with all screenshots and descriptions of the games, including the possibility to install a game directly. So when someone buys the disc, he or she pays for that program, the CD, packaging costs, credit card processing, etc. The games are free; there's no difference between providing the games for free on the website or providing those on CD.

I've checked the readme files of the games (if there were any) and I've never read (as far as I know) that an author don't want to see the game distributed on a CD. Most games, like Hocus Pocus for example, even ask for distribution to promote the full version game (the version of that game is shareware on the website and CD).

[Oz]

[John The Ax]

Close, but it's not.

[emmzee]

zzt.the-underdogs.org is hosted by an abandonware site, but the zzt site itself isn't abandonware. If there were another way to link to the site I would use that, but since I don't know of any ... *shrugs*

[Da_Goat]

yeah, well, we've already had this conversation....and, I guess if you wanted it sheilded from the eyes of idiots, you could mask it in html or bb code, like this or this, respectively.

[wardrich]

selling the CD with the games on it should be legal, so long as you clearly state the the money given is to cover the cost of the actual CD itself because then, technically you aren't selling the games, you are just selling the plastic circle with the games on it.

[Amro]

The games on the CD are shareware. The money is for the CD itself, not the contents. It's just like paying someone with high speed internet to download them for you.

[nastypoisonspikes]

Stop reviving posts.

[wardrich]

um Amro, isn't that what I had said?

[John The Ax]

It's not dead if someone has something to add.

[Amro]

Yeah, wandrich, but people are stubborn