Beyond Divinity

Children, children...

"Abandonware" is a term which means that there is no claim on them by any intellectual property owner. It's a sort of "iffy" legal term, but as a rule, if no one is making a game available through any other means, it is considered, at least in "laymen's terms," as "abandonware."

Legal claims are generally based upon "giving this away in some way harms the owner of the property." Usually, because there's a way you can BUY the item. If an item is not available for sale, it is typically referred to as "abandoned." If there is no current owner at all... which happens a lot when companies go out of business, but not EVERY time... it is definitely "abandoned."

But the moment that the game or other item becomes available to buy again, it is no longer "abandoned." There can be no legal argument, no matter how "sketchy," that an item which you can buy can be considered "abandoned."

Now, it becomes a bit trickier when you start looking at "versions." For example, a DOS version of a program may be far, far inferior to the Amiga version... but if the DOS version returns to sale, often they Amiga version will be removed as well, despite the two experiences being RADICALLY different. Comparing a CGA game on DOS to a high-resolution full-color version on Amiga is just ridiculous, after all. So, a real, sound argument can be made that by making a DOS version commercially available, the Amiga version ought to remain "abandonware" unless it, too, becomes available. But so far, that's not the route our host here is following, and I understand, fully, WHY that's the case.

In the case of games like "Divine Divinity" or "Beyond Divinity," they were abandoned for a time, but have been returned to sale again, through a legitimate storefront (GOG). I happen to own legitimate copies of both, purchased through that site, in fact. I also have copies of the "download files" from here, from prior to the GOG re-release... and trust me, the GOG release is by far the less painful one to deal with for "technical laymen."

This site is an outstanding resource for information on a wide variety of games. It's also a great resource for "extra files" (Patches, documents, etc) even for games no longer considered "abandonware." And it's one of the few resources out there which I consider TRUSTWORTHY for getting "abandoned" software which is not really available any other way.

But the site owner needs to ensure that his ability to perform this very valuable service remains. And a key part of that is avoiding ticking off intellectual property owners who have put their owned products back on sale again.

So, instead of throwing a tantrum, maybe you should be thanking the site owner for telling you that, yes, if you want this game, there's now a great, trustworthy, and very nicely running version out there for sale at a very reasonable price again. And for providing files for games which are NOT for sale, but which you might want to try.

Me, I'm VERY grateful to the site owner. :)

Is there anything free here? Why are they called abadnonware if you have to pay for everything? I'm outa here!