I'm currently reading some semi-old PC games magazines from 1994. Aside from the objective fact that magazines and games were way better then than they are now - it makes me cry. Cry, because it shows how the whole 'Abandonware' concept failed. Here's a list of games which should by now be completely lost; I guess there are no working copies left in the whole world. Feel free to add more, and in the unlikely case you have any of these games, speak up immediately. Please note that this list is disregarding the quality (or the lack thereof) of the games, so please no comments like 'these deserve to be forgotten'.

Railway Challenge (Sunflowers) [found]
Rally (Europress)
Backroad Racers (Revell)
Magic Boy (Empire)
NFL Coaches Club Football (Microprose)
Labyrinth of Time (Electronic Arts)
Hell Cab (Time Warner) [found]
Iron Helix (Spectrum Holobyte)

And this was just issue 01/94. Here's issue 02/94:

T.F.X. (D.I.D.) [found]
Krusty's Fun House (Virgin) [found]
Cyber Race (Cyberdreams)
Man Enough (Tsunami)
The Journeyman Project (Presto Studios)

It probably goes on like this. Where are all these games? Has nobody ever bought them? It's frustrating.

Edited by Mr Creosote at 22:46 on March, 09th 2005

Perhaps there are some copies left, decaying in a bunch of junk somewhere...

Most likely no one can stop this process. Everytime there is a basic progress in technology, a huge amount af data will be lost because some time later, there are no machines that can read it. You will hardly be able to watch your VHS videos in some years, and the probability that you can read today's e-mails in 50 years in close to zero...

http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?name=TFX%3A+Tactical+Fighter+Experiment

Ok, that's one game less. Here's more, though.

03/94
Software Manager (Kaiko)
Critical Path (Mediavision) [found]
Quantum Gate (Mediavision) [found]
The Magic Death (Creative Multimedia) [found]

04/94
Moscow Nights (Black Legend)
Fatman (Black Legend)
The Lawnmower Man (Storm)
Microcosm (Psygnosis) [found]

05/94
Wizard (Psygnosis)
Sea Wolf (Electronic Arts)
S.U.B. (Thalamus)
Breakline (Kalisto/Mindscape)
NFL '94 (Gametek/Konami)
Who Shot Johnny Rock? (American Laser Games) [found]
Chaos Continuum (Creative Multimedia) [found]
Mega Race (Software Toolworks) [found]

06/94
Magic of Endoria (Sunflowers)
Burning Steel 2 (SSI)
Spaceship Warlock (Reactor/Visual Media) [found]

That concludes half a year. 31 lost games. Remember, this is just 1994 - I don't dare to go further into the past. On the other hand, I'll probably expand this into a huge 'wanted' list at some distant point in the future...

Edited by Mr Creosote at 22:48 on March, 09th 2005

Oh man, that is indeed sad I remember some of the titles, but I have none of them. I'll try to find them on eBay and other places; it's really sad to see them gone.

However, I wouldn't say the abandonware concept failed. Do you know how many more games would've been lost if it wasn't for abandonware? The worst you can say is that abandonware wasn't 100% successful.

Oh, and Journeyman Project is still being sold as a part of the Journeyman Project Trilogy. I've got the trilogy and the separate games.

Krusty's funhouse isn't lost, although some versions of it may be. Krusty's funhouse was released on all the portables and consoles of the time, including NES, gameboy, genesis/megadrive, and krusty's super funhouse (same game, enhanced graphics) was released on SNES and master system. The roms for most (if not all) of these are still available. The originals are no longer being made, although you can probably find used ones.
Don't know the status of any PC, amiga, etc versions.

NetDanzr: Then substract the games which are only available on one single site (mostly HOTUD) and count again. If HOTUD were to shut down, the list would be three times as big. To a lesser extent, that's valid for many smaller sites as well. Huge risk.

Cypherswipe: You're right, and the same is probably valid for some other games. For example, I happen to own Software Manager for the Amiga and I have a copy of Fatman for the Mega Drive. However, the PC versions are still lost, and that's not good.

People MUST have these somewhere.
I, for one, never throw a game away, and I don't sell them either.
There must be people like me who have them somewhere. And what about the people that helped create them? (and I don't mean just the company)If anyone still has the games, it's them, IMO.

Mr Creosote: I think such a list might be a good idea. For one, it might "rally" people, and it migt also be able to supply some coordination in finding those games.

Remember that many of these games were released on floppy disks. Even if a physically unharmed copy still exists somewhere, it's very likely the data has been irrecoverably destroyed. In the case of CD releases, the chance of locating a working one is way higher, of course.

Excuse my seemingly stupid question, but what's the point in searching for, say, Krusty FunHouse for PC when there is about a trillion other version in other platforms that are either identical or (more likely) way better..?

The PC version of krusty's funhouse isn't lost. http://simpsonsmania.covers.de/Media/games.php
Odds are, most of those other games are still available somewhere too, it's just a matter of finding them.

I knew I was going to get razzed for that one

But I do posses Mega Race and manual.

Eagle: Preservation.

Cypherswipe: Thanks

Tuss: Pervert

Edited by Mr Creosote at 12:05 on March, 20th 2004

This rings a bell, I'm damn sure I have an original of this somewhere, for some system, probably Amiga.

The Amiga CD32 version is pretty common, yes.

Well, in that case it's time to download their files and post them elsewhere, as a backup

No, seriously: I used to download every game I could find and place them on floppies. From 70 floppies, maybe 15 still work. When I have the time, I'll do so again, this time on CDs, for backup purposes.

Sorry that I had to dig this old topic out, but I do have "Magic Boy", "Who Shot Johnny Rock?" and "Railway Challange" for the PC.

... "The Magic Death" must be somewhere in my room as well. Behind a shelf or something... it remember it featuring like 64x64px video

Well - any way you could get them to me?

sure. i'll put all the games together for this weekend and pm you about them on monday.