If this is some sort of suggestion, you should post it at the DOSBox Wish-List thread.

PS - I would also like to remind you that abandonware (or at least dubbing copyrighted stuff as such) may be illegal and, thus, not allowed here.

Sorry, now after at least a hour my validatiom mail arrived to my original username. For me this board screws up: it displays post in complete random order sometimes displaying nothing at all: at least the search engine worked and i could find this topic 🙁

As i can remember Stunts was released as freeware since ages. I did not want to do anything illegal, i just like programming retro so this feature would be good for me. And as i said it would be good for other things too: many old games were released as freeware.

If it's freeware it's okay. I have replied you in the Wish-list thread. I don't fully understand what you mean. Keep us posted. 😎

Spotted Cheetah wrote:

As i can remember Stunts was released as freeware since ages. I did not want to do anything illegal, i just like programming retro so this feature would be good for me. And as i said it would be good for other things too: many old games were released as freeware.

Were they? I know of "Defender of the Crown", but never heard that Stunts is now free. Where did you get that freeware version, and do you have some more examples? I'm curious (and always willing to try new games 😉 )

Sorry for not repliing for literally ages, but i had some strong reason to be away for months.

I found this info searching through Stunts related pages a few years ago, where at one location they stated that the author released the game for free, so the game can be downloaded from there legally. Possibly they mailed to Distinctive Software who responded "they don't mind what you do with this". I think i ran in this info not on just that page, and seeing that nobody protested (while a C64 page was closed down recently) it should be really true.

Just some search:

http://www.kalpen.de/ - this page exists and tells "Stunts is Freeware" since at least 3 years before as i can remember.
On some german site i think i found when they made it free: in 1998. Since i not know German, i can not strengthen this.
NOT ALLOWED - SORRY - this should be the most important source stating Stunts is free: Home of the Underdogs is legal, and they not publish games on which any of the authors still hold any copyright. So if you find something is downloadable from there, it is either legal, or completely forgotten (so nobody cares at all).

So at least nobody will complain if you have a copy of Stunts assuming that nobody complained so far regardless to the fact that the Network is "full" of Stunts (if you search for it). I do not know about any site terminated because of Stunts.

Actually, HOTU does post games that are still under copyright. Many software companies no longer actively enforce those copyrights for the old catalogs and when they do, HOTU will remove the game. Being featured on HOTU, though, does not guarantee that a game is freeware. In fact, you shouldn't even link to HOTU here.

Your first link does say "The game is FREEWARE as we checked with the former distributors BRODERBUND and MINDSCAPE, who do not have any copies of the game left.", which I'm inclined to believe, but it's hardly solid proof.

Sorry, Spotted Cheetah, but Kippesoep is right about HOTU. I have editted your previous post.

It's okay to mention them though. At least, I haven't seen any other moderators who have a problem with that.

It's just risky to post near-direct links to abandonware games.

Yes i undertand the HOTU thing, it is a bit messy... But i would have some words to those uttercrap game companies who not care at all of their old games and then when they find them somewhere they would call the police, the court, or whatever and throw the half of the world in jail. If i had found a company which offered their old games to buy, i would not have a word to them. But for example if somebody wants to get something like Lion King then what (s)he can do if not digging that up from somewhere illegally?? (Or beg to Disney for months until they read his/her letter and give them a copy... or tell that "sorry, we do not have this anymore")

For Stunts i am almost sure that it was made freeware in 1998, i think i exactly found that info like you told (That Mindspace & Broderbund released it) on that German site, but it was so long ago that i think they removed this since that. Who would care about this fact if it was released that long ago anymore? (And as i said on some German sites and forums i still ran in this 1998 date. This must be true. Or Mindspace is completely blind that they did not notice the pirating for 7 years :p )

EDIT:

I decided to start a massive search again for Stunts... I found these:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4D_Sports_Driving (Hope you will not delete a Wikipedia link :p )
I also found loads of sites which copied the Wikipedia infos - even pages which had the same info in 2000! So the authors are either completely blind or the information is correct... Stunts is free!
http://www.mobygames.com/game/stunts/release-info (Here the fact that it was re - released)

Somehow there are that much informations circulating all around the Net stating that Stunts is freeware even in really common sources (Like HOTU or Wikipedia) that the authors or anyone who wished to hold a copyright on it must have ran in them. So i doubt that even if i put a link here directing to a place where you can download it would harm anyone anyhow (I will not, use Google, sure you will run in one in no time :p ).

Maybe i should write a letter to Broderbund about it? And what if they tell "we never heard of Stunts"... :p

Broderbund sucks. Every couple of years they seem to forget their whole product line ever existed and start over from scratch.