Delphine has long died and Gathering of Developers was the publisher and they're also dead.
TakeTwo owned GoD as far as I know, so the rights may belong to them.
Otherwise, it's just lost out there. Why are you asking though? Boxed copies are quite easy to find !

F2bnp wrote:

Delphine has long died and Gathering of Developers was the publisher and they're also dead.
TakeTwo owned GoD as far as I know, so the rights may belong to them.
Otherwise, it's just lost out there. Why are you asking though? Boxed copies are quite easy to find !

To win an argument with someone who thinks it's free software and legal to download with bittorrent.

It ain't legal, but it surely won't hurt anyone.

you can't really convince anyone in those situations, either they respect copyright laws or not, my advice would be not to bother with it really... let them decide for themselves and save yourself from some trolling/flaming 🤣

I can second that 2K Games owns it now, Darkstone was still sold in the last decade even.

The guy you're arguing with merely has an entitlement problem, 'blah abandonware blah public domain since its older than before i could read' etc...

leileilol wrote:

I can second that 2K Games owns it now, Darkstone was still sold in the last decade even.

The guy you're arguing with merely has an entitlement problem, 'blah abandonware blah public domain since its older than before i could read' etc...

Haha, I don't think you included enough Blah, Blah, Blah's in your response 😁

EDIT: I thought this game sounded familier, I just glanced over at my shelves to the right of where I am typing this response now and it was there.

Looking at the back of the jewel case now, Published by Godgames and Created by Delphone Software in 1999.

I have the PSX version - which I play with ePSXe on my notebook (at higher 1920x1080 resolution 😁).

Full Screen-Shot :

Epsxe:

Edit: Excellent Music! (CD Audio Tracks).

P.S. Using imaged ISO files and using Daemon Tools Lite with the virtual drive as the default PSX's drive.

Nice, the screenies look great for the PSX version.

Hey look, CDAccess.com still has a few copies in stock.
http://www.cdaccess.com/html/quick/darkstpr.htm

So, there you go. By downloading the game, one is depriving CDAccess.com of the $20 + S&H to which they are otherwise entitled. That's about the most compelling argument one can make in the face of such obstinance.

CDAccess is not the developer of this game.
All greedy publishers, resellers and others WIPO-parasites, which wants money for the 13-years-old game, can go to the another Globe.

So, would you say the same thing about GOG? Lots of stuff there is even older than 13 years. Even though the original publishers are willing to license the games and people are willing to pay for them, do you think they should be free just because they're more than 13 years old?

GREED is a relative term when used to describe Developers, Publishers and Resellers/Retailers of said games, regardless of platform.

Yes you can make the argument about the age of the game that it's not worth that price, however you can make the argument for how much they are charging is reasonable in the eye of some folks that are looking to have it in their collection.

I myself love digital resellers like Steam and Gog, of course the latter for the classics 😉

Do I think that $20 plus shipping is too much ?

Well I probably would given that this title wasn't high on my list of games to collect.

I happen to have been lucky in the past as I worked for a Software Mail Ordering Company that sold tons of games and I could get them at cost and this was one I grabbed for cheap before I departed the company.

I have tons of games I have collected over the years the very same way, including tons of those silly compilation shareware discs that included up to 6 DISCS in pack.

Hey, there are five copies of the game in stock at CDACCESS. And according to the description, it's in the retail box. Collectors ought to get it.

CDACCESS is something like the offline version of GOG. It is amazing to see that website has been alive for so long. I remember visiting there with my then phone-line modem those days, looking for a copy of Bioforge. It's one of those few retailers who still have the 5ft.10pack CD sets!

sliderider wrote:

F2bnp wrote:

Why are you asking though? Boxed copies are quite easy to find !

To win an argument with someone who thinks it's free software and legal to download with bittorrent.

I can feel the "tiger" prowling in this jungle of tall grasses, ...and waiting....watching for something...someone falling into his trap...to begin his attack!!!

I guess no one has really triggered off sliderider's appettite to begin his argument......yet.

🤣 🤣

yeah it's nice game, I got it too 😁

I haven't played the game since 2005 or so. I loved how you could have a companion with you and it must be the first diablo style game I ever played. I played Diablo 1 in 2008 and obviously liked it even more. I could never get into Diablo II though, it's just so much different than the first game!
And here's another game I quite like, Montezuma's Return! Really really weird though hahaha

Jorpho wrote:

So, would you say the same thing about GOG? Lots of stuff there is even older than 13 years. Even though the original publishers are willing to license the games and people are willing to pay for them, do you think they should be free just because they're more than 13 years old?

The difference is that GOG has much more reasonable pricing than if you tried to buy an original copy from most retailers. They frequently have $1.99, $2.99, and once in a while even FREE specials. Someone sitting on a stack of original CD's and asking $20 for them is going to be sitting on them for a long time especially if they are bare CD's in an envelope or jewel case copies. I personally prefer big box copies with manuals and all the inserts and that's the only thing I will pay good money for.

keropi wrote:

you can't really convince anyone in those situations, either they respect copyright laws or not, my advice would be not to bother with it really... let them decide for themselves and save yourself from some trolling/flaming 🤣

So true. One of my workmates was just sure that TOSEC is perfectly legal. I was like "Dude, there's like nearly every game ever made in that collection, you sure the manufacturers all spit on copyright suddenly?" but it was impossible to convince him. Abandonware is no legal status it's a "religion". Either you're a believer or not.

fronzel wrote:

keropi wrote:

you can't really convince anyone in those situations, either they respect copyright laws or not, my advice would be not to bother with it really... let them decide for themselves and save yourself from some trolling/flaming 🤣

So true. One of my workmates was just sure that TOSEC is perfectly legal. I was like "Dude, there's like nearly every game ever made in that collection, you sure the manufacturers all spit on copyright suddenly?" but it was impossible to convince him. Abandonware is no legal status it's a "religion". Either you're a believer or not.

Archiving for preservation is one thing, distributing is another. The US copyright laws, at least (not sure about some other countries) allow exceptions for the archiving of software programs for preservation but the definition of what constitutes an "archive" is very narrow and that "archive" cannot distribute copies of the software to others. So while "abandonware" sites might claim they fall under the archival exemption, they do not because they are allowing those files to be downloaded by others. If you really want to get technical about it, the wording of the law says to the effect that "archives" may work around copy protection in order to do their job of archiving, but since those files cannot then be redistributed you can extrapolate that each "archive" must do it's own cracking of the copy protection meaning it must have an original copy in it's possession. The "archivists" can't just leech all the files off of all the "abandonware" sites and call themselves an "archive". They must get original copies and crack each one themselves.