Is in the case of freeware the torrent option illegal?

I'm not a lawyer so I really don't know but some of the big game collection torrents also include freeware and shareware so I would think if you just download those files from the torrent then it's ok? ...but I definitely don't know.

Shareware CD-ROMs, either real or as ISO, are/were a good source of shareware, freeware and public domain.
They're also anti-virus checked and read-only.

Downloading them shouldn't be an issue, either.
Because, the shareware rule (license terms) of the 90s said that a copy is not allowed to cost more than the medium is worth (plus a little compensation for the work/shipping).
Or alternatively, below a maximum price - it was $5 or $10 or something along these lines.

So strictly speaking, many larger compilations were violating the rules themselves, back in the day.
That's not to be underestimated, I think, because some of the included readme files of the shareware products confirmed that.
And they were applicable license documents, like GPL v2, perhaps.

PS: Speaking under correction, of course. I'm no lawyer, either. I don't take any responsibility for the statements made, thus. It simply resembles my understanding on the matter, be it right or wrong.

Although it doesn't work for big collections or large files like ISOs, I like to run any sketchy executables through VirusTotal first. It will at least give you a hash and let you know if the file has been seen before, and if so, how long ago. If a file lists as clean and has been around for ages I consider it a reasonably safe bet to run.

One can also try searching for MD5/CRC32/SHA1 of the file to see if that gives any results, then at least you know you're using the same file others have used before.

sofakng wrote on 2023-09-30, 01:27:

Does anybody know of a good trustworthy source for shareware/freeware?

Here are couple of them:

• DOS Games Archive: Shareware and freeware DOS games.
• RGB Classic Games: Same with DOS Games Archive but it also has games for OS/2, BeOS, Windows 3.x and 9x.
• BTTR Software: Hosts freeware DOS utilities.

Thanks so much for all of the advice.

@Gmlb256 - I've seen those websites before and it looks like they have been around a while so I suppose they are trustworthy. It would be nice to see where they sourced the games from or even another site that only archives verified media... (maybe that exists somewhere?)

there's the still-up gamers.org ftp which holds some legit shareware/demo downloads for decades. Obviously because of 'modern' 'secure' web browsers, i'll have to link the https version
https://www.gamers.org/pub/archives/uwp-uml/

There's also a gamesdomain files mirror to cover slightly newer stuff (though timestamps got junked in 2002)
https://www.gamers.org/pub/mirrors/ftp.gamesdomain.co.uk/

OT, but has anyone else been having a problem with Windows Defender blocking certain PDF files containing links to malware sites. (Presumably these were originally legit sites which are now abandoned and hosting malware.) I have a lot of old PDFs which are now unusable because of this.

I would assume that most shareware CDs are likely to be safe, however I've heard occasional reports of viruses being on some of them. Usually it's just one file that got through.

I just download files to a single folder that I periodically scan using FPROT. I wouldn't trust the modern antivirus programs to find DOS viruses, but FPROT seems to be highly rated for older stuff. It's described here:
[SOLVED] Best DOS antivirus?

Ensign Nemo wrote on 2023-09-30, 02:42:

I would assume that most shareware CDs are likely to be safe, however I've heard occasional reports of viruses being on some of them. Usually it's just one file that got through.

There are frequent false positives in utility collections from utils to edit CMOS, boot sector or partition tables etc.

DerBaum wrote on 2023-09-30, 01:30:

Is in the case of freeware the torrent option illegal?

The bittorrent protocol itself isn't illegal (even some linux distros have it as a download option). I suppose if the torrent you want to get only contains shareware/freeware it should be fine.

If you just want a bunch all at once (of demos/shareware/freeware that is), the DBGL site has some packs that are curated and inspired by ADG seasons.

Defender isn't just about stopping viruses; it can also block files and links to what it considers as piracy sites. This is for the benefit of Microsoft and their corporate friends - not for you.

You can disable Defender for a short while, so take the opportunity to copy any blocked pdfs or whatever to an older computer and you might be able to access what you're after from there.

https://archive.org/search?query=pc-sig will give you CD-ROMs released by PC-SIG, which was a legitimate distributor of shareware. Of course as people note above, viruses could have made it onto those discs accidentally, so still best to scan them.

If you have concerns that maybe the .iso files don't match what was originally released, you could take a look at who uploaded them. Here are some images from (incredibly) reputable uploaders:

https://archive.org/details/PC-Sig_Library_13 … ion_PC-SIG_1994 - 13th edition, uploaded by Jason Scott, who works for archive.org (which is really underselling his contribution to software preservation)
https://archive.org/details/PC-Sig_Library_12 … ion_PC-SIG_1993 - 12th edition, uploaded by Jason Scott
https://archive.org/details/The_PC-Sig_Librar … G_Tenth_Edition - 10th edition uploaded by "Sketch the Cow" which is someone I'd noticed had uploaded a lot of stuff and I just learned from Wikipedia is Jason Scott
https://archive.org/details/PC-SIG_Games_PC-SIG - Games, uploaded by Jason Scott
https://archive.org/details/pc-sig-library-cd … edition-1990-04 - 8th edition uploaded by jeffpar, author of PCjs, who wrote a blog post about that particular disc and what PC-SIG is, who I've corresponded with before, and who I need to get in touch with again now!

I believe these are entirely shareware, freeware, public domain and freely redistributable demos... http://cd.textfiles.com/

Middle aged stuff (late 90s early 2000s) may still be found on softpedia, softonic, cnet downloads, Major Geeks etc, visit with adblockers on, be very careful you are clicking the right download link, and beware of bundled toolbars and bonzai buddy type crap.

I chuckled when I tried one of the ftp sites listed in the One Must Fall readme and it's still active today as an archive of the stuff that was hosted in the 90s: ftp.funet.fi

Yeah one of the oldskool greats. I think they had a rivalry with sunet.se and tried to be more "fun" where sunet was more stuffy and serious. At least at the ftp level, they were X UNiversity NETworks where X was country.

I think I may have first tried to get files over the internet from there. Now this was 92 I think and my internet account was through a VT52 terminal, on a VAX... and I had used a WAIS over email service to find something, and FTP email gateway to get it from funet.fi ... but then I was stuck, as it took up the whole of my disk quota and it was tar.z (the old compress, zip wasn't all that common yet) and I couldn't manipulate the 2MB to split it for disk size pieces or anything, I was kinda lost on the VAX tbh, didn't know crap about the shell commands..... and at this point was floundering trying to use a VAX to process a file onto PC 720k disks so I could put it on my Amiga... Next semester we got access to "proper" internet on Windows, point and click Ftp, gopher and this new world wide web thing whatever that was.

I recently asked a similar question here. I then found https://www.classicdosgames.com/. It doesn't have a lot of games but seems to have some good ones. Try it out. 😀

And for DOS games: https://www.dosgamesarchive.com/.