Look at Lemmings … huge audience is around again, it’s still a classic, and yet it cannot be bought. I do have a legal Lemmings copy, and Lemmings paintball (not that good) but other stuff I have a hard time finding AND then getting to work. Don’t Sony still own Psygnosis ? Why not a classic release at a fiver ?

I totally agree about the cultural aspect though, and the impact of games such as Elite / Dark Side and many other shouldn’t be overlooked (never did get into Wizball, though I did complete Another World :p)

As to the “Finding Warez” subject: As a game developer, I hate the term abandonware. People easily apply it to anthing that’s not available in their local store, but technically the game isn’t abandoned until the owner of the rights says so. I’ve seen the term applied to one of our games, which I just saw through a budget-price re-release.

Then again, I personally see no problems with old Amiga or C64 games, because those systems are simply gone, and the idea that the developers of those games still get any revenue on them even if they were still on sale is laughable. It would be nice if computer games were considered cultural heritage items worth protecting, and copying/hacking/converting them became legal after some time. I will miss Wizball (on the C64) and Another World (which I now play on DosBox) if they should become unplayable one day.