Where can you safely download old Star Trek games?

[Antonio]

I understand there are sites where you can download old games for the PC that are now longer made, such as the old Star Trek games (like 25th Anniversary). I think you can even download old Genesis and Nintendo games and play them on the PC. I'm looking for the 1987 Next generation game Transinium Challenge, the Star Trek V game (both made for the old IBM PC) and the Next Generation game for Genesis and Nintendo if they will play on a PC.

Anyone know of a good site where this out of print stuff can be safely downloaded?

Thanks,
Anthony

 

[Chris3123]

I don't know about the two old PC games, but I know it's not legal to download any console games.

 

[Linklinker]

Great place for old out of print games. Has some old Star Trek games.

 

[Cary L. Brown]

Antonio said:I understand there are sites where you can download old games for the PC that are now longer made, such as the old Star Trek games (like 25th Anniversary). I think you can even download old Genesis and Nintendo games and play them on the PC. I'm looking for the 1987 Next generation game Transinium Challenge, the Star Trek V game (both made for the old IBM PC) and the Next Generation game for Genesis and Nintendo if they will play on a PC.

Anyone know of a good site where this out of print stuff can be safely downloaded?

Thanks,
Anthony

VERY BAD thing to be asking in an open forum.

Every Trek game I have was bought and paid for. The question is... can you still get these games? The FIRST place to check is Ebay. People have a legal right to resell games they've legally purchased.

If you choose to download a copy of a game, understand that you are committing a criminal act, unless the maker of that game (and in the case of a Trek game, also the license-owner, Paramount) have released the game to the public domain. Which I do not believe has EVER happened (though other companies, and even some franchises, have released their own games at different points).

If you want to ask this sort of question, there are resources you can find on the 'net to ask them. But I strongly recommend that you don't ask this question again here. You're potentially exposing the TrekBBS management to legal problems if they don't close this thread and prevent you from getting an answer.

 

[Antonio]

Cary L. Brown said:

Antonio said:I understand there are sites where you can download old games for the PC that are now longer made, such as the old Star Trek games (like 25th Anniversary). I think you can even download old Genesis and Nintendo games and play them on the PC. I'm looking for the 1987 Next generation game Transinium Challenge, the Star Trek V game (both made for the old IBM PC) and the Next Generation game for Genesis and Nintendo if they will play on a PC.

Anyone know of a good site where this out of print stuff can be safely downloaded?

Thanks,
Anthony

VERY BAD thing to be asking in an open forum.

Every Trek game I have was bought and paid for. The question is... can you still get these games? The FIRST place to check is Ebay. People have a legal right to resell games they've legally purchased.

If you choose to download a copy of a game, understand that you are committing a criminal act, unless the maker of that game (and in the case of a Trek game, also the license-owner, Paramount) have released the game to the public domain. Which I do not believe has EVER happened (though other companies, and even some franchises, have released their own games at different points).

If you want to ask this sort of question, there are resources you can find on the 'net to ask them. But I strongly recommend that you don't ask this question again here. You're potentially exposing the TrekBBS management to legal problems if they don't close this thread and prevent you from getting an answer.

Sorry- didn't mean to cause any legal trouble, especially since I am an attorney. Just thought out of print games from companies that no longer (such as Interplay and Springboard who produced Transinium Challenge 20 years ago) would be ok. I understand your concerns Cary, and again sorry about the confusion.

 

[Linklinker]

It is technicaly illegal to download old out of print games,
but still you can without worring to much about it.
The Underdogs site will remove games off of their site if the company tells them to.

But for the games you mention it seems a bit ridculus to try and enforce copyright laws unless the company is going to sell the game to the public.

I would recomend buying Star Trek 25th Anniversay talkie edition though. Just because its awsome having all the voice actors of the original cast.

I doubt any company is going to fuss about these old games you want to download because they are so old in the first place.

Heres a Wiki article about such matters. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abandonware

 

[General_Phoenix]

I'm not sure about 25th Anniversary, and Judgement Rites. As of a few years ago you could still buy these, with voice overs with the original actors - not sure if you still can. Amazon may have them. Promethean Prophecy, and Kobayashi Alternative I did download at one time, I think at the Underdogs site that has already been mentioned..and yes I did buy those two games originally (well, my dad did) in the '80's. I just no longer had the games, and even if I did I have no 5.25" drive anymore.

The Sega and SNES games can be found if you look hard enough. You need an emulator for the said systems, I haven't been on the emulation scene in quite sometime. Genecyst was a good Sega Genesis emulator, and ZSnes was a good SNES emulator - although I have no idea if either are even around these days. As for ROMS (games to use for the emulators) I have no clue these days. So much has probably changed since I was into that scene.

Some game developers have released games as public domain, Apogee has done this with some of their older games. Major Stryker, I think some of the Commander Keen games, Bio-Menace, and a few others I am probably forgetting. Would be nice if someone did the same for some of the older Star Trek titles.

I never had much success running 25th Ann. or Judgement Rites on newer PCs without having to do some tweaking. It's the infamous "need 640k conventional memory" thing... so if you buy the game or whatever, just be aware of that.

 

[Cary L. Brown]

General_Phoenix said:
I'm not sure about 25th Anniversary, and Judgement Rites. As of a few years ago you could still buy these, with voice overs with the original actors - not sure if you still can. Amazon may have them. Promethean Prophecy, and Kobayashi Alternative I did download at one time, I think at the Underdogs site that has already been mentioned..and yes I did buy those two games originally (well, my dad did) in the '80's. I just no longer had the games, and even if I did I have no 5.25" drive anymore.

The Sega and SNES games can be found if you look hard enough. You need an emulator for the said systems, I haven't been on the emulation scene in quite sometime. Genecyst was a good Sega Genesis emulator, and ZSnes was a good SNES emulator - although I have no idea if either are even around these days. As for ROMS (games to use for the emulators) I have no clue these days. So much has probably changed since I was into that scene.

Some game developers have released games as public domain, Apogee has done this with some of their older games. Major Stryker, I think some of the Commander Keen games, Bio-Menace, and a few others I am probably forgetting. Would be nice if someone did the same for some of the older Star Trek titles.

I never had much success running 25th Ann. or Judgement Rites on newer PCs without having to do some tweaking. It's the infamous "need 640k conventional memory" thing... so if you buy the game or whatever, just be aware of that.

If you want to run those games, it's pretty straightforward. They run PERFECTLY through the use of "DOSBox."

 

[Linklinker]

Or vdmsound.

Although I have the Judgement rites collectors edition which contains a cd version of Judgement rites with voice acting, it does not seem playable with the voice acting.

Dosbox helped but still it was not satisfactory.

For some reason when ever a sound played in the game it would pause for a couple of seconds. Dosbox helped but even then it had sound problems. After every mission the last background sound playing before you beamed back to the ship would get stuck in a loop and play while you were on the bridge.

After every mission the sounds would build up ontop of each other. So annyoing.

 

[Borjis]

none of the Dos emulators do a full on reliable job of playback. either the audio is choppy, or the timing is off or midi doesn't work.

just do what I did and find an old pentium 100 system for cheap with a soundblaster 16 running windows 95.

Every game I have including ones with odd memory requirements (x-wing collectors cd) work perfectly.

 

[Earl]

In reality, every game still belongs to "some one" or some "Company" as far as I know. Some one owns the rights to all Star Trek games. Some old game companies that no longer exist were purchased by corporations like Activison or EA for example. Those companies own the games.

Even if you can download it off some warez website.

I think the use of the word "safely" is a great big red flag.

 

[daedalus5]

I'm a bit dubious over this thread, but I think the games being dicussed here come under the guise of "Abandonware" and are OK. I shall ask Admins in the BR for clarification though.

 

[StewMc]

Legally the word "abandonware" means absolutely nothing though. Its mainly used as a thin excuse for some warez websites to host some old games. Whether its available to buy or not, its still illegal to download any of the commercial Star Trek games.

 

[daedalus5]

I'm going to lock this thread now after discussing with Admins, the Board can't be involved in anything that could be potentially taken to be seen that the Board condones software piracy, even although the games companies themselves no longer exist - Paramount do!