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Places to get shareware and demo downloads  "Links to various sites and FTPs"

User is offline   MrFlibble 

#1 Posted 15 April 2013 - 10:13 AM

This is a little spin-off of the retro gaming websites list. While there are obvious places where game demo or shareware downloads can be found, like cd.textfiles.com, archive.org or FilePlanet, they are often tiresome to navigate, and may still lack the files needed. On the other hand, not every classic/retro gaming website has a downloads section, leaving the users to find the games that have caught their attention on their own.

The alternative to this are file repositories that are more or less focused on a particular time period, genre and/or platform. These can be divided into several categories:

Active shareware developers and publishers from 90's
11th Dimension Entertainment
Adept Software
Alivesoft
Apogee Software/3D Realms
Arcanum Computing
Astral Entertainment (now Monkey with a Moustache Entertainment)
Awkward Software
Bluemoon Interactive
Bog Turtle Games LLC
Brainchild Design
Brain Block Interactive, Inc.
Carl Ericson's Computer Games
Carr Software
Clonk
Copysoft
Cornutopia
Dataware Software
Digital Nightmares
Everett Kaser Software
Free Lunch Design
Games By Eric Henson
Games By Scott
Gray Design Associates
Homebrew Software
Hungry Software
Inter-Active Arts
KnightSoft Technologies
Lexaloffle games
Longbow Games
Malfador Machinations
Midnight Synergy
Moraff's Games
Mountain King Studios Inc.
MVP Software
NecroBones Enterprises
ORT Software
Redwood Games
Ron Heuse Software Development
Sean O'Connor's Games
Shareware Hangvogel
Slicks'n'SLide
Soleau Software
Spiderweb Software
Star Wraith 3D Games
Tactical Soft
Terminal Studio
UnReal World
Viable Software Alternatives
Wendell Hicken Online
Wiering Software

Shareware developers and publishers from 2000's
300AD
Awem
Basilisk Games
Bitbliss Studios
BlitWise Productions
Choco Snow Creation
Codeminion
Divo Games
Heroic Fantasy Games
Jade Games
Jagged Blade Games
Mitorah Games
Niels Bauer Games
Phelios
Quest Engine
Rake in Grass
Redclaw Games
Sillysoft
Soldak Entertainment
Stormcloud Creations
Superluminal Inc.
VSBgames

Game developer and publisher FTP sites
ftp://ftp.atari.com/demos/
ftp://ftp.bluebyte.com/demos/
ftp://ftp.gtinteractive.com/demos/
ftp://ftp.idsoftware.com/idstuff/
ftp://ftp.lucasarts.com/demos/pc/
ftp://ftp.team17.com/pub/t17/demos/pc
ftp://ftp.ubisoft.com/Demos/
ftp://ftp.wizworks.com/demos/
http://largedownload....com/pub/demos/

Mirrors:
ftp://ftp.games.skyn...ware.com/demos/
ftp://ftp.games.skyn...p.westwood.com/
http://ftp.gameaholi...p.blizzard.com/

DOS games
ftp://ftp.padua.org/...os/games/local/
ftp://nic.funet.fi/pub/msdos/games/
http://ftp.icm.edu.pl/pub/coast/games/
ftp://ftp.pgp.net/pu...os/games/local/
http://ftp.sunet.se/pub/games/PC/
ftp://ftp.uni-potsda...tems/dos/games/
ftp://delphi.hs-nied.../pub/dos/games/
http://www.ftp.funet...ex/msdos/games/
http://www.gamers.or...chives/uwp-uml/

Windows games
ftp://ftp.icm.edu.pl...re/games/files/
ftp://ftp.farlep.net/pub/clubix/demo/
ftp://ftp.farlep.net/pub/clubix/demo2/
ftp://ftp.farlep.net/pub/clubix/demo3/
ftp://ftp.fi.netbsd....pc/win95/games/
ftp://ftp.gamers.org...in.co.uk/demos/
ftp://ftp.peliplaneetta.net/pelidemot/
ftp://ftp.uni-potsda...ms/win95/games/
http://elektron-bbs....s/win95/spiele/
http://ftp.gameaholic.com/pub/demos/

These lists are of course incomplete and any further suggestions are more than welcome :)

This post has been edited by MrFlibble: 04 July 2013 - 01:58 PM

3

User is offline   Person of Color 

  • Senior Unpaid Intern at Viceland

#2 Posted 15 April 2013 - 04:20 PM

Or you could just get that 9GB torrent of old DOS games off The Pirate Bay.
3

User is offline   Mr.Deviance 

#3 Posted 16 April 2013 - 02:08 AM

View Post486DX2, on 15 April 2013 - 04:20 PM, said:

Or you could just get that 9GB torrent of old DOS games off The Pirate Bay.

9GB of "old" DOS games are probably all of the DOS games ever released.
I actually wonder if anybody really knows exactly how many dos games were ever released and if a complete collection of every single dos game ever released actually exists anywhere.
The collections that claim to contain every single dos game, are probably only 80 or 90% complete.

This post has been edited by Mr.Deviance: 16 April 2013 - 02:11 AM

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User is offline   MrFlibble 

#4 Posted 16 April 2013 - 05:47 AM

View PostMr.Deviance, on 16 April 2013 - 02:08 AM, said:

I actually wonder if anybody really knows exactly how many dos games were ever released and if a complete collection of every single dos game ever released actually exists anywhere.

I highly doubt that a complete collection may exist at all, for a number of reasons:
  • There are lots of obscure self-published shareware games (usually created by a one-man team), either following the Scott Miller model or not (just browse some of the shovelware CDs at cd.textfiles.com and you'll get the idea).
  • Also there are lots of freeware games of similar origin, written at their spare time by various programmers.
  • There also exist unofficial, unauthorized DOS ports of commercial games, like the infamous SF2IBM port of the SNES version of Street Fighter II, or Rainer Sinsch's (semi-)unofficial port of The Great Giana Sisters.
  • Open source games like NetHack are also problematic to catalogue because of the numerous custom builds, variants and "unofficial" extensions.
  • In addition, there are amateur games that have been created with various game creation software toolkits, like Recreational Software Design's Game-Maker or Pie in the Sky's Game Creation System. I think no one ever succeeded in counting them all.
  • There are similarly obscure (on a worldwide scale) commercial games that have never seen an English language release and because of that are only known (if known at all) in their respective home countries. Such games also tend to have a very limited number of copies in print, making them even more rare.
  • There is also probably a certain percentage of complete games that never made it past a publisher, and remain unknown because of that.
  • Oh yes, and of course there are the unfinished projects from which only a demo remains, if anything at all, but those can probably be safely left out of consideration, unless for historical purposes. (Then again, some such games have quite playable demo versions.)

Of course, if you exclude all of the obscure amateur stuff, or games that were never released in English, you can probably accomplish something like a near-complete list of all games. It's going to be huge, of course :)

As for the 9 GB size: many games of the late DOS era had become quite large in size, especially with the wide spread of CD-ROMs. For example, Command & Conquer alone comes on two CDs, each with an average of 573 MB of data, making it a total of over 1GB. The retail shareware CD of Blood is 227 MB, while the Quake shareware CD (which includes CD Audio tracks I presume) is 716 MB.

In short, 9 GB will probably be enough for CD-rips, but not for the real full versions of all DOS games.
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User is online   Kristian Joensen 

#5 Posted 16 April 2013 - 10:51 AM

I guess I am just stating the obvious my linking this, but what the heck.
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User is offline   MrFlibble 

#6 Posted 17 April 2013 - 01:01 PM

It's already on the list:

View PostMrFlibble, on 15 April 2013 - 10:13 AM, said:

Active shareware developers and publishers
<...>
http://www.3drealms.com/downloads.html

Probably just got lost among the many others.
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User is offline   Person of Color 

  • Senior Unpaid Intern at Viceland

#7 Posted 17 April 2013 - 04:17 PM

View PostMr.Deviance, on 16 April 2013 - 02:08 AM, said:

9GB of "old" DOS games are probably all of the DOS games ever released.
I actually wonder if anybody really knows exactly how many dos games were ever released and if a complete collection of every single dos game ever released actually exists anywhere.
The collections that claim to contain every single dos game, are probably only 80 or 90% complete.


I put that collection on a DOS box I built for my friend a month ago.

It didn't have larger CD-ROM releases (i.e. Descent II, System Shock, F-22) but it had thousands of other things.

That was truly one of the finest computers I've ever built. Damn near perfect.

This post has been edited by 486DX2: 17 April 2013 - 04:18 PM

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User is offline   MrFlibble 

#8 Posted 27 April 2013 - 08:23 AM

Some original demo files are still available from archived copies of developer/publisher websites preserved by the Wayback Machine:

Beaucomm Interactive

Bitmap Brothers

Diversions Software

Eidos Interactive

Epic MegaGames

GameTek

Looking Glass Technologies

Microforum

Mission Studios

Philips Media

Psygnosis

SW Games

Webfoot Technologies

Xtreme Games LLC

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User is offline   MrFlibble 

#9 Posted 28 April 2013 - 08:45 AM

Beaucomm Interactive

Broderbund Software

Core Design

Eidos Interactive

Megamedia Corporation

Microforum

Mindscape

Philips Media

Ron Heuse

Sami Maaranen

Sirtech Software

Sleepless Software

Sunstorm Interactive

WizardWorks


This post has been edited by MrFlibble: 03 May 2013 - 04:49 AM

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User is offline   MrFlibble 

#10 Posted 03 May 2013 - 04:47 AM

Longbow Digital Arts

Raven Software

Ticsoft


This post has been edited by MrFlibble: 07 May 2013 - 08:20 AM

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User is offline   MrFlibble 

#11 Posted 07 May 2013 - 08:23 AM

21st Century Entertainment

Epic MegaGames

MVP Software

ORT Software

Ubi Soft Entertainment

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User is offline   Daedolon 

  • Ancient Blood God

#12 Posted 13 May 2013 - 06:51 PM

Tons of great stuff there.
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User is offline   MrFlibble 

#13 Posted 26 May 2013 - 07:55 AM

Okay, I edited the first post a bit to make the list of shareware developers & publishers a bit more easy to navigate, and added the following sites:
11th Dimension Entertainment
Dataware Software
KnightSoft Technologies
Longbow Games
Malfador Machinations
Tactical Soft
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User is offline   MrFlibble 

#14 Posted 26 May 2013 - 12:36 PM

More sites:
300AD
Astatix
Black Sky
BlitWise Productions
Brain Block Interactive, Inc.
Choco Snow Creation
Codeminion
Computer-Game.Us
Cornutopia
Divo Games
Games 2 Download
Gearhead Studios
Jade Games
Jagged Blade Games
Mitorah Games
Niels Bauer Games
Phelios
Quest Engine
Redclaw Games
Retro 247 Games
Stormcloud Creations
Superluminal Inc.
Suricate Software
Terminal Studio
VSBgames
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User is offline   MrFlibble 

#15 Posted 31 May 2013 - 04:31 PM

Awem - an indie developer with some nice-looking shmup games.
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User is offline   MrFlibble 

#16 Posted 05 June 2013 - 05:28 AM

Codo Technologies Ltd.

Holistic Design

Tactical Soft

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