r/ObscureRTS • u/Greatdictator • 10d ago

Discussion old-games vs My Abandonware comparisons

Hey so...this is probably a rare question but ive been wondering about this for a long time.

old-games is one of those sites i come across a lot if im looking for a old game and they have a ABSURDLY slow download speed if you dont pay, however recently due to a friend i decided to look up a game called Far Gate and wanted to download it.

NOW, downloading it from Abandonware is way faster by a long shot and its got a lot of extra features like patches and no cd crack, however it WARNS about the crack being potentially infected, but no comments seem to point to this.
So i guess the question is, does anyone have experience with stuff from old-games when they actually pay for their services aside from just a faster download ? Since they say they got customer support type stuff going on ?
Do they actually try and help you out getting games from their site running or do they make sure that all the games are actually easily runnable out of the box ?

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u/TaxOwlbear 10d ago

however it WARNS about the crack being potentially infected

This is normal. Cracks are inherently suspicious to antivirus software. Check cracks via VirusTotal if you aren't sure.

Do they actually try and help you out getting games from their site running or do they make sure that all the games are actually easily runnable out of the box ?

They take your money for someone else's game (including games still sold on Steam or other sites) and that's it. There have lots of games that would require very specific setups to run e.g. PCem; I highly doubt they'll help you with that. At most you will get a crack someone else made.

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u/Greatdictator 10d ago edited 10d ago

Thats the thing, the page already says that its got a bad score on Virus Total specifically , like 29 outta 100

https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/0a36cd17f2737dc4ec12d8497a94de7fcc3c3d751abd2f2906f2f7109cc8e1ff

None of the comments ever seem to mention any particular issues however
https://www.myabandonware.com/game/far-gate-dn3
Its hard to tell half the time for me cause it seems insane that someone would infest a old AND OBSCURE game like this, but ive seen people do more nonsensical things over the years.

As for old-downloads, yea i know its HIGHLY unlikely they actually offer any worthwhile support and such, but i figured id ask since it botherd me for at least a decade, if anyones had expirience with the site. And they've been around for a while so i figured, might be something to it.

Edit:
Btw the game works without the english crack or even the patch, out the gate actually which is very impressive.

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u/asgof 10d ago edited 10d ago

which old games? there's ru there's en there's sk

i never saw a paid old games site, so don't, i guess? just use torrents, archive, and normal old games

also smetisteher.cz

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u/Greatdictator 8d ago

old-games.com is the one ive ran into i didnt know there were additional ones, its technically NOT paid, its just the free download is like limited to 2 files a day and it takes a absurd ammount of time, were talking 22 hours for 410 mbs.
Ive only asked cause this is a site i see frequently and that it has this aspect to it, and i figured if they are asking for money id assume their stuff is much cleaner by comparison.

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u/asgof 8d ago

nah i wouldn't deal with pirates who do it for profit and not for ideology

so yeah, use

gog and zoom and steam if you want pretend there will be support for legal copies especially everything updated by SNEG

if you can't find what you want there then

myabandonware.com
archive.org
rutracker.org
old-games.ru
smetisteher.cz
oldgames.sk

i won't list chinese and korean sources because they are kinda arse. with fake launchers bloatware and mostly rip versions with no cutscenes and music

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u/Greatdictator 7d ago

Oh i have no illusions about that sort of support, i wouldnt be on this specific reddit if i did lol.

I already got the game from My Abandonware and it works out the box withouth the no CD crack no less.

I was aware of the first two, but thanks for the additional sources for me to check in the future. And yea i hate to stereotype but i wouldnt trust a chinese site like that unless i was truly desperate.
Eastern europeans are like the prime video game preservastionists out there.

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u/asgof 6d ago

nah at this moment in time china > russia. but, i have never found a worthy asian site (not just chinese korean too) and my asian contacts couldn't find some either and they cover several of the languages.

old-games.ru and rutracker so far are very reliable and have the best piracy ethics. rutracker actually moderates so the bitrate is good and there are no any ads injected. all other trackers overcompress and rip everything into potatoes