http://www.ebay.com/ctg/The-Lord-of-the-Rings-Sinclair-ZX-Spectrum-1986-/56270938?_refkw=lord+of+the+rings+1986&_pcatid=2&_pcategid=1249&_dmpt=Video_Games_Games

Here you are sir, a sinclair spectrum edition, and it's not even 10 bucks.

Might be a bit out of the price range of most - http://www.ebay.com/itm/The-Fellowship-Of-The-Ring-Software-Adventue-IBM-Vintage-PC-Game-/310373262641?pt=Video_Games_Games&hash=item4843b02531#ht_2968wt_844

I only searched out of interest, though, it doesn't change your point - tonnes of stuff exists that you will literally not find anywhere, even on eBay or Amazon Marketplace. Try finding a copy of Alley Cat, for example. And even if you find it, try running it.

Damn! I knew I should have taken "Crack of Doom". That would at least made the googling interesting.... ;-P

Yes, it is outright piracy. That is why the term abandonware annoys me. It just exists to make people feel better about piracy. If you are going to do something, at least be honest about it. I am. Like I said, I'll be the first to admit I pirate stuff sometimes.

Seems to me the problem here is your own moral compass.
So, your argument is; "I can't afford this, hence, I should get it for free"?

Go buy me a BMW.
My point was not that you couldn't get your hands on a copy at any given time or at any given price. My point is that, legally, it is piracy.

Aw and you can afford buying a game for that price? And exactly how many of the users here will buy it for 400$? And this is ilegal selling too. The game cannot be bought from the Publisher/Developer ;) So your point is kinda....Look at me I have money to throw them at people :D

Lol. I'm to busy to find you a copy right now. Maybe tomorrow.
Nope, I can't afford it, nor can I justify spending that amount of money on a game. Doesn't mean I'm entitled to a free copy, nor that you are. It's still piracy. If you want to download something, go ahead, it doesn't bother me in the slightest.

Your argument about abandonware not being piracy, however, does.

Ps. It's not illegal to resell a game that you own an original copy of, FYI.

I think the point others were making is that some abandonware sites (not all, but some) have a policy of preservation, rather than distribution. When I was a part of the original HOTU, we explicitly took down the downloads for anything that was found for sale, even if the original developer or publisher had long since vanished and it was literally just some guy selling his copy he found. Blankly going 'but it's still piracy' isn't a counterpoint to that, as they're all fully aware it is.

Problem is some games are nowhere to get legaly and if is not possible to play it in this generation pc like for example eye of the beholder 3,5 disc maybe i can get it somewhere but i dont have a drive.

The thing is that 1 copy don't really preserve the game... Just some guy making money with it... For me piracy do help for preservation of games. I made the whole thread cause it will be nice to have those games here... If they sell it ok...if they can put them for free it's ok too...

Not as easy as you think. Depends on country, method of distribution and DRM.

Yey if you make profit from this is not ilegal... and because of thinking like that we have shits like Tages,SecuROM....

But again there, you're confusing morality and legality. GOG can't just put random games up, even for free, simply because they're on abandonware sites.

Well, I have yet to see a game cease to exist because it was not "preserved" by an abandonware site. Just because it isn't up on the net, doesn't mean it's lost to humanity.

I can see how you are thinking you are doing a noble thing "preserving" games for future generations, but to me it seems like a means to justify yourselves. Like I said, it's the term that annoys me, not the fact that abandonware sites exist.

It's not a nonsense term; it's a descriptive term. It's so much easier than saying "software which can't be legally obtained anymore, other than as used copies" over and over.