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Internet Archive Now Hosts Classic Unreal Games; Epic Games Gives Blessing 26

Posted by msmash from the moving-forward dept.
Classic first-person shooters Unreal (1998) and Unreal Tournament are now available for free on the Internet Archive, with official OK from publisher Epic Games.

An Epic spokesperson confirmed to PC Gamer that users are permitted to "independently link to and play these versions." Players can download the games directly from the Internet Archive and apply patches from Github for modern Windows compatibility, or use simplified installers through oldunreal.com. Both titles run on current hardware despite their age, though users may need to adjust dated default settings like 640x480 resolution and inverted mouse controls.

Internet Archive Now Hosts Classic Unreal Games; Epic Games Gives Blessing More | Reply

Internet Archive Now Hosts Classic Unreal Games; Epic Games Gives Blessing

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  • man I played a lot of UT back in the day, I'm going to DL this just to see how it looks on new hardware.

    • Help (Score:3)

      by JBMcB ( 73720 )

      Here you go :)

      https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/w... [pcgamingwiki.com]

      You'll want the unofficial patch that makes it work with modern Windows.

      Then, either nGlide or dgVoodoo2 to patch the 3dfx/OpenGL driver to use Direct3D 11, along with adding a bunch of features like more AA, filtering, and resolution settings.

    • Be sure to install Unreal Tournament patch v469. If removes compatibility problems with new Windows versions by natively supporting multi-core CPUs and by delivering advanced audio and video renderers. It also contains a native Linux version. The original UT also has advanced renderers and in many cases can be made to work well with new CPUs, and it also works well with Wine, but the v469 patch usually gives better experience.

      However, don't expect the graphics to be like in the new shiny games, not even wit

  • I've been trying to setup the original Unreal on my M-series mac - I couldn't get the original CD I have to read due to it being scratched, and hadn't had time to 'find' the data files on the net, expecting to have to visit warez sites to find them.

    Now I don't have to. Thumbs up to Epic Games for making this available.

    • Maybe Epic finally listened to its long time users. After making the d!ck move to remove these games from Steam and GOG, which effectively removed all means to purchase them legally, they're trying to make amends.

    • If the scratch is not too deep, try to polish the disk with toothpaste. I used to do that for Netflix disks that would skip. Rub with your finger from the center to the edge of the disk.

      The reason it works is that toothpaste is a mild abrasive, and decent at polishing hard surfaces.

      Added bonus: the disk will smell minty fresh.

  • I wonder why they pulled them from GOG where people were willing to pay, but they're wanting to "bless" what is essentially a pirate site. Thankfully I got Unreal Gold before they pulled it but forgot to get Tournament and I've been kicking myself for years.

    • Same! I just recently played and beat my copy of GOG Unreal that I bought. I couldn't get it running in Windows 7 but did get it running in Linux. I had played every other Unreal game except for this one, so now my historical gaming experience is complete.

      Protip for Unreal players: You'll get spots of lag if you turn up the shadows too high, experiment with the settings if you get bad performance like I did. I dealt with the lag until I was nearly done with the game like a dummy.

    • I heard a rumor that according to the settlement of a lawsuit against them, Epic voluntarily agreed to not make money anymore from the entire Unreal series. But couldn't they tell GOG to give the money earned from Unreal sales to charity or something?

  • Smart too, now the community will take over support and look at all the free publicity. Epic can still make good moves when it needs to.

    Now, if only Fortnite had effective SBMM

    • It's not that easy to take over support of a game that isn't open source. Yet, the OldUnreal team somehow got the source of Unreal and UT under a NDA, and it allowed them to make the modern patches for these games. If Epic wants good publicity, they should consider opening the sources :)

  • A few years back someone manage to recreate the Unreal Intro [shadertoy.com] entirely in a fragment shader on ShaderToy!

    People have even done a cover [soundcloud.com] of the castle flyby.

    I have a rather soft spot for Unreal's software texture mapping with texture space ordered dithering [flipcode.com]. Back in the good old days when Tim would respond. :-)

    I was always more of a Quake guy but Unreal shipping their level editor with the game and the beautiful software texture mapping left an positive impression on myself (and others.)

  • There are people that play inverted mouse off? In practically every modern game the first thing I do is turn that shit on.

  • It costs Epic nothing to do this. And the goodwill they'll get in return is worth well in excess of that nothing it costs them. Good for Epic. I wish e.g. Nintendo had the same wisdom.

    • Nintendo is a hardware manufacturer that creates its own games. Epic is a cross-platform publisher of thousands of titles. It probably couldn't make money on UT if it tried. However, I will pay $2 to download and play Zelda II on my Switch, even if it's just because I forgot how much fun it isn't.
      Epic lawyers would have to pursue the Internet Archive to make them take it down, and chase after people who downloaded it, etc. It would do them harm and cost them money to not let it happen, so they just let it h

  • I tried playing the original Unreal in the mid 00s and it felt really old then. I can only imagine today. Still, it's nice to have it preserved as a piece of history.

    • Yeah original Unreal will feel old because it's a single player game. Unreal Tournament still hold up forever because it's a competitive multiplayer game.

      • It's an multiplayer arena shooter par excellence, and most analysts agree that it's a dead genre. Only the younger players' renewed interest could revive it, but I don't have much hope.

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