Someone should make a QFG4 remake

[p]

But Pwincess- You and I both know that old Sierra games would not sell on todays market.  Even FREEWARE games are higher quality.  Sierra has no chance of releasing them again even if Mr Millionaire CEO of Sierra wanted to make an extra buck or two.  Sierra has even been THROWING AWAY original art & material from the games.  Last I heard, they don't have a single piece of original work from their haydays.

I'll even go as far as to say abandonware HELPs the old games.  Anyone willing to stoop low enough to go download and play outdated games are going to be even more likely to purchase the games if for some miracle they are re-released as enhanced versions.  Besides, do you really think modern gamers are going out and looking for free older games to play that don't really even run on their machines?  no.  Those older games wouldn't even last a minute on today's attention spans.

Abadonware is like the life line for a lot of these games.  Hell, I even forgot about a lot of old games until I went to an abandonware site and was reminded of their one-time existance.

So morally, I see no conflict with abandonware whatsoever.  Though, I agree that companies have the right to protect their work no matter how old it is. If a company asks people to stop downloading their old material, I think it is in our best interest to respect it.

The fact that we are talking about this here is extremely hypocrtical anyway.  I would say that it is more damning for fan communities to REMAKE older games and release them freely then to simply redistribute the original work.  Yet, despite the completely illegal nature of fan-made remakes, they are well recieved and freely talked about inside these forums.  Imagine an old book.  Now imagine me retyping it, enhancing it, and adding illustrations and then releasing it freely in PDF format.  Isn't that more damaging to the author than had I went to kinkos and xerox'd it?
 

[Louisiana Night]

Sierra games would not sell on todays market.

I'm guessing you don't have Wal-Marts where you live.
Examples of old games being re-released, and selling fairly well
Sega Smash Pack(20+ classic Sega games)
Need for Speed Collection(over a half-dozen different NfS games)
The Myst collections(at least the first three games, often on DVD)
Sonic Adventure:DX(over a dozen Sonic games, only one of which is 3D)
Megaman collections(not PC, some with NES level graphics)
Street Fighter collections(not PC)
Baulders Gate collections
The Sims collections XD

In other words, one game might not sell, but in a package deal, they tend to sell quite well.

P.S. Most of those collections/package deals, have been made compatible with new OSs.

Besides, do you really think modern gamers are going out and looking for free older games to play that don't really even run on their machines?

I'm going to forget about the "free" part, and go straight to retail games.

Let's look at these genres(niche market, but the higher cost of these games, helps make up for part of it), shall we?

Flight Sims(though there are many new flight sims, people are STILL buying the classics, like Falcon4.0)

Driving Sims(same as Flight Sims)

RPGs(you've never heard of Geneforge)  

Besides, if you setup DOSbox to do things automaticly, there's a VERY good chance it will work, with almost  no hassle.  

Note
Most of these old games, are a pain to get working on new hardware/software(Geneforge2 is a new game, with VERY old style graphics).

Abadonware is like the life line for a lot of these games.

and the death of many others...

The fact that we are talking about this here is extremely hypocrtical anyway.

You're comparing someone, that spends months/years making a game, to someone that simply copies another person's months/years of work?

[p]

I'm guessing you don't have Wal-Marts where you live.

None of the games you mentioned fit inside the time frame of "abandonware" except for perhaps Sega Smash Pack, but you are comparing apples and oranges.  Console games are remarketable because the console concept is pretty much un-changing.  A gameboy advanced handheld console, for example, still does not surpass the Sega Genesis hardware specs despite the 10 year gap.

I should also remind you that despite the fact that Sierra released multiple "game packs" of their adventure games (Kings Quest collectors edition, etc), they did not sell well, and that was at a time when their games still ran smoothly on the then-current hardware and their graphics weren't grossly out of date.   And even at that time, these packaged games were cheaper than other games on the market (I bought Kings Quest and Space Quest collectors for $35)

Besides, if you setup DOSbox to do things automaticly, there's a VERY good chance it will work, with almost  no hassle. 

Sure, but you can not sell a product that relies on a 3rd party vendor to run.  Your sim analogy is also false.  The top 10 sim games have all been modern games.  In fact some of the modern Microsoft flight sims have been selling very well for the genre.

and the death of many others...

Examples?  My understanding of "Abandonware" is that the games fitting that description are already dead.

You're comparing someone, that spends months/years making a game, to someone that simply copies another person's months/years of work?

Yup.  What does that have to do with legalities/moral values?  If in 10 years harry potter is out of print, and I spend 1 year retyping it in PDF format, another year illustrating it, and then releasing it, doesn't that still count as infringement regardless of my long aching efforts?  Aren't I still taking someone elses work and distributing it without the owner's consent?  Wouldn't my free illustrated and printable download be more appealing than paying money for an old book on ebay?   Wouldn't it effect future sales if the company decided to reprint it?  

Now let's look at the alternative:  Let's say I did a xerox copy of hary potter for my friend because it was out of print and he didn't want to buy it on ebay.  What he gets is a bunch of poor-quality, loose paper sheets to read through.   That thing isn't gonna last long before it's trashed (probably trashed after he's done reading it).  He may still be interested in buying the book because the alternative isn't as attractive.  But had I done a PDF remake with illustrations, perhaps the idea of buying the book wouldn't be as appealing... or even more possibly:  perhaps the desire to buy the book wouldn't be strong enough to actually motivate him to buy the original anymore.