What are liberated games?
Have you ever heard about "liberated" video games? Maybe you read it while surfing on abandonware websites, maybe you came across this awkward definition by surfing of those rare "old games museums" sites. So, you're asking yourself what is a liberated game? It's a game originally released as a commercial product that is now no longer sold in any form, but it's available for free. Sometimes the developer (or the publisher) re-release a game with a freeware license, hence the term "liberated".
Usually, a game becomes liberated in an attempt of the publisher to create hype for a more recent game, thus gathering the interest of retro gamers towards an upcoming sequel (for example, the BattleCruiser series or The Elder Scrolls: Arena).
Sometimes the liberated game is so old that the developer, no longer interested in making money out of it, makes both the game and the source code available (for example: Allegiance, now maintained by fans).
Here are some of the most popular commecial games that have been liberated:
- Beneath a Steel Sky
- Tyrian 2000
- Railroad Tycoon
- Starcraft
- Scorched Earth
- Eschalon Book I
- Ground Control
- Ultima 4: Quest of the Avatar
- Castle of the Winds
- Star Wraith 3