It is still illegal to download, as far as I know.

However, considering that it is no longer distributed, I personally don't have any moral issues with downloading it.

...still kicking myself for not picking up a copy a saw a few years back at babages (now gamestop)...

god how I miss Babages ... I remember buying my Sega Saturn from one of them.

*sniff* magical days to be a gamer for sure.

What makes it so special is that downloading abandonware while being illegal is the only way of satisfying an ever increasing demand for said game, provided that the number of still existing legal copies on ebay or somewhere else is very limited indicated by an unrealistically high price.

It's a market inefficiency so to speak. Although usually the point of highest profit is not the point of highest turn over but below. Artificial exclusivity is a fine thing for marketing.

But the IP does not have to stay in limbo forever. It could be revived any day (see GOG) and then the abandonware version should be abandoned.

I got outbid several years ago on Yahoo Auctions Singapore. Game was sold at $25, I bid $25, and some yahoo came in just a few minutes before the auction ended and bid $26. Jeez. I was so sure I could win the game, I didn't bother to check before the last few mins. You can probably sell the boxes on eBay, and they'd still fetch a reasonable price.

System Shock 2, however, is not the current winner of value-inflated eBay games. The honour now belongs to this.

Oh sure, it's $550, and probably won't sell, but believe you me, the previous 3 copies I saw on eBay went for $200 - $300 each. I know the game's rare, but damn...

Sorry if i derail the discussion a bit but, weird enough, i just sold my copy yesterday, right before looking up at this thread.

I've never been that much of a collector myself but, for some unknown reason, this was one of the few VG boxes that I've preserved in mint condition from the first day, even before it became a rare title.

Game was great and all, completed it back in the days and loved every minute of it, however in my opinion its myth grew up a bit too much over his objective value.

Anyway, after 10 years of sitting there, i just made up my mind a couple of days ago and put it on sale together with some other '90 titles.

No matter your stance of abandonware, SShock is not it.

With the rights being split between two parties, neither being able to sell the games before they come to some kind of agreement (and they will), the games are anything but abandoned.

Put them up and get sued twice. :)

My guess, and I'm usually wrong, would be for old parts going Steam (and/or GOG) with 50-50 split, while EA gets all rights for future products*.

*Straight up shooters with no rpg elements or plot, but with a well done trailer suggesting otherwise.

Quite true IMO. System Shock 2 is still one of the best games out there, and I'd easily rank it in the Top 10, but as a horror game, it no longer stands out as brightly, having been overshadowed by a lot of competition e.g. Amnesia, Penumbra, Fatal Frame (though it's set a benchmark). Let's remove the rose-tinted glasses for a moment - the only truly scary levels are Hydroponics, the Rickenbacker, Engineering, and the second half of the Medical deck. Also as much as it manages to masterfully blend immershun with streamlined mechanics, some of these mechanics can be flawed e.g. unbalanced.

It's still a dang classic, but it's not worth $100 that people are paying for. Heck, not even Fallout, which I still revere, is worth that amount.

Actually, I'd say you're being too nice to the game. It's extremely unbalanced (exotic weapons are a total joke except for the cheapest shard which is über-powerful, and that's just the most blatant example) and level design falls apart completely once you leave the Von Braun (my favourite bit is the completely absurd chapel in the otherwise impossibly cramped Rickenbacker). The game, quite frankly, has a ton of flaws, but the atmosphere was and is bloody brilliant.

But yes, I'm expecting that once someone untangles all that legal mess and new gamers start playing SS2 for the first time, they will be massively disappointed after all the hype. I'm afraid it's one of those "you had to be there" games, like the original System Shock, which I maintain is the superior game, but is such a chore to play today. (Which reminds me I really need to check out the new mouselook version.)

Hey let's not go crazy there! :D

Oh well you're obviously kind of sort of right. Maybe.
But I value a good game (ie something giving me 40 hrs of fun) worth €40,
so I'm almost there where I can value a game giving* me 200 hrs of fun quite worth €100.

And obviously it's hard to justify spending $100 on something you can get for $5 on GOG.
(I'm not valuing some old cardboard box very highly at all)

* actually "taking"

Is Gog still working its magic towards getting the system shock games here? An update would be good. And yeah, System Shock 1 is the better game. System Shock 2 gets too much hype. Ken Levine is a mediocre game designer.

What the fuck, I have that version of Fallout!

Now I feel old:(

Hey wait, i have the boxed cheaper version of Fallout too, maybe i can get rich just by selling it, w00t, awesome.

News: Fallout big box is worth nothing it's just cardboard and paper.

Yaay, you think that SS1 is superior! Also, mouselook mod is really great. It plays like SS2 thanks to it, + all those cool body physics effects SS1 got so right.

And I wouldn't be worried about disappointment, I've been trough all the hype over SS2 myself in ... eh ... 2005 I think and still found SS2 to be a fantastic game. (I actually downloaded version from home of the underdogs, nothing like GoG back then) The game just stands very well on its own, it's crazy immersive and gives you great sence of progression.