The Home of the Underdogs Archive/Museum

[Moonshroom]

I guess it was an inevitability that I'd end talking about this site next, since not only was (probably) the largest Abandonware site out there, but it also inspired many others to be made. It was so influential that its "death" in 2009 was not only mourned across the board, but it also signalled the end of the community's golden era.

I guess that what I liked the most about it was not its impressive catalog (which I didn't get to enjoy) but the fact that it legitimately started after the creator had contacted a gaming company to try and replace her faulty, original game just to be told that that was no longer possible. Game companies did that all the time back then, so it is not surprising that many old titles would end up online... but it was because that people tried to replace and/or get these old titles legally before resorting to download them that Abandonware was never dealt with as harshly as it could have been.

Believe it or not, there was a time (up until about 2006) in which major gaming companies and Abandonware sites tolerated each other to an amazing degree, with the former asking some of their titles to be removed from the latter's catalog on an almost "laid back" fashion. Because sites (usually) complied with this, there was not as much headbutting as you may think. During most of HoTU's existence, it was mail providers and servers not understanding these "agreements" which gave it hell, not the companies themselves.

And it is a good thing that they didn't, because I have never seen such exponential growth on any site. Just by looking at the archived versions, you can see that between two to five games were added to the site's catalog at any given day, which is completely insane (it'd take some of my favorite sites several months to add as many games as the "HoTU" crew did on one single work session). The games weren't just "added", though, they were properly reviewed and, in some cases, uploaded as a complete package, with manuals and everything (you can see why GoG would feel particularly irritated by this).

I'm surprised that they kept it up for as long as they did, though (the original "HoTU" lasted eleven years), because it wasn't exactly the smoothest experience and they endured a LOT of stuff in the meantime, from other sites hotlinking their games (a sadly very common practice among Abandonware sites back then) to other sites keeping a watch on their domain names in order to snatch them THE LITERAL SECOND they had become available again, to their servers deleting everything after a letter or two. Indeed, it was more than I'm sure a lot of us would have been able to put up with.

But even with all of that, if you look at "HoTU" now (which you totally can do, as it has been deservedly preserved), the body of work left behind by the original team is jaw-dropping to the say the least. Sure, the site no longer functions as an Abandonware community, but as a "game and software museum", you won't find anything like it out there. It truly was a passion project coming to fruition and (dare I say?) closed at just the right time, late enough to have served its purpose, but not too late to have been devoured whole by the advent of digital stores in full.

I recommend you pay them a visit.

Even if you have never been to the site, it is sure to give you some nostalgic feelings.

PS: My 250th topic, yay ! Making up for a year of inactivity, huh?

[Kyng]

Wow, that does sound like quite an undertaking . Just from visiting the site, I can get an appreciation for what it must have been like in its heyday... and of course, that layout oozes charm and nostalgia .

Glad it's been preserved - and thanks for letting us know about it !

[Moonshroom]

Wow, that does sound like quite an undertaking . Just from visiting the site, I can get an appreciation for what it must have been like in its heyday... and of course, that layout oozes charm and nostalgia .

Glad it's been preserved - and thanks for letting us know about it !

I'm glad you enjoyed your visit to it, my friend.

I'm sure its impressive catalog of simulators (including one called "A-Train") would have blown you away as a kid

[Kyng]

I'm sure its impressive catalog of simulators (including one called "A-Train") would have blown you away as a kid

Would that be this one?

https://store.steampowered.com/app/49209...ssic__APC/

Steam says it was "released in 2016", but it looks a lot older than that, so I'm assuming this was a re-master of a much earlier game, rather than an entirely new game .

[Moonshroom]

I'm sure its impressive catalog of simulators (including one called "A-Train") would have blown you away as a kid

Would that be this one?

https://store.steampowered.com/app/49209...ssic__APC/

Steam says it was "released in 2016", but it looks a lot older than that, so I'm assuming this was a re-master of a much earlier game, rather than an entirely new game .

Look at that! I wasn't expecting this one to be remade.

The original was a feature of Abandonware sites for decades.

[Achtung Baby]

Oh wow. What a cool looking site. I'm a big fan of the design I mean, a site that looks like THAT in 2022? It's amazing. Unlike the "simple" aka boring looking ones that most people use/have nowadays.