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took down the site without warning, given the issue of copyrights with abandonware. She relaunched early in 1999, now providing the files under a .bmp extension rather than .zip to avoid attracting Xoom's notice. By the time the site had gotten to around 400 titles, Xoom permanently deleted the site,
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By day, 28-year-old
Sarinee Achavanuntakul is an investment banker in Hong Kong, but by night, she runs the infamous Home of the Underdogs, a Web site she founded three and a half years ago, and receives an average of more than 30,000 unique visitors per day. According to Achavanuntakul, the purpose
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Before shutting down the original version in 2009, the site provided reviews for over 5,300 games and offered downloads of software and manuals for a number of games that were no longer commercially available. This allowed it to be a valuable resource to players who lost the original discs or
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were not available through these sites, and took it upon herself to launch "Home of the
Underdogs" that October, a more permanent site for users to obtain abandonware. Initially, she had about 20 games offered but within a few months, had gained help from others to expand to about 80 games.
208:(ESA), the video game industry's trade organization. The IDSA saw the offering of abandonware as a copyright violation for those publishers they represented, and Achavanuntakul complied with their requests by removing links to the software offered to otherwise keep the site going.
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of starting Home of the
Underdogs was simple: to preserve out-of-print games that publishers no longer support, to keep them from falling into oblivion, and to honor other underrated games, including freeware games and recent commercial titles that might have been poor sellers.
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242:-free games, to promote and offer some of the classic games that Underdogs had through GOG.com. Despite difficulties with providing direct access to abandonware, the new maintainers tried to reproduce the site's databases and reviews for these early video games. The
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but
Achavanuntakul had many offers for help from users around the globe to provide a more permanent hosting solution. At about the same time, her site gained attention from the Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA), the former name of the current
27:
330:(2004): 2 - 3. "Sites such as Home of the Underdogs ... have major copyright issues but can provide valuable resources, for example, for people who've lost legitimate copies of the manuals."
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While the legitimacy of abandonware with respect to copyrights remains in question, several game developers who had designed the games that were offered at "Home of the
Underdogs", such as
219:
In early 2009, Home of the
Underdogs had difficulty maintaining funding for its hosting duties, which led to the website's shutdown. As the database of HOTU was released under a
179:, as her copy had fallen apart. However, by 1998, MicroProse no longer was selling any copies of the title, forcing Achavanuntakul to seek out a copy through an abandonware
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site maintainers warned in
February 2014 that financing for the servers was becoming difficult and they may need to take it offline. Hotud.org went offline in June 2017.
144:, the site also contained a section with games for other platforms. Where downloads for these games were provided, they were usually present in formats compatible with
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In
January 2006, due to new responsibilities at work, Achavanuntakul had to step off running the site, allowing other admins to continue to maintain it.
270:, had written to Achavanuntakul to thank her for helping their games to be introduced to new players. Several more recent game developers including
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credit Home of the
Underdogs for helping them to get interested in video game development. The site was considered critical towards helping with
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Achavanuntakul, a Thai journalist, had been in the United States at that time and wanted to play
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series, many of them complete. In addition to commercial titles, the site contained hundreds of
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Thankfully, everything on Home of the
Underdogs had been put under a Creative Commons licence
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by September 2009. At the same time, the site established a partnership with
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Original website defunct; succeeded by multiple third-party mirrors/revivals
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manuals. While a majority of games available on the site were for
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in March 2009, a team had been able to rehost the website as
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since September 2009 and remains active as of January 2022.
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archive founded by Sarinee Achavanuntakul, in October 1998.
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589:
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553:. 2014-07-20. Archived from the original on 2014-07-20
401:"The Story Behind The Home Of Forgotten Video Games"
467:"Home of the Underdogs - Hotud.org First Archive"
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386:
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254:A new version of the website became available at
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570:: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (
342:"Flashbacks For Free: The Skinny On Abandonware"
524:"Underdogfight: Home Of The Underdogs Returns"
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641:on reviewwithextremeprejudice.com (archived)
79:Defunct; multiple revivals exist (see below)
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199:Around that time, her web hosting service
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376:on www.the-underdogs.org (2003, archived)
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677:Internet properties established in 1998
40:Home of The Underdogs as of 14 May 2006
664:
645:"Nostalgia Keeps Games Afloat" article
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148:. The site also had scans of several
682:Creative Commons-licensed databases
399:Walker, Alex (September 11, 2017).
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653:by Daniel Terdiman (April 8, 2004)
206:Entertainment Software Association
14:
693:
627:
493:"Home of the Underdogs is back!"
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634:Home of the Underdogs.Net Site
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1:
639:Interview with Achavanuntakul
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588:. 2017-06-10. Archived from
469:. 2009-03-11. Archived from
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71:http://www.the-underdogs.org
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193:Quantum Quality Productions
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698:
301:Home_of_the_Underdogs-Data
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491:Andy Chalk (2009-06-11).
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240:digital rights management
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95:September 1998/April 2009
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33:
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224:Creative Commons license
340:Saltzman, Marc (2002).
586:"Hotud.org is offline"
256:homeoftheunderdogs.net
250:Homeoftheunderdogs.net
165:Homeoftheunderdogs.org
62:Sarinee Achavanuntakul
276:Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw
122:Home of the Underdogs
20:Home of the Underdogs
672:Abandonware websites
529:Rock, Paper, Shotgun
433:Rock, Paper, Shotgun
280:digital preservation
176:Sword of the Samurai
100:Current status
21:
16:Abandonware archive
236:digital storefront
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473:on March 11, 2009
142:Microsoft Windows
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657:Official website
647:about HotU from
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628:External links
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456:by Mr Creosote
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328:O'Reilly Media
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268:Chris Crawford
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173:'s 1989 title
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124:(often called
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505:on 2017-08-26
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615:. Retrieved
613:. 2020-10-06
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594:. Retrieved
590:the original
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555:. Retrieved
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534:. Retrieved
532:. 2009-06-15
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507:. Retrieved
503:the original
498:The Escapist
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475:. Retrieved
471:the original
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438:. Retrieved
436:. 2009-03-12
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410:. Retrieved
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354:. Retrieved
350:the original
346:gamespot.com
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324:Gaming Hacks
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87:Not required
84:Registration
47:Type of site
306:CC BY-NC-SA
221:CC BY-NC-SA
130:abandonware
114:CC BY-NC-SA
54:video games
52:Abandonware
666:Categories
650:Wired News
617:2020-10-06
596:2017-08-26
557:2017-08-31
536:2015-12-23
509:2012-07-16
477:2015-12-23
440:2015-12-23
356:2012-12-29
326:New York:
286:References
171:MicroProse
244:hotud.org
228:hotud.org
215:Hotud.org
185:emulation
146:emulators
566:cite web
374:Freeware
304:"Usage:
272:Derek Yu
156:titles.
154:freeware
150:gamebook
128:) is an
92:Launched
75:archived
310:on the
232:GOG.com
189:Infocom
181:webring
160:History
611:"Home"
551:"Home"
406:Kotaku
262:Impact
59:Owner
572:link
414:2017
274:and
234:, a
201:Xoom
191:and
126:HotU
140:or
138:DOS
67:URL
668::
568:}}
564:{{
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381:^
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73:(
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
