Unreal on Internet Archive
But it just doesn’t have to be like this. Companies could be willing to give up their iron-fisted control over their IP for these older games they aren’t willing to support or preserve themselves and let others do it for them. And if you need a real world example of that, you need look only at how Epic is working with The Internet Archive to do exactly that.
Epic, now primarily known for Fortnite and the Unreal Engine, has given permission for two of the most significant video games ever made, Unreal and Unreal Tournament, to be freely accessed via the Internet Archive. As spotted by RPS, via ResetEra, the OldUnreal group announced the move on their Discord, along with instructions for how to easily download and play them on modern machines.
It’s hard to convey just what a significant moment it was, in 1997-98, when Quake II and Unreal came out within six months of each other. Marking Epic’s entry into the graphics arms race with id Software, the two games were both utterly brilliant shooters in their own rights, but also became the names behind the engines on which a generation of games would be built. Half-Life was based on the Quake engine, while Unreal’s was under the hood of Deus Ex.
Our installer supports Windows 7 and later. We are working on installers for Linux and macOS.
Previously:
- Sega Delisting Classic Games From Steam
- Marathon Games on Steam
- Allowing iOS PC Emulator Apps to Download Games
- iOS Retro Console Game Emulators
- Doom at 30
- The Disappearance of Classic Video Games
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This has me feeling nostalgic. My friends and I played a lot of Quake II/III, with some Unreal Tournament thrown in when I could get them to switch.
The OldUnreal group has been doing a tremendous job keeping the old UT client updated and usable on modern systems (they have an agreement with Epic to use the source code and release updated binaries.) Unreal Tournament (a staple of my college days) runs great on my M1 Max MBP.
