I noticed AmbrosiaSW.com doesn't load anymore. Because of this, it's not possible to purchase their games anymore, many of which are hosted on this site as shareware. Is their software officially "abandonware"? There's a few of their games I'd like to download before my upcoming deployment.
Thanks in advance!
The last software I bought from them was in 2002. Andrew Welch promised me that my license was always good (even though it would expire after 30 days) since his license server was "always" available.
I didn't believe him and stopped buying from Ambrosia.
I don't know how many Ambrosia products were moved to his expiring license scheme. But any that were are now junk.
Gary
I don't know how many Ambrosia products were moved to his expiring license scheme. But any that were are now junk.
At least until someone cracks/hacks them up... not sure if that will happen, though...
But yeah, that situation is bullshit. Wanting to protect business is one thing, but if at the expense of the customer, then it's definitely a dick move, no matter what promises they make. Even if Ambrosia didn't close doors, the crew could never ensure the server's full availability, especially if a disaster had happened to them or their equipment. Of course they knew that. You might also not have a connection to the internet when you need to activate it, and that too each month.
It's literally this sort of crap that makes me advocate for Libre Software. The only problem is that, as far as I can see, no matter how deep I dig and did dig the past decade, Libre Software is not realistically always a viable option for businesses, otherwise I would be able to fully endorse it for all cases. But sadly, it's not so simple... But Ambrosia's approach was definitely the wrong answer.
On the subject of cracking abandoned software, does anyone know how to crack an OS 9 version of EV Nova? There's a Windows crack available, but the game actually runs better in Sheepshaver than in Windows. Not to mention, the last time I downloaded that crack, it infected my computer.
That's a tricky one. There's no crack for OS 9 that I know of, but recent builds of SheepShaver can be run at different dates/times than the host system (See the last item in this list). The best I can suggest is to find an old key and set the date time to a point when it was valid.
It may work? It depends on how the code is verified, if it requires a live internet connection or not. For example, Pillars of Garendall will check with a timeserver to verify if possible, but if the internet is off, it will accept the code using just the computer clock.
Has anyone tried to reach out to Andrew and ask him if there's a way to keep his games working that he'd be willing to share? Maybe he does want his legacy to be archived here at the Garden.
Of course, if you spam his board with hundreds and hundreds of "Andrew Welch is a scammer" posts (as it happened), he may not be inclined to help out ...
You have a point, though I imagine all his "sort of DRM"-ed software would require patching and recompiling (meaning work) on his part, which I don't think would happen considering how his software and website were just left to die over the years without doing anything about it, but who knows. Maybe he would be interested in having his legacy saved.
By the way, just to be clear, none of this is to say I'm not grateful to Ambrosia and all the great software they produced over the years for the Mac. They really were among the best in the Mac world, and were one of the few companies that actually gave Windows users something to be envious about. I have nothing but good things to say about all their pre-DRM-era software. And to that, I personally simply say "thank you" to the entirety of the staff that ever worked there. I believe I speak for nearly every other person that had anything to say about the DRM, as well.
So, if Andrew is to see the DRM criticisms, may he also see all the praise he and the rest of Ambrosia are given by those same people.
This is very sad news... last year Andrew re-sent some (very old) activation keys to me, which was super-nice of him, as his old database of activations had gone down a few years earlier.
