Abandonware Necromancy

Basics

• This page goes over the concept of bringing Abandonware "back from the dead"
• Mainly relevant to Software, but sometimes can be extended to hardware
  • This is because hardware rights tend to be sold off, rather than be just abandoned, but not always

Backround Information

Why Products are Abandoned

• Due to being driven by profit, or broad user trends, many products can be abandoned by the company that crated them
• This is typically due to them not making profit, but is also done sometimes due to them being "obsolete"
  • These considerations still do not include Edge Cases that are still relevant, or ethusiasts, both of which may want to continue to use the product and "keep it alive"
• Usually, in software, the reason is due to the work needed to be done via the cloud for the process, vs how much profit the service produces
• For hardware it is typically "how well it is selling" vs factory costs
• Given that Distributed Production as well as running private servers makes these arguements invalid, the reasons for giving the product a death sentence don't make much sense

What Has Been Done

Reverse Engineering

• The "Retro Gaming Community" has frequently reverse engineered games, and consoles, to run after support has ended, and to be able to emulate them on other hardware that can be maintained
  • "It runs doom" is a good example of this, as well as all the internet features of the Wii Console