What are good ways to acquire these game ROMs legally?
A google search brings up a lot of not-completely-legit-looking sites, and I'd hate to give money to some pirate. These games are amazing and I'd love to support the authors if possible.
A google search brings up a lot of not-completely-legit-looking sites, and I'd hate to give money to some pirate. These games are amazing and I'd love to support the authors if possible.
The publishing rights for some games are stuck in limbo though, so you just have to dig up a used physical copy or pirate them.
I kinda wish they wouldn't though. A lot of these should just fall into the real of abandonware. A lot of these licenses just get sold off to big companies who try to do some long-tail nostolgia sales.
Some /really/ old titles are actually out of copyright (or the publisher has gone under and the license has been lost), but they're still sold through some services cause that's how public domain works.
Nobody has been dead long enough for any computer game to enter public domain by the lawful way of inaction.
There are some games that have been made available by the license holder. Like "Beneath a Steel Sky" which was released as freeware.
Some ScummVM supported games like The Neverhood however never got a new digital release. So you'd need to buy a used CD on Ebay for example.
Just for the reference, in most cases, those games are now owned by some publishers, and original authors aren't going to get anything.
As others have said you can some rereleased on gog/steam.