This is a real enigma for me. “This isn’t exactly news is it, genius?” I hear you screech – yeah, maybe not Sherlock – but it still confuses me. The biggest Abandonware related website, dedicated to the ‘Underdog’ games of yesteryear, which along with the AR has been the real backbone of the scene, has now gone to the dogs (excuse the pun). New Abandonware article published? Underdogs interviewed. Joined the scene? Probably through Underdogs. Lets face it, seven out of ten AW websites, use the exact same games published from Underdogs.
The design has never wowed me, neither have a majority of the reviews – yet it’s still the place to go, purely because of what it stands for and what it’s contributed. Following on from the recent youtube video published; here – whilst a nice gesture, freaks the shit out of me with the eeriness surrounding it, it’s like an obituary to a victim of a drink-drive accident.
What I don’t exactly get though, is the fact that she finds time available to update her blog regularly (and translate it – I might add), yet fails to update the actual website, or even graces her forum with a single forum post about her whereabouts. It’s not even that which gets me though – it’s the fact, that a numerous amount of people (trusted & experienced – which of whom are the actual underdoggers themselves ) have put there hands-up in favour of actually updating & maintaining this mammoth of a the website, yet have had there noble attempts fall on deaf ears or apparently out-right rejected.
Obviously being an investment banker and running such a high-volume website and forum, it must of took it’s toll on Sarinee over the years – which, in all fairness is more then expected. Yesteryear saw this young-pup of a website run around and bark, but now its more of a symbol, a symbol which has turned into a malnourished old-dog – nothing stays on top forever though, as other young-pups are introduced, most notably Abandonia which is slowly creeping up and turning into the new epicentre of Abandonware.
What was once a bustling HOTU forum, has the whiff of rotting setting in. It’s only really a matter of time, when you’ll visit this old beaut, and its domain will be hijacked (once again) and this time, it sadly will not be renewed.
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18 comments:
On the last news update, she mentions ideas of turning it into a wiki-style site. Which would be interesting. I agree its a shame that, if she doesn't have the time to do that herself(and I don't blame her,), she doesn't hand it over to enthusiasts who do.
I alwasy thought the reviews were a bit over-enthuasiastic. But still underdogs has been an important feature for retro-gamers on PC. It's sad to see how long it's been inactive.
Would it be asking too much for her to give us *some* kind of status update? If only to say "sorry guys I don't have time for this anymore".
How dare she steal my idea (http://the-joystick.co.uk/wiki).. Heh, just kidding :D I'm sure the Underdogs would get a much more committed user base than I got on the JoyWiki...
I think Underdogs is probably just running on past motivation, and why close a site just because she doesn't have time to work on it? The content is still there, granted the servers are slow as hell, and she's possibly even making money from all those ads on there, but I think fair play to her...
I was never one to love The Underdogs once it started climbing to be THE abandonware site, it just had that McDonalds mass produced feel to it... But all in all, it is a good site for content, and does what it set out to achieve I think.
Hey Vinny, hahahaha shit man, you exposed yourself and your identity on an Abandonware blog you will probably get bored of in a few weeks after years of secrecy!! You give me jokes man :D
I said it since I first started, HOTU and TUOL were evil - everyone just laughed - instead of keeping quiet I decided that I have the right to an opinion too, I have a voice which I have the freedom to use and I used it! They didn't like it but lots of people felt the same way.
HOTU was on it for the money since day 1, this woman is not stupid, she is educated and her profession evolves around money. En inglis - 1+1=2. I stopped going there because I was sick of banners in my face and popunders raping me from behind.
TUOL were a bunch of guys who put in that extra 75% effort learning how to script irc programmes to silence 'small guys' opinions in all major abandonware related chat rooms, which was the only place you could go to talk to the guys in real time - other than the pub which, haha, yeah the pub. Anyway, they liked sites and disliked sites based mainly on hit ratios.
On a side note, that video was fucking sad man, seriously, as in pathetic, I can't believe someone has so many pictures of a person from the net, and to compile such a terrible video... are they in love?
Hello Stoo, Anom, Fox and everyone else who are for some reason still here, why is that? How regularly do you guys update your sites and take part in the 'scene'? How many people are still around who care?
I care but I dont know if I care enough... How can you beat Abandonia also? I mean fuck, those guys are big shit now, I'd really like to challenge them but I don't think I could. They've brushed UD to the side and under the carpet by far.
I care...
If you really ask how to beat Abandonia, it will be an easy task now. Abandonia is in knock down :(
HOTU and AB have different history, but probably the same future !
Diskboy: (feels ridiculous calling you by your username) but you know, I never thought of it in that way, what you touched upon regarding UD, you could be onto something..
As far back as I can remember, she always put emphasis on the fact, that she had to spend money out of her own pocket - whilst there might be some truth in that then, I'm guessing there can't be now; I mean *why* pay for something that you no longer have an interest in?
30,000 visitors a day, right? (or more now?) If she makes $0.01 from each visitor, thats $300 a day - times that by 30 days, it's $9000 a month. (obviously incorrect figures) but you get the picture..
Well, to be fair, no matter what the current situation seems to be, HOTU deserves credit for a lot of things. I don't like their style either, lots of standardized content and even more ads and banners etc. But to be honest, i think they pioneered what we call the abandonware scene today. Without hotu, abandonware might have been limited to a few dc++ hubs or torrent trackers or irc channels -or whatever- today.
See, this is a how websites work. Sometimes, in this case: hotu, a website appears -even if there were similar websites already present- becomes very popular, they get a lot of visitors, some of the visitors say, "hell, why not do one myself", they open their own websites.. Then comes rings, forums etc. and well, there you have a "scene" for yourself. I know, i've been there.
Hotu has done it's job. I think they have everything there is. I think newer stuff, which will be called abandonware in the coming years, will already be archived in populer torrent trackers or other p2p networks etc. Because now we have TB's of hard drives and Mbit's of connections. Hotu managed to collect all these games when they weren't there. Without it, maybe one third of the games available at hotu wouldn't be accessible now. Or maybe they would, i don't know. But i'm sure that now, even if hotu would shut down right this minute, the abandonware scene would go on like if nothing happened. But if hotu was never to be opened, the scene would be in a very different situation now, if there would be any scene.
Excuse my english.
"But i'm sure that now, even if hotu would shut down right this minute, the abandonware scene would go on like if nothing happened."
HOTU still has a lot of content no one else does. Regardless of the quality of the title. I feel like new sites consistenly duplicate content - "Well *I* haven't said anything about Beneath A Steel Sky, so I'm going to put it up on my site too!" That's about the only reason I keep finding myself going back to HOTU.
Keeping games available in more than one place is good, and necessary in case sites go down, but it seems to be leading to excessive focus on a select group of favorite oldies. To put it another way, you can easily find Dune 2 on multiple sites. HOTU's the only one that has L.A. Law: The Video Game. If the point of abandonware truly is to archive games, this selectivity will be a problem.
Yo, Diskboy (If I remember, is your first name Gianni?)
I don't take part on the 'scene' exactly anymore, I plainly just don't have the enthusiasm to trawl the net to do it anymore.
I keep my site updated whenever I can...but in a way offering tonnes of Abandonware Operating Systems isn't really an ABW site in the strict sense on the word.
The HOTU I have always despised because of the slowness, the money grabbing rape of popups and banners faced everywhere and the fact that I didn't like downloading something at 1KB/s and accidently hiting download on another file just to find out that my last download got cancelled and I was banned for a certain amount of time.
I don't live to compete in the scene as I see no reason to; if one wants to download something from my site, go for it, if you don't, you don't.
If for one day that the HOTU does cease to exist I don't think many will bat a eye, as there are many more other stable large sutes out there offering more, keeping updated, and adding a new feeling which is more up to date.
Just gotta say, loving the opinions here... Reminds me why I used to love posting in these places :D
Great to see all the old boys too
-Anom
It would help if the HOTU forum had not
1. swung hard Left.
2. become rabidly new user hostile.
3. Become so territorial and chased away so many of their valued members.I note bill22 is gone...HOTU had never gotten this simple fact: the people who help out are volunteers who can and will walk..one of the more looney posters, Pouzzler, had the chutzpah to refer to members as employees.
Lesson to be learned:
When you throw away the goodwill of people who make the place what it is...they leave.
Oh and mongy, she is Thai, not Chinese. Grow up.
As I have stated above, HOTU and Abandonia have different history, but probably the same future !
http://www.abandonia.com/vbullet/showthread.php?t=17257
Maybe you will find here enough material for an article!
You can contact me at romano.krauth@gmail.com for additional info, if you want.
Dont touch WIKILEAKS, faked DEMOCRACY!!!
By the way, anybody home?!
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Hello. And Bye.
Good bye, old sport.
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