[MrBig101]

Greetings everyone!!!!  Happy to be here.  Good to see that freespace is still alive.

Now, I have a couple questions...

[awkwardsilence]

1.  I have been looking for Freespace 2 for years , and am not willing to pay 100 bucks for it.  Now, the download for it, is it legal?  I have read some of the topics on the forum, but I am still not 100 percent sure.

2.  If I do decide to download the game, what exactly do I need to download?

3.  Are there any good campaigns that you would recommend for Freespace 1?  I just put that back on my computer and need some fresh missions for me to explore.

4.  Hello Again!

[BlackDove]

1. Yes. Home of the Underdogs. I could get the link for you, or you could enter it in Google.

2. You'll download base files off HOTU, but it'd be good to somehow try and find the .vp's the game has, they make it... waaaaaay richer.

3. The Awakenings if I remember correctly. That's about it as far as I was concerned.

4. Hi.

[Nuclear1]

Hey, welcome to the boards.

As for your questions:
[list=1]

• The download is perfectly legal, since Freespace 2 is now open source. As I understand, Home of the Underdogs has it for download, as do a number of other sources (search the forums for the links).
• The download links should point you in the right direction. I'm not sure on this, since I still use my discs, so you may want to wait for someone else to answer this one in-depth.
• For Freespace 1? I would suggest Destiny of Peace and Awakenings, for starts. Actually, those are the only ones I can really think of. They're really good, though I can't seem to remember the links.
• Hello! :D

Welcome to HLP, enjoy your stay, watch out for Carl, etc. etc.

[MrBig101]

Thank you so much.  My freespace game just crashed cuz I Alt-Tabbed out and now I'm going to dload the game.  *Cries*.

I finally get to play this game after 5 years.

EDIT: Oh, and I have played the Destiny of Peace a million times, if that is one of the single missions that comes with Silent Threat.

[Nuclear1]

Trust me, the wait is worth it.

[WMCoolmon]

Messily ripped from an undisclosed location:

http://fs2source.warpcore.org/install.html

[karajorma]

Originally posted by nuclear1
The download is perfectly legal, since Freespace 2 is now open source.

I wish people would stop using this argument. FS2 is not legal to download simply because it is open source. Only the engine was open sourced. All the ships, artwork etc belong to Interplay and they never relinquished their control over FS2.

It's still not legal to download unless you actually know the person you are getting it from (In which case it falls into that strange friends and aquaintances clause in the EULA).

However [V] doesn't seem to care about people downloading it and Interplay are in no position to complain so FS2 is basically abandonware.

The community would rather see people pirate FS2 than have it disappear completely so we're more than happy to help people get it but if Interplay were ever to say stop we would have to.

If FS2 was completely legal to download we'd have to be idiots not to have gotten GameSpy to put the retail version of the game up for download wouldn't we?

[Col. Fishguts]

Originally posted by MrBig101
4.  Hello Again!

"Exits are to your right and left, but don't try to use them, trust me. If under attack, there are flamethrowers  under your seat, which may or may not be filled with water, so you're  better off using them as a club. Also, be careful while wandering the ventilation shafts. If you encounter a Shivan, it’s probably Carl, give him your lunch and he'll leave you alone. In the event of an emergency, the n00bs will be the last into the escape pods, if there’s any room left. The Plasma rifles in the forward locker are released only under authorization of an Admin, God, or hyperintelligent shade of the color blue.
Enjoy you stay!"

[Annorax]

Originally posted by karajorma


I wish people would stop using this argument. FS2 is not legal to download simply because it is open source. Only the engine was open sourced. All the ships, artwork etc belong to Interplay and they never relinquished their control over FS2.

It's still not legal to download unless you actually know the person you are getting it from (In which case it falls into that strange friends and aquaintances clause in the EULA).

However [V] doesn't seem to care about people downloading it and Interplay are in no position to complain so FS2 is basically abandonware.

The community would rather see people pirate FS2 than have it disappear completely so we're more than happy to help people get it but if Interplay were ever to say stop we would have to.

If FS2 was completely legal to download we'd have to be idiots not to have gotten GameSpy to put the retail version of the game up for download wouldn't we?

Wouldn't the fact that Interplay no longer exists pretty much nullify any legal barriers to retail downloads?

Also, that "friends and acquaintances" thing could be used to cover a download with so little as a PM. I believe it would be legal to host the ISO's in a password protected folder and then simply give the password to anyone who PMs to ask for it, since they're now "acquaintances"... amirite?

[WMCoolmon]

That depends on the legal definition of "Friend". A legal waiver may be needed.

I hereby declare myself as 'friend' to the aforementioned individual, and disavow any previous status of 'foe','enemy','arch-nemesis', or 'competitor' that may have existed between us in the past.

[karajorma]

Originally posted by Annorax
Wouldn't the fact that Interplay no longer exists pretty much nullify any legal barriers to retail downloads?

Interplay do still exist though. They may be cling on by their last remaining fingertip but if someone like gamespy were to make a retail download available they might sense the chance to make some money.

It's not a high probability but I suspect that legally its enough to prevent GameSpy from simply putting the game up for download.

 That said maybe we should suggest to GameSpy that they try to aquire the rights to do put the game up. Interplay are probably desperate enough for cash that it wouldn't cost them much. They could then legally put the game up for their subscribers for a month and then let everyone have it. Sounds like a situation where everyone wins to me We get new gamers, Interplay get cash and GameSpy get new content to justify the money their subscribers pay.

Originally posted by Annorax
Also, that "friends and acquaintances" thing could be used to cover a download with so little as a PM. I believe it would be legal to host the ISO's in a password protected folder and then simply give the password to anyone who PMs to ask for it, since they're now "acquaintances"... amirite?

That much is probably true (especially if you add the disclaimer WMC added). I'm not saying that you can't legally download FS2. Just that not every download can be considered legal. HotU certainly isn't. Game-Warden might have qualified due to fact you had to register.

Furthermore the release of the code has absolutely nothing to do with the legality of downloading the rest of the game. When ID released the source code to Doom, Doom 2 and Quake they didn't make the games legal to download. What they were doing (rather smartly) was increasing the market by getting other people to port the games to Unix, MacOS and AmigaOS thereby increasing their sales at no cost to them.
 I doubt that was [V]'s reason but Interplay could easily claim that free downloads prevent them from doing the same thing (You could point out that you can't actually buy FS2 any more as a defence of course)

[MrBig101]

Well, Thanks for replying.  I think I am going to download the game, after the talk of interplay being basically dead and being able to distribute it to friends and the like.

Now, could anyone answer my 3rd question?

3. Are there any good campaigns that you would recommend for Freespace 1? I just put that back on my computer and need some fresh missions for me to explore.

Thanks for the big welcome, btw .

[Goober5000]

A few people did answer your first question already.  Destiny of Peace and Awakenings.

If you want more campaigns and missions, try here:
http://archives.volitionwatch.com/fs1/missions/index.php3

[MrBig101]

Oh yeah, lol.  Didn't see that.  I've played Destiny of Peace and am playing awakening right now.  Thanks for the help though, it is appreciated .