[RizZen]

@CKid:
Im no Win7 user. Only thing i know about Win7 gaming issues is that this OS needs games (older ones) in certain folders. When you customized your folder path i recommend trying to reinstall with the default paths. Maybe it works then?

[RizZen]

Terms of use
RizZen's Freelancer CONTENT
Copyright (c) RizZen 2019.

§1
Reproduction  & translation of my work (as a whole or parts of it) in any mode without permission is strictly forbidden allowed.
I don´t claim owner rights of all informations and files i have created while modding and working on this game. Anyone is free to do with it what´s desired. I love to test new game improvements and evolving old retro games. What i do for Freelancer is my tribute to one of the best Sci-Fi open world MMORPG & PvP games i´ve ever played. Even better than several ego shooters! I don´t feel offended or betrayed when someone is using my Version - i would be honored.


§2
All names and marks are properties of respective owners (Microsoft {Owning developers} / digitalANViL / Chris Roberts {CO Mindsetting} / ) - free- / abandonware since ~2008 (Begin of active Modding: 07/2019).


§3
Freelancer - Discussion Forum
is officially hosted by owners of http//www.hard-light.net .
Without this website & forum there won´t be a single version of mod / full version for Freelancer by my side. Only after being accepted on this website i was able to create / release Freelancer game content. Therefore i dedicate Freelancer Memories - with all content to Hard-Light.net and it`s modding crew. If changes are desired i admit my help to make them. My only attempt on Freelancer is and was all-time = FUN!

§4
I'm not resposible for the content of any other site than Hard-Light.net. When i relate to other Freelancer Mods it needs to be clarified, that I don't created them and not hosting the sites or "partner sites" i refer to.
I'm responsible for my own modwork and that's why on long-time perspective there will be two Freelancer sections. One for general freelancer and other mods & content - and one for Freelancer - Memories & Modding work in general.

§5
When there is any law conflict with my content your free to contact me and i will put all the matching content offline. I have no intensions in profit. I don't take any donations! If i'm mentioned or not - when someone is using my content - doesn't matter to me. I see myself as a "keeper" - of good old retro games. I want to enrich people's life's! I want to entertain! And i want that all people can download and play my content - both - poor and rich. That's why i never leave the "vanilla" path of a game. That way you can play FL with any imagineable computer - no matter how old if it fits the original requirements.

§6
When someone feels offended or not literally or honorable being mentioned, your free to contact me and i will clarify things, change them or take your content off, no problem. When you decide to legally offend me and my work in any way i will put all my content off. I have nothing to spare and i won't ever even get a penny profit from my work. I spend thousands of hours of modding work into this - for free. Just because i have fun doing so. When fun is gone, then we have a problem.

§7
You are using all mods / enhancements / additional software at own risk. I'm not responsible for any affect they may take! But you can trust me when i say: I have tested the things i'm sharing to others and i think all that stuff shouldn't be forgotten! The Freelancer world deserves this tribute.

[karajorma]

Hard-Light takes a pretty hard line on piracy. So I'm going to need to ask for a bit more proof that the game itself is freeware than just this. Do you have anything official you can point to?

Your mods are of course yours to distribute as you wish.

[Novachen]

I know that Freelancer got released on several platforms back in the days.

Well, then there is the question, why it was removed from these platforms?

Sure, it is possible that Microsoft do not offer it by themselves for a couple of reasons anymore.
But if this game is declared as Freeware, then there is no reason for other sites to take it down. It is not even available on The Starport which should be the biggest FL fan site after the now-defunct Lancer's Reactor.

I mean all google results for a freelancer download lead me to abandonware or warez sites in the first place. And that is very suspicious to me. 

[Nightmare]

But abandonware != warez, or?

[Novachen]

Well.. in terms of law there is no difference actually.

You can get abandonware on Warez sites, too. Only that Warez also offers software you can buy right at the next store.

But there is a difference in the behaviour from Abandonware to Warez sites, sure. Abandonware sites delete any download possibility after the abandonware is sold again via stores like GOG or Steam.
But actually that is only a Gentleman move by the site operators. Actually it is not allowed to offer these games free to download in the first place.
Software does not become freeware just because it is no longer officially sold.

Ubi non accusator, ibi non iudex. (Do not know the english proverb unfortunately, maybe no plaintiff, no judge?)

[jr2]

But abandonware != warez, or?

I, for one, will die laughing my ass off if this site goes hardliner on Abandonware.  Not sure if it's Abandonware, although it appears to be (go on Microsoft and search - old links come up dead, and current search results don't have a 'freelancer' game).

EDIT: Someone asked the same thing over at the Microsoft forums here, seems at this time it's in the same boat FS2 was in before it got released on GOG and Steam and we were all using prototype24's download (ie, you have to find a retail copy, eBay is selling used Freelancer titles for ~$60).

[Nightmare]

60$ for a decade old game? Pffft.

[karajorma]

I, for one, will die laughing my ass off if this site goes hardliner on Abandonware.

Would you prefer burial or cremation?

[jr2]

I, for one, will die laughing my ass off if this site goes hardliner on Abandonware.

Would you prefer burial or cremation?

Harr harr harr. *cough*thxNightmare*cough*  I didn't say I would be surprised.  I'd say cremation but nobody here has bothered to refill the flamethrowers with anything except the bog-standard dihydrogen monoxide, which has rusted the innards even if you could find suitable fuel, so it looks like you'll have to bury me with Carl and his lunch pail in the ventilation shafts. 

[Nightmare]

You probably mean "Harr Harr Harr!"

[RizZen]

Well,

there was a guy some years back in time - he had enough money to buy the rights/licenses - microsoft denied any offers with the argument that they have nothing to sell on that topic cause source code is lost and it vanished from their hard-disks. Why isn't it online on many sites today? - Cause most of them went inactive - offline or forgot to re-implement after site updates / changes.

I see myself as a "keeper" of information. Information that will be lost - when no one "keeps" & "cares" for it. Of course you can doubt that it's 100% legal - but of course you can have doubts about that for whole communities like modDB, hard-light - or any other fan-related / modding site.

This is nothing i want to have discussed here. When there are problems i'm 100% confident about that any related content will be removed by the "site"-owners one day. This will be a bad day for freelancers then.

When you are worried about me - spending so many hours for smt. that possibly might be removed one day: Don't be worried about! - Nothing is forever.

Einstein said: REAL passion is to devote your life for your dream/desire/theory - and upset the apple cart one day. - This is how he finally got an idea -> the theory of relativity.

[Colonol Dekker]

But we keep track of legal state of freespace for the sake of stopping it blowing up in our faces 

[RizZen]

This was Mitch Gitelman (Microsoft CEO - MechCommander development) reaction on my MC mod:



https://twitter.com/mitchgit/status/1082849560425246720

he even shares it to other "prominents" of the battletech community - that makes ME very proud of my work  :

https://twitter.com/mitchgit/status/1082863653911556096


---

And yeah: I doubt that Chris Roberts will ever notice my attempts in a similar way - therefore i'm talking with Elon Musk from time to time *lol*

[Goober5000]

We can't provide download links to abandonware.  I've edited the original post to remove them.

I still have the original post prior to the edits.  If you can prove that Freelancer is freeware, I can restore the original post.  But the best information available, from both Microsoft and Starport, indicates that it is not freeware.

[Nightmare]

Just write "Google 'Freelancer Abandonware'" and people will have the links.

[Rico]

We can't provide download links to abandonware.  I've edited the original post to remove them.

I still have the original post prior to the edits.  If you can prove that Freelancer is freeware, I can restore the original post.  But the best information available, from both Microsoft and Starport, indicates that it is not freeware.

Didn't HLP used to host Freespace 2 download and installer or at least a link to it before it was re-released on GoG.com as it was no longer available anywhere?

Wouldn't Freelancer come under the same category?

[Nightmare]

Yeah but they got removed probably even before it got released on GoG IIRC. So we have to stick with "pls buy this 20yo game that looks good for its age but you never heard of and maybe doesn't even run on your os, so you can use this fancy stuff that looks shiny but you don't know about what it is about either".

[darkdaej]

Yeah but they got removed probably even before it got released on GoG IIRC. So we have to stick with "pls buy this 20yo game that looks good for its age but you never heard of and maybe doesn't even run on your os, so you can use this fancy stuff that looks shiny but you don't know about what it is about either".

Yeah I remember a time when Turey's (bad) installer actually hosted the FS2 files.  They got removed before GoG was a thing, IIRC because Interplay set their gaze on us and coughed.

I may be wrong though.

[Nightmare]

Well... https://wiki.hard-light.net/index.php?title=Getting_FreeSpace&oldid=19158