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Where can I get original Nethergate?


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You can email Spiderweb Software at support@spiderwebsoftware.com to get a replacement copy if you already bought it, but apart from that it's no longer available. I suppose you could try that address anyway and see if they're willing to sell it to you, but it's been removed from the order form for a reason; it's unsupported on modern computers (it won't run at all on an Intel Mac or 64-bit Windows), and Nethergate: Resurrection is now considered the definitive version of the game.

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Isn't it a two-person business, these days?

 

Also, while I sympathize 100% with their delays, people wouldn't get so frustrated by them if they actually said "we are a two-person business and might take a little extra time to respond to emails when they pile up" next to their contact info. People do not expect delays like that otherwise, especially not when the website talks up customer service.

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Not necessarily. She might have done a bunch of art for Avadon 1 which continues to be used. That makes sense given that we know she worked on Poser. Either way, it's not like people ever counted Andrew Hunter or Phil Foglio as Spiderweb employees, so it sounds like 2 is the best description now.

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Well, spiderweb does not reply to my emails. Either they don't arrive at their destination or I should take a hint.

 

Seriously, the original Nethergate is not even avaliable as a torrent. Maybe I'm using a wrong email adress?

 

In addition to the weekend thing already mentioned, Jeff is focusing right now on getting Avadon 3 ready for it's mid Sept. release (I'd assume anyway). If you were to email him early-mid October with the same question you'd probably get a response right away (once the initial chaos of a new release has died down a bit).

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  • 3 weeks later...

Copyright is absolute to the owner, but since it is computer code, there are ways around it by writing a similar program that does the same thing in different ways. However there are also trademarks of game elements. Copyright would apply to the game texts.

 

Some computer game stores sell games that they claim are abandoned by their owners. However the legality is questionable.

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Just a friendly reminder to everyone that this forum is not a place to go for professional advice of any kind, and some people have already posted some very questionable things. If you're concerned about the legality of your actions or planned actions you should seek a qualified lawyer in the relevant field. For the purposes of this forum, if something isn't okay by Jeff it isn't okay, and we may have to close this thread if this line of discussion continues.

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It may be worth asking if Spiderweb is willing to make the original Nethergate freely available, as they did with the Exile series. They may not be able to actually carry that out, but if they're willing Tyranicus could be their distributor.

 

—Alorael, who invites you to ignore the odd change in the singularity/plurality above.

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I would certainly make the game available on my site if Spiderweb gave permission. However, they are unlikely to do so. When the Exile games were made freeware a few years ago, Nethergate was also incorrectly listed as freeware. Spiderweb then specifically mentioned that this was a mistake and that Nethergate is not freeware.

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Actually, it doesn't sound like N:R had the same poor sales, especially considering it seemed to take about 1/4 the development time of other releases from its era.

 

Right now a remake doesn't seem plausible, but once A3:RW has been made, it might (once again) be relatively easy to move Nethergate over to its engine. Who knows.

 

(Also, I think you mean original Nethergate -- N:R was not around 15 years ago.)

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Also that's his only game that was CD-ROM only for getting the full game at the time. It did have several unique features that he didn't use in another game.

 

N:R was faster to produce since most of the text was from the original and the game used a modified

Avernum 3 game engine. Still the early betas had lots of corrections for game balance before we even finished the Demo area. I asked Jeff if he would make another similar game at the time and he said that was the last one using the old Avernum game engine.

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Also that's his only game that was CD-ROM only for getting the full game at the time.

 

Blades of Exile was available only on CD as well.

 

N:R was faster to produce since most of the text was from the original and the game used a modified Avernum 3 game engine.

 

It used the Blades of Avernum engine, actually.

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  • 2 weeks later...
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In case there was any remaining doubt how Jeff feels about someone distributing Nethergate, we can now say that as of 3 September 2016, the answer is ABSOLUTELY NOT.

 

Didn't Jeff say that in response to someone offering Nethergate Resurrection and not the original Nethergate?

 

Apparently it all started when someone tweeted him something like "I just bought nethergate resurrection and its already abandonware", so it's hard to say if Jeff is willing to release the original version of it unless someone asks him about the right version.

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Didn't Jeff say that in response to someone offering Nethergate Resurrection and not the original Nethergate?

 

Apparently it all started when someone tweeted him something like "I just bought nethergate resurrection and its already abandonware", so it's hard to say if Jeff is willing to release the original version of it unless someone asks him about the right version.

 

An acquaintance of mine from another forum asked him specifically about original Nethergate a while ago and he made it very clear that it's a no-go. Sorry.

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Didn't Jeff say that in response to someone offering Nethergate Resurrection and not the original Nethergate?

 

Apparently it all started when someone tweeted him something like "I just bought nethergate resurrection and its already abandonware", so it's hard to say if Jeff is willing to release the original version of it unless someone asks him about the right version.

 

You are entirely incorrect. I saw the website in the question back when this happened. The game was original Nethergate. The distribution of original Nethergate is unquestionably what Jeff was condemning.

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?????? I am certainly not incorrect the tweet is still there for everyone to see.

 

][/b]

Ben Massey ‏@Lord_Bob 3 Sep 2016

@spiderwebsoft: I literally bought Nethergate Resurrection off Steam today. Now I learn it's abandonware. Wasted five bucks!

 

There may have been some separate incident involving the original, but jeffs tweet is clearly in response to resurrection.

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?????? I am certainly not incorrect the tweet is still there for everyone to see.

Ben Massey ‏@Lord_Bob 3 Sep 2016

@spiderwebsoft: I literally bought Nethergate Resurrection off Steam today. Now I learn it's abandonware. Wasted five bucks!

There may have been some separate incident involving the original, but jeffs tweet is clearly in response to resurrection.

 

That tweet was a reply to Jeff's tweet. Note the timestamps:

 

tweet01.png

 

tweet02.png

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