Breath of Fire IV is back on PC

[_oBSOLEte_]

Great news. I tend to prefer hacked and uncensored versions of old games on the emulated hardware, yet the GOG Preservation Program is a fantastic addition to the usually silent and penniless work of hackers, rippers and pirates to keep games alive and well. The more sources and services we have of game conservation, the better .

Except it's not an addition. It's a replacement. GOG managed "partnerships" with most abandonware sites to remove ISOs from the servers. Posing as champions of the preservation while just giving an installer for DOSBBox in most case, is just a marketing stunt.

 

[BunnyLain]

Real gamers know that breath of fire IV has been on PC for a long time. DRM free too! With lots of quality of life.

 

[Ikagura]

Except it's not an addition. It's a replacement. GOG managed "partnerships" with most abandonware sites to remove ISOs from the servers. Posing as champions of the preservation while just giving an installer for DOSBBox in most case, is just a marketing stunt.

Abandonware has no real legal value I think.

 

[MononokeDS]

The main point for me is that it might get Capcom, and others, to put out more older games on places like GOG. I'd pay good money if Capcom would put out an English release of the Japan only El Dorado Gate game/games after all these years, it's another great looking 2D JRPG from them.

 

[_oBSOLEte_]

Abandonware has no real legal value I think.

Public domain has and you can find abandonware games in it.

They've asked abandonware sites to remove from the servers the noCD cracked or patched games they now distribute themselves. Why would they pose as champions of preservation while in the same time removing copies?

 

[Ikagura]

Public domain has and you can find abandonware games in it.

Then it shoudn't be pubic domain because the author hasn't died over 50 years ago.

They've asked abandonware sites to remove from the servers the noCD cracked or patched games they now distribute themselves. Why would they pose as champions of preservation while in the same time removing copies?

The keyword there is "cracked" since noCD patches aren't official and could be used for piracy.

Let's remember that it's all about making older games legally available, not just available.

 

[legsrjust4show]

The GOG program is really shaping up to be my favorite new thing with gaming.

They even just fixed up F..E.A.R. and that was something I stopped replaying because all the patching you had to do for it and it's two expansions was such a pain.

 

[Ikagura]

They even just fixed up F..E.A.R. and that was something I stopped replaying because all the patching you had to do for it and it's two expansions was such a pain.

I should buy the game from them.

 

[_oBSOLEte_]

Then it shoudn't be pubic domain because the author hasn't died over 50 years ago.



The keyword there is "cracked" since noCD patches aren't official and could be used for piracy.

Let's remember that it's all about making older games legally available, not just available.

It doesn't work like that, but frankly I wont pointlessly discuss the legality of things on a ROM site forum anyway.

Most of the GOG games I got *are* noCD patched.

To me GOG is not just about making older games legally available, but also killing the abandonware site sources of what they now sell. It's hurting preservation more than anything.

 

[Ikagura]

It doesn't work like that, but frankly I wont pointlessly discuss the legality of things on a ROM site forum anyway.

That doesn't change anything to the debate nor the fact that Abandonware are in a legal grey area. This rom sharing site is fully aware of what it's doing but let's not act as if Abandonware is, by itself, 100% legal.

Most of the GOG games I got *are* noCD patched.

And this is normal for a no-DRM digital game platform but this is beyond the point.

To me GOG is not just about making older games legally available, but also killing the abandonware site sources of what they now sell. It's hurting preservation more than anything.

Those sites could've been shut down by companies at any time anyway. The point is: GoG makes them legally available at the end of the day so they are still being preserved as long as you have them installed. It's no different from having your physical games with the noCD patch applied.

 

[legsrjust4show]

It doesn't work like that, but frankly I wont pointlessly discuss the legality of things on a ROM site forum anyway.

Most of the GOG games I got *are* noCD patched.

To me GOG is not is not just about making older games legally available, but also killing the abandonware site sources of what they now sell. It's hurting preservation more than anything.

I understand what you're saying here, especially that they just dump some old game with no fixes onto their platform and ask like $5 for the ability to buy a busted game. It's why I would ignore the entire GOG platform for the longest.

One recent and sour example of this is when EA rereleased The Sims 1 and 2 onto Steam and it basically made the old repacks people made years ago with all the fixes just vanish and the official product they replaced it with was pretty busted. It is still being fixed up with patches so I guess thanks EA for still patching it??? but the fan run efforts that were working for the longest got thrown out the door.

But I believe they have peoples best interests in this project with GOG at least. From my experience they haven't really taken down any of these sites??? if something showed up on GOG??? Unless if they start throwing C&D orders around, I think we're good right now.

 

[_oBSOLEte_]

That doesn't change anything to the debate nor the fact that Abandonware are in a legal grey area

Exactly.

Why talk about legality when the debate is preservation?

If they kill the abandonware sources just to turn them into ad pages for their site, they're hurting game preservation. So they just falsely advertise themselves as preservation champions. It's marketing bullshit.

 

[Ikagura]

Why talk about legality when the debate is preservation?

The games being available on GoG are being preserved, I'm not talking about video games that are no longer legally available that had their hosting sites shut down so nobody could ever have access to them.

If they kill the abandonware sources just to turn them into ad pages for their site, they're hurting game preservation. So they just falsely advertise themselves as preservation champions. It's marketing bullshit.

When you buy a game on GoG you are also getting a patched and DRM-less product, at the end of the day you could share it to a friend without any issues.

You're acting as if GoG is actively making sure you could never get to play older games at all.

Now I'm starting to feel like you're just annoyed at the idea of actually paying to legally own the classic games using preservation as an excuse rather than seeing that classic games can still be legally bought today (as if you got to see PS2 games being sold by Sony in stores that could be ran on a PS5).

 

[_oBSOLEte_]

The games being available on GoG are being preserved, I'm not talking about video games that are no longer legally available that had their hosting sites shut down so nobody could ever have access to them.


When you buy a game on GoG you are also getting a patched and DRM-less product, at the end of the day you could share it to a friend without any issues.

You're acting as if GoG is actively making sure you could never get to play older games at all.

Now I'm starting to feel like you're just annoyed at the idea of actually paying to legally own the classic games using preservation as an excuse rather than seeing that classic games can still be legally bought today (as if you got to see PS2 games being sold by Sony in stores that could be ran on a PS5).

You can keep your feelings to yourself if you still want to "debate" with me.

I've owned this game in a boxed CD-ROM set and was looking to play it again after 30 years. Cant find the box anymore, it's somewhere in the attic, not even sure if the CDs are in shape :

Dragon Lore: The Legend Begins

Remember Dragon Lore: The Legend Begins, an old video game from 1994? You can play it again for a cheap price.

www.myabandonware.com

Look carefully at the page displayed and you'll find that it's not available there anymore and now GOG is selling the cracked no-CD copy of it. Everything on this site with a big purse coin was claimed by GOG. They have *actively* removed the ISOs there, and only now are distributing the English version of that game from a dead french studio.

Sound to me you're buying a bit too much in GOG's bullshit marketing, because all that is proof they're hurting preservation.

 

[Ikagura]

You can keep your feelings to yourself if you still want to "debate" with me.

I've owned this game in a boxed CD-ROM set and was looking to play it again after 30 years. Cant find the box anymore, it's somewhere in the attic, not even sure if the CDs are in shape :

Dragon Lore: The Legend Begins

Remember Dragon Lore: The Legend Begins, an old video game from 1994? You can play it again for a cheap price.

www.myabandonware.com

Look carefully at the page displayed and you'll find that it's not available there anymore and now GOG is selling the cracked no-CD copy of it. Everything on this site with a big purse coin was claimed by GOG. They have *actively* removed the ISOs there, and only now are distributing the English version of that game from a dead french studio.

Sound to me you're buying a bit too much in GOG's bullshit marketing, because all that is proof they're hurting preservation.

If you really wanted a cracked copy of the game there are always sites outside of Abandonware.

As I said before the term Abandonware has little to no legal value outside of the fact the game's studio has closed off. The license is still applicable even for product that are no longer sold.

The fact that the game is available both officially and legally is what's important at the end of the day since Abandonware could get shut down at any moments if there's a company buying the rights and asking them to stop sharing their product.

Hurting preservation would be more like buying the rights and not making the game legally available anymore so that you cannot buy it.

You can buy a product ergo the product is available and preserved. You're only bothered that you need to pay for it.

 

[_oBSOLEte_]

You're only bothered that you need to pay for it.

I said you could keep that kind of assumption to yourself. Only implying I'm dishonest is just a fallacy reflecting on your lack of arguments.

I wont pay a second time for something I already own, to GOG, a polish company who had nothing to do with developing that game, and just took that cracked version from the very site. And to some speculating IP holder.

If you spend your money without even thinking about where it goes, that's your problem. But I wont spend a dime stupidly feeding useless middlemen. Specially for the available version only in English of one of my childhood game I've used to play in French. Those French voiceovers were worthy of preserving.

You don't know what you're talking about. You're using the forums and downloading the roms here and didnt spend a dime for it. First get five bucks on the RGT patreon for the servers you use to keep on turning and then we'll talk how cheap things are when it comes to preservation.

Post automatically merged: Apr 26, 2025

As of now, and having extensively searched for it, the only French version of the game to be found online is here. Only it's the 3DO version you'll have to emulate with Opera.

Dragon Lore - The Legend Begins (USA, Europe) 3DO ISO - RGT Repository

Dragon Lore - The Legend Begins (USA, Europe) 3DO ISO Download. Languages: English. For the Panasonic 3DO.

retrogametalk.com

 

[Leon]

Then it shoudn't be pubic domain because the author hasn't died over 50 years ago.

I have to disagree with you here, the current public domain laws, us or not, are basically the result of the walt disney company greasing the palms of american politicians, it was originally that 20 years had to pass if i remember right for something to enter the public domain, irrelevant of the person's living or dead status.
Also a person being alive does not count in whether something is applicable for the public domain or not, at least not a entertainment medium, this is why steamboat willy entered the public domain in 2024 (guess disney can't grease the palms enough anymore), the law is that after 95 years of publishing the work enters the public domain regardless of the status of the medium's creator, in entertainment properties at least.

What i believe your referring to is the law about inventions, intellectual property are not under the same classification as inventions, which i believe does have a date of death of the inventor clause, this has other problems with it like a company having essentially a monopoly on a invention for far longer than the 50 year limit because now "companies are people", but that's a entirely different topic.

Imo breath of fire 4 should have entered the public domain in 2023, 20 years after it's release, like the law used to be, but se la vie.
Keep in mind, THIS version of breath of fire 4 would not count in that, as it has changes to it and rereleases could fall under different laws, just the original disc version imo should be public domain.
Also this wouldn't allow say, square-enix to make a breath of fire game, that's a different law under the inventions side i mentioned, it however does have limitations.

For what it's worth, the modern mickey mouse enters the public domain in 2037.