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The Underdogs- gone underground?

Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2009 10:00
by Chroelle
Well I simply wanted to make a forumthread to discuss this somewhere on here. Did everyone read my news piece:
http://curlysworldoffreeware.com/displa ... ery_mode=9
After some speculation over the last many years as to the future fate of the underdogs site, it seems it might have finally dropped the ball and shut down.

The underdogs is a site known for its vast amount of downloadable games. Most recognised is propably its abandonware content, but the underdogs also had a huge collection of freeware games. These games was made doanloadable by The-underdogs and since a lot of sites only link to downloadlocations instead of look ahead like we do, it seems that quite a lot of freeware sites will be loosing downloadlocations all of a sudden. Another good reason for using CWF. :)

The shutdown of The underdogs if that is in fact what it is, could have great significanse in the world of freeware and abandonware as it was a pillar of strength that lots of sites tried to measure up to.

So you have to ask yourself what the meaning of this is, and what the meaning will become, as now in very short time we lost both Gamehippo and The-Underdogs.

We will research even more, but if you know something please feel free to contact us about it, and we will investigate further.

Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2009 10:38
by Scythe
Well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_of_the_Underdogs

On March 2, 2009, Achavanuntakul posted on her blog that there is a revival project for the new HotU site going on at Google Groups. Because Achavanuntakul, a Harvard-graduate Thai intellectual, is too busy with her real life works to head this new project, evidently seen in the lack of site update for the last 3 years, she has passed the torch on to Dan Pinchbeck of Advanced Games Research Group at University of Portsmouth. She will continue to work as one of the project's collaborators.

While Achavanuntakul won't be leading the new HotU anymore, she still has some basic wishes for the site:
“ 1. The new HoTU should be a community-driven site that has Wiki-style content so that everyone can help update the games’ information, add their own reviews, etc.

2. Nobody should ever pay anything to download games (I had to use a lot of annoying banner advertising to cover bandwidth costs; I’m not sure how expensive/cheap webhosting is right now; it would be great if there could be fewer annoying pop-ups).

3. People should be able to add their own entries & files (subject to some editorial approval).

Complete blog entry: http://www.fringer.org/?p=416

Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2009 17:38
by Zyx
Just like adventure games, are old games sites a dying breed?

Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2009 22:35
by eMTe
This is the end of an era. While Underdogs was in coma for 3 years I felt always happy to watch it still in existence. Like old granny who cannot speak anymore and only sits in her chair gazing at the horizon, but is still alive and present. Now there's nothing.

I'm sad.

Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2009 23:02
by Scythe
Give the Google guys a chance to get it back up.

Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2009 8:59
by Drasir-Vel
Part of the g'old age has fallen.
Rest in peace.

Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2009 11:35
by eMTe
It's here, but it's not the old Underdogs. It's all about nostalgia in this world, so you tend to stick to sites' layouts too. For me fall of the old one marks the end.

Posted: Sun Mar 15, 2009 1:29
by Scythe
Well, nothing can stay stagnant forever. I like change. ;)

Posted: Sun Mar 15, 2009 13:56
by Chroelle
Well sometimes change is good, but it always leaves a small hole in your life... a hole where something used to be.
But Hotu has been a close-down waiting to happen, so I wasn't that surprised when it happened.

Posted: Sat Apr 11, 2009 13:11
by earok
Very sad to see it go too. One of my goals early on in my experiments with freeware games was to make one that was good enough for HOTU, but it looks like that far-fetched goal is finally dead.

It looks like a few hard-core fans are trying to revive it, but none of the unofficial clones look that promising so far.

Posted: Sat Apr 11, 2009 13:45
by Pater Alf
No need to worry. It seems HOTU is back. You can no longer download games directly from their site, but it's still an impressive collection of game infos and the site helps you to find download sites.

http://homeoftheunderdogs.net/

Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2009 7:29
by earok
Pater Alf wrote:No need to worry. It seems HOTU is back. You can no longer download games directly from their site, but it's still an impressive collection of game infos and the site helps you to find download sites.

http://homeoftheunderdogs.net/
It looks like this is a clone with nothing to do with the original creator, seems theres a few people trying to make clones, more information here http://groups.google.com/group/hotu-rev ... l=en&pli=1

Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2009 21:21
by vifa
Seems like 'The Underdogs' is back... :)

http://www.hotud.org/

Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2009 10:33
by Chroelle
Indeed but in a more legal version it seems. No legal grey areas so far that I found...