If it weren't for finding HoTU, I would not have found 3dActionPlanet online mag. and, later, joined Human Head Studios as a admin for their original Official website, RuneGame.com, for RUNE back in early 2000. Being a history reenactor, I was looking for "Viking Age" based PC games and found the magazine's link through her site. Was with them for over 13 years until the RuneGame.com site crashed through a Take Two server "bug" it was hosted on.
HH's website was an independent "anomally" inherited from Gathering of Developers after Take Two taken over in 2005. (the other games under the GoD aegis had their sites/forums on Gathering's website.) Eventually the game was off Take Two's "A" list for several years (like the others), so you couldn't buy it from them. HH, due to some copywrite laws, did not completely own the game and was unable offer it. Eventually the game became extremely hard to find, although its community was still very active making MP mods. This is what kept it going and gain a "cult" status. Three years ago, HH finally got the full rights and GoG.com now offers it.
However, if it were not for "Home of the UnderDogs" places like "Great Old Games" would not have come into existence for we poor gamers looking to relive past "Fun n Glory".
True, until HoTU's appearance, all you had were Abandonware sites to look for old games no longer supported by their developers and publishers. A friend introduced me to PC gaming through her IBM 289 in the early 90s. My very rural area wasn't hooked up to the Web until 1996, and then only offered a BBS. A year later, a new provider came in and off I went. All those old games were not available anymore, not for sale through regular mail or publishers. Unless you learned about and found an Abandonware Ring or site that may have the Demo (rmember those?), you were out of luck.
