Home of the Underdogs
Encyclopedia
Home of the Underdogs (often called HotU) was an abandonware
archive founded by Thai
Sarinee Achavanuntakul (สฤณี อาชวานันทกุล), aka: Underdogs or Fringer on her own blog, in September 1998, and grew to be one of the most significant abandonware websites on the Internet, despite losing its domains to cybersquatters
and then briefly going offline.
or Microsoft Windows
, the site also contained a section with games for other platforms. Where downloads for these games were provided, they were usually present in formats compatible with emulator
s. The site also had scans of several gamebook
series, many of them complete. In addition to commercial titles, the site contained a small number of 'freeware' titles.
Downloading was strictly regulated, due to bandwidth costs and limitations. Users could not download more than one file at a time or they would be banned anywhere from three hours to one week. This included speeding downloads using tools such as Getright. One common complaint users shared towards the site regarded the typically extremely slow download speeds, which were known to go as slow as 10 kbit/s on a high-speed connection. This did not, however, prevent the site's continued expansion.
The site tended to focus on underdog
games; that is, games that were not a huge commercial success for whatever reason. Some games were classified with one or more of three distinctions:
The site claimed to be more of a museum
than a download site, offering what were by them considered "great" games that never received due attention upon their initial releases. It was also asserted that the site was careful about copyright
concerns, so if a game available for download became once more available for purchase, or if a game's copyright holder so requested
, the downloadable files were removed and replaced with a link to the site selling the game, if applicable. The site has also removed a number of ESA/IDSA
members' titles from its download archive.
The site also had a store in which independent games were sold, and maintained an active member community by means of its forum
and IRC channel.
Goals
Functionality Online
Goals
Functionality
Abandonware
Abandonware are discontinued products for which no product support is available, or whose copyright ownership may be unclear for various reasons...
archive founded by Thai
Thai people
The Thai people, or Siamese, are the main ethnic group of Thailand and are part of the larger Tai ethnolinguistic peoples found in Thailand and adjacent countries in Southeast Asia as well as southern China. Their language is the Thai language, which is classified as part of the Kradai family of...
Sarinee Achavanuntakul (สฤณี อาชวานันทกุล), aka: Underdogs or Fringer on her own blog, in September 1998, and grew to be one of the most significant abandonware websites on the Internet, despite losing its domains to cybersquatters
Cybersquatting
Cybersquatting , according to the United States federal law known as the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, is registering, trafficking in, or using a domain name with bad faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else...
and then briefly going offline.
Content
The site provided reviews for over 5,300 games, as well as offered downloads of software and manuals for a number of games that were no longer commercially available. This allowed it to be a valuable resource to players who lost the original discs or manuals. While a majority of games available on the site were for DOSDOS
DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...
or Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
, the site also contained a section with games for other platforms. Where downloads for these games were provided, they were usually present in formats compatible with emulator
Emulator
In computing, an emulator is hardware or software or both that duplicates the functions of a first computer system in a different second computer system, so that the behavior of the second system closely resembles the behavior of the first system...
s. The site also had scans of several gamebook
Gamebook
A gamebook is a work of fiction that allows the reader to participate in the story by making effective choices. The narrative branches along various paths through the use of numbered paragraphs or pages...
series, many of them complete. In addition to commercial titles, the site contained a small number of 'freeware' titles.
Downloading was strictly regulated, due to bandwidth costs and limitations. Users could not download more than one file at a time or they would be banned anywhere from three hours to one week. This included speeding downloads using tools such as Getright. One common complaint users shared towards the site regarded the typically extremely slow download speeds, which were known to go as slow as 10 kbit/s on a high-speed connection. This did not, however, prevent the site's continued expansion.
The site tended to focus on underdog
Underdog (competition)
An underdog is a person or group in a competition, frequently in electoral politics, sports and creative works, who is popularly expected to lose. The party, team or individual expected to win is called the favorite or top dog. In the rare case where an underdog wins, the outcome is an upset. These...
games; that is, games that were not a huge commercial success for whatever reason. Some games were classified with one or more of three distinctions:
- Top Dog referred to games perceived by some as gems, but that for some reason failed commercially, for instance because of poor marketing.
- Hall of Belated Fame referred to a small number of games that should have received a number of awards and high ratings, in the opinion of the site's staff.
- Real Dog referred to games that failed for a good reason, usually poor gameplay, but that were requested to be included on the site by fans, or fans of related games. These were classified with a "thumbs down" logo.
The site claimed to be more of a museum
Museum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...
than a download site, offering what were by them considered "great" games that never received due attention upon their initial releases. It was also asserted that the site was careful about copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
concerns, so if a game available for download became once more available for purchase, or if a game's copyright holder so requested
Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act
The Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act is United States federal law that creates a conditional safe harbor for online service providers and other Internet intermediaries by shielding them for their own acts of direct copyright infringement as well as...
, the downloadable files were removed and replaced with a link to the site selling the game, if applicable. The site has also removed a number of ESA/IDSA
Entertainment Software Association
The Entertainment Software Association is the trade association of the video game industry in the United States. It was formed in April 1994 as the Interactive Digital Software Association and renamed on July 16, 2003...
members' titles from its download archive.
The site also had a store in which independent games were sold, and maintained an active member community by means of its forum
Internet forum
An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are at least temporarily archived...
and IRC channel.
History
- While at first hosted on free web hosts, Home of the Underdogs began using a dedicated server due to its high bandwidthBandwidth (computing)In computer networking and computer science, bandwidth, network bandwidth, data bandwidth, or digital bandwidth is a measure of available or consumed data communication resources expressed in bits/second or multiples of it .Note that in textbooks on wireless communications, modem data transmission,...
usage in February 2000. The original domain nameDomain nameA domain name is an identification string that defines a realm of administrative autonomy, authority, or control in the Internet. Domain names are formed by the rules and procedures of the Domain Name System ....
was theunderdogs.org. Achavanuntakul long resisted the commercialization of the site with ads and popups but eventually agreed to it after donations were unable to cover mounting bandwidth costs. - In 2002 the domain name was changed to the-underdogs.org and in 2006 to www.the-underdogs.info. The reason in both cases was that the domain was not renewed in time and was subsequently taken over by cybersquattersCybersquattingCybersquatting , according to the United States federal law known as the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, is registering, trafficking in, or using a domain name with bad faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else...
. - After January 13, 2006, addition of any new entries to the site ceased completely.
- After a brief stint of being offline during the month of September 2008, HotU seemingly returned late in the month; however, the games once offered were no longer available.
- On February 13, 2009 the original Home of the Underdogs went offline. According to a message posted on TwitterTwitterTwitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
by the site's owner, this was because of the webhost's bankruptcy. - On March 8, 2009, the first of the "new" Home Of The Underdogs sites went online at www.hotud.org, based on the Joomla!Joomla!Joomla is a free and open source content management system for publishing content on the World Wide Web and intranets and a model–view–controller Web application framework that can also be used independently....
CMSContent management systemA content management system is a system providing a collection of procedures used to manage work flow in a collaborative environment. These procedures can be manual or computer-based...
. - On March 24, 2009, a second site went online at www.HomeOfTheUnderdogs.net. It retains the design of the original site and does not use a CMS. The two sites work independently of each other; neither is endorsed by Achavanuntakul.
- As of 8 April 2009, several sites were still working independently of each other. Some share common goals, but none is allegedly endorsed by Sarinee, the webhost of the original site (a partial list of the sites involved can be viewed here).
- As of 4 June 2009, Hotud.org had both downloads of most listed games, manuals, user reviews, new user listings, user uploads, forums and many other community features. The original archive was now in the process of being improved and grown beyond the source data.
- As of 15 September 2009, Hotud.org had rebuilt the archive. An active team of four people is working on correcting errors in the filesystem. There is an active relationship between Hotud.org and GOG.com to promote both the history of classic gaming as well as modern access to these classic games.
Revivals
After the original website went offline, a number of sites are actively working on revivals of the source data, as well as expansion of the existing archive. Some are focused on historical recreations of the original site, while others are focused on expansions of the community aspects. Each shares a set of both conflicting and coordinating goals.HOTUD.org
LocationGoals
- To provide access to the database of games from the original site
- To allow near infinite expansion by the community in a simple and understandable fashion
- To grow far beyond the static dataset represented by earlier versions of the site.
Functionality Online
- Downloads - All original data with new additions
- Uploads - User expansion of dataset
- Listings - Full dataset
- User Reviews and User Additions
- Forums
- Full user added content system
HomeOfTheUnderdogs.net
LocationGoals
- To preserve the look, feel, spirit and functionality of the old HotU without preserving its disadvantages.
Functionality
- Revival of the original visual style of the site
- Import of original Game Dataset
- Some Downloads
- Forums
External links
- Home of the Underdogs Revival group
- Interview with the Underdogs at Review with Extreme Prejudice
- "Nostalgia Keeps Games Afloat" article about HotU from Wired NewsWired NewsWired News is an online technology news website, formerly known as HotWired, that split off from Wired magazine when the magazine was purchased by Condé Nast Publishing in the 1990s. Wired News was owned by Lycos not long after the split, until Condé Nast purchased Wired News on July 11, 2006...
- Abandonware article, including interview with HotU from GameSpotGameSpotGameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
- HOTU returns, thanks to a subdomain webmaster of HOTU from Abandonwarering.com
- Nooooo!!!! HOTU!!!!! from Expensive Planetarium
- Archive of HotU website, without binaries
- Home of the Underdogs: It Returns!