When Atari closed up in 1996, the source code to famous games was thrown in the trash!

When Atari closed up in 1996, the source code to famous games was thrown in the trash!

Abandonware is a product, typically software, ignored by it's owner and manufacturer, and for which no product support is available.

Although such software is usually still under copyright, the owner may not be tracking or enforcing copyright violations.

If a software product reaches End-of-life and becomes abandonware, users are confronted with several potential problems: Missing purchase availability (besides used software) and missing technical support.

These problems are exacerbated if software is bound to physical media with a limited life-expectancy (floppy discs, optical media etc.) And backups are impossible because of copy protection or copyright law.

Also, once a software product has become abandonware for a developer, even historically important software might get lost forever very easily, as several examples have shown.

One of many examples is the closure of Atari in Sunnyvale in 1996, when the original source code of several milestones of video game history (like Asteroids or Centipede) was thrown out as trash.

(Source)

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