Unrealthe first-person shooter that introduced Unreal Engine to the world, and its multiplayer-focused successor Unreal tournament have been preserved through the Internet Archive and are available for free download with the blessing of developer Epic Games.
Old unreal first shared the news with his long-standing community of diehards Unreal fans on October 29 and, more recently, released special installers that streamline the process of getting these decades-old games ready to play on modern Windows operating systems. Of course, getting online will take even more effort – neither game has had official servers since Epic shut them down on January 24, 2023 – but community servers there are still plenty.
“We can confirm that Unreal And Unreal tournament are available on Archive.org and people are free to link to and play these versions independently,” an Epic spokesperson told Polygon.
Unreal debuted in 1998. Designed by Cliff Bleszinski, who created games like War machines And Lawbreakersand programmed by Tim Sweeney, the now billionaire founder and CEO of Epic Games, the first-person shooter was an almost instant hit thanks to its detailed graphics and fast-paced gameplay. Unreal tournament followed in 1999, shifting the focus to multiplayer arenas and leading to multiple sequels. A reboot of sorts was planned, but never got beyond a 2014 public pre-alpha that ended in 2017, as Epic’s development priorities shifted to Fortnite. And we all know how that turned out.
Despite a complete disappearance from the zeitgeist, unfortunately aided by Epic itself removing the games from all online stores when the servers were taken down in 2023, the Unreal series is an iconic piece of video game history worth preserving for future generations. And while dedicated fans will always be willing to step in and do the hard work to save these abandoned classics, it’s great to see a major company like Epic at least doing nothing to thwart those efforts.