Some might actually desire the "less complete experience" more, I am guessing.
(those who dislike or don't want the newer versions for some reason. of course, this is not to say I think the new versions are bad or anything...just that some might like/desire the older versions more for one reason or another :))

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It has been verified by several people prior to this point that zoom platform has a deal with the ip holders to sell them unless the ip holder specifically asks for them to be pulled.

Seeing as the ip holder knows the games are being sold there, and hasn't asked for them to be pulled, it is therefore obvious those versions are on the up and up. :)

(if you still don't trust it, you may feel free to message the rights holders and ask for yourself :))

Randy Pitchford is the owner of the Duke Nukem IP.

Take up your issue with him. He is widely reviled and hated in the Duke 3D fanbase and his keeping Duke 3D off of GOG is one of many reasons for that revulsion and hatred.

I'm still not sure where this idea of shady comes from in all honesty, it's pretty transparent. Sure, the website is outdated but that's about it. If you have any questions about it feel free to ask

You mean Pandy Richford, right?

Never heard of this platform, is it legit? There are a lot of games on there from 1C which steam versions aren't drm-free from my limited testing, seems odd they'd be selling them externally drm-free.

Ken Penders.

Imo the "shady" talk, generally speaking, likely comes(in part) from some not trusting new stores and sites too much, and instead of wanting to do the work to verify the places are legit they simply call them "shady"...thus giving them a reason to not have to bother delving any deeper.
(of course, not saying that that's that user's reason, or every user's reason for saying zoom is shady.....but it seems that that might be the case for some who say such)

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From talking to others who did the legwork and checked into things, it would seem they have very good contract terms for some games that allow them to either sell them for a very long period or until the ip holder requests them to stop selling the games on their store.

I have my assumptions about Zoom platform

The Company CEO and others seems to be older well known directives of big game companies in the past.

My assumption is that some games are available there in a legal limbo. My assumption is that the great owners do not have any legal agreement with Zoom but a personal promise of not take legal actions if the game is at sale.
Who knows, maybe it is enough.

Imagine something like "I am not to be aware of my game being sold even if I do not receive royalties".

Well. For me it is fine if we consider unfair competition as an option. High quality abandonware. You now. Of course, I could be wrong.

Can safely tell you that the assumption is incorrect. No storefront would ever even risk selling games on personal promise over a legal agreement. That would be crazy!

Yes, I agree. It would be crazy.

Well as long as it's not this chap, we should be fine ;)

There is a dedicated thread discussing them here. I have been using them for several months and haven't seen anything to suggest they are not legit. I haven't bought any 1C games from them specifically (not many 1C games really appeal to me, tbh).

I don't really understand it either. A few people posted in that other thread, saying they 'have a bad feeling about them', but were not able to give objective reasons much beyond 'I don't like the look of their site'. Apart from them having a fairly bare-bones site, which is understandable since they are a small store that have been struggling to gain traction and grow, I don't see any red flags.

Are you basing that 'assumption' on anything concrete? What reason do you have to believe they don't have written legal contracts with the publishers?

If they were not legit, I would expect them to have a much bigger selection of games and be selling games from more/better-known publishers.

Really sad it was removed from GOG. I have often found myself wanting to replay Duke, but alas.. I'm not at all interested in the 20th Anniversary World Tour on steam, which seems inferior to the megaton edition by a mile. I just want to play good old duke, as I remember it.

Maybe some day..

Actually this must be it, if you look at the Duke Nukem games they have the publisher listed is 3D Realms who no longer hold the rights, so it must be that they are so small they were overlooked when Gearbox pulled the games from other stores.