DOS Games Archive Site Update July 26 2014

Post by **Jorrit** » Sat Jul 26, 2014 9:36 am

Post by **MrFlibble** » Sun Jul 27, 2014 6:34 am

Jorrit wrote:In Pursuit of Greed (shareware):
http://www.dosgamesarchive.com/download ... -of-greed/

In spite of what MobyGames claims (and the fact that Softdisk did publish shareware titles), In Pursuit of Greed is, technically, not a shareware game. The word "shareware" is not mentioned anywhere on the game page (Wayback Machine copy), and the free downloadable release is consistently called "the demo".

For comparison, the download of Alien Rampage, another title published by Softdisk, is explicitly called "shareware" on the download page (Wayback Machine copy).

The best way to differentiate between shareware and demo is to consult the supplied documentation of a particular release (e.g. FILE_ID.DIZ is usually accurate in this respect), and/or, if possible, the original game web page.

There exists an earlier demo of the game, with completely different levels. It's available here. Its version number is v2.0. The demo that you currently have on file is v7.0.

Jorrit wrote:CyberMage: Darklight Awakening (shareware):
http://www.dosgamesarchive.com/download ... awakening/

Again, the supplied documentation consistently refers to this release as "demo". Electronic Arts/Origin generally did not publish shareware titles.

The demo of Cybermage contains a unique episode which was specifically created to showcase the game.

Jorrit wrote:Catacomb (freeware):
http://www.dosgamesarchive.com/download/catacomb/

The file "catacomb1990.zip" is actually a copy of Softdisk's Gamer's Edge sampler disk, which includes two games: Catacomb and Dangerous Dave.

The Gamer's Edge sampler disk comes with a license that allows distribution of the whole disk (details here). You should therefore remove the separate dave.zip and have both entries point to the same file, which needs to be renamed back to gaemedge.zip.

Again I should draw your attention to the issue of renaming archives. I have already mentioned that original filenames often contain relevant information, such as version number, or the very fact that a particular release is shareware or demo. In case of Catacomb, editing the file name has caused confusion because this file does not only contain said game, but is actually a copy of a sampler disk's contents which has several games on it.

Another thing worth of consideration is that with so many abandonware sites these days, it would be better to have downloadable files which unambiguously identify themselves as shareware or demo in their file names already.

For example, the original file name of the In Pursuit of Greed demo is GREEDEMO.EXE. The fact that this is a demo is stated plainly right in the filename. The archive downloadable from your site on the other hand is called pursuitgreed.zip. There is no telling what kind of release this is with such a filename.

Many games that were released by big shareware publishers like Apogee or Epic MegaGames do not only indicate their shareware status in the filename, but also include version information (in case more than one version was released publicly). Renaming the archives effectively obscures this information, especially since there is no indication of version numbers on the game pages.

Jorrit wrote:CyClones (playable demo):
http://www.dosgamesarchive.com/download/cyclones/

There are two different demo versions for this game. What you have is v1.0. Another, earlier demo (version number unknown) can be found here cycdemo2.zip

Post by **Jorrit** » Mon Jul 28, 2014 3:34 am

MrFlibble, thank you for your information! I have changed the following:

- Changed In Pursuit of Greed to playable demo
- Changed CyberMage to playable demo

I will get back to you on the other issues by e-mail.

Post by **Wally** » Mon Jul 28, 2014 9:34 pm

Jorrit is on a roll here

Post by **MrFlibble** » Wed Jul 30, 2014 9:41 am

MrFlibble wrote:The file "catacomb1990.zip" is actually a copy of Softdisk's Gamer's Edge sampler disk, which includes two games by John Carmack: Catacomb and Dangerous Dave.

Correction: Dangerous Dave is by John Romero while Catacomb is by John Carmack. Sorry for this misinformation on my part!

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DOS Games Archive Site Update July 26 2014

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