This FAQ has several sections:
Q: How can you get away with storing copyrighted material on your server?
A: The material here is provided only as a service to
the original owners of older software that a company no longer supports.
If you didn't originally purchase the software, you shouldn't be
downloading it from here--that's illegal! Please read this site's disclaimer for greatly expanded
information on the subject.
Q: How come some of your titles don't have a link? Where are the files?
A: I put files on the server on an as-needed basis.
Email me if you want something put up that's not hyperlinked or listed.
Please request one title at a time... I don't respond well to questions like "Could you put up all 40
un-linked titles on your Action page?"
Note: I cannot guarantee a response to every piece of mail I get regarding this archive. If you don't hear from me, just assume I got your mail.
Q: I emailed you a long time ago asking for something, and it still isn't uploaded. What gives?
A: I have a life, and a hobby. Life takes precedence.
Please be patient; I don't throw email away.
Q: I can't find XYZ game and it's not on your site... Where can I find it?
A: I've tried to avoid duplicates from the other
Abandonware sites, but some may have slipped in (because I like
them so much)... :-) If you can't find something here, chances are
very good that it's on one of the other sites in the ring. You
can use the search engine I've set up
to help you. Or,
contact me--I might have it,
but haven't added it to these lists yet... I've also avoided putting
most shareware and freeware games up, since you can get them from the
other sites in the ring, or from DOS game archives. Of course, you should
always email me anyway--I have
stuff that I was simply too lazy to put in the listings.
If you're feeling particularly determined, try reading the Usenet newsgroup alt.binaries.warez.ibm-pc.old, or visiting some non-abandonware ring sites, like www.classicwarez.com.
Q: Where are all the Sierra ("Quest" series) and Origin ("Ultima" series) games?
A: Most "Quest" and Ultima games are still for sale
from Sierra and Origin. Since they are
still being sold and supported, I won't house them here. Please contact
them for replacements or new purchases.
Q: How can I send you something to add to your archive?
A: You can FTP it to me (boxotrix.it-ias.depaul.edu/incoming); Email is fine, too (trixter@depaul.edu).
Most contributions are gladly
accepted, and make it onto the archive as well. So when you send me
something, you're just not sending it to me, you're contributing to the
entire Abandonware Concept. Now doesn't that give you a nice
warm fuzzy feeling?
Q: Can you email me something off of your site?
A: No.
Q: You accept email, but you won't email stuff out--isn't that hypocritical?
A: Yes. Bite me.
Q: Is your archive available via FTP?
A: Yes: FTP to boxotrix.it-ias.depaul.edu, login as
anonymous, and give your email address as the password. Then, change
directories to /pub/abandonware; or, if you'd like to contribute to the
archive, change directories to /incoming.
Q: I unzipped a .zip file and the game won't run--it keeps saying "missing files", but the files are there. What gives?
A: Use the -d option with pkunzip, like this:
Some games only work if their files are in their original directories, and the -d option preserves the directory structure.
Q: What's this .TD0 file I've downloaded?
A: .TD0 files are Teledisk disk images. I provide
bootable disks, diskette-installable-only applications, and some
copy-protected games in Teledisk format; you can get Teledisk from my Utilities list.
Q: I downloaded this .TD0 file, but teledisk says it's corrupt...
A: I verify all images before I put them on the server,
so if it's corrupt when you get it, it was a problem on your end, not mine. Try
shift-clicking on it to download it, or configure your browser to
recognize .td0 files as binary data. You can verify if the .TD0 image
is okay with the Teledisk File Checker program on the Utilities List.
Q: I'm still having problems with Teledisk!
A: One user reported that teledisk wouldn't write the
disk image until he slowed down his computer by turning off the "turbo"
button. Try this; if you don't have a turbo button, go into your CMOS
setup and see if you can slow down the machine that way (lower the bus
speed MHz or introduce 1 or 2 wait states, or disable the caches). Note
that it must be a hardware slowdown, not a software one;
software slowdown programs are useless in dealing with hardware
problems.
Q: Why did you go with Teledisk instead of Disk Copy Fast? DCF is a newer, faster program.
A: The main reason: Disk Copy Fast doesn't work on my XT, while
Teledisk does. It's hard to use a program you can't run. :-) Sure, it
works on my Pentium, but my Pentium has a 1.2 MB 5.25" 96tpi floppy
drive, while the XT has a regular 5.25" 48tpi drive, and I want to use
the original machine to grab the bootable disk images to make sure I
don't miss anything subtle. Also, DCF completely (and quickly) chokes
on any disk with an odd format, while Teledisk handles it nicely.
Teledisk is the magic that brought you my oldest, rarest stuff, like
Beyond Castle Wolfenstein, the Infocomics, and Pitstop II. And I
recently contacted Sydex to ask about Teledisk, and they said I could
use it for free since they stopped putting out the shareware version in
1991. So it really is better for my needs than DCF.
Q: I grabbed one of your manuals, but it ends in .PDF. What's a PDF file?
A: PDF files are Adobe Portable Document Files. They can hold
graphics and text in a very small package and print perfectly on any printer,
whether it's a 9-pin dot matrix, 300DPI laser printer, or 1200 LPI Linotronic
Laser Setter. Adobe has free
PDF readers available for download for practically every single platform
out there, including Windows 3.1/95/NT, UNIX (Freebsd, Linux, Solaris,
and others), and Macintosh. There's also a DOS PDF reader, but I've
never tried it.
Personally, I think PDF files are really neat, as they allow me to quickly scan in my original manual, OCR it, keep the inline graphics, and then save it in a compressed file that can print out extremely close to the original document. With an appropriate browser plug-in, they even download progressively! (That is, you can start reading the document before it's finished downloading.)
All in all, I think they're pretty cool. But I'm not everybody; if you can think of a good reason why I should NOT provide my documentation in PDF form, please let me know, and I'll explore other avenues.
Q: My downloads keep stopping before the entire file is transmitted. What can I do about this?
A: Either get a faster ISP or use an FTP client that
supports resumable downloads (so that you can resume where you left
off). NCFTP (free) and CuteFTP (shareware) support resumable downloads;
Netscape and IE do not, for example.
Q: Every time I try to download something, it says "too many users". What gives?
A: My FTP site accepts 10 users from 8am to 6pm local
time (CST, which is GMT -06:00), but jumps up to 100 outside of those
hours. If you are denied a connection because too many users are on,
look at the local time that gets returned, compare it to your own local
time, and try again later during the "100 user" time.
Q: What does "c,e,t" or "P,a,s,X" in the descriptions mean?
A: An example listing, along with a legend that explains everything, is available.
Q: Where are your Role-playing/Dungeons and Dragons/Fantasy-type games?
A: They're all in my Adventure
list.
Q: Why do you put Cinemaware titles in the Adventure category when they're technically action/strategy games?
A: The entire concept of Cinemaware titles was to present the
game as cinematically as possible--to immerse the player in an experience so
rich that they would feel they weren't merely watching a movie-like game, but
actually participating in it and changing the script minute-by-minute. Since the
overall concept was "immersionware", I've put the Cinemaware titles in the same
genre as RPGs and adventure games, since those try to do the same.
Q: Why do you have a larger percentage of Cinemaware, adventure, racing, and wrestling games than other archives/collections?
A: Here's why:
Q: I downloaded a game that was listed as "cracked=no" or "cracked=?", and it keeps asking for the original disk or some word from the manual. What gives?
A: Most of the titles in my lists are from my personal
collection of software, and yes, I did pay for them. As such, some of
the titles are still copy-protected;
there's an entry in the tables to show you which ones are and aren't.
Copy-protected titles are offered intact for the benefit of those who
also actually paid for and own the game, but are having difficulty
getting it to run due to progressive disk failures--either that, or I
haven't gotten around to cracking them yet. :-) If you really
want to get it to run, don't despair; there are many patches and
unprotects for these older games. Romulus is one archive that comes to
mind, however ftp.uwp.edu is gone now that David Datta has left. I've mirrored romulus, so you can still grab what it
had. The Dresden
archive is another place for old cracks, as is the UNP area of the Programmer's
Corner... Also, Neverlock, Rawcopy, CrackAID, Locksmith, and Patcher can
deprotect most of these old games as well. Keep looking; ask your
friends (or me) for cracks or patches. (And if
anyone knows if there's a new site for romulus, or a better romulus
mirror than cdrom.com
or NCTUCCCA, or if
you know of another good site with old cracks/patches, please let me know.) Hell, if you're
desperate, email me and I might be able to crack it. If worse comes to
worse and you simply MUST have a copy-protected game, send me a disk and
a self-addressed stamped (return postage included) disk mailer and I'll
make a protected copy for you. Email me to get my address.
Q: I downloaded a game that was listed as "boots=yes", and when I extract it to disk, the disk appears bad--dir A: says "General Failure reading drive A:". What gives?
A: Games listed with the "bootable" flag are just
that--they're bootable disks. You have to turn on the computer with the
disk in drive A: to boot the game. If your boot drive is not the right size, then
you'll need to create a special "transfer-boot-from-A:-to-B:" disk to
stick in your A: drive; this will let you boot the game from the B:
drive. A utility called Boot_B in my Utilities List can do this for you.
Q: But I don't have a 5.25" drive at all! Can I somehow write the disk image to the 3.5" drive?
A: Nope. You're screwed. Unless, of course, you go
out and get a 5.25" disk drive for $5 somewhere, which is what I
recommend you do. One person said he had success writing a 360K image
to a 720K disk, but I haven't been able to duplicate that.
Q: Bootable games are such a hassle! Why in hell would anyone ever make a self-booting game?
A: Tons of
reasons. A portion of my Life Before Demos
essay says something about this.
Q: This game is way too fast! How can I slow it down?
A: Many older games were written without regard to
system speed: They ran fine on an original 4.77MHz IBM PC, but run way
too fast on today's modern machines. You can't slow down a specific
game, but you can slow down your computer (which in turn slows
down the game). The smoothest slowdown is when you turn off your "Turbo"
button, or go into your CMOS setup and turn off "turbo". If you can't
do this, then see my Utilities List for
some slowdown utilities.
Q: A game that supports Adlib has totally messed up Adlib sound and music on my fast machine. Can I fix it?
A: As stated above, many older games were written without regard to
system speed: They programmed their music libraries to work fine on the
then-current speed of the hardware. 486s and Pentiums execute the game
so quickly that the music library sends out Adlib data faster than the
card can handle it, and the result is screwed up sound. Slow down your
machine to fix the sound (see previous question).
Q: I downloaded a program that says "Packed file corrupt" when I try to run it. What gives?
A: You must be running DOS 5.0 or later; many older programs weren't designed to run in the
first 64K segment, and display this message when you try to run them.
To fix this, type "loadfix progname.exe" (where "progname.exe" is the
name of the program you want to run). This will load the program above
the first 64K, where it will run properly. This is not a permanent fix;
you need to do this every time.
Q: I've done everything and the game still doesn't work! What am I doing wrong?
A: There's a possibility that the game won't work on a newer
machine no matter what you do. All games on my archive have been tested by me on
both a Pentium (120MHz) and a Tandy 1000 (4.77MHz), so if it's on the archive,
it *does* work in some form or another.
If you are still having problems, try this checklist:
Do the same thing for floppy disks, but make sure the files are one directory level back. For example, let's say you extract a game called "supergam.zip" that has subdirectories. If it came from my archive, you'll see something similar to this while extracting:
If you extracted to a hard disk, that's fine. But if you need to put this onto a floppy disk, put everything *in* SUPERGAM onto the disk (and preserve the directory structure). So, your floppy disk's root directory would look like this:
See the difference? Everything *in* SUPERGAM is on the disk, just not in the SUPERGAM directory itself.
This should slow down your Pentium to about a 286's speed, (or, if you're lucky, an 8086's speed), and it is a true smooth slowdown. If you need to go even slower, do the above and *then* run moslo; since it won't need to do all the slowdown work, it will be more effective.
Of course, you should always write down your original settings so you can return them to normal when you're done playing the game.
Q: How did you build your site? What's this ".shtml" extension on everything?
A: That ".shtml" extension stands for server-parsed
html -- that is, the server parses the .html file and translates
server-side includes into their real values. I have the luxury
of running my own web server, so I enabled server-side includes, which
allows me to add a standard ending boilerplate to the bottom of each
page. I've also written a perl script that sucks in a pipe-delimited
file and spits out a table, which I use for the lists. (What, you
thought I wrote all that table html by hand? ;-)
Q: Why did you use tables when they don't line up properly in Lynx?
A: Significant effort has been put into making these tables line up
correctly in Lynx, but you should
view them with as many number of columns as possible; a 132-column
screen is great, for example. For best results, a graphical browser is
recommended. HTML 3.0 <TAB> tags were used to line up columns,
and a <P> tag was used to add a blank line between entries.
This works optimally with all the browsers I tested, which included IE
3.0, Netscape 3.0 and 4.0, and Lynx 2.5/2.6/2.7.
Q: What HTML editor did you use to build this site?
A: I used vi. Honestly, is HTML so hard to learn that people
need cumbersome editors to hold their hand?
Q: Where's all the neat backgrounds and graphics?
A: The emphasis for this site is content and compatibility, not flash. It's not by
coincedince that most of the older games on this site stood for the same
thing--quality gameplay over style. If you want overtly obnoxious flash
and graphics, try something like this.
Q: How did you learn all this obscure stuff?!?
A: I had no life my entire high-school years. When you
don't have a girlfriend, you find other ways to spend your time. ;-)
Technology, in all its forms, has always fascinated me anyway.