Author Topic: Really old campaign availability  (Read 22857 times)

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Offline Kosh

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Really old campaign availability
Something I just noticed is that it is becoming increasingly difficult to get ahold of old campaigns. For example, Casualties of War. The only download link that actually works is for fileplanet, which because of changes made to it by Gamespy has become practically unusable to non-subscribers. So how can we get around these issues?
"The reason for this is that the original Fortran got so convoluted and extensive (10's of millions of lines of code) that no-one can actually figure out how it works, there's a massive project going on to decode the original Fortran and write a more modern system, but until then, the UK communication network is actually relying heavily on 35 year old Fortran that nobody understands." - Flipside

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Offline karajorma

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Re: Really old campaign availability
Stick them all on Hades-Combine?

That site is woefully underused.
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Offline Kosh

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Re: Really old campaign availability
OK, so who should we volunteer for doing this? :p
"The reason for this is that the original Fortran got so convoluted and extensive (10's of millions of lines of code) that no-one can actually figure out how it works, there's a massive project going on to decode the original Fortran and write a more modern system, but until then, the UK communication network is actually relying heavily on 35 year old Fortran that nobody understands." - Flipside

Brain I/O error
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Offline Cobra

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Re: Really old campaign availability
Stick them all on Hades-Combine?

That site is woefully underused.

Indeed. Would be nice if we could get more mods. Funny thing is though, I can't tell if our little FTP glitches (files disappeared off the FTP, resulting in bad downloads) have been resolved yet or not. Right now as far as I'm concerned every file is still at risk.

[EDIT] Although there haven't been any reports of screwups lately, so have it it if you want to.
« Last Edit: March 05, 2007, 01:05:58 am by Cobra »
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Offline jr2

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Re: Really old campaign availability
I have a ton (well, it seems that way..) of old campaigns stuck on my HDD.  You want me to make a directory listing of them, and post it here?

 

Offline Mongoose

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Re: Really old campaign availability
Something I just noticed is that it is becoming increasingly difficult to get ahold of old campaigns. For example, Casualties of War. The only download link that actually works is for fileplanet, which because of changes made to it by Gamespy has become practically unusable to non-subscribers. So how can we get around these issues?
I've never paid Gamespy a cent, and I don't seem to have any trouble grabbing files.  But I do agree that a community-maintained version of the Archives is sorely needed.

 

Offline karajorma

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Re: Really old campaign availability
Me too. I have stuff which I can't even remember the name of the person who made it, let alone where anyone else would find it.

OK, so who should we volunteer for doing this? :p

Not me. But I have been thinking lately that someone should form a restoration team. Their job would be to get hold of ever single halfway decent campaign and make sure that they work with FS2_Open 3.6.9.

Basically that would mean that we'd need people to play through the entire campaign and spot bugs as well as having other people capable of fixing them.

Once the missions are fixed they would have to make sure that they are available from at least two stable FS oriented websites. Hades-Combine is a fairly obvious choice. SectorGame might be another good choice. DW-Hunter's site would be a third but I hesitate to suggest that one seeing as the installer is already eating a big chunk of his bandwidth.


Personally I think this would me a very good project for newbies and moderately experienced tablers/FREDders. We already have a lot of newbies coming into the community and playing campaigns and then finding faults. All you'd have to do is harness that by giving them a large directory of campaigns to play through.

Get the end product linked up in Skippy's campaign list and instead of having newbies wondering what there is to play you could point them at a large database of working missions and campaigns rather than the mess we have at the moment. I know it sounds like a big project but to be honest it's nothing more than what people have been doing in a rather disorganised fashion already.


I'd also like someone (jr2 would be a good choice) to start and update a thread with a list of every campaign which has seen some sort of release. I may have a few other campaigns that he doesn't have and I'm more than happy to add them to his archive if I can find out what they are. For instance I suspect he doesn't have All's Fair in Love and War since I haven't heard anyone mention that campaign since I originally played it.
« Last Edit: March 04, 2007, 04:55:52 am by karajorma »
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Offline jr2

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Re: Really old campaign availability
Me too. I have stuff which I can't even remember the name of the person who made it, let alone where anyone else would find it.
same here :)

Not me. But I have been thinking lately that someone should form a restoration team. Their job would be to get hold of ever single halfway decent campaign and make sure that they work with FS2_Open 3.6.9.
shouldn't we wait for 3.7.0?  That is going to be the "cat's meow", right?  Or would a campaign/mission compatible with 3.6.9 also be compatible with 3.7.0?

I'd also like someone (jr2 would be a good choice) ... For instance I suspect he doesn't have All's Fair in Love and War since I haven't heard anyone mention that campaign since I originally played it.
Wrong.. :D I should have that one buried somewhere. :nervous: I'm one of those freaks that Googles mods for a game, download them all into different directories, usually named by game name and date aquired, forget what I have, end up with five different copies of the same file, my hard disk fills up, and then I have to go organize my download folder again to find useless duplicates (at one point I had 3 or 4 different copies of the full set of FS2 install discs, if I remember right).
... My download folder currently is about 43.4 Gigs in size... well, if you count the backup iso's of different CDs/DVDs, then 88.8... If you count my MP3 collection... never mind.  XD
BUT... to mention the reason for the spiel above, does anyone know of a nice free (preferably open source :) ) software for finding duplicate files?  How about one for searching for a file in a directory, including within archives?  I currently use PowerDesk's FileFinder for that, it's pretty quick (maybe 10x faster than windoze search), but I use the free version, which doesn't search inside archives.

 

Offline karajorma

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Re: Really old campaign availability
Compatibility with 3.6.9 should also cover 3.7 for the vast majority of stuff. 3.7 may be up to a year away from now so I see no point in waiting even if it doesn't.

If you need coder help deciphering the really esoteric error messages I'll help where I can. Frankly I think this is the sort of thing we should have got started on ages ago so I hope some other people are willing to join up. Especially as all that is required for a lot of them is to just play some new (to them) FS2 campaigns :)

Oh and colour me surprised if you have All's Fair. I managed to find the release thread and really was the only person who played it. :)
« Last Edit: March 04, 2007, 07:50:18 am by karajorma »
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Offline Goober5000

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Re: Really old campaign availability
Hmm.  Interesting idea.  Should I make a new forum for the FreeSpace Campaign Reclamation Project? :)

 

Offline Nuclear1

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Re: Really old campaign availability
Hmm.  Interesting idea.  Should I make a new forum for the FreeSpace Campaign Reclamation Project? :)

Sounds cool. I've got a few old campaigns floating around here as well. :)
Spoon - I stand in awe by your flawless fredding. Truely, never before have I witnessed such magnificant display of beamz.
Axem -  I don't know what I'll do with my life now. Maybe I'll become a Nun, or take up Macrame. But where ever I go... I will remember you!
Axem - Sorry to post again when I said I was leaving for good, but something was nagging me. I don't want to say it in a way that shames the campaign but I think we can all agree it is actually.. incomplete. It is missing... Voice Acting.
Quanto - I for one would love to lend my beautiful singing voice into this wholesome project.
Nuclear1 - I want a duet.
AndrewofDoom - Make it a trio!

 

Offline jr2

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Re: Really old campaign availability
That sounds like a good idea... where do you think it should go, though?  (Which category?)
HLP Forums > FreeSpace
HLP Forums > FreeSpace > Missions and Campaigns
HLP Forums > Community Projects
?

EDIT: I vote for Community Projects
EDIT2: @karajorma; what was the original (server) filename?  If you don't know, what is the name of one of the files inside and I'll use MS Search :ick: to try and find it...  ;7
« Last Edit: March 04, 2007, 01:08:21 pm by jr2 »

 

Offline karajorma

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Re: Really old campaign availability
No idea jr2. I saved the campaign to DVD but I renamed the archive when I did that almost certainly.


As for the new forum. Either community projects or as a subforum of this one. I prefer the first one as it is more visible.
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Offline Turey

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Re: Really old campaign availability
BUT... to mention the reason for the spiel above, does anyone know of a nice free (preferably open source :) ) software for finding duplicate files?  How about one for searching for a file in a directory, including within archives?  I currently use PowerDesk's FileFinder for that, it's pretty quick (maybe 10x faster than windoze search), but I use the free version, which doesn't search inside archives.

Windows Support Tools comes with DupFinder.exe, which is what I use.
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why would an SCP error be considered as news? :wtf: *smacks Cobra*It's a feature.

 

Offline jr2

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Re: Really old campaign availability
Either community projects... I prefer the first one as it is more visible.
:yes:

Thx Turey, I will try that.

 

Offline MP-Ryan

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Re: Really old campaign availability
I'd be willing to work on something like this.  I've only been into FreeSpace for a year or so, but I've been playing a lot of older campaigns.  Gotten pretty good at findings and reporting bugs... not so much on fixing them :)
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Offline Admiral Nelson

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Re: Really old campaign availability
It may not be "really old", but I did add backgrounds and nameplates to The Lightning Marshal 1 and 2, only to find that these campaigns have many bugs.  Anyone think that this would be a reasonable candidate for inclusion in this project?
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Offline karajorma

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Re: Really old campaign availability
I've certainly got no problem with including them. Although I'd like to see a priority on making sure campaigns actually work on 3.6.9 ahead of going through them and bug fixing them (unless the bug is a real show stopper like that docking ring one in Derelict).
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Offline Raven2001

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Re: Really old campaign availability
Ahoy! Im in all favour about this initiative... there were lots of good stuff that would need a facelift (kinda like Derelict did) :)

On the department of helping, im more than willing to, ocasionally, call dibs on HTLizing a model or 2 used for a certain campaign ^^
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Offline Admiral Nelson

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Re: Really old campaign availability
In the case of Pat 1 of the Lightning Marshal, at least one bug is a showstopper indeed.  I suppose it is just a case of relative priority with whomever would like to spend their time debugging... :)
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