[MatthewPapa]

After a long downtime, VolitionWatch is back online. It has been restored from cold backups and made to live again over 20 years later.

https://archives.game-warden.com
https://freespacewatch.game-warden.com
https://volitionwatch.game-warden.com
https://redfactionwatch.game-warden.com

The goal of this first release is preservation and access. Core pages, historical content, and forum read access are now available again. Some legacy features are still being repaired, and a few pages may be missing images that were absent from the initial backup. Content has been pulled from archive.org where possible to backfill any missing stuff. We should be >90% of the way there!

Any major issues feel fee to report them here. I have had to nerf some login/account/poll features for the sake of security (after all this site was taken down originally because it was hacked) but much functionality should be intact. Most of the PHP code has been completely rewritten to work with newer versions of PHP/SQL and be more security conscious.

Thank you to my codex assistant for doing all of the legwork. There is no way this would have been finished anytime this decade without it.

[Grizzly]

This is cool and interesting, very much a relic from before my time.

There's a few things - the images over in the Freespace 2 download section lead to q website that has since been taken over by domain squatters

[MatthewPapa]

thanks for the heads up!
Im sure someone else can describe the history of VW well; it probably deserves a wiki article. I joined VW when I was like 13-14 or something so I dont have the best recollection. But I can take a shot at it if no one else does.

I think my favorite site was the archives. I played the vast majority of missions/campaigns on there and even left some reviews. Funny to read over 20 years later haha

[Grizzly]

Im sure someone else can describe the history of VW well;

Well whilst it has its obvious origins in Nazi Germany i would actually make a spirited argument that the Beetle is as much a symbol of post-war reconstruction - in no small part because the plant actually only build them in earnest after the war under orders of the British occupation.





Oh wait you meant volition watch not Volkswagen my bad.

[Nightmare]

That's a neat thing

Were you planning on bringing back the download section too?

[Mongoose]

Oh wow, what a massive blast from the past. I don't think I was ever a member of the forums (or if I was I've long since forgotten), but I know I downloaded every single campaign from the archives. Nothing like seeing that brown-on-beige color scheme again. 

[shiv]

Excellent work! I thought all those pages were for good long gone. Looks like a lot of reading for cozy evenings

[Mobius]

Very well done - does it mean we may recover campaigns once believed to be lost in the void?

[666maslo666]

What a nostalgia hit! Thank you (or Codex? 😂) for bringing those sites back. 👍 Reading them, I feel like I am 14 again. I have almost forgotten what the original FS graphics looked like..

[shiv]

What a nostalgia hit! Thank you (or Codex? 😂) for bringing those sites back. 👍 Reading them, I feel like I am 14 again. I have almost forgotten what the original FS graphics looked like..

Yeah, over time we tend to forget how imperfect things were back then and only remember the good parts. In my case it's quite different, and I remember exactly how they looked. Meaning: they're fantastic!

By the way, this revival deserves a highlight.

[karajorma]

Very well done - does it mean we may recover campaigns once believed to be lost in the void?

Are there any lost campaigns that were only ever on VolitionWatch?

[BengalTiger]

Fun to see how what became the GTC Aeolus started as a concept art for the Terran supercarrier.

Also, one of the space stations did not make it into the game, but there is a mod that fixes this.

I don't think I've ever seen VW sites when they were originally active, fun stuff to have this reactivated.

[Mobius]

Are there any lost campaigns that were only ever on VolitionWatch?

I'm not a VBB survivor myself but I do recall people mentioning content that may have been lost over time, including campaigns. I'm also referring to the backups created by community members who became inactive at some point.

EDIT: I may be wrong, but many of the campaigns listed here were indeed lost. The FS Wiki does not mention them at all. Unfortunately, direct downloads are no longer available.

[Goober5000]

Oh wow, this has been a long time coming.  Great to see this finally online!


I have the same VolitionWatch backup that MatthewPapa does (in fact I think I gave it to him) and it does contain all the downloadable files.  So making those files available is simply a matter of repairing or reconstructing the download functionality.

[shiv]

Goober, I was wondering if perhaps you could pass those old downloads to someone to go through them, categorize and re-upload? I won't deny I wanted to replay some old campaigns on retail like if it was 2000 again and I suspect there may be more people like me who'd love to do the same

[Nightmare]

I don't think I've ever seen VW sites when they were originally active, fun stuff to have this reactivated.[/color]

Well not active anymore, but I'm pretty sure they still were online when you registered here

[woutersmits]

most stuff doesnt work not restored

[MatthewPapa]

Ah I did not realize the campaign links were broken, good tip! They worked at some point during my restoration but i think when I locked down security i broke the download functionality because the queries were not read only. Try to download again, it should be fixed!
I also fixed the mission download and mod cross links. Additionally it is no longer necessary to be signed in to read reviews.

Please find other issues! Need to fix as much as possible.

[Fusion]

Are there any lost campaigns that were only ever on VolitionWatch?

I'm not a VBB survivor myself but I do recall people mentioning content that may have been lost over time, including campaigns. I'm also referring to the backups created by community members who became inactive at some point.

EDIT: I may be wrong, but many of the campaigns listed here were indeed lost. The FS Wiki does not mention them at all. Unfortunately, direct downloads are no longer available.

Figured I'd go over the list:

Aftermath - Is it the one tagged "CE" on Knossos? If not, no
Allied Worlds - No
Battle of Midway - No
Biowar - No
Boomerang - Yes
Dantes Ascension - No
Derelict - Definitely yes
Desperate Times - No
Enemies United - Yes
Escort Duty - Yes
Evil Heart - No
Gateway - Yes
Home Sweet Home - No
Hyper Crisis - No
Imperium - No
Independence Warriors - No
Inner Troubles - Yes, if the only released part is part 1
Into the Darkness - No
League Of Free Worlds, Part One - No
Millennium - Yes
NTF - I think yes, listed as "NTF Campaign Part 1" on Knossos
NTF Saga - Yes
Operation Odin's Spear - No
Pandora's Box - Yes
Pirates Of Delta Serpentis - Yes
Revolution - No
Search for Knowledge - Yes, at least the prologue
Second Great War Part II - Yes
Special Ops Command - May be under "The Special Operations Command."
Technological Superiority - Yes
The Aeos Affair - Yes
The Allied Forces - Don't think it's the one already on Knossos, no
The Deuterium Connection - Yes
The Enemy From The Past - Yes
The Jake War - No
The Jake War 2 - No
The LDK Campaign - Yes
The Regulus Campaign - Yes
The Titan Rebellion - Yes
Trinity - Yes
Unholy Alliance - Yes
Vortex - Yes
Warzone - Yes

A lot of the campaigns seem to have been uploaded by GaryDD without any information other than their original VW descriptions about a year and a half ago. Most of them are surprisingly already here, but it's good to have the ones that aren't.

[shiv]

Besides, it’s nice to have them downloadable from other location than Knossos so one could simply unpack a campaign into data/missions and experience it the classic way