[HN Gopher] EXoDOS: Collecting every game developed for DOS from...
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EXoDOS: Collecting every game developed for DOS from original media
Author : mmastrac
Score : 63 points
Date : 2020-10-30 03:34 UTC (19 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (exodos.the-eye.us)
(TXT) w3m dump (exodos.the-eye.us)
| WoodenChair wrote:
| How is this legal? Sincere question, since all (nearly all?
| perhaps a couple have been put into public domain) of these games
| are protected by copyright. And yes, it is hurting the copyright
| holder in many cases, because many of the titles are still sold
| through distribution sites like GOG.com. Some of these games are
| not even that old (<20 years).
|
| They have a DMCA page, but their philosophy seems to be "put it
| all out there and wait for the DMCA notices." Disingenuous at
| best since they must know ahead of time that they are violating a
| lot of IP. It's one thing to be against our global IP laws. It's
| another thing to flagrantly disregard them. You can be against
| something without violating it.
|
| How does archive.org get around this with their software
| collection?
| toomuchtodo wrote:
| There is an exception in the DMCA for abandonware [1] [2], and
| anything DMCAd (legitimately) will be darked (remove from
| public availability, but still stored) until abandonware again.
|
| These seems more fair than having to obtain specific clearance
| for every work that may fall under copyright (Project Gutenberg
| has had to tolerate doing this for decades [3]).
|
| > You can be against something without violating it.
|
| Off topic: Civil disobedience is non violently disobeying
| unjust laws.
|
| [1] https://toucharcade.com/2015/10/29/new-dmca-exemption-
| takes-...
|
| [2] https://copyright.gov/1201/2015/fedreg-
| publicinspectionFR.pd...
|
| [3] http://copy.pglaf.org/
| canada_dry wrote:
| Quite the extensive collection... hundreds of zipped game files.
|
| I've been searching for years to find an early multiplayer DOS
| lan game (~1990) that I believe was called 'Trek'. You separately
| controlled multiple ships to protect your base and attack others.
| It was basic ascii graphics but my friends & co-workers spent
| hours playing via local lan setup.
|
| Hoping it's in this collection!
| dividuum wrote:
| On the slim chance anybody remembers: I've been fascinated back
| then by a game I've only seen in magazines. It was some kind of
| war simulator with a greenish vector graphics map of the north
| Atlantic. I think you could coordinate everything from that
| view and give very detailed orders. Must be well before 2000.
| II2II wrote:
| You can try the game browser at MobyGames. A game that may
| help you decide which filters to use is Harpoon. Harpoon was
| black and white on the Macintosh and colour on other
| platforms, so it's probably not the game in question.
| Greenish vector graphics implies that it is a game from the
| 1980's.
|
| (For reference: https://www.mobygames.com/game/harpoon )
| dividuum wrote:
| Oh. I think it might have been Harpoon II. The screenshot
| at https://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/harpoon-
| ii/screenshots/ga... looks like it might be what I
| remembered. I'll have a look. Thanks a lot!
|
| Edit: I'm now sure that's it. I even found a scan of the
| original gaming magazine (the German "PC Player") with the
| test I read back then.
| wernercd wrote:
| Trek (1985)?
|
| https://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/trek http://exodos.the-
| eye.us/public/eXoDOS/Games/Trek%20%281985%...
| canada_dry wrote:
| Hot damn... yup!! Thank you.
|
| Such a great game for its time. Edit: it's modem <-> modem
| not LAN so a max of 2 human players. So I assume we were
| using null modems to play together in the same room.
|
| Seems likely that this Carlton McLawhorn [i] from Wendell NC
| is the author (and also an avid rocketeer and scoutmaster).
|
| [i] https://stricklandfuneral.com/carlton-carl-bruce-
| mclawhorn/
| ido wrote:
| Is this a dos version of the much older mainframe game?
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek_(1971_video_game)
| raldi wrote:
| Oh, if we're doing one of these threads, my white whale is a
| mid-80's CGA DOS game where you set off in search of a lost ...
| uncle? and have to solve puzzles and avoid hazards.
|
| There are two parts I remember very clearly. The first is that
| you have the choice when you leave the house at the beginning
| of either bringing along a walking stick or something else, and
| if you don't choose the stick, there's a part on an outdoor
| trail where you twist your ankle and lose the game.
|
| The other part I remember is getting shrunk somehow and ending
| up in a drawer full of drinking straws. You have to work your
| way through this tube maze, but some of the straws are clear
| (invisible) and if you wander into one accidentally, the game
| lets you know it was so narrow that you get stuck in it
| forever, lose the game, and die.
| ilaksh wrote:
| How large is the download?
| mawise wrote:
| ~500GB
| [deleted]
| 0-_-0 wrote:
| What's the purpose of the _!DOSmetadata.zip_ and
| _XODOSMetadata.zip_ files taking up 18 GB each?
| Scaevolus wrote:
| XODOSMetadata is all the images (box art, disc art,
| screenshots) and manuals associated with a game, so the
| launcher has all the assets necessary to provide its interface.
| !DOSMetadata is dosbox configurations and .bat files for
| running games.
|
| It could be much smaller and stream those dynamically, but the
| creator is more focused on the archival and preservation than
| optimizing the download size.
| 0-_-0 wrote:
| Or just splitting it up per game so you don't need to
| download 36 GB to play 1 game.
| flatiron wrote:
| Next weeks goal is to setup ao486 on my MiSTER and see how well
| these remind me of my first computer (486 66dx2)
| pcdoodle wrote:
| Kind of cool to know the bits are from the OG media.
| LeoPanthera wrote:
| My biggest criticism of Exodos is that while it is _from_ the
| original media, it is not the original media itself. They modify
| games for easy launching, often throwing away the installation
| files and other setup stuff.
|
| I prefer the philosophy of "TDC", the Total DOS Collection, which
| in most cases is simply the original install media in a zip file.
| chungy wrote:
| Yeah that's something I noticed. No matter the claims of being
| from original media, that's the only thing I think is worthy of
| distribution.
| skissane wrote:
| > I prefer the philosophy of "TDC", the Total DOS Collection,
| which in most cases is simply the original install media in a
| zip file.
|
| Even better is to image the disks and provide a FAT file system
| image for each floppy disk.
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(page generated 2020-10-30 23:00 UTC)