Aethra Chronicles
Fatal Challenge (For good reason?)
Bid for Power's RCs

leileilol wrote:

Aethra Chronicles

"Despite amatuer graphics and a cliched plot, this RPG's depth and playability (which runs smoothly on a 286) may surprise you.The game can be a bit tough at times, but not overly difficult. Most of the puzzles in it are simple. The only complaints I have are a couple quests which you can complete without actually doing them (yes, you heard me right)-- an annoying bug that one might consider a boon.
All in all, an underrated and one of the better shareware RPGs that is worth a look.

Note: Although the game advertises two more episodes, they unfortunately were never made. This version for download here, i.e. the registered version of the first episode, is the only one that was released to the public"

Link withheld for legal reasons.

the PC (jr?) version of M.U.L.E. seems to be at least critically endangered, if not terminally lost. As far as I know, only a single peeBay auction of the original floppy has been witnessed, and any public attempt at preservation so far has failed.

VileRancour wrote:

the PC (jr?) version of M.U.L.E. seems to be at least critically endangered, if not terminally lost. As far as I know, only a single peeBay auction of the original floppy has been witnessed, and any public attempt at preservation so far has failed.

It's not likely it will be, either, since the game is apparently extremely rare combined with the fact that the floppy format is incompatible with other 5.25" drives for PC's. The copy sold on ebay was supposedly new in package and opening it would destroy most of the buyers' investment, so it wouldn't really be fair to put pressure on him/her unless you're going to pay some sort of compensation for opening it. Of the few original copies left, probably not very many of them actually work anymore. The original floppies from 1983 have probably lost most of their ability to retain data by now. A copy utility would also have to be written that can read the format and work around the protection. It's a grim situation but at least there are still plenty of Commodore and Atari copies floating around out there, not to mention NES carts, and those have been dumped so the game itself isn't in danger of dying out, just versions that didn't sell well to begin with.

Well, if the game is critically bugged, and the patch is lost to humanity - this is the case or not?
If the answer is "yes" - add "Deo Gratias" to the list...

sliderider wrote:

It's not likely it will be, either, since the game is apparently extremely rare combined with the fact that the floppy format is incompatible with other 5.25" drives for PC's. The copy sold on ebay was supposedly new in package and opening it would destroy most of the buyers' investment, so it wouldn't really be fair to put pressure on him/her unless you're going to pay some sort of compensation for opening it. Of the few original copies left, probably not very many of them actually work anymore. The original floppies from 1983 have probably lost most of their ability to retain data by now. A copy utility would also have to be written that can read the format and work around the protection. It's a grim situation but at least there are still plenty of Commodore and Atari copies floating around out there, not to mention NES carts, and those have been dumped so the game itself isn't in danger of dying out, just versions that didn't sell well to begin with.

Both software and hardware solutions exist for backing up non-standard/protected floppy formats; someone with, say, an Option Board and/or some hacking skills could probably pull it off, provided that the disk hasn't completely deteriorated.

Of course, far be it from me to hound lucky bidders and tell them what I think they should do with their prize, if that's what you were implying. It all comes down to personal priorities, collecting vs. preserving.

Maybe Orion Odyssey. You might be able to find the shareware version on old CDs but I doubt anyone ever purchased the registered version.

SKARDAVNELNATE wrote:

I doubt anyone ever purchased the registered version.

I bet