Keep it up Kris, nice work so far! Next up, Mach3?

rcblanke wrote:

Keep it up Kris, nice work so far! Next up, Mach3?

Forgot that game existed... mostly because the last time I tried to play it many years ago, it locked-up my system. :P

Episode 4 has been up since Saturday and features the game StarMines 2. Here's a quick link for anyone who hasn't watched it yet: http://www.pixelships.com/ep0004.html

Quick question for everyone as well. I've been having trouble finding the current licensing states of older games. It seems the newer a game is, the easier it is to find licensing info about it. Are there any reliable sources online that actually track the current licensing states of games? Most places only track the original licensing state of a game when it was released. I suppose this is complicated by how some authors make free releases of some of their games for brief amounts of time then go back to selling them.

Gemini000: perhaps you could check some of the licenses out here.

http://www.abandonia.com/en/oldwarez

New Webshow: Ancient DOS Games

Do you have an RSS feed? Couldn't find one in your page. Is there any way to be notified of new episodes?

Before I get to replying, the next episode is up: ADG Episode 5 - Terminal Velocity

BTW: Credits will be added in all future episodes to the first person who can guess which episodes come next. Just make sure you send those guesses to the ADG eMail address on my website and at the end of each video.

WolverineDK wrote:

Gemini000: perhaps you could check some of the licenses out here.

http://www.abandonia.com/en/oldwarez

Interesting... I imagine keeping such a list up to date would be difficult. Thanks for the link. :)

colonny55 wrote:

Do you have an RSS feed? Couldn't find one in your page. Is there any way to be notified of new episodes?

I haven't any experience with RSS, but I am aware of what it's used for. I'll do some research into how to use it sooner or later but the priority right now is figuring out how best to add the game stats and recommended DOSBox settings to the episode pages themselves without making the pages a nightmare to navigate.

Arkanoid II for next week's show?

TV!!! can't wait to see this episode later... 😁

rcblanke wrote:

Arkanoid II for next week's show?

Perhaps, seeing as how I've had the PC version of Arkanoid II for nearly two decades.

You gotta send your guess to my adg@pixelships.com eMail address for it to count though, otherwise it can be debatable who gets the correct guess first, and that would induce anarchy, chaos, and possibly the end of the world!

...OK, maybe not, but you get the idea. ;D

In other news, I was finally able to get some of my really old copy-protected disks working, which means I can finally record footage from a handful of my Sierra and Accolade titles... not all of them though. For instance, I'm having a heck of a time with Test Drive since my copy is the Tandy 1000 version which lacks EGA support and the CGA data files have succumbed to disk age. >_<;

Gemini000 wrote:

.. In other news, I was finally able to get some of my really old copy-protected disks working ..

How did you accomplish this, Kris? On a true DOS machine, or in some other way?

rcblanke wrote:

Gemini000 wrote:

.. In other news, I was finally able to get some of my really old copy-protected disks working ..

How did you accomplish this, Kris? On a true DOS machine, or in some other way?

I found a bunch of archived resources to assist in bypassing the copy protection in a large variety of older DOS titles. Obviously it would be a bad idea for me to share the links because then I could be held responsible if someone were to follow my links and use those resources to conduct software piracy.

Recording directly from any of my three DOS machines would be quite the hassle and I haven't the time, space, hardware or cables to do so with any level of quality... nor the money to afford any of the extra stuff I would need to even attempt it. Besides, only one of them will actually run 100% of my copy-protected DOS titles and I'm kinda lacking a monitor for it at the moment. (It's a Tandy 1000 SX.)

Besides, a direct video stream from DOSBox is so much cleaner and pixel-perfect. ;)

Gemini000 wrote:

ADG is a series I'm going to use to bring to light all sorts of old DOS games ...

Your Descent video prompted me to revist this masterpiece. Back in the day, I completed it on "Ace" setting and then after that, I decided to restart it on "Insane". I think it was a combination of tiredness and the intense difficulty that stopped me very early on and I gave up. Now, I'm replaying it on "Insane". I can't find my original CD-ROM, and so I'm playing the Shareware version which has the first 6 levels. I've completed the first 4 levels, and I'm about to start the 5th. So far, it's been tough but not impossible. On 2 levels, I very nearly ran out of laser fuel.

Both my successful "Ace" setting completion of the game, and current replay on "Insane" setting are with keyboard only. Back in the day, I never had a joystick and have still never tried one on a PC!

BTW, is there a chance you could review Dark Forces please? Back in the day, it was my equal 1st favourite game, the other being Descent!

retro games 100 wrote:

BTW, is there a chance you could review Dark Forces please? Back in the day, it was my equal 1st favourite game, the other being Descent!

Consider it added to my requests list! I happen to own it already, unlike most of the other requests I've had so far, so it should be easy to find a way to fit it into the schedule I have set up... I've got up to Episode #14 planned for sure as well as Episodes #18 and #20, and Episodes #14 and #18 are both 3D games, so Episode #16 seems like the best place for it... I'll see what I can do. ;)

Gemini000 wrote:

retro games 100 wrote:

BTW, is there a chance you could review Dark Forces please?

Consider it added to my requests list!

Awesome, thanks a lot! 😀

Spurred on by the O.P.'s review of "Descent" on his "Ancient DOS Games" website, I have completed the shareware version on the Insane setting using keyboard only, and with no loss of ships. (See "X 18" in the top left corner on the first image.)

Ctrl-Alt-F5 or it didn't happen

leileilol wrote:

Ctrl-Alt-F5 or it didn't happen

I loaded my last save game then pressed Ctrl-Alt-F5. The .AVI file produced is about 16,500 kb large and cannot be uploaded to Vogons. How can I quickly and easily upload this file to the net? (I suppose I could try youtube...I'll give it a go in the morning.)

leileilol wrote:

Ctrl-Alt-F5 or it didn't happen

I tried to create a youtube account, but I was very surprised to see that they need your mobile (cell) phone number to complete the registration! I don't really want to give youtube my phone number. Besides, I don't even have it on me at the moment.

So, I've got a new .AVI file where I complete the Boss fight at the end and escape from the mine. It's 32,500 KB in size. Can I just send it to someone via a PM? Perhaps someone can host it somewhere for 24 hours then delete it?

rapidshare/ easyshare think there are lots

Qbix wrote:

rapidshare/ easyshare think there are lots

Thanks. I've created a rapidshare account and uploaded the video -

Edit: Old link removed. New link in post below. Ignore rest of this post.

However when you go to this link, it says -

Error
The file is not fully saved at RapidShare yet. This file is possibly still being uploaded.
Please try again later.

Perhaps it will automatically become available later on today?

Solved. I uploaded the .AVI file again (with a shortened file name) and now it works. The new link is -

http://rapidshare.com/files/410154634/descent.avi.html

Edit: The one remaining red robot gets 2 homing missile "locks" on me. The second locked missile seems to hit the side of the mine exit area as I leave it.