Hmmm, bit off-topic in this forum, isn't it? Anyway, it's a pity the site is gone - not because of the games (they are available elsewhere if you know where to look), but because of the extensive game descriptions. I've been compiling a private game-related database for quite some time now, to be used as the basis for a gaming website. HOTU was a valuable source of information for that project. Well, i guess most content will be preserved by archive.org. If the data of the HOTU website still exists, there might be a revival sometime.

A pity indeed. There was a ton of valuable information there.

ADDiCT wrote:

Hmmm, bit off-topic in this forum, isn't it? Anyway, it's a pity the site is gone - not because of the games (they are available elsewhere if you know where to look), but because of the extensive game descriptions.

What really sucks, though, is that it took all the hosted sites with it - I wouldn't care to much if it wasn't for the fact that the Macintosh Garden is now gone as well. There's no heir apparent to the Mac abandonware throne.

I was thinking: maybe we could start a coordinated effort to contact Sarinee Achavanuntakul, in order to retrieve the site data. I don't know about the "Macintosh Garden" site, but as Sarinee seems to be the creator of HOTU, she may have access to the data or a recent backup or something. Once the data is "secured", we could look for ways to setup a mirror. My idea is to write an email to her, "in the name of the VOGONS community" or something like that, "signed" by some people. Anyone interested?

Nice idea but wouldn't that break the policy of "no abandonware allowed"? HotU was on a gray area of law by hosting abandonware. Was it illegal? Was it not?

I'm not interested in the game files. I was talking about the actual content of the site - the game descriptions, feature lists, user ratings, etc. . That's the real treasure, i think.

The game files are a different topic. As i wrote: you can find (nearly) all the files, if you know where to look. The files were always "problematic" in terms of actual preservation - it seems the goal was to make the games playable, not to preserve them in the original form. I think it really doesn't matter if you get your incomplete and/or hacked copy of a game from HOTU or from any other site. I'd leave the preservation aspect to special projects like TOSEC.

Sorry, I misunderstood you.

I am moving this thread to Milliways, by the way...

OK, did some research. It should be possible to contact Sarinee. She's also the registrar of HOTU's domain, so she should have at least access to the site data.

My plan:
1. get as many VOGONS users as possible together to join the effort (all they have to do is to "sign" a possible mail to Sarinee)
2. agree upon a short, precise text for the actual message, written on behalf of VOGONS users/DOSBox devs/whatever
3. send that text, if possible from an "important" mail account like a VOGONS admin account
4. if it's possible to retrieve the site data, discuss ways of setting up a mirror or using the data as part of another website

C'mon people, give me some support! (;

This thread is so useless it hurts.

Oh, what an unique statement! Did you think of it yourself, or did you get the inspiration from somewhere else, MiniMax?

Actually, i don't think this thread is useless at all. It has a well defined topic and purpose, unlike certain other threads.

Shame HOTU couldn't have remained as a large games DB [without the bandwidth consuming file provision[ (although perhaps that would have been too similar to Mobygames?). The info was well presented and nicely integrated.

http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showt … ead.php?t=50698

1http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.the-underdogs.info

The two best candidates for assimilating the information from Underdogs would be the MobyGames and ClassicDosGames sites.

Another big loss is all of the information in their forums. Just like these forums there is ALOT of information to be mined there and if there is no backup....*poof* it's gone....arguably a much bigger loss than the main site's data.

Let's just hope the Abandonware community from HOTU doesn't come here......heh I can image dosraider @ DOSGames right now.....

DosFreak wrote:

The two best candidates for assimilating the information from Underdogs would be the MobyGames

which is funny because HOTU often snags info from MobyGames reviews

Latterly yes, but earlier on when more time was going into it they often wrote their own stuff.

ADDiCT wrote:

I'm not interested in the game files. I was talking about the actual content of the site - the game descriptions, feature lists, user ratings, etc. . That's the real treasure, i think.

Internet Archive seems have everything of it. Forums are gone, though, if you only will not pull it from the Google cash right now. I personally can't do it, but it is definitely here yet.

I tried using webarchive to search for the HOTU's freeware titles. I could get access to page 1 of about 47, but couldn't navigate to any other page than the first page.

Stupid Web Archive. 🙁
It have not everything. Many, but not all. And searches are dead. 🙁 Pages seems exist in archive, but all of them goes to main page. Broken php-search, I presume. Only two ways that I can think is browsing Web Archive manually:

1. By company, from here: http://web.archive.org/web/*sr_1320nr_30/http … underdogs.info/*

2. By game ids: http://web.archive.org/web/*sr_1nr_30/http:// … s.info/game.php?* There is about 1500 numeric ids and 1000 - naming.

Also I must say that old site was archived too. And archived differently. So most reviews, not found on new one, still exist on the old one. There is about 6000 numeric ids. Address is http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.the-u … gs.org/game.php?*

While they had a lot of abandonware they also had tons of freeware games on there that were interesting and there were also a few interesting shareware/demo games there. The game descriptions was the best part and that's where it was really good.

Putting all of that website's abandonware to one side, so to speak, it was still an excellent site, full of very valuable information, and will be sorely missed.