liqmat wrote on 2025-03-20, 22:50:

Something pretty cool popped up over at GamesThatWerent.com.

That must be some very heavy serendipity going on, because just yesterday I was browsing this thread from 2003-2006, which mentioned a site called PC Games That Weren't (accessible via the Wayback Machine) -- although I'm not sure if this is the same one/the predecessor to the one you've linked to?

Anyways, I looked at what they had back in the mid-2000s, and this game caught my attention: Shenandoah: Daughter of the Stars. A playable demo is available for download. I looked up this game and found that while its development was abandoned when the team broke up, one of the devs returned to it in the mid 2010s and finished the game with another team, releasing it as 1993 Space Machine.

I'm not sure if this should better be posted here or in the unofficial DOS conversions thread, but yesterday I was browsing yet another game downloads database, and apparently there was an unofficial Elite clone project called "Mostly Harmless". Thanks to this wonderfully imaginative name it is impossible to find any relevant information via Google about it now.

The ZIP was supposedly called MHARMLB.ZIP and it was a pre-alpha demo. There is no information about the author(s). The site describes the game thus (presumably, taken from FILE_ID.DIZ or a similar file in the archive):

Mostly Harmless pre-alpha demo. Classic retro remake of the game Elite. Project aims to create a clone of the classic 1980s video game Elite. Elite was originally written by Ian Bell and David Brabham for the BBC B. This will not change the Elite formula in any way that will alter the game-play. It will just be a better Elite. Mostly Harmless will not include any of the features of Frontier or Frontier First Encounters. DOS.

I looked up archived websites about unofficial remakes that I'd found previously, but none mention this game. No results for the filename either via DiscMaster or Hallfiry's catalogue.

Found version 2.0 of Digger (the Boulder Dash clone, not the Windmill Software arcade game):
https://discmaster.textfiles.com/browse ... digger.zip

MrFlibble wrote on 2025-03-15, 10:18:

I think it would be nice to find the original installers for two German advergames, Aro & Elmi and Toffifee: Fantasy Forest

I had the Toffifee game on an original floppy, but I gave it to a friend a few years ago. I hope she still owns that floppy and I can dump it.
Didn't know the game was that rare.

Wanted: "T.COM", a directory go-to tool. you can use arrow keys to explore directory tree in current drive, press Enter key to go back to DOS and change path to the place you pressed Enter key. Right hand side is a list of files of the directory selected in the left. It might be some kind of XTree Gold clone that comes with pre-installed of my first PC but I can no longer able to get any data from it.

roytam1 wrote on 2025-04-14, 02:45:

Wanted: "T.COM", a directory go-to tool. you can use arrow keys to explore directory tree in current drive, press Enter key to go back to DOS and change path to the place you pressed Enter key. Right hand side is a list of files of the directory selected in the left. It might be some kind of XTree Gold clone that comes with pre-installed of my first PC but I can no longer able to get any data from it.

Yeah with that kind of name I can understand how it can evade capture 😁
PickDir maybe?
https://discmaster.textfiles.com/browse/10601 … 11b/pickdir.zip

mr.cat wrote on 2025-04-14, 08:43:

Yeah with that kind of name I can understand how it can evade capture :D PickDir maybe? https://discmaster.textfiles.com/browse/ […]
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roytam1 wrote on 2025-04-14, 02:45:

Wanted: "T.COM", a directory go-to tool. you can use arrow keys to explore directory tree in current drive, press Enter key to go back to DOS and change path to the place you pressed Enter key. Right hand side is a list of files of the directory selected in the left. It might be some kind of XTree Gold clone that comes with pre-installed of my first PC but I can no longer able to get any data from it.

Yeah with that kind of name I can understand how it can evade capture 😁
PickDir maybe?
https://discmaster.textfiles.com/browse/10601 … 11b/pickdir.zip

Thanks for chiming in, but unfortunately not this one.

roytam1 wrote on 2025-04-14, 02:45:

Wanted: "T.COM", a directory go-to tool. you can use arrow keys to explore directory tree in current drive, press Enter key to go back to DOS and change path to the place you pressed Enter key. Right hand side is a list of files of the directory selected in the left. It might be some kind of XTree Gold clone that comes with pre-installed of my first PC but I can no longer able to get any data from it.

Any of these 45 T.COM files it? https://discmaster.textfiles.com/search?q=%22 … com&dedup=dedup

Sembiance wrote on 2025-04-16, 14:59:

roytam1 wrote on 2025-04-14, 02:45:

Wanted: "T.COM", a directory go-to tool. you can use arrow keys to explore directory tree in current drive, press Enter key to go back to DOS and change path to the place you pressed Enter key. Right hand side is a list of files of the directory selected in the left. It might be some kind of XTree Gold clone that comes with pre-installed of my first PC but I can no longer able to get any data from it.

Any of these 45 T.COM files it? https://discmaster.textfiles.com/search?q=%22 … com&dedup=dedup

many of them are checked, most of them are TRASE editor and LIST.com text file reader renamed.

Unreleased DOS game ArcWar recovered over at GTW: https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2025/05/arcwar/

MrFlibble wrote on 2025-04-09, 13:14:

I'm not sure if this should better be posted here or in the unofficial DOS conversions thread, but yesterday I was browsing yet […]
Show full quote

I'm not sure if this should better be posted here or in the unofficial DOS conversions thread, but yesterday I was browsing yet another game downloads database, and apparently there was an unofficial Elite clone project called "Mostly Harmless". Thanks to this wonderfully imaginative name it is impossible to find any relevant information via Google about it now.

The ZIP was supposedly called MHARMLB.ZIP and it was a pre-alpha demo. There is no information about the author(s). The site describes the game thus (presumably, taken from FILE_ID.DIZ or a similar file in the archive):

Mostly Harmless pre-alpha demo. Classic retro remake of the game Elite. Project aims to create a clone of the classic 1980s video game Elite. Elite was originally written by Ian Bell and David Brabham for the BBC B. This will not change the Elite formula in any way that will alter the game-play. It will just be a better Elite. Mostly Harmless will not include any of the features of Frontier or Frontier First Encounters. DOS.

I looked up archived websites about unofficial remakes that I'd found previously, but none mention this game. No results for the filename either via DiscMaster or Hallfiry's catalogue.

The website you referred to is based on the "Apaja" file area section of the Finnish MBnet BBS, and their website which was discontinued 15 years ago. The purpose of the Apajalista project is to try to find these files and make them available again.

To my understanding, the original Apaja file collection has been handed over to the National Library of Finland. They do not release the files, whether they are freeware or not, but they can be studied locally in certain libraries. However, I'm not sure if it's possible to run them in an emulator on those library workstations.

I might make a trip to the library someday to study this material and I can look into this as well if it is there.

If you find other interesting files on the website that you want more information about, you can leave a public comment, for example, on the file's ID page, or contact us through the form on the website. You can also submit missing files through the form on the website, as well as report any incorrect files if you would like to assist with the project.

The website is in Finnish, but it works fairly well, for example, with Firefox's translator. You can leave comments on my behalf in English as well.

There is also a 'Mostly Harmless' (Elite mod) for the game Freelancer on Moddb, but that is not for DOS.