38 ms·

Lost something? Search through 91.7M files from the 80s, 90s, and 2000s

387 points by dangle1 4y ago

nness 4y ago
Looks like search is down, but browsing still functions.
xwdv 4y ago
There is an image of an old friend who passed away in the late 90s that was posted on the web at some point. It has since been lost. Could it be in there? Was some AOL site I think.
- CommitSyn 4y ago
  These are all from old floppy disc and CD-ROMs so the chances are slim, but not impossible I guess.
nebula8804 4y ago
Wish there was some way to describe a title using some really generic words and get a series of probabilities. I've been searching for this PC game from the mid to late 90s but I am having so much trouble describing it. It was some sort of science fiction point and click game that was released around the Windows 95/98 era and was discounted at places like Caldor. I got rid of the CD because it kept crashing randomly under Windows 95/98. Really regret throwing away a lot of CDs back then. Other than posting these vague descriptions here I don't know what else I can do other that waiting for Elon Musk's brain computer and then maybe I can download my brain one day and try to sift through its contents to find some more clues.
- hakuseki 4y ago
  Have you browsed through this list? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Point-and-click_adventure_games https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Point-and-click_adven...
- jandrese 4y ago
  "Science fiction point and click" is very vague. You don't remember any further detail? You might be surprised at how good people on the Internet are at tracking down obscure information like this given just a few hints.
  - aerovistae 4y ago
    Exactly. /r/tipofmytongue is an incredible community.
  - nebula8804 4y ago
    I am sorry I haven't been able to provide more info. I have collected more info at this comment after other suggested ideas that helped me provide more details. [1]:https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33258294 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33258294
- googlryas 4y ago
  I would suggest finding a forum devoted to either that style of game, or games from that time period, and just do a brain dump. I bet someone will know exactly what game you're talking about. Some useful information would be: When is the earliest date you remember playing it? Or, when is a date where you are positive the game had been made at that point? What did the graphics look like? Do you remember anything about any intros or loading screens? Anything more specific than sci-fi? Space? Aliens? Was it dark/scary, light-hearted, dramatic, etc? Do you remember any lines, characters, game mechanics, or plot points from it?
- squarefoot 4y ago
  Over at archive.org they have quite a large list of old PC games. https://archive.org/details/classicpcgames https://archive.org/details/classicpcgames
- wruza 4y ago
  No more details? Don’t you have at least some blurry images in your mind or particular scenes? E.g. there are games that I couldn’t remember, one was a quest(?) in a set of pictures and a submarine, dark tones, mysterious. I remember a full outside view of it and then few screens inside. Another was a dos game that had a fullscreen map of some galaxy and a cursor in a form of a torn hand. Five blobs below the map were unnamed(?) buttons on a strange panel. One button sent you flying through a “canyon” on a selected planet, which was drawn as a set of simple \_/ planes slightly offset from each other, synthwave style-ish but much simpler. I believe it was an early rogue like, but I was too young and knew no english to understand it. I don’t get how one can remember something but not have any details except a period of release.
  - noduerme 4y ago
    Almost sounds like you could be describing Starflight...? https://youtu.be/GaYIk3MIFGI https://youtu.be/GaYIk3MIFGI Check out the map around 15:00 and the planet landing around 16:21.
    - nebula8804 4y ago
      No that seems more like the DOS era. This was definitely some sort of Win32 application (ie. runs on Windows 95/98 and not DOS) See my comment here for more info: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33258294 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33258294 Thanks for the suggestion though!
      - noduerme 4y ago
        I meant the second one, the dos game you mentioned. Glad you found the first one though I'm curious what the second would be..
        wruza 4y ago
        Haha, I suspect both of you misread usernames/replies itt ;)
  - 4y ago
- easrng 4y ago
  Maybe ask on https://gaming.stackexchange.com/ https://gaming.stackexchange.com/, I've seen similar questions on some other stack exchange sites though idk if it's allowed on gaming specifically.
- yCombLinks 4y ago
  My favorite game matching that description is lucasarts "The Dig"
  - ailun 4y ago
    This was my first thought as well! I was weirdly obsessed with that game. It crashed all the time, so that part fits. I originally had the demo on CD, I think it came with X-Wing vs Tie Fighter or one of those other Lucasarts games.
  - nebula8804 4y ago
    I added more info here after others helped get more out of my head [1]:https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33258294 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33258294 The game was definitely a Win32 application so it wouldn't have the style of "The Dig"
- jiayo 4y ago
  I have the same problem; I've been trying for over 25 years to find a game I vaguely remember from my childhood. It's unclear if what I'm looking for was ever formally published. To be honest as soon as I saw @textfiles tweet about this new search engine, I got irrationally excited thinking I might be able to find it here, but how do I describe this in a way anyone will understand? I'll give it a shot. In the late 80s, my dad bought an 8088 XT clone and "somehow" got some games. We had a bunch of the popular Sierra/AGI adventure games, Hugo's House of Horrors, etc. This game was in the same vein, but way way more primitive. It's a DOS game. I believe it would have been made between 1980 and 1988. I remember it as a text adventure, but with non-interactive full-screen graphics (e.g. appears like Sierra games, but you can't move the player, only issue text commands). I remember it as monochrome (bright white on dark black background) despite my computer supporting at least CGA. I remember the commands you type being entirely in uppercase (LOOK DOOR, PRESS BUTTON). I remember the protagonist waking up on an alien spaceship, and by far the strongest memory I remember is there being an elevator with up and down buttons you could press to go to different floors of the spaceship. I vaguely remember the game being called ALIEN (as in, I could type ALIEN to start it; so, ALIEN.COM maybe??) I don't expect to ever figure this out, and have mostly gaslit myself about this ever existing. I actually asked /r/tipofmytongue or some similar subreddit about 10 years ago to no avail. If anyone on hacker news has any clues to help with this I would be so grateful and would buy you a beverage. p.s. @nebula8804, my guess for your holy grail is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner_(1997_video_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner_(1997_video_game)
  - anthk 4y ago
    https://ifdb.org/search?searchbar=alien https://ifdb.org/search?searchbar=alien
  - 1970-01-01 4y ago
    Alien? https://oldgamesdownload.com/alien-dos/ https://oldgamesdownload.com/alien-dos/
  - Maursault 4y ago
    I have the same problem trying to find a graphics adventure-style video game for 8-bit Apple called "Necromancer" that was not the game of the same title for 8-bit Atari and C64. Rather than a perspective view, graphics gave a bird's eye view. Ridiculously, I remember being impressed with the graphic representation of the necromancer's keep, which was just a little hollow square on the screen. Played it a lot in 1980, or possibly as late as 1982. I've only been looking for it for about 15 years. Seems to have disappeared because not even the expert 8-bit Apple folks can find it. It doesn't help that Google search has gotten a lot worse in the last 15 years. I've looked so hard at various times, just thinking about it now give me a headache.
- ilkke 4y ago
  Beneath a steel sky? Innocent until caught? I have no mouth yet I must scream? You're really not giving us much to work with.
  - nebula8804 4y ago
    I have collected more info here after others game me ideas to help narrow it down: [1]:https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33258294 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33258294 While all those games are from the 90s. I must stress that this was definitely a Win32 game: ie. Has to run on Windows 9x and cannot run on DOS.
- layer8 4y ago
  I would try a linear search for the relevant year/system/genre combinations on MobyGames, e.g.: https://www.mobygames.com/browse/games/1995/windows/adventure/ https://www.mobygames.com/browse/games/1995/windows/adventur... Certainly tedious, but maybe your best bet, with such a vague description.
- js2 4y ago
  I have a distinct memory of there being a BBS client for either the Apple II or maybe the IIGS called something like "Graphical BBS". I'm pretty sure that it used the Apple II hires mode. But I can't find any evidence that it existed for the Apple II series and I've been searching off and on for years. Wait... I just searched again. I'm not crazy. It was called HBBS and it got added to archive.org last year: https://archive.org/details/apple2_hbbs https://archive.org/details/apple2_hbbs Oh, no, its author (Matthew Dornquast) passed away earlier this year: https://www.startribune.com/obituaries/detail/0000416768/ https://www.startribune.com/obituaries/detail/0000416768/ Jason Scott (textfiles.com) posted about his passing at the time: https://nitter.net/textfiles/status/1490157005805395971 https://nitter.net/textfiles/status/1490157005805395971 Well, now I'm bummed. I found what I was looking for all these years and sadly learned its author died much too young. :-(
  - TedDoesntTalk 4y ago
    Never heard of this before. Thanks. I was active in the scene then and never came across a graphical Apple 2e BBS.
- CommitSyn 4y ago
  It may be worth trying the /r/tipofmytongue subreddit.
  - xhrpost 4y ago
    /r/tipofmyjoystick
- ralusek 4y ago
  A few people have mentioned /r/tipofmytongue, but you'll do better at /r/tipofmyjoystick; specifically for games.
- ethbr0 4y ago
  Space Quest IV? https://www.mobygames.com/game/space-quest-iv-roger-wilco-and-the-time-rippers/screenshots https://www.mobygames.com/game/space-quest-iv-roger-wilco-an... Or V? https://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/space-quest-v-the-next-mutation/screenshots https://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/space-quest-v-the-next-mu... Or VI? https://www.mobygames.com/game/space-quest-6-roger-wilco-in-the-spinal-frontier/screenshots https://www.mobygames.com/game/space-quest-6-roger-wilco-in-...
neilv 4y ago
> Oct 10 8:04PM EST Sorry, but search is currently DOWN. We are super bummed about it. We are ACTIVELY working on it. No ETA at this time.
- sedatk 4y ago
  "Oct 10 9:24PM EST We identified 2 different issues that caused the search to crash. The search database is being recovered, which will take several hours. We hope to have search back online tomorrow, Oct 11 by 9AM EST. Once again, sorry about the search downtime."
  - jiggawatts 4y ago
    Little Bobby Tables strikes again.
    - guenthert 4y ago
      You're joking, but I for one would be interested in why the search engine went down multiple times in the first two days.
  - CSSer 4y ago
    What’s odd is that was eight days ago now and this article was published today. I’m not complaining. I just find it interesting that the author of the article wouldn’t mention that given that it was published today.
    - benjedwards 4y ago
      Those dates were typos and have been fixed. Discmaster launched on Oct 18th.
      - CSSer 4y ago
        Ah, that makes a lot more sense. Thanks for the clarification!
WirelessGigabit 4y ago
Is the source code of Red Alert 2 in here?
joshka 4y ago
The one thing I'd love to see archived is the full back catalog of Computer Music Magazine and Future Music Magazine. Last I checked the company only has 2008 onwards, but there's so much gold in those early issues I'd love to see.
TedDoesntTalk 4y ago
http://discmaster.textfiles.com/ http://discmaster.textfiles.com/ Refreshingly no https because why would this site need it?
- spijdar 4y ago
  Requiring HTTPS is one thing, though it's a little disappointing it doesn't offer it at all, even something retro like SSL. I figure this is an unpopular opinion among the target audience, but I prefer keeping traffic SSL/TLS encrypted, even with broken versions or self-signed certs, because anything at all discourages opportunistic packet capture and tomfoolery. I agree it's good for resources like this to not require it or force redirect, but it'd be nice to have something optional. Sure, there's nothing to hide here, but that's a bad excuse for not encrypting...
  - account42 4y ago
    Except there is no way to support HTTPs without ending up with people sharing https:// https:// links that won't work for non-HTTPs users. I really wish SSL/TLS would have used something like starttls. And yes, that means needing HSTS preload (or better yet a DNS-based alternative) to prevent downgrade attacks, but we do need that with https:// https:// anyway.
    - prmoustache 4y ago
      Like non https users cannot remove the s manually?
- Waterluvian 4y ago
  What’s the practical cost to having it?
  - nickdothutton 4y ago
    Practical “cost” is that it raises the bar on clients wanting to access the material, some of which could be very old I suppose.
indigodaddy 4y ago
Had no idea the amount of NSFW poker games there were in the 80s/90s.
- toomuchtodo 4y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leisure_Suit_Larry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leisure_Suit_Larry (possibly NSFW) 11 million copies sold since the 80s.
  - smesla 4y ago
    Article is not NSFW, and the titular character looks like Fredo from The Godfather.
    - MexicanJoe 4y ago
      Ha, you're right. I never thought about that lol
- MexicanJoe 4y ago
  Samantha Fox Strip Poker on C64. ohhh yeah
- justinlloyd 4y ago
  And I am directly responsible for an uncountable number of them :-)
  - indigodaddy 4y ago
    You created a bunch of them?(!) Cool website by the way!!
    - justinlloyd 4y ago
      But did you find the space invaders game?
- 4y ago
kevincox 4y ago
It would be so nice if copyright was 10 or 20 years and this was unquestionably legal.
- tommek4077 4y ago
  Good that not everybody in the internet lives and hosts in the US.
  - imhoguy 4y ago
    What is the friendliest place for pirate archivists now?
    - Mountain_Skies 4y ago
      Currently, probably Russia given that they've more or less pulled IP protection for non-Russian works. Well, as long as works on certain "sensitive" topics are avoided.
  - account42 4y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_Convention https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_Convention It's not just the US unfortunately.
- hilbert42 4y ago
  "...copyright was 10 or 20 years" Nice thought but unlikely give the copyright bloodhounds about. A better short-term approach would be to change copyright to make access to orphan and neglected works legal so long as one has no pecuniary interest in them. This would free up huge swathes of copyrighted works. Whilst that makes sense, it is opposed by new/existing copyright holders who see the freeing up of these works as competition—even if the orphaned works bear little resemblance to the new works (which is usually the case)—on the grounds that making these works available 'dilutes' the market for newer works (a spurious argument if ever I've heard of one). Another objection comes from a mob of carpetbaggers who want access to them for commercial purposes, that is if said works ever become available (all sorts of strange arrangements have been proposed). Thus the stalemate continues, nothing is done. No wonder piracy exists. BTW a while back I posted a link on YouTube to a 1920s audio recording whose author died about 80 years ago only to get a note from Google that someone still claimed copyright over the work. Seems this lark is done automatically by the mischievous copyright lobby even if there is no such claim by the original author. Incidentally, Google didn't remove the work (presumably on grounds that they were already aware of the 'scam' but were obliged to advise me anyway in case I objected). Right, the copyright system stinks as presently constituted.
LeoPanthera 4y ago
I posted a direct link to DiscMaster yesterday: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33241761 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33241761 But I think I was hamstrung by the "must use accurate title" rule.
- quickthrower2 4y ago
  Funny, we are sometimes encouraging blogspam with that rule.
  - Cthulhu_ 4y ago
    In HN's defense, sometimes entries like that get replaced by the source. But that depends on staff being online, and unless I'm missing something, there's still only one person with the authority to do that, and dang can't work 24 hours a day.
tartoran 4y ago
Looking for a game, think it was under Dos but could’ve been under Windows as well, I don’t remember that part and don’t remeber the game’s name. Vaguely it could be mine something… The game was mouse centric by controlling a spaceship’s velocity and direction. Spaceship had inertia and slowing down would be done in the reverse direction with the mouse. The spaceship was small/white against a dark space backdrop. There were some items to collect but also mines or enemy ships to avoid. The walls were either bouncy or you’d crush your ship into them. I think you’d be able to shoot too. It was pretty well done and quite engaging. I remember I was having lots of fun playing this with my friends back then.
- all2 4y ago
  Make sure to check "Home of the Underdogs".
- jlbbellefeuille 4y ago
  Sounds like astroids… almost.
- TheSpiceIsLife 4y ago
  Clear memory of this too now. It's right on the tip of my hippocampus...
- lvs 4y ago
  Subspace?
  - SV_BubbleTime 4y ago
    I loved that game. I’m still surprised how that was free, genuinely fun, and even unique compared to todays games.
- Rabidgremlin 4y ago
  Sounds like an Omega Race clone/variant
- ikr678 4y ago
  Hover, Windows 95?
dirtyid 4y ago
Fantastic. Is there a breakdown on storage used by year? A long time ago, I was going through the 5.25 & 3/4 floppy collection of someone who use to run a computer shop and kept a copy of everything, and was amused at the idea they could all fit on a few DVDs.
quickthrower2 4y ago
"Your Malwarebytes Premium blocked this website because it may contain a Trojan.". It probably does somewhere, although not sure the Trojan will still work today.
- cutler 4y ago
  Isn't that part of the experience?
  - aliqot 4y ago
    I miss Bonzi
    - Firmwarrior 4y ago
      Just turn Cortana back on and you're halfway there
      - aliqot 4y ago
        What's that
    - pajko 4y ago
      The site is still alive: https://bonzi.link/ https://bonzi.link/
      - aliqot 4y ago
        That TLD didn't exist at the time or for another 10-15 years.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
  - hilbert42 4y ago
    Of course (odds are there'd have to be). The question how does Malwarebytes Premium know it contains a Trojan? Does some seemingly intelligent code say 'lots of strange files thus likely a Trojan here' or does it actually analyze the files (given the quantity of files that seems unrealistic, alternatively, it's previously spotted a Trojan in one of the links and remembered it—this is probably the likely bet).
Natsu 4y ago
Wish I could find some old Apple ][ GS game where there was a computer voice right as you booted up. I never understood what it said, but I thought it sounded like "parano guizu tiksa" and it always bothered me that I had no way to figure out what it was saying. I don't remember anything else about it.
- dnr 4y ago
  Oh wow, that just jogged a really old memory. I'm pretty sure I had that one, but can hardly remember anything else. Could it have been Xenocide? edit: Oh, or maybe Silpheed? This is the closest thing I found with some searching: https://youtu.be/o98xKZk5FOk?t=182 https://youtu.be/o98xKZk5FOk?t=182
  - Natsu 4y ago
    I don't think those are it at least I didn't hear the voice in those videos and I don't quite remember playing those.
- someperson 4y ago
  There's a great subreddit for crowdsourcing things like that: http://www.reddit.com/r/tipofmytongue http://www.reddit.com/r/tipofmytongue
  - Enydosnes 4y ago
    To add to this, you can use https://www.reddit.com/r/tipofmyjoystick/ https://www.reddit.com/r/tipofmyjoystick/ for video games specifically
  - Cthulhu_ 4y ago
    Another one is https://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/game-identification https://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/game-ident..., but I don't know how popular stackexchange is these days.
    - rjh29 4y ago
hilbert42 4y ago
"Cookies & Tracking - This site has no cookies and no tracking. CSS & JavaScript - CSS, JavaScript and HTTPS are not required. This site works in text and vintage browsers." Just love this attitude from a webmaster and the Discmaster site works just as expected - straight forward and eminently effective. Now I compare this with a similar archive site that appeared on HN about a day ago—one dedicated to the works of the analytical philosopher Willard Van Orman Quine. This excruciatingly slow JavaScript-ridden site was so bad that I tried three different browsers before I could get to the archive files and even then I couldn't download anything if I'd wanted to. Frankly, it is horrible site, one wonders why they bother when they make the user experience so utterly bad. If one ever wants to see the damage bloated JavaScript has done to the web then there's not a much better example that to compare these two sites side by side.
- toxicFork 4y ago
  Can you link the other post for the lazy but curious people like me please?
  - hilbert42 4y ago
    https://valep.vc.univie.ac.at/virtualarchive/public/Archive/a0 https://valep.vc.univie.ac.at/virtualarchive/public/Archive/... Sorry, I didn't have it at the time. It should be the same as the one SPBS has posted above.
- SPBS 4y ago
  If anyone is curious: https://valep.vc.univie.ac.at/virtualarchive/public/Archive/a0 https://valep.vc.univie.ac.at/virtualarchive/public/Archive/... (from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33244723 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33244723)
  - HiramKHurley 4y ago
    This site won't even display anything for me, just a blank white page.
cutler 4y ago
Slashdotted.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
jl6 4y ago
Well if anyone is taking requests, I’ve been looking for something from a 1990s British Mac magazine coverdisc or coverdisk (suspect the latter): it was an advert for a Canon Bubblejet printer - I don’t think it was a video as such, more of an animation. It explained the bubble mechanism of the printer and played a cool song throughout.
- Macuyiko 4y ago
  This by any chance? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccEpeuqdHGM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccEpeuqdHGM
  - jl6 4y ago
    No, it was an animation, like an early Flash animation. No voiceover (that would have been too advanced). Thank you for looking though :)
- tapland 4y ago
  Were those the ones in jewel cases? If I knew the cover art for that issue it wouldn't be hard to look through my parent's stacks of Mac Magazine cds.
  - jl6 4y ago
    Possibly although the more I think about it, I think it was on a floppy disk rather than a CD.
8n4vidtmkvmk 4y ago
zzt is amazing. i don't think i discovered it until the 2010s. made some fun puzzles that only i played
- Cthulhu_ 4y ago
  It was probably my first foray into programming, it must've been the mid 90's. My dad had a subscription on the Dutch version of c't, and for a while they would ship a CD with a Shockwave menu to browse through the contents (shareware). But, on the CD itself they shipped a load of other stuff - including ZZT levels. Probably the most impressive one of the lot was Code Red, there was so many interactive items and random events just in the starting area.
CSSer 4y ago
Wow. This could be a great resource for music samples.
rendaw 4y ago
Tangential, but does anyone know if there are archives of mp3.com or acidplanet? There are a few songs from there that I want to track down.
- TEP_Kim_Il_Sung 4y ago
  Possibly you could try https://files.scene.org/ https://files.scene.org/
- Minor49er 4y ago
  Have you tried Soulseeek?
- AlexAplin 4y ago
  IA received and posted a dump of MP3.com dated just prior to their takeover by CNET a few months back: https://archive.org/details/mp3-com-rescue-barge https://archive.org/details/mp3-com-rescue-barge
dncornholio 4y ago
Too bad it's all mostly junk though.
- zozbot234 4y ago
  It's bulk archival material, so that's expected. Even with a good search function, it's a huge challenge to properly catalog as many as 91.7M files.
atombender 4y ago
I wish I could find archives of RelayNet [1], also called RIME, a BBS network similar to FidoNet back in the 1990s. I posted a lot back then as a teen, but have absolutely no records of it, and as far as I know, nobody has ever archived much. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RelayNet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RelayNet
netsharc 4y ago
I saw an article that said, 50% of all fossil fuel emissions has been generated since 1992[1], I wonder what percentage of the whole would be occupied by digital content created up to, say 1995? Nowadays you go anywhere and dozens of people would be snapping and videoing away. Apropos video, I guess since I wrote "digital content" above, I'm ignoring that there's probably dozens of years' worth of film, video and audio recordings that were made before 1995... [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/17/opinion/india-heat-wave-pakistan-climate-change.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/17/opinion/india-heat-wave-p...
jquery 4y ago
Can I download this and host it locally?
alex3305 4y ago
After all these years I'm still looking for my first demo and shareware DOS CD-ROM that I had as a child, circa 1998. It was a weird compilation. Everything from AMIGA-like demo's to playable shareware CGA stuff such as Hugo's House of Horrors, Monster Bash, Keen and 4D Boxing. I have not given up, but I'm aware that the chances of me finding a copy are extremely rare.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 4y ago
  You have already checked cdbbsarchive[0]? [0] https://archive.org/details/cdbbsarchive https://archive.org/details/cdbbsarchive
  - alex3305 4y ago
    No, didn't knew that one! This can be a fun evening. Thanks for this. It's like searching a needle in a haystack, but I'm sure to check it out.
    - AnIdiotOnTheNet 4y ago
      Thanks to that I was able to locate a game[0] I had been searching for for years by investigating likely candidates on a "1000+ Games!"[1] or somesuch CD. [0] It was Space Exploration Mission Alpha[2]. A lunar lander clone where you play as aliens visiting all of the Sol system planets. I never did find the non-shareware Space Exploration Mission Bravo, so if anyone knows Jeffrey R. Marken please drop me a line, I'll gladly pay the $16.75. [1] A bald-faced lie [2] https://archive.org/details/SpaceExplorationMissionAlpha_1020 https://archive.org/details/SpaceExplorationMissionAlpha_102...
SentientAtom 4y ago
Unfortunately, you have now made it easier for corpo IP and copyright parsing of the collection. They will undoubtedly butcher the archives using this clean tool to find anything still profitable in their eyes.
user3939382 4y ago
90s AOL used to have this repository of artwork images, one of them was a ghost in a church. I always wished I could find it again, I've accepted I never will.
OhHiMarkos 4y ago
Lots of porn. Lots of audio samples. Lots of wacky little image files. 10/10 I would visit again

387 points by dangle1 4y ago

Looks like search is down, but browsing still functions.

xwdv 4y ago

There is an image of an old friend who passed away in the late 90s that was posted on the web at some point. It has since been lost. Could it be in there? Was some AOL site I think.

CommitSyn 4y ago
These are all from old floppy disc and CD-ROMs so the chances are slim, but not impossible I guess.

nebula8804 4y ago

Wish there was some way to describe a title using some really generic words and get a series of probabilities. I've been searching for this PC game from the mid to late 90s but I am having so much trouble describing it. It was some sort of science fiction point and click game that was released around the Windows 95/98 era and was discounted at places like Caldor. I got rid of the CD because it kept crashing randomly under Windows 95/98. Really regret throwing away a lot of CDs back then. Other than posting these vague descriptions here I don't know what else I can do other that waiting for Elon Musk's brain computer and then maybe I can download my brain one day and try to sift through its contents to find some more clues.

hakuseki 4y ago
Have you browsed through this list? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Point-and-click_adventure_games https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Point-and-click_adven...
jandrese 4y ago
"Science fiction point and click" is very vague. You don't remember any further detail? You might be surprised at how good people on the Internet are at tracking down obscure information like this given just a few hints.
- aerovistae 4y ago
  Exactly. /r/tipofmytongue is an incredible community.
- nebula8804 4y ago
  I am sorry I haven't been able to provide more info. I have collected more info at this comment after other suggested ideas that helped me provide more details. [1]:https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33258294 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33258294
googlryas 4y ago
I would suggest finding a forum devoted to either that style of game, or games from that time period, and just do a brain dump. I bet someone will know exactly what game you're talking about. Some useful information would be: When is the earliest date you remember playing it? Or, when is a date where you are positive the game had been made at that point? What did the graphics look like? Do you remember anything about any intros or loading screens? Anything more specific than sci-fi? Space? Aliens? Was it dark/scary, light-hearted, dramatic, etc? Do you remember any lines, characters, game mechanics, or plot points from it?
squarefoot 4y ago
Over at archive.org they have quite a large list of old PC games. https://archive.org/details/classicpcgames https://archive.org/details/classicpcgames
wruza 4y ago
No more details? Don’t you have at least some blurry images in your mind or particular scenes? E.g. there are games that I couldn’t remember, one was a quest(?) in a set of pictures and a submarine, dark tones, mysterious. I remember a full outside view of it and then few screens inside. Another was a dos game that had a fullscreen map of some galaxy and a cursor in a form of a torn hand. Five blobs below the map were unnamed(?) buttons on a strange panel. One button sent you flying through a “canyon” on a selected planet, which was drawn as a set of simple \_/ planes slightly offset from each other, synthwave style-ish but much simpler. I believe it was an early rogue like, but I was too young and knew no english to understand it. I don’t get how one can remember something but not have any details except a period of release.
- noduerme 4y ago
  Almost sounds like you could be describing Starflight...? https://youtu.be/GaYIk3MIFGI https://youtu.be/GaYIk3MIFGI Check out the map around 15:00 and the planet landing around 16:21.
  - nebula8804 4y ago
    No that seems more like the DOS era. This was definitely some sort of Win32 application (ie. runs on Windows 95/98 and not DOS) See my comment here for more info: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33258294 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33258294 Thanks for the suggestion though!
    - noduerme 4y ago
      I meant the second one, the dos game you mentioned. Glad you found the first one though I'm curious what the second would be..
      - wruza 4y ago
        Haha, I suspect both of you misread usernames/replies itt ;)
- 4y ago
easrng 4y ago
Maybe ask on https://gaming.stackexchange.com/ https://gaming.stackexchange.com/, I've seen similar questions on some other stack exchange sites though idk if it's allowed on gaming specifically.
yCombLinks 4y ago
My favorite game matching that description is lucasarts "The Dig"
- ailun 4y ago
  This was my first thought as well! I was weirdly obsessed with that game. It crashed all the time, so that part fits. I originally had the demo on CD, I think it came with X-Wing vs Tie Fighter or one of those other Lucasarts games.
- nebula8804 4y ago
  I added more info here after others helped get more out of my head [1]:https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33258294 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33258294 The game was definitely a Win32 application so it wouldn't have the style of "The Dig"
jiayo 4y ago
I have the same problem; I've been trying for over 25 years to find a game I vaguely remember from my childhood. It's unclear if what I'm looking for was ever formally published. To be honest as soon as I saw @textfiles tweet about this new search engine, I got irrationally excited thinking I might be able to find it here, but how do I describe this in a way anyone will understand? I'll give it a shot. In the late 80s, my dad bought an 8088 XT clone and "somehow" got some games. We had a bunch of the popular Sierra/AGI adventure games, Hugo's House of Horrors, etc. This game was in the same vein, but way way more primitive. It's a DOS game. I believe it would have been made between 1980 and 1988. I remember it as a text adventure, but with non-interactive full-screen graphics (e.g. appears like Sierra games, but you can't move the player, only issue text commands). I remember it as monochrome (bright white on dark black background) despite my computer supporting at least CGA. I remember the commands you type being entirely in uppercase (LOOK DOOR, PRESS BUTTON). I remember the protagonist waking up on an alien spaceship, and by far the strongest memory I remember is there being an elevator with up and down buttons you could press to go to different floors of the spaceship. I vaguely remember the game being called ALIEN (as in, I could type ALIEN to start it; so, ALIEN.COM maybe??) I don't expect to ever figure this out, and have mostly gaslit myself about this ever existing. I actually asked /r/tipofmytongue or some similar subreddit about 10 years ago to no avail. If anyone on hacker news has any clues to help with this I would be so grateful and would buy you a beverage. p.s. @nebula8804, my guess for your holy grail is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner_(1997_video_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner_(1997_video_game)
- anthk 4y ago
  https://ifdb.org/search?searchbar=alien https://ifdb.org/search?searchbar=alien
- 1970-01-01 4y ago
  Alien? https://oldgamesdownload.com/alien-dos/ https://oldgamesdownload.com/alien-dos/
- Maursault 4y ago
  I have the same problem trying to find a graphics adventure-style video game for 8-bit Apple called "Necromancer" that was not the game of the same title for 8-bit Atari and C64. Rather than a perspective view, graphics gave a bird's eye view. Ridiculously, I remember being impressed with the graphic representation of the necromancer's keep, which was just a little hollow square on the screen. Played it a lot in 1980, or possibly as late as 1982. I've only been looking for it for about 15 years. Seems to have disappeared because not even the expert 8-bit Apple folks can find it. It doesn't help that Google search has gotten a lot worse in the last 15 years. I've looked so hard at various times, just thinking about it now give me a headache.
ilkke 4y ago
Beneath a steel sky? Innocent until caught? I have no mouth yet I must scream? You're really not giving us much to work with.
- nebula8804 4y ago
  I have collected more info here after others game me ideas to help narrow it down: [1]:https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33258294 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33258294 While all those games are from the 90s. I must stress that this was definitely a Win32 game: ie. Has to run on Windows 9x and cannot run on DOS.
layer8 4y ago
I would try a linear search for the relevant year/system/genre combinations on MobyGames, e.g.: https://www.mobygames.com/browse/games/1995/windows/adventure/ https://www.mobygames.com/browse/games/1995/windows/adventur... Certainly tedious, but maybe your best bet, with such a vague description.
js2 4y ago
I have a distinct memory of there being a BBS client for either the Apple II or maybe the IIGS called something like "Graphical BBS". I'm pretty sure that it used the Apple II hires mode. But I can't find any evidence that it existed for the Apple II series and I've been searching off and on for years. Wait... I just searched again. I'm not crazy. It was called HBBS and it got added to archive.org last year: https://archive.org/details/apple2_hbbs https://archive.org/details/apple2_hbbs Oh, no, its author (Matthew Dornquast) passed away earlier this year: https://www.startribune.com/obituaries/detail/0000416768/ https://www.startribune.com/obituaries/detail/0000416768/ Jason Scott (textfiles.com) posted about his passing at the time: https://nitter.net/textfiles/status/1490157005805395971 https://nitter.net/textfiles/status/1490157005805395971 Well, now I'm bummed. I found what I was looking for all these years and sadly learned its author died much too young. :-(
- TedDoesntTalk 4y ago
  Never heard of this before. Thanks. I was active in the scene then and never came across a graphical Apple 2e BBS.
CommitSyn 4y ago
It may be worth trying the /r/tipofmytongue subreddit.
- xhrpost 4y ago
  /r/tipofmyjoystick
ralusek 4y ago
A few people have mentioned /r/tipofmytongue, but you'll do better at /r/tipofmyjoystick; specifically for games.
ethbr0 4y ago
Space Quest IV? https://www.mobygames.com/game/space-quest-iv-roger-wilco-and-the-time-rippers/screenshots https://www.mobygames.com/game/space-quest-iv-roger-wilco-an... Or V? https://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/space-quest-v-the-next-mutation/screenshots https://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/space-quest-v-the-next-mu... Or VI? https://www.mobygames.com/game/space-quest-6-roger-wilco-in-the-spinal-frontier/screenshots https://www.mobygames.com/game/space-quest-6-roger-wilco-in-...

neilv 4y ago

> Oct 10 8:04PM EST Sorry, but search is currently DOWN. We are super bummed about it. We are ACTIVELY working on it. No ETA at this time.

sedatk 4y ago
"Oct 10 9:24PM EST We identified 2 different issues that caused the search to crash. The search database is being recovered, which will take several hours. We hope to have search back online tomorrow, Oct 11 by 9AM EST. Once again, sorry about the search downtime."
- jiggawatts 4y ago
  Little Bobby Tables strikes again.
  - guenthert 4y ago
    You're joking, but I for one would be interested in why the search engine went down multiple times in the first two days.
- CSSer 4y ago
  What’s odd is that was eight days ago now and this article was published today. I’m not complaining. I just find it interesting that the author of the article wouldn’t mention that given that it was published today.
  - benjedwards 4y ago
    Those dates were typos and have been fixed. Discmaster launched on Oct 18th.
    - CSSer 4y ago
      Ah, that makes a lot more sense. Thanks for the clarification!

WirelessGigabit 4y ago

Is the source code of Red Alert 2 in here?

joshka 4y ago

The one thing I'd love to see archived is the full back catalog of Computer Music Magazine and Future Music Magazine. Last I checked the company only has 2008 onwards, but there's so much gold in those early issues I'd love to see.

TedDoesntTalk 4y ago

http://discmaster.textfiles.com/ http://discmaster.textfiles.com/ Refreshingly no https because why would this site need it?

spijdar 4y ago
Requiring HTTPS is one thing, though it's a little disappointing it doesn't offer it at all, even something retro like SSL. I figure this is an unpopular opinion among the target audience, but I prefer keeping traffic SSL/TLS encrypted, even with broken versions or self-signed certs, because anything at all discourages opportunistic packet capture and tomfoolery. I agree it's good for resources like this to not require it or force redirect, but it'd be nice to have something optional. Sure, there's nothing to hide here, but that's a bad excuse for not encrypting...
- account42 4y ago
  Except there is no way to support HTTPs without ending up with people sharing https:// https:// links that won't work for non-HTTPs users. I really wish SSL/TLS would have used something like starttls. And yes, that means needing HSTS preload (or better yet a DNS-based alternative) to prevent downgrade attacks, but we do need that with https:// https:// anyway.
  - prmoustache 4y ago
    Like non https users cannot remove the s manually?
Waterluvian 4y ago
What’s the practical cost to having it?
- nickdothutton 4y ago
  Practical “cost” is that it raises the bar on clients wanting to access the material, some of which could be very old I suppose.

indigodaddy 4y ago

Had no idea the amount of NSFW poker games there were in the 80s/90s.

toomuchtodo 4y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leisure_Suit_Larry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leisure_Suit_Larry (possibly NSFW) 11 million copies sold since the 80s.
- smesla 4y ago
  Article is not NSFW, and the titular character looks like Fredo from The Godfather.
  - MexicanJoe 4y ago
    Ha, you're right. I never thought about that lol
MexicanJoe 4y ago
Samantha Fox Strip Poker on C64. ohhh yeah
justinlloyd 4y ago
And I am directly responsible for an uncountable number of them :-)
- indigodaddy 4y ago
  You created a bunch of them?(!) Cool website by the way!!
  - justinlloyd 4y ago
    But did you find the space invaders game?
4y ago

kevincox 4y ago

It would be so nice if copyright was 10 or 20 years and this was unquestionably legal.

tommek4077 4y ago
Good that not everybody in the internet lives and hosts in the US.
- imhoguy 4y ago
  What is the friendliest place for pirate archivists now?
  - Mountain_Skies 4y ago
    Currently, probably Russia given that they've more or less pulled IP protection for non-Russian works. Well, as long as works on certain "sensitive" topics are avoided.
- account42 4y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_Convention https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_Convention It's not just the US unfortunately.
hilbert42 4y ago
"...copyright was 10 or 20 years" Nice thought but unlikely give the copyright bloodhounds about. A better short-term approach would be to change copyright to make access to orphan and neglected works legal so long as one has no pecuniary interest in them. This would free up huge swathes of copyrighted works. Whilst that makes sense, it is opposed by new/existing copyright holders who see the freeing up of these works as competition—even if the orphaned works bear little resemblance to the new works (which is usually the case)—on the grounds that making these works available 'dilutes' the market for newer works (a spurious argument if ever I've heard of one). Another objection comes from a mob of carpetbaggers who want access to them for commercial purposes, that is if said works ever become available (all sorts of strange arrangements have been proposed). Thus the stalemate continues, nothing is done. No wonder piracy exists. BTW a while back I posted a link on YouTube to a 1920s audio recording whose author died about 80 years ago only to get a note from Google that someone still claimed copyright over the work. Seems this lark is done automatically by the mischievous copyright lobby even if there is no such claim by the original author. Incidentally, Google didn't remove the work (presumably on grounds that they were already aware of the 'scam' but were obliged to advise me anyway in case I objected). Right, the copyright system stinks as presently constituted.

LeoPanthera 4y ago

I posted a direct link to DiscMaster yesterday: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33241761 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33241761 But I think I was hamstrung by the "must use accurate title" rule.

quickthrower2 4y ago
Funny, we are sometimes encouraging blogspam with that rule.
- Cthulhu_ 4y ago
  In HN's defense, sometimes entries like that get replaced by the source. But that depends on staff being online, and unless I'm missing something, there's still only one person with the authority to do that, and dang can't work 24 hours a day.

tartoran 4y ago

Looking for a game, think it was under Dos but could’ve been under Windows as well, I don’t remember that part and don’t remeber the game’s name. Vaguely it could be mine something… The game was mouse centric by controlling a spaceship’s velocity and direction. Spaceship had inertia and slowing down would be done in the reverse direction with the mouse. The spaceship was small/white against a dark space backdrop. There were some items to collect but also mines or enemy ships to avoid. The walls were either bouncy or you’d crush your ship into them. I think you’d be able to shoot too. It was pretty well done and quite engaging. I remember I was having lots of fun playing this with my friends back then.

all2 4y ago
Make sure to check "Home of the Underdogs".
jlbbellefeuille 4y ago
Sounds like astroids… almost.
TheSpiceIsLife 4y ago
Clear memory of this too now. It's right on the tip of my hippocampus...
lvs 4y ago
Subspace?
- SV_BubbleTime 4y ago
  I loved that game. I’m still surprised how that was free, genuinely fun, and even unique compared to todays games.
Rabidgremlin 4y ago
Sounds like an Omega Race clone/variant
ikr678 4y ago
Hover, Windows 95?

dirtyid 4y ago

Fantastic. Is there a breakdown on storage used by year? A long time ago, I was going through the 5.25 & 3/4 floppy collection of someone who use to run a computer shop and kept a copy of everything, and was amused at the idea they could all fit on a few DVDs.

quickthrower2 4y ago

"Your Malwarebytes Premium blocked this website because it may contain a Trojan.". It probably does somewhere, although not sure the Trojan will still work today.

cutler 4y ago
Isn't that part of the experience?
- aliqot 4y ago
  I miss Bonzi
  - Firmwarrior 4y ago
    Just turn Cortana back on and you're halfway there
    - aliqot 4y ago
      What's that
  - pajko 4y ago
    The site is still alive: https://bonzi.link/ https://bonzi.link/
    - aliqot 4y ago
      That TLD didn't exist at the time or for another 10-15 years.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- hilbert42 4y ago
  Of course (odds are there'd have to be). The question how does Malwarebytes Premium know it contains a Trojan? Does some seemingly intelligent code say 'lots of strange files thus likely a Trojan here' or does it actually analyze the files (given the quantity of files that seems unrealistic, alternatively, it's previously spotted a Trojan in one of the links and remembered it—this is probably the likely bet).

Natsu 4y ago

Wish I could find some old Apple ][ GS game where there was a computer voice right as you booted up. I never understood what it said, but I thought it sounded like "parano guizu tiksa" and it always bothered me that I had no way to figure out what it was saying. I don't remember anything else about it.

dnr 4y ago
Oh wow, that just jogged a really old memory. I'm pretty sure I had that one, but can hardly remember anything else. Could it have been Xenocide? edit: Oh, or maybe Silpheed? This is the closest thing I found with some searching: https://youtu.be/o98xKZk5FOk?t=182 https://youtu.be/o98xKZk5FOk?t=182
- Natsu 4y ago
  I don't think those are it at least I didn't hear the voice in those videos and I don't quite remember playing those.
someperson 4y ago
There's a great subreddit for crowdsourcing things like that: http://www.reddit.com/r/tipofmytongue http://www.reddit.com/r/tipofmytongue
- Enydosnes 4y ago
  To add to this, you can use https://www.reddit.com/r/tipofmyjoystick/ https://www.reddit.com/r/tipofmyjoystick/ for video games specifically
- Cthulhu_ 4y ago
  Another one is https://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/game-identification https://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/game-ident..., but I don't know how popular stackexchange is these days.
  - rjh29 4y ago

hilbert42 4y ago

"Cookies & Tracking - This site has no cookies and no tracking. CSS & JavaScript - CSS, JavaScript and HTTPS are not required. This site works in text and vintage browsers." Just love this attitude from a webmaster and the Discmaster site works just as expected - straight forward and eminently effective. Now I compare this with a similar archive site that appeared on HN about a day ago—one dedicated to the works of the analytical philosopher Willard Van Orman Quine. This excruciatingly slow JavaScript-ridden site was so bad that I tried three different browsers before I could get to the archive files and even then I couldn't download anything if I'd wanted to. Frankly, it is horrible site, one wonders why they bother when they make the user experience so utterly bad. If one ever wants to see the damage bloated JavaScript has done to the web then there's not a much better example that to compare these two sites side by side.

toxicFork 4y ago
Can you link the other post for the lazy but curious people like me please?
- hilbert42 4y ago
  https://valep.vc.univie.ac.at/virtualarchive/public/Archive/a0 https://valep.vc.univie.ac.at/virtualarchive/public/Archive/... Sorry, I didn't have it at the time. It should be the same as the one SPBS has posted above.
SPBS 4y ago
If anyone is curious: https://valep.vc.univie.ac.at/virtualarchive/public/Archive/a0 https://valep.vc.univie.ac.at/virtualarchive/public/Archive/... (from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33244723 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33244723)
- HiramKHurley 4y ago
  This site won't even display anything for me, just a blank white page.

cutler 4y ago

Slashdotted.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

jl6 4y ago

Well if anyone is taking requests, I’ve been looking for something from a 1990s British Mac magazine coverdisc or coverdisk (suspect the latter): it was an advert for a Canon Bubblejet printer - I don’t think it was a video as such, more of an animation. It explained the bubble mechanism of the printer and played a cool song throughout.

Macuyiko 4y ago
This by any chance? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccEpeuqdHGM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccEpeuqdHGM
- jl6 4y ago
  No, it was an animation, like an early Flash animation. No voiceover (that would have been too advanced). Thank you for looking though :)
tapland 4y ago
Were those the ones in jewel cases? If I knew the cover art for that issue it wouldn't be hard to look through my parent's stacks of Mac Magazine cds.
- jl6 4y ago
  Possibly although the more I think about it, I think it was on a floppy disk rather than a CD.

8n4vidtmkvmk 4y ago

zzt is amazing. i don't think i discovered it until the 2010s. made some fun puzzles that only i played

Cthulhu_ 4y ago
It was probably my first foray into programming, it must've been the mid 90's. My dad had a subscription on the Dutch version of c't, and for a while they would ship a CD with a Shockwave menu to browse through the contents (shareware). But, on the CD itself they shipped a load of other stuff - including ZZT levels. Probably the most impressive one of the lot was Code Red, there was so many interactive items and random events just in the starting area.

CSSer 4y ago

Wow. This could be a great resource for music samples.

rendaw 4y ago

Tangential, but does anyone know if there are archives of mp3.com or acidplanet? There are a few songs from there that I want to track down.

TEP_Kim_Il_Sung 4y ago
Possibly you could try https://files.scene.org/ https://files.scene.org/
Minor49er 4y ago
Have you tried Soulseeek?
AlexAplin 4y ago
IA received and posted a dump of MP3.com dated just prior to their takeover by CNET a few months back: https://archive.org/details/mp3-com-rescue-barge https://archive.org/details/mp3-com-rescue-barge

dncornholio 4y ago

Too bad it's all mostly junk though.

zozbot234 4y ago
It's bulk archival material, so that's expected. Even with a good search function, it's a huge challenge to properly catalog as many as 91.7M files.

atombender 4y ago

I wish I could find archives of RelayNet [1], also called RIME, a BBS network similar to FidoNet back in the 1990s. I posted a lot back then as a teen, but have absolutely no records of it, and as far as I know, nobody has ever archived much. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RelayNet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RelayNet

netsharc 4y ago

I saw an article that said, 50% of all fossil fuel emissions has been generated since 1992[1], I wonder what percentage of the whole would be occupied by digital content created up to, say 1995? Nowadays you go anywhere and dozens of people would be snapping and videoing away. Apropos video, I guess since I wrote "digital content" above, I'm ignoring that there's probably dozens of years' worth of film, video and audio recordings that were made before 1995... [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/17/opinion/india-heat-wave-pakistan-climate-change.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/17/opinion/india-heat-wave-p...

jquery 4y ago

Can I download this and host it locally?

alex3305 4y ago

After all these years I'm still looking for my first demo and shareware DOS CD-ROM that I had as a child, circa 1998. It was a weird compilation. Everything from AMIGA-like demo's to playable shareware CGA stuff such as Hugo's House of Horrors, Monster Bash, Keen and 4D Boxing. I have not given up, but I'm aware that the chances of me finding a copy are extremely rare.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 4y ago
You have already checked cdbbsarchive[0]? [0] https://archive.org/details/cdbbsarchive https://archive.org/details/cdbbsarchive
- alex3305 4y ago
  No, didn't knew that one! This can be a fun evening. Thanks for this. It's like searching a needle in a haystack, but I'm sure to check it out.
  - AnIdiotOnTheNet 4y ago
    Thanks to that I was able to locate a game[0] I had been searching for for years by investigating likely candidates on a "1000+ Games!"[1] or somesuch CD. [0] It was Space Exploration Mission Alpha[2]. A lunar lander clone where you play as aliens visiting all of the Sol system planets. I never did find the non-shareware Space Exploration Mission Bravo, so if anyone knows Jeffrey R. Marken please drop me a line, I'll gladly pay the $16.75. [1] A bald-faced lie [2] https://archive.org/details/SpaceExplorationMissionAlpha_1020 https://archive.org/details/SpaceExplorationMissionAlpha_102...

SentientAtom 4y ago

Unfortunately, you have now made it easier for corpo IP and copyright parsing of the collection. They will undoubtedly butcher the archives using this clean tool to find anything still profitable in their eyes.

user3939382 4y ago

90s AOL used to have this repository of artwork images, one of them was a ghost in a church. I always wished I could find it again, I've accepted I never will.

OhHiMarkos 4y ago

Lots of porn. Lots of audio samples. Lots of wacky little image files. 10/10 I would visit again