Mario's Time Machine

[UnconformistSheep]

Hi there,

Does anyone have "Mario Is Missing!", or the sequel "Mario's Time Machine"?

These were educational games, released for DOS. I have the original floppies, but unfortunately I am unable to install them.

The Time Machine gives me a "piracy" error when I try to run it. Apparently, when I first installed the game, almost decades ago, the installer wrote stuff into one of the install disks as a protection measure -- apparently, I was supposed to run the uninstaller for the protection mechanism to be undone. Boy, what a crappy copy protection systems these guys came up with...

Here is a description of these games, albeit they are lacking screenshots for the PC versions, which looked much better than those for the NES:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educational_games_in_the_Mario_series

[Expack2]

Hi there,

Does anyone have "Mario Is Missing!", or the sequel "Mario's Time Machine"?

These were educational games, released for DOS. I have the original floppies, but unfortunately I am unable to install them.

The Time Machine gives me a "piracy" error when I try to run it. Apparently, when I first installed the game, almost decades ago, the installer wrote stuff into one of the install disks as a protection measure -- apparently, I was supposed to run the uninstaller for the protection mechanism to be undone. Boy, what a crappy copy protection systems these guys came up with...

Here is a description of these games, albeit they are lacking screenshots for the PC versions, which looked much better than those for the NES:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educational_games_in_the_Mario_seriesI've got some good news and some not-so-good news for you, UnconformistSheep. The good news is Mario is Missing has already been approved for release on Abandonia (http://www.abandonia.com/vbullet/showpost.php?p=397607&postcount=8), so if you'd like, you can post in the Offers section (http://www.abandonia.com/vbullet/forumdisplay.php?f=105) and offer to donate a copy of your disks/CD-ROM (whichever you have) for Mario is Missing to Abandonia.

The not-so-good news is I wasn't able to find any information on the DOS version of Mario's Time Machine. However, since it sounds like you have the floppy disks or CD-ROM for the DOS version of this game, can you please confirm you have the disk/CD-ROM for Mario's Time Machine? This way, I can make a final determination on the abandonware status of the game. Thanks!

Also, Just as a friendly reminder, if you want to ask about multiple games in the future, please create separate posts for them. This is because the fine staff (including me ;) ) of Abandonia need to be able to easily sort game request posts by their status: Approved (can be put on Abandonia), Rejected (temporarily rejected because the game is still protected, still sold, etc.), and Invalid (permenantly rejected because the game will be sold until the end of time on Steam, Impulse, and similar online stores, the game was never made for DOS or Windows, the game is permenantly copyright-protected, etc.). For more information, please check out the Game Request Rules & Important Info thread (http://www.abandonia.com/vbullet/showthread.php?t=12655).

[Dishy]

I've got some good news and some not-so-good news for you, UnconformistSheep. The good news is Mario is Missing has already been approved for release on Abandonia (http://www.abandonia.com/vbullet/showpost.php?p=397607&postcount=8), so if you'd like, you can post in the Offers section (http://www.abandonia.com/vbullet/forumdisplay.php?f=105) and offer to donate a copy of your disks/CD-ROM (whichever you have) for Mario is Missing to Abandonia.

The not-so-good news is I wasn't able to find any information on the DOS version of Mario's Time Machine. However, since it sounds like you have the floppy disks or CD-ROM for the DOS version of this game, can you please confirm you have the disk/CD-ROM for Mario's Time Machine? This way, I can make a final determination on the abandonware status of the game. Thanks!

Also, Just as a friendly reminder, if you want to ask about multiple games in the future, please create separate posts for them. This is because the fine staff (including me ;) ) of Abandonia need to be able to easily sort game request posts by their status: Approved (can be put on Abandonia), Rejected (temporarily rejected because the game is still protected, still sold, etc.), and Invalid (permenantly rejected because the game will be sold until the end of time on Steam, Impulse, and similar online stores, the game was never made for DOS or Windows, the game is permenantly copyright-protected, etc.). For more information, please check out the Game Request Rules & Important Info thread (http://www.abandonia.com/vbullet/showthread.php?t=12655).


If you post diskimages of the original install disks, I might be able to undo the copy protection. If I can get my hands on the imgs.

[UnconformistSheep]

Hi guys,

Thanks for looking into this.

Like I said, there is some awful copy protection system there, but okay, I will post the image disks and you guys can give your best try at breaking it. ;-)

Not sure how to create an ISO of a floppy disk, but will google on that.

Anyhow, the Portuguese company that did the distributing also translated the game: I don't know if there is an English option. I think the copy protection system is of their own doing too.

But okay: I have some work piling up, but will be posting the image disks in a couple of days then.

[Expack2]

Hi guys,

Thanks for looking into this.

Like I said, there is some awful copy protection system there, but okay, I will post the image disks and you guys can give your best try at breaking it. ;-)

Not sure how to create an ISO of a floppy disk, but will google on that.

Anyhow, the Portuguese company that did the distributing also translated the game: I don't know if there is an English option. I think the copy protection system is of their own doing too.

But okay: I have some work piling up, but will be posting the image disks in a couple of days then.Glad to hear it! If you need any help creating floppy disk images, be sure to take a look at this post (http://www.abandonia.com/vbullet/showthread.php?t=2893&highlight=floppy+disk) for assistance.

[UnconformistSheep]

Alright guys: here are the image disks.

Each zip files contain 5 image disks, which were the number of floppies each games occupies.

Where is Mario (in the original: Onde Está o Mario):
http://www.2shared.com/file/fEevopuZ/where-is-mario.html

Mario and the Time Machine (in the original: Mário e a Máquina do Tempo):
http://www.2shared.com/file/zlBA5Gfo/mario-time-machine.html

Note: I got input/output errors on the 5th for both games. This floppy disk was also set as writeable for both games, so I think this was the copy protection disk (the input/output errors are unlikely to be coincidence). Anyhow, for where-is-mario I had a copy. For mario-time-machine, I managed to create the image disk anyhow (not sure if something got lost though).

Btw, the forum option "Instant email notification" isn't working, right?

[UnconformistSheep]

Any luck guys?

[_r.u.s.s.]

just to keep you updated :)

http://www.abandonia.com/vbullet/showthread.php?t=26493