Tanara Kuranov
 

I have an enhanced hybrid (Windows/Macintosh) copy of 'Super Solvers: Outnumbered!' on CD-ROM. The Macintosh part works, though I don't have any old Windows computers to confirm the Windows portion works. The manual says Windows 3.1 or 95, and I don't have anything nearly that old, or know how to run/emulate it in a modern Windows environment. When I put the CD into my Windows 7 machine, it makes Windows Explorer restart, and it doesn't want to run the exe files needed to install it, even with compatibility mode and running as admin.

While I would need someone to check that the game would indeed work on an older computer, I have made an ISO with ImgBurn, and I can provide pictures/scans of the CD, case, and manual if they are wanted. I have not scanned them yet, but the case, manual, and CD are sitting right here and I can scan them fairly easily. Only thing I don't have is the box, assuming it came with one.

Any scans you have are always wanted. As for CD image, if it is not too big, you can upload it to FTP with scans. If it is too big (over 300 MBs) then upload to third party like 4shared or similar and provide us with links.

PM with FTP details coming right up.

Thank you for contributions :)

The ISO file is quite a bit smaller than that, so I've uploaded that. I'll scan the CD, case, and manual tomorrow, as I'm about to head off to bed.

Though, question as far as that goes. I know they should be compressed as .zip format, but is there a preferred image format? And should all of those images go into the same archive, or should, say, the CD/case and manual be in separate archives?

I think .jpg will do just fine. And good question about zipping - all scans of the box, case, CD etc can be placed in one archive. The manual or any other document that is inside the box are to be uploaded separately. You can create separate archives for those (or just one .zip for manual in your case) and if possible create .pdf for those scans. Those "documents" like manual, map, reference card etc are treated as Extras, while scans of the packages are treated as scans.

Have the case and CD scans and manual uploaded now, so it looks like I've got everything I can give as far as this game goes. :3

Thank you very mucha :OK:

Boxcars Casino
 

So, I found an old Macintosh game called Boxcars Casino...but that's already over on the Macintosh Garden. The manual then went on to mention a Windows version, which made me curious.

After some digging, with Google turning up almost nothing but some old FTP links I couldn't access anymore, I finally found an archive of the CICA FTP server disks, I was able to get the Windows version of this game, by one Jeff T. Rodeo.

Just wondered if it would be of interest here, being an old shareware title and all. Ran it myself, as long as you tell it to run in 256 colors, it'll work in Windows 7, even, but I believe it's meant for much older versions of Windows.

Also, my Outnumbered CD version...I uploaded that, nothing's been done with it yet. Did I forget to mention that I uploaded it? If I did, I'm sorry.

Sorry about Outnumbered, I will look into that.

As for Boxcars, it is probably OK, but needs to be checked and confirmed. Please open a new topic in Requests, name the topic after the game and add some info about the company, year of publishing, perhaps some link to that info.

I merged your new topic with the old one since here in Offers we prefer one topic per member. In requests it's one topic per game for easier checking of statuses.

And thank you for your contributions :)

Well, I have Boxcars Casino (which is why I went into offers) in the original zip file it came in. Which includes the manual and whatnot. Obviously, there's no box scan, being a shareware game.

As for information, it's a little sparse (the best source is probably the manual itself), but here's a couple of links:

http://macintoshgarden.org/games/boxcars-casino (link to the Macintosh version)

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!ms...I/uNVFqP_CvkUJ (Old post about the game from 1995. None of the links or the e-mail works anymore, unfortunately)

Also, should I take the specific game title out of my offers thread, then? Since it's a couple of games now?

And should I upload the zip I have of Boxcars Casino? I have the FTP login still, I can make a new directory in my directory for Boxcars and stick the zip file in. It's not very big at all. :3

I created topic in Requests (I was busy today earlier) so you can upload the game once it is confirmed. I'll take care of Offers topic name, although it is not important really.

OK, Boxcars Casino got a green light, so feel free to upload material :)

Uploaded, works decent in Windows 7 for me, though it might run better on an older system, not sure. Manual says it'll work as far back as Windows 3.1, if I remember correctly.

Thx fro contribution :)

Could you possible take some screenshots from the game and/or write a review, half a page would be enough?

I could pretty easily do that, considering I'm recording a video review of this one already (albeit the Mac version, though the two are very similar). Could grab a few screenshots from the Windows version and put a more concise review up here. Is there a particular format you go for as far as reviews go here on Abandonia?

Also, where do I stash the screenshots once I've taken them? I tend to save in .png format, if that's okay.

No strict rules about reviews. What's the game about and some pros and cons, and summary at the end. You can add if you wish some personal things, like when or how did you saw the game, what attracted you etc.

Give it a score from 1 to 5 below the review (doesn't have to be part of review, we just need that info when adding it to the site).

As for shots, png is OK. Either .jpg or .png, just make sure that file extension is in lowercase. In this case ".png" is fine, ".PNG" is wrong.

Zip those screenshots and add them to the FTP just as the game archive. Same upload goes for review file, which can be wither txt or word document and obviously doesn't have to be zipped.

Now, those above are necessities. If you really want to make it easier for update, there are few more things you can do.

Make one screenshot named "listing.png" containing only title screen and one small pic named "news.png" sized 82x82 pixels. That is the small picture that appears on main page in newspost about the game and can be any detail from the game (obviously cropped since it is too small for entire screen). Ideally, all screenshots are size 320x200 and listing is 180x113. Below the review, add more info of the game beside the final score. Year of publishing, developer and publisher companies (name of the creator in this case), size of the game archive in KBs and try to find few similar games on abandonia (or as similar as possible) so those can be listed as "also try". Perhaps I missed something, but most important is the review and screenshots themselves.

So, uploaded a game called Klondike Pro, by a Brooke W. Boering, developed from 1996 to 2002 in an obscure language called CEEMAC. This has been talked about in the Requests topic on the game, along with the fact that it seems to have a bug where it is perpetually an unregistered shareware game, despite being labeled 'freeware'. Too bad I have no clue where to even find tools for CEEMAC at all.

The website for it is here:
http://www.baymoon.com/~solitare/KlonPro2.html

The archive I uploaded also includes an archive of an older version I found, though I'm not sure of its completeness, but it's there if it were to help anyone.

I tried contacting the author, but to no avail.

Okay, sorry to double-post on here, but I'm kind of wondering if there's anyone more eloquent about talking to total strangers than I am...I found a White Pages entry that matches Brooke W. Boering's address from the Klondike Pro site, and still has his name on it, with a number of 831-475-5457.

I wondered if someone wanted to see if he's actually still at that number, ask about Klondike Pro (and, potentially, source code?), and maybe about CEEMAC/Maestro, too, as the disks for that don't seem to be archived anywhere, and yet Fire Organ, the demonstration disk for it, is. Yeah, the latter is Apple ][ software, but it's at risk of fading into the digital ether as well, and this site is at least somewhat about preservation, is it not? At the least, it could be posted elsewhere.

Geez, I can blab to the whole internet while playing a game, yet can't muster up the courage to try and call up one person.

I don't understand... Are you from the same country? I'm guessing it's probably USA.

If so, then why are you afraid to call him? You obviously know best what to ask him about. You will probably find him or find out how to contact him. Use cell phone if you are afraid that he turned into psycho serial killer so he can't locate you back :ph34r: :ouch:

Okay, I tried calling once on Thursday evening, didn't get anything. Going to try again later today, seeing as it's a weekend. I hope we're not out of luck as far as contacting the author goes.

:) Well, congratulations that you gathered your courage. Let's hope it is successful.

Ah...hah...oh, great. http://www.digibarn.com/collections/...ers/index.html This could be why I've had no answer. As of 2006, seems that Brooke Boering's moved out of Santa Cruz. As for where to, I haven't the foggiest idea. Fun. I'm not really quite sure where to go from here, really.

Not sure how to figure out where Mr. Boering is now, and I'm certainly not nearly advanced enough to poke around in a debugger and figure out what's going on in this thing, either, haha. Oh, I tried, but I don't claim to understand what's happening, so...yeah. As far as I can tell, it checks something in the player's save file (along with a checksum somewhere to try and prevent tampering) to check if its registered or not. Maybe if I brute-force registered it in the older version, I'd be able to find the difference?

Wonder if the DigiBarn people or his old apartments would know where he is? The DigiBarn museum looks to still be around, at least! Hrm, the mystery continues...

Sorry about the double post, but...I think I might have at least figured out how to get this working! I don't know why it works, it's a little convoluted...but it seems to work now.

What you do is you take the savefile (mine's called 'PLAYERK1.YOU') and you put it in the folder of the older version of Klondike Pro. You type in the number that shows up as the key number...don't know why that works...maybe it's cracked? Anyway, this makes the file recognized as 'registered'. Then you put this file back in the newer version of Klondike Pro, and voila, it's registered, and you can play in the Gold Fellow rank...and probably beyond, I'll have to test more, and brush up on my Klondike skill, to find out.

I still want to get a hold of Brooke Boering somehow, if I can, but I think the game is working as a full version now, at least. If someone wants to analyze exactly how the registration works, more power to them (it changes several values in the save file when you register!). I just know a way to get it working.

QUICK EDIT: I did, in fact, try this method with a couple of other save files with different names, and the method seems to work for each one, I didn't just get really lucky somehow. Though, on the downside, now I'm going to be addicted to this thing again, hah~

Well, you wanted to play with fire, didn't you? :p

Anyway, congrats on finding any kind of solution. The best solution is finding Brooke and he fixes the supposedly freeware to lets you play, but it is possible that he won't be interested in that when you finally reach him. However, it is good that there is any kind of solution. It is actually awesome.

Do play a bit more and let us know if there are any problems, but I doubt it really. It is probably full version and author probably forgot to remove registration check after releasing the game for free.

Also, we will need to summarize this registration process in a few lines and add it to review. Older version will be offered for download as extra probably. You said "type in the number that shows up as the key number", I'm not sure I understand, but I'll get to trying this out before uploading the game.

Heh, it's much easier to explain with a screenshot:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0bxg87rxpo...tionScreen.PNG

Basically, that 5-digit number right there? That's what you type in! I assume either, a) I found a cracked version or, b) Brooke went for the 'so easy no one would guess' method of registration, haha.

You just have to put the savefile from 2.5.3 in the folder of 2.1.4, register with 2.1.4, and put that file back in the folder of 2.5.3, and your game is registered!

EDIT: Played it a bit, leveled up from Gold Fellow to Green Master, hasn't given me problems. Seems to be working nicely. Only trouble anyone will have now is winning enough to get past those higher ranks, hah~

Also, if it complains about any missing files, just copy the file from the old version's folder to the new version's, it seems to work just fine.

You're kidding :perv: Funny indeed, and it's working XD

Just wondering, is it possible to create one "Registered" savefile with 0 points, so people can load that file which gives them registered version and they are still playing from the beginning, or they have to do it once the game asks for registration?

Well, if you already know some files which are already missing, besides that texttext file, add them to new version and re-upload it please. We'll put the warning about missing files in review anyway, but it is better to have the archive "less broken", if I can call it that way.

Also, why is there DOSBOX file in newer archive? I just noticed it is much bigger that old version. I understand you supplied dosbox.conf file, although still it shouldn't be in archive, but why Dosbox.exe?

If game needs this specific dosbox configuration, it is better to state it in review. So, what's the story with this conf file, what is needed to get the game running?

Well, I could, if people don't mind not putting their own name in. And, yeah, I could re-upload, it's only one file I forgot, I think.

I'm not really sure why DoSBOX is in there, actually. That's what came with the archive when I downloaded it from the Klondike Pro site. I'll have to test it with a stock DoSBOX installation before I upload again. If it works with a fresh DoSBOX install, I can probably get rid of the DoSBOX exe and conf files in there.

Okay, I'm making a new post so it actually does notify that I did something, since an edit doesn't.

Uploaded a new zip file, "KPro253Archive.zip", in which I took out DoSBOX and the config files, since I ran it from stock DoSBOX 0.74 and it ran exactly the same. The config file seems to be meant for the batch file (which I also took out) to mount the folder automatically, and the batch file didn't work properly, anyways. It has a pre-registered, zero game save file under the name "Tanara Kuranov". Yes, the Green Rookie rank does start you off with 90 nuggets. The later ranks give you no such courtesy, haha. It also should have no missing file errors.

If somebody wants to use a different name and/or see the intro screens, they'll have to take out (or rename) the "PLAYERK1.YOU" and "VDATA.YOU" files, launch the game to create new ones, and follow the steps to register their own file with the old version. Not that it has to be done immediately, you can go halfway through the ranks (all the Rookie and Fellow ranks) before you have to register, or even know you have to.