It is worth noting that only 3% of the games in eXoDOS have any commercial availability. A majority of those titles are through services like GOG, which rip out original files. Most GOG games are modified image rips that are lacking drivers for any video\sound mode not presetup with the distribution. They often have the setup file removed as well, preventing the end user from experiencing GameBlaster, General Midi, Roland MT-32, etc... (anything other than every day adlib\sb16). We recently fixed Ravenloft: Stone Prophet which did not play cinematics due to the cinematic files on GOG's disk being mastered incorrectly, replacing underscores with hyphens. In this scenario, and many others, GOG is actually harming preservation by flooding the internet with the modern day equivalent of scene rips. It has become a common theme to be unable to find a clean, original, copy of a game that GOG has released. With their copy becoming the defacto standard. So we go out of our way to find the original disk images and attempt to counter this. Meanwhile, while Jason Scott's efforts are also appreciated - the java based "browser" dosbox being offered there is also incredibly subpar. CD based games take ages to load, dosbox settings are not optimized to emulate the original experience, and again - the end user has no agency over the modes that are available.

@getoffmylawn6692

3 жыл бұрын

This is the more important of the comments you made so I'm pinning it instead. Thanks for providing more info about archive.org's implementation of your work. I assumed you were working in tandem when he credited you by name, but it sounds like they've not done their homework with a lot of the settings, which sort of defeats the purpose, especially if you can't download the files in question. Once again, thank you for all the work you and your team do archiving these games. It'll probably take me thirty years to play through them all at this rate, but that sounds like an entertaining challenge to me.

@divinuminfernum

3 жыл бұрын

HI - are you someone involved with Exodos because i have a small query and i dont really know who to ask - but the version of Microprose's F-15 Strike Eagle you have does not seem to work at - i dont have the space to get the whole Exodos collection - 500 gig or something, so just wanted to get a few and F-15 in particular is the disk image of you provide, faulty or is there a way that you get it working that i dont know of - i have tried with dosbox and as PCEM machine emulating a 386 and in no cases can the disk contents ever be accessed at all.

@Vanessaira-Retro

3 жыл бұрын

From the bottom of my heart. Thank you!

@RetroeXo

3 жыл бұрын

@@divinuminfernum the game works great on my end. I suspect you didn't download the proper files to run it since you didn't download the entire collection. There is a download on demand version that is about 50gb. This has the entire front end, but only downloads a game the first time you play it. If 50gb is still too large, then I suggest dropping into my discord and maybe I can create a one off pack of just that game for you. That said - every game works. So it seems a little assumptive to blame the project when you are trying to piece meal something together improperly.

@getoffmylawn6692

3 жыл бұрын

@@divinuminfernum Taking the original images from eXoDOS and trying it on your own setup is no guarantee to get it working. Each title has a specific configuration file and specific DOSBox version that it uses in addition to a lot of games having additional setup instructions. Some of these titles are an absolute pain to setup outside of the eXoDOS ecosystem. Go for the lite edition that can download things on demand, it's less than a tenth of the size!

Bravo. I've been using Exodos right from the very beginning. The work Exo and his team have put into Exodos (and still are to this day) is superhuman. New missing games being added, universal configurations created, gameplay videos for each game being recorded. Not to mention the other collections that's now being created its an industrial sized feat.

@getoffmylawn6692

Жыл бұрын

This channel wouldn't exist without their efforts, it's incredible the sheer number of manuals they hunt down and new and obscure DOS games they find. I was really pleased when Exo showed up and commented!

We used to say Computer years were 3 months. 50x3 =150 months or 12+ years. Sounds perfect. So many games lost, so many cracks disappeared. It is a travesty that this legacy is lost. Copyright laws are an archaic mess.

Respect for their effort.

Copyright should expire when a product is no longer commercially viable in its original form. IE, when a game is released for MS DOS, the game's original release should become free to distribute when Microsoft drops support for MS DOS, making the game no longer commercially viable. Any re-release should be categorically different enough to justify a NEW copyright and should be measurably improved over the official release, containing either new features or significant improvements to its graphics, sound, and code to present it as a derivative work. Simply porting it to a new platform isn't sufficient.

@BorisFavorov

4 ай бұрын

There is even a better way. 5 years is enough for a quality product (game, song, movie) to fully return investments with necessary profit. And for a low quality product - to get all proofs of its commercial fail. Any wet dreams about 70 years of continuous money income will just make 95 percents of products completely disappear.

So many memories, works great aswell

Great video. =)

@getoffmylawn6692

3 жыл бұрын

Speak of the devil! Thanks for paying my little channel a visit. Keep up the great work saving DOS games and if you can, twist the arm of the Launchbox developers to get native Linux support. ;)

2:43 "A local copy is the best experience." Hear, hear! Far too undervalued these days. 2:54 Shots fired?

@getoffmylawn6692

3 жыл бұрын

With regards to 2:54 I feel I should stress that this isn't eXo's issue. The Launchbox team have been teasing Linux support for years and the best we've got is a WINE wrapper. Hopefully there'll be a version released that works with this psuedo-Linux release, only time will tell.

Copyright is a GIFT by government to creators in return for eventual PUBLIC rights to copyrighted material. Copyright terms are arbitrary and increased in recent years due to lobbyists. Abandonware should be considered protected because when it's no longer offered because the creator is not SELLING the protected product copyright protection existed to encourage. Otherwise why maintain the UNREQUITED public gift of copyright?

These companies have no one to blame but themselves, the few that are still in business anyway. The console brands like Sega, Nintendo and Sony are starting to learn this lesson as well. If you don't give people what they want, then they will take it. People who own old games shouldn't have to constantly re-purchase something they already own just to keep being able to play it on modern AV equipment and/or computers. Then there's the vast swaths of game titles that just aren't available anymore, period. Sony only offers a small handful of PS1 titles for download.

There's an argument for private servers as well IMO Most Moba games and MMOs are objectively different games from what they once where and there's an argument for re experiencing an older version of them.

@getoffmylawn6692

3 жыл бұрын

Amen to that, Ross Scott over at Accursed Farms is a massive proponent of game companies not tying the complete operation of their title to an online server and then shutting it down, effectively killing the game. I'm in total agreement unsurprisingly, community-run servers, especially of classic-era online games, are essential.

@tacky4237

3 жыл бұрын

@@getoffmylawn6692 one ive *REALLY* been looking forward to is the "Chronoshift project" which is for league of legends set in the 2010-11ish time frame. I've been under the opinion league can be compared to WoW a lot, in both the way its changed and its general perception, its going to benefit hugely from the private server due to people being able to play the champions in the iterations they played with but later changed to something unrecognisable to them.

I just came here to say: I DON'T CARE... Is a great work.

man i am trying to find a game where you fly throw a city blowing up alien ships on a set course it was from like 1993 or like 94 95 or something might of been even as old at 1991

Exo packs have been the best find so far for 2023. I'm very curious, what is the name of the obscure game that you mentioned near the end of this video?

@jacobcook245

Жыл бұрын

He meant that because he has thousands downloaded, there's always some obscure game he can discover.

@cliff6564

Жыл бұрын

@@jacobcook245 Ah I see, listening to it again, makes sense.

Retro collectors would state that eXoDOS, GOG, Steam, a plethora of emulators, and other platforms are no substitute for the real thing played on period correct hardware.

god save the exodos

god save the emulation and roms!!!!!!

Im not losing sleep over it.

Great subject, but the music made me stop watching within minutes. I'm a mega dos fan but da music sux(not just like "it's not my thing" but seriously had to turn it off within 5 sec of music creating a chaotic white noise, static cognitive disintegration bleh! And I'm a dubstep/ heavy metal fan. Something like fingernails on chalkboard reaction for me. Hope to s3e more dos vids from you later that are watchable. Much luv bru

@getoffmylawn6692

4 ай бұрын

Thanks for the input, the music for my later videos is all relaxing jazz stuff these days. I learned my lesson!

NO ONE CARES.

The link to eXoDOS is currently down or doesn't work anymore.