Not really a suggestion...

Motrax · Post by **Motrax** » December 3rd, 2006, 6:38 pm

So this isn't much of a suggestion, correction, or anything of that sort. More like a thank you note. I scour the internet constantly looking for old DOS games, and this site I think brings out the best in it. I adore the fact that you put as many versions of the game you can up, which gives us gamers who like that sort of thing the opportunity to see the differences and bugfixes. Not only that, but the site is simplistic, and very easy to navigate.

In short, I love your site, and wanted to thank you for putting in the time and effort to keep the site open, as well as take the time to further the efforts of keeping classic/DOS gaming alive [:

DOSGuy · Post by **DOSGuy** » December 3rd, 2006, 9:44 pm

It's great to hear that, Motrax. I often feel as though the only person who cares about preserving different versions of games is me.

The site is simple because I want it to be universally accessible, and load quickly on any internet connection. It's not as attractive as I'd like, but that's a personal limitation: I'm a programmer, not an artist.

I do try to advance and preserve DOS gaming by contacting authors about distribution rights to discontinued games. I haven't had much opportunity lately due to work, a nearly disastrous computer crash, and a number of hosting issues, including lost data when my former webhost switched to new management. I've spent the last few days moving to a new webhost, but I haven't been able to restore the wiki yet. I'm told that a senior technician is going to try to recover my data, but I haven't heard anything yet. In short, just keeping the website alive is taking up all of the time that I would otherwise devote to adding new games and liberating others.

I take a loss on the website, but I love the site, and I love receiving feedback like yours. As soon as I get these last few issues out of the way, I have a great interview coming soon, and a number of games ready to be added. December should be a good month for the site, and I'll continue to do as much as I can to make the site great.

Motrax · Post by **Motrax** » December 4th, 2006, 6:26 pm

DOSGuy wrote: The site is simple because I want it to be universally accessible, and load quickly on any internet connection. It's not as attractive as I'd like, but that's a personal limitation: I'm a programmer, not an artist.

I understand this completely. I meant it as a compliment, it's nice to have a site load at a decent time, then taking 20 hours to load a 100 meg bitmap, lol.

Anyways, I may not know too much about programming, but I'd love to help you out, so if you need anything, just let me know. I'm always willing to help someone who furthers the preservation of classic games [:

DOSGuy · Post by **DOSGuy** » December 4th, 2006, 7:36 pm

This may sound odd, but the number one thing I need right now is an Amiga.

I have a lot of DOS games on floppy disk, and I was afraid of the disks becoming unreadable. I wanted to preserve perfect copies of DOS floppies before it's too late, so I started the DOS Historical Preservation Society. I had assumed that I could make adequate copies with Windows, and there are some really good archiving tools for Windows, but I was approached by other archival societies and informed of special software they've written that instructs the floppy drive of an Amiga at the hardware level and produces absolutely perfect copies of floppy disks. Not only that, but the software can even detect corrupt bits and attempt to correct them. I've been reliably informed that the only way to preserve perfect copies of old disks is to get an Amiga. The society has never gotten off the ground.

I have never even seen an Amiga and I haven't the foggiest clue as to where I would get one, short of an online auction. If anyone can help me acquire one or, better yet, donate one, it would be used to save the original installation disks for hundreds of DOS games that are sitting on shelves in my basement. A few dollars per game every time I go to a thrift store and, after just a few years, I'm running out of room to store them all. What I'm more concerned about right now is running out of time to preserve them.

E.K.Virtanen · Post by **E.K.Virtanen** » December 30th, 2006, 6:17 am

DOSGuy wrote:I wanted to preserve perfect copies of DOS floppies before it's too late, so I started the DOS Historical Preservation Society

I see that as great idea. I add it definately in our website links list on next update.

Lendorien · Post by **Lendorien** » March 26th, 2007, 1:31 am

Want to chime in with Motrax. This site is awesome. I've been a gamer since the early days (cut my teeth on a Kaypro running on CP/M Scary). What you're doing is a great service and a wonderful resource. Thanks for doing it!