Some missing game versions

[Malvineous]

Interesting about Trugg, I see the same error. I had a look at my copies and I have a version (not zipped, from a compilation CD) that has a couple of extra files. It has a "sharesup.bbs" ad for Digital Workshop's BBS as well as "trugg_a.lst" which only contains two bytes.

However, looking at my installed version of the game it looks like it creates the .LST file at run time, perhaps to remember what level you were up to, so I guess that won't be in a distributed zip.

I didn't think it was possible to remove files from the zip without updating the signature so I wonder what the story is.

[MrFlibble]

Interesting about Trugg, I see the same error. I had a look at my copies and I have a version (not zipped, from a compilation CD) that has a couple of extra files. It has a "sharesup.bbs" ad for Digital Workshop's BBS as well as "trugg_a.lst" which only contains two bytes.

However, looking at my installed version of the game it looks like it creates the .LST file at run time, perhaps to remember what level you were up to, so I guess that won't be in a distributed zip.

It is true, the extra file keeps record of your completed stages.

I didn't think it was possible to remove files from the zip without updating the signature so I wonder what the story is.

Here I just deleted TRUGG.EXE from TRUGG10.ZIP using Info-Zip for DOS, it gives me the same output when I PKUNZIP it -- every extracted file passes the test but it tells me that Authenticity Verification Failed in the end, with exact same error code (W17).

TRUGG10.ZIP

BTW, I poked around Trugg shareware a bit more and ran it with a command line parameter that shows memory info upon exit. It also displays the version number which is BETA v1.0b:

Curiously the newer version from Digital Workshop FTP seems nowhere to be found yet, but hopefully someone has a copy.

[Malvineous]

Very interesting! So someone must have removed the file from the zip with a program that did not update the signature. I wonder whether removing it with PKZIP would fix the signature for the whole file?

My shareware versions of the game also display that same version number.

I did some hunting, trying a .zip extension instead of .exe and came across this list which links to the publisher's FTP site, which now requires a password. There's an e-mail address on the bottom of the page so that could be worth a shot, as the person who made that web page likely would've downloaded it at some point.

Failing that, it looks like the publisher is still in business and still references Trugg on their history page as a "puzzle-development business". There's a support e-mail address and it sounds like it might go to the same people who were there at the start, so they might be able to supply that version of the game. Maybe you could also ask if they have any plans to sell it via GoG so it can be played on modern PCs as it sounds like they would like to keep selling their products if there were a market for them.

[MrFlibble]

I did some hunting, trying a .zip extension instead of .exe and came across this list

That's exactly where I learned about the updated shareware version, except I found this list the other way round, by Googling Boulder Dash clones (or maybe specifically the title Trugg).

It is my understanding that the Authenticity Verification routine is something that would not be easy to tamper with. Even if you can modify a ZIP file safeguarded like that, it'd likely require the retail version of PKZIP that was registered to the same entity or person who created the original archive.

Failing that, it looks like the publisher is still in business and still references Trugg on their history page as a "puzzle-development business". There's a support e-mail address and it sounds like it might go to the same people who were there at the start, so they might be able to supply that version of the game. Maybe you could also ask if they have any plans to sell it via GoG so it can be played on modern PCs as it sounds like they would like to keep selling their products if there were a market for them.

Yes, that sounds like a good idea to contact the developers. DOSGuy already has a vast experience in this field so maybe he'll drop them a note?

[MrFlibble]

Over the past several years, 3D Realms kindly released several beta versions of their shareware-turned-freeware games:
Major Stryker beta
Halloween Harry beta
Bio Menace beta

I asked Hendricks266 if third parties could distribute these, he said yes.

[MrFlibble]

I've found the shareware version 2.0 of Moraff's Entrap: ENTRAP20.ZIP

ENTRAP.EXE is dated 18 Feb 1991.

[DOSGuy]

I've found the shareware version 2.0 of Moraff's Entrap: ENTRAP20.ZIP

ENTRAP.EXE is dated 18 Feb 1991.

Sweet! Thanks!

[MrFlibble]

Here's the original download of the full English version of Teenagent from Metropolis Software website, preserved by the Wayback Machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/20010803064 ... nload.html

I guess you could re-classify the game as freeware as well.