Restore .cab files to archive

Moderator: GZDoom Developers

Xeriphas1994
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Dec 03, 2016 2:56 pm
Location: Halls of Mandos

Restore .cab files to archive

Post by Xeriphas1994 »

Suggestion: Complete the set of ancient binaries (.cab files and friends) on zdoom.org/files/

Pros:
  1. ZDoom will work more often on outdated computers
  2. Unusual mods can be played even if they aren't acknowledged classics which demanded patching
  3. Old demos can be watched
  4. No coding needed to implement
  5. Fewer whiny posts from people like me who weren't around back in the day, begging someone to find the CD with v2.0.xx and upload it again
Cons:
  1. Too much work; if you're so interested, just recompile
    • Gainsaid by much content on this very forum. Here is a constant stream of requests for far more obscure items, most of which are answered within days. Further, they must be answered again periodically as the sharing links expire, while this only needs effort once.
    • I'm not a programmer, but programmers have impressed upon me the difficulty of building decade-old code with a different OS and tools than the original. It becomes a whole new level of ridiculous when the application centers on low-level 3D rendering (even now, so many bug reports are about portability). If a player appreciates modding history and can get an old Windows version working, that should be enough on their end.
  2. Automatic compatibility takes care of this
  3. Some releases are ambiguously licensed
    • I don't mean to downplay this -- the licensing change was clearly a pain in the duodenum, and I take such issues seriously on the site where I'm a mod. That said, every beta I've been directed to (readmes, reviews, Usenet) still has source in the official Github or Sourceforge projects. It must not have been a deal-breaker.
  4. Beta builds may be unstable
    • This should have little impact given that each package will be fired up only occasionally, to load a particular mod. When incompatibility bites someone with a vanilla mod, they get pointed to Chocolate, but there is no equivalent for ZDoom, nor does that seem likely in the future given the maintenance burden per #1. Anyone who actually adopted v2.0.xx as their primary engine would be, I assume, a retrogamer who knows what they're wading into.
  5. Old versions are less secure
    • Unquestionably, but again that's a choice best made by the individual downloader. How many people here have their location public on Facebook, or store financial records in a phone app? By comparison, the risk of encountering an exploit in a mod (which has already been played and enjoyed by a crowd, back when the associated .cab was new; there is no indiscriminate feed of 2004 files to guzzle) seems extremely marginal.
Sorry if this has been brought up before and I couldn't find it. (Search engines still fidget over short words and punctuation though.)

That got long. Thanks for reading.
User avatar
Rachael
Posts: 13527
Joined: Tue Jan 13, 2004 1:31 pm
Preferred Pronouns: She/Her
Contact:

Re: Restore .cab files to archive

Post by Rachael »

If someone actually has these old gems, or is willing to take the time to actually compile them in the exact same style that Randi originally did them, I'll happily include them, but otherwise what is there is pretty much what we have.

As far as I know, all the files are already there anyway, concerning ZDoom versions, since it never had any issues with hosting hiatus or anything like that like GZDoom did. (Except MAYBE for the brief period of time when Randi was on Slicehost before she moved to Linode)
User avatar
drfrag
Vintage GZDoom Developer
Posts: 3141
Joined: Fri Apr 23, 2004 3:51 am
Location: Spain
Contact:

Re: Restore .cab files to archive

Post by drfrag »

There are actually missing old versions in the archive but they are still available at sourceforge here:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/zdoom/files/zdoom/

These are 2.0.xx and 1.23 betas but some of them could be unstable, however betas are usually more stable than 1.22.

One thing common to old versions is that they run very poorly on modern windows. That's what ZDoom Classic is for, it's based on a version from 2006 and should be old enough to be compatible with old mods. I ported a preliminary unreleased D3D renderer from a later version. Obviously security is not a concern when running old mods so i didn't port the security fixes. I did for LE (Zandronum is based on an even older version) but i reverted the CVAR protection stuff due to potential compatibility issues, mods changing user CVARS never has been much of a problem for many years and the solution was bleeding edge code. I don't see much interest in ZDoom Classic BTW.

All in all i think it would be a good idea adding those missing old versions to the archive ASAP.
User avatar
Graf Zahl
Lead GZDoom+Raze Developer
Lead GZDoom+Raze Developer
Posts: 49053
Joined: Sat Jul 19, 2003 10:19 am
Location: Germany

Re: Restore .cab files to archive

Post by Graf Zahl »

Most of these are actually online under zdoom.org/files/old, at least the older ones. This should be completed, for historical purposes alone - although the most important versions are there.
The builds between 90.cab and 95.cab had been extremely beta, for example, at that time the fallout of the new inventory system had to be cleaned up and those are generally not recommended for actual use. The same may be true for a batch of 5x. cab, too.
User avatar
drfrag
Vintage GZDoom Developer
Posts: 3141
Joined: Fri Apr 23, 2004 3:51 am
Location: Spain
Contact:

Re: Restore .cab files to archive

Post by drfrag »

I've noticed 2.1.0 is missing from the archive as well. Then all 1.23 betas but 33 and some 2.0.xx ones. But those in the archive are in .cab format while the sourceforge versions are in .zip format. There are already duplicate versions in the archive so may be if the process can be automated somehow the best thing would be to upload all the zip files there up to 2.1.0 to a new folder.
User avatar
Rachael
Posts: 13527
Joined: Tue Jan 13, 2004 1:31 pm
Preferred Pronouns: She/Her
Contact:

Re: Restore .cab files to archive

Post by Rachael »

Can someone make a list of files for me that are missing and aren't in /files/lars or /files/zdoom/old to grab from the archive? Would make it a lot easier for me.

Direct URL's are even better.
User avatar
drfrag
Vintage GZDoom Developer
Posts: 3141
Joined: Fri Apr 23, 2004 3:51 am
Location: Spain
Contact:

Re: Restore .cab files to archive

Post by drfrag »

The rest of them:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/zdoom/ ... p/download
https://sourceforge.net/projects/zdoom/ ... p/download
https://sourceforge.net/projects/zdoom/ ... p/download
https://sourceforge.net/projects/zdoom/ ... b/download
https://sourceforge.net/projects/zdoom/ ... p/download
https://sourceforge.net/projects/zdoom/ ... p/download
https://sourceforge.net/projects/zdoom/ ... p/download
https://sourceforge.net/projects/zdoom/ ... b/download
https://sourceforge.net/projects/zdoom/ ... b/download
https://sourceforge.net/projects/zdoom/ ... b/download
https://sourceforge.net/projects/zdoom/ ... b/download
https://sourceforge.net/projects/zdoom/ ... b/download
https://sourceforge.net/projects/zdoom/ ... b/download
https://sourceforge.net/projects/zdoom/ ... b/download
https://sourceforge.net/projects/zdoom/ ... b/download
https://sourceforge.net/projects/zdoom/ ... b/download
https://sourceforge.net/projects/zdoom/ ... b/download
https://sourceforge.net/projects/zdoom/ ... b/download
https://sourceforge.net/projects/zdoom/ ... b/download
https://sourceforge.net/projects/zdoom/ ... b/download
https://sourceforge.net/projects/zdoom/ ... b/download

https://sourceforge.net/projects/zdoom/ ... b/download
https://sourceforge.net/projects/zdoom/ ... b/download
https://sourceforge.net/projects/zdoom/ ... b/download
https://sourceforge.net/projects/zdoom/ ... b/download
https://sourceforge.net/projects/zdoom/ ... b/download
https://sourceforge.net/projects/zdoom/ ... b/download
https://sourceforge.net/projects/zdoom/ ... b/download
https://sourceforge.net/projects/zdoom/ ... b/download
https://sourceforge.net/projects/zdoom/ ... b/download
https://sourceforge.net/projects/zdoom/ ... b/download
https://sourceforge.net/projects/zdoom/ ... r/download
https://sourceforge.net/projects/zdoom/ ... b/download
https://sourceforge.net/projects/zdoom/ ... p/download
https://sourceforge.net/projects/zdoom/ ... r/download
https://sourceforge.net/projects/zdoom/ ... b/download
Post Reply

Return to “ZDoom.org Suggestions”