Authentic electronic distributions of Apogee/3DR games

MrFlibble

#1 Posted 12 April 2016 - 08:24 AM

Recently I became aware of the PKZIP authenticity verification routine that Apogee built into most of the files it distributed online. Further complicating matters, in quite a few cases the distributions that can be found online (at various FTPs, cd.textfiles.com etc.) are repacks which do not have authenticity verification. It seemed logical to try tracking down as many of the original files as possible.

First some general notes. The PKZIP authenticity verification was a feature available to registered PKZIP users. This, presumably, makes it rather rare among electronic distributions of games. Nevertheless it was widely used by Apogee. For whatever reason, FreeCommander makes it very easy to spot archives w/ authenticity verification (more info on that here).

Appending or removing ZIP archive comments does not affect authenticity verification in any way. This means that an archive can cleaned from third-party comments without compromising its authenticity. However, any attempt to add, remove or alter the files inside the archive will result in a warning shown to the user when the files are unpacked (here's an example of a tampered archive). This is why most tampered archives are simply repacks of the original contents.

The latest shareware versions of Apogee/3DR games at the official FTP have authenticity verification. This, however, does not hold true for freeware releases. One notable exception that I have spotted so far is the shareware version of Halloween Harry v1.2. With earlier versions, the situation gets a bit more complicated. Also note that many of the latest shareware versions have earlier distributions with different installers (made by Sub-Zero Software, as mentioned here).

Now, onto the files themselves. Generally, the mirrors of "SimTel, the Coast to Coast Software Repository ™" (like this) are good source of clean distributions of shareware Apogee and 3D Realms games with early installers. However, not every version is available. ftp.funet.fi is also a good source, but some files lack authenticity verification. Some stuff is also found here.

NOTE: The lists below are incomplete.

3D Realms - shareware releases
These generally seem to have been unaffected by the repackaging tendency (probably due to their size), keeping authenticity verification intact.

Spoiler

3D Realms - patches

Spoiler

Apogee Software - shareware releases

Spoiler

Apogee Software - patches

Spoiler

Apogee Software - non-interactive previews

Spoiler

This post has been edited by MrFlibble: 12 April 2016 - 10:21 AM

Daedolon

Ancient Blood God

#2 Posted 13 April 2016 - 01:10 AM

Do you have a list of files that you expect to be available in their original authentic form, but have not been able to found as of yet?

MrFlibble

#3 Posted 13 April 2016 - 03:07 AM

Daedolon, on 13 April 2016 - 01:10 AM, said:

Do you have a list of files that you expect to be available in their original authentic form, but have not been able to found as of yet?

Not a complete one. There are several preview slideshows missing (plus I did not mention the first Blake Stone one which is available in its authentic form from cd.textfiles, but forgot where exactly I downloaded that one from), and I haven't checked the available registered versions' patches yet. I'm not even talking about the split-file versions of larger shareware games.

It also appears that the authenticity verification is not to be expected in distributions released before early 1993. At least, I've not been able to find any version of Major Stryker shareware v1.3 or below that would have this feature.

It's probably worth noting that some of the old installers by SubZero Software have ANSI art logos, such as this, this or this (the Hocus Pocus one is even animated), making these interesting collectables. For some reason, not every game got this treatment, even though (IIRC) these logos are all the same as in Apogee's electronic catalogues.

MrFlibble

#4 Posted 18 May 2016 - 09:26 AM

I've just realised that some of the JCSM Shareware Collection CDs have a wealth of ZIP archives of Apogee game preview screenshots, complete with authenticity verification:
http://cd.textfiles....a2v14/APOGEESW/
http://cd.textfiles....t0996/APOGEESW/

The ZIPs all have a weird ZIS extension. They do not include any preview programmes, just screenshots in PCX format. Some of these are the same as the shots in previews listed above, some aren't. These files were originally found by Litude.

Some of the shots from these packs ended up on Apogee's website (e.g.: Duke Nukem), but they were converted to JPEG with some heavy compression artifacts.

This post has been edited by MrFlibble: 18 May 2016 - 09:29 AM

MrFlibble

#5 Posted 08 April 2020 - 09:03 AM

I just found the authenticated ZIP of the Duke Nukem II slideshow. The file was here, I just had to remove the third-party BBS comment (adding or removing comments does not affect archive integrity). The clean version of the ZIP is attached to the post.
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