Post by ryansilberman on Dec 12, 2016 23:50:40 GMT
Now, let me put this bluntly: I have been OBSESSED with Candystand.com in its prime. I have even written two articles about it on The Inner Circle Games Network - One for an elaborate and detailed Retro Flashback of the games on the site, and another to announce that someone on OneWeakness.com archived most of the Mini Golf games that were on there (including Mini Golf Open, which has been inaccessible for at least 12 years).
But anyway, as much as I'm absolutely loving that a good amount of games can still be played via Wayback Machine (and that OneWeakness uncovered the aforementioned Mini Golfs), there are still a good amount of games that CAN'T be played through Wayback. They may seem like they could run at first, but then they lock up at the loading screen or something. I haven't tried every single one, so I don't know for sure how many games are still MIA, but there are a few notable examples I'll call out: Sonic Spinball, Crash Nitro Golf, Red Ants Run, and Tee'd Off.
All the games ran in Shockwave. Think anybody could figure out what's wrong and what could be done to play the games?
I know that I am bumping an old thread, but that is because I have finally figured out what is wrong with these games.
The way a lot of Candystand games work is that they have a loader .dcr and a main .dcr. The games you listed (except for Crash Nitro Golf) all have their loader .dcr files archived on the Wayback Machine, but not the main .dcr files (which is why they don't load). If you want to know more about which games work and which don't, I have made a spreadsheet that shows all of them that I could find. It also includes some files that get even more games working as well. If I made any errors in the spreadsheet, feel free to correct me on them.
As for Crash Nitro Golf, that game has 2 files for each course, a map file, and a slope file. If the holes are structured the same in your remake of the game, we could inject those files and it could make the game playable again.
There is also one more idea I have to get even more games archived. By using a combination of web cache viewers and hard drive recovery software, we might be able to find some of the files that are missing from the Wayback Machine. I have already checked all of my archives with no luck. If this thread gets some attention, then more people could help out in the search and we can get a lot of these games archived.
I know this sounds like a lot, especially from a thread that has not been posted in for a while, but if all of this works, we would finally revive all the candystand games that were not backed up on the Wayback Machine.
I actually remembered playing this game back in the day. It was a simple pinball game where the whole pinball machine was shown unlike the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive version of the game where it zooms in on Sonic. I also remembered there being no music other than a jingle that plays when you start the game. The jingle was basically the Sonic 1 title theme instead of the Sonic Spinball title theme that played on the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive version.
These games are really lost. Like, really really lost. Not-even-in-Flashpoint lost. Candystand might very well be the largest repository of lost Shockwave treasures. I never played them personally but I've seen a lot of people talk about them and they're quite charming.
Last Edit: Apr 14, 2019 8:37:30 GMT by tomysshadow
As for Crash Nitro Golf, that game has 2 files for each course, a map file, and a slope file. If the holes are structured the same in your remake of the game, we could inject those files and it could make the game playable again.
Thing is, I've made my remake in a totally different program, and the resolution of the game is likely different from my version.
I also wouldn't know how to find a way to get to those main dcr files. But I am hoping there are people with that kind of knowledge to help on this.
Last Edit: Apr 21, 2019 4:21:15 GMT by ryansilberman
Post by computerdude77 on Apr 21, 2019 21:28:47 GMT
The pictures being a different resolution may not be a problem, as long as they are the right aspect ratio, they could just be shrunk and it would allow them to be injected properly. Even if they are the wrong aspect ratio, they could be stretched and they may still work.
The dcr files (and any other files we may need) may be able to be received if they are still in someone's web cache. I am calling out to everyone reading this thread that has a computer that they played Candystand on to check their web cache with a tool such as IECacheView for IE or MozillaCacheView for Firefox to see if they have the files we need (check the Candystand Research sheet for that). Even if the computer was formatted or if the cache was cleared, a hard drive recovery utility such as Lazesoft Data Recovery could be used to see if the files are still on the hard drive.
Post by computerdude77 on Aug 8, 2019 18:57:33 GMT
Know it's been a while, but we actually found Sonic Spinball! I updated the download link to include it, but it will soon show up on Flashpoint, so once it shows up there, you should go there instead and play it. Here is a link to the Discord: discord.gg/S9uJ794