Forget "Operation Upload," fix the downloads!

908 · Post by **908** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 2:18 am

It might just be me, but I can't seem to download any files from z2 other than web and forum content.

Like if I go to the main page and click on Featured Games, and then I click on

It's clearly a link to merc.zip, but instead my browser just loads the Featured Games page again.

I am using Avant Browser. I don't know if that could have anything to do with it or not. It seems more like a server issue, though, since links to files seem to be returning other content than what is described.

In my desperation to get some ZZT content after all my years away, I have tried turning off Popup Blocker and unticking the "Block Pop-ups" box, and even registering. Nothing seems to do the trick.

Are the downloads busted for anyone else? Or am I the only one?

If the site is down or borked, I'm surprised nobody's talking about it and there's no notice on the front page.

Hmmm.

Help me... HELP ME!

Edit: Just to make things easier for those of you who just wandered into this thread looking for ZZT content while z2 sorts out their technical difficulties, here're all the working ZZT links I've uncovered so far. You can get a few good games from these. I'll update this post as I find more links, not the post below where I started adding them.

http://madgames.adventuredevelopers.com/zzt/madzzt.htm
http://zzt.org/mtp/
http://hydra78.tripod.com/

And here's the best giant stagnant ZZT archive money can buy! And by that, I mean it's free!
http://www.chocobo.org/~butz/zzt.htm

Edit: I take it back, this one looks even better!
http://viovis.chaosnet.org/g/a/a.shtml

WOOT! Linkage!

Post by **Dr. Dos** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 2:24 am

<s>WE'RE AWARE the same thing is happening when I try to post news about it.

TRUST ME WE <u>DO</u> PAY ATTENTION.

i know it's hard to believe.</s>

woah the problem is fixed.

God i should pay attention once in awhile.

908 · Post by **908** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 2:38 am

The problem is not fixed... oh, wait, you mean the problem that prevented you from posting news about it? Because I still can't download anything.

Good luck fixing it. If it used to work and you can't figure out what's causing it, try bugging the server people.

Is there a backup version of the script from when it worked that you could just re-upload, or would that wipe everything?

And finally... I hate to say it, but... Does anyone know of any zzt sites other than z2 that are still around and have games?

Thanks, guys.

Aplsos · Post by **Aplsos** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 2:45 am

hey could you uselessly bitch about things a little more? i mean, we don't have enough problems as it is, and we could really use someone to bug the fuck out of us.

908 · Post by **908** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 2:51 am

Hey, I went to the root URL of z2, www.theunderdogs.com , and took a look at their FAQ.

You can read it at:

http://www.the-underdogs.org/faq.php#c1

Particularly:

Step 3: On each game's download page, you need to type a 5-letter word that appears below the spacedog logo on the page, for example:

You need to type the above 5-letter words EXACTLY AS IT APPEARS (capitalization matters) in the box on the download page before downloading any game. Please reload the picture (in most browsers, by right-clicking and then select "load picture" to make sure you get the most current code. After your download starts, you will be able to resume using download managers.

This method is to make the life of linkstealers (people who "steal" our bandwidth by linking to our files directly without permission) a bit more difficult and, therefore, make our downloads faster to our visitors as stolen bandwidth is freed up; we are sorry for the inconvenience

I just now, like today, discovered z2 after searching the internet for ZZT stuff after a long time away from ZZT. So I don't know what's been going on lately. But did z2 recently migrate to theunderdogs? Has download service been unavaible ever since the move? If so, it may be due to non-compliance with this "require the user to type shit in" policy. I certianly haven't been shown a picture of a dog and asked to type in any letters since I arrived.

If you're truly stumped, oh godly site admins, I humbly suggest contacting the other site admins above you who admin the site that hosts your site which you are admin of. That is to say, those folks at The Underdogs who can be reached at underdogs@the-underdogs.org. If this is why we can't download from zzt@theunderdogs.org, I'm sure they will be glad to help you implement the Stupid Dog Picture Protocol. And if that's not the reason, maybe they can at least have the common decency to help you fix it.

Thanks again, and good luck, sir or ma'am.

Edit: Sorry for bitching at you uselessly. But if other people read the thread and tell me where to get my fix, then it wasn't useless. It helped me.

I mean, seriously. I can't even find this shite on file sharing software. What's up with that? I thought we were a community hell-bent on preserving this little shred of dos nostalgia! Where's the kazzaa lite ZZT hosts? Where's the torrents? The files themselves are tiny, rare and apparently desired enough to place a strain on any website that tries to host them. Sites themselves are fly-by-night affairs that crumple to dust at the slightest link-to or stagnate after a month or so of owner interest. None of this is meant as a slam against z2, mind you, I just don't see why we, the ZZT community, as individuals, aren't doing something about it? Doesn't Kazaa work on files that aren't illegal? WE HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY, PEOPLE!

Again, sorry for being a whiny bitch and bitching. Want some wine?

Zandor 12 · Post by **Zandor 12** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 3:08 am

Z2's been on Underdogs for approximately five hundred bajillion years, Warpzone. Since sometime 2002, I think. I don't know how long they've done their downloads that way, but that doesn't apply to us AFAIK. They give Z2 free hosting and some vague rules I'm not clear on, but "type this code in to download" most certainly isn't one of them. This is a new problem that only started a couple days ago, and Underdogs has nothing to do with it. If they do, I'll eat my hat. AND I DON'T OWN ANY HATS.

also hi WarpZone and welcome to z2

908 · Post by **908** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 3:23 am

Hi Zandor.

Thanks. :)

So.

Anyplace else I can get ZZT content from?

I think I'm gonna try and see if I can find the CD that used to have all of my old ZZT content burned onto, like, a twentieth of it. If I can find it, I'll make it availible somehow as a show of good faith.

Seems to me a lot of the internet dried up mysteriously around Christmas, last year, too... I'm not really sure why. Personally, I blame "the man."

Post by **Dr. Dos** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 3:42 am

oh my god shut up and relax.

If you're really desperate you can play the guessing game

http://zzt.org/zgames/(letter)/(game.zip)

for example: http://zzt.org/zgames/a/Aura.zip is Aura.

it's case sensitive.

Now I just managed to go to other pages a minute ago, I will try the downloads but realize I didn't code anything on this site, I don't know how. We only have Mr. Alert who still really helps us out and he is a very kind fellow for that.

Edit: Also please read http://zzt.org/fora/viewtopic.php?t=1614

Ah I see it is fucked up. We'll have our best people working on it when they should show up.

Eurakarte · Post by **Eurakarte** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 3:48 am

WarpZone wrote: I thought we were a community hell-bent on preserving this little shred of dos nostalgia! Where's the kazzaa lite ZZT hosts? Where's the torrents? The files themselves are tiny, rare and apparently desired enough to place a strain on any website that tries to host them.

half the people who run z2 don't really like zzt anymore

or you
:911:

Ando · Post by **Ando** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 5:02 am

Yeah Eurakarte's right on both accounts (although I'm largely staying out of this).

Boys can be mean, WarpZone. Boys can be mean.

908 · Post by **908** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 7:11 am

Fair enough.

:dance:

Nobody likes me! Wheeeeeee!

I noticed the Utilities section does seem to load the page correctly, and the links on it work perfectly Even the reviews system works. So I snagged a bunch of ZZT utilities. Thank you for the utilities.

Anyway, since the Utilities page works and the bulk of the archive does not, you might want to take a look at how the material in the Utilities page gets served. Is it organized differently than the zzt worlds? Is the file format different? What about the webage layout? Directory structure? If all else fails, compare the two scripts, and look for any differences.

If both sections have the same script implemented the same way, then I guess maybe it could be sheer volume of maps, for some reason. A cheap hackish way to test it would be to find out (or guess) approximately how many worlds were on the site before it broke, and temporarily remove some of the newest worlds. If it magically starts working again, you've found your problem. The solution might be something else altogether.

For those of you watching this exchange take place, privately also wondering where some ZZT games can be downloaded, but too scared of all the flak I'm recieving to ask, yourselves, the following websites have a few good games:

http://madgames.adventuredevelopers.com/zzt/madzzt.htm
http://zzt.org/mtp/
http://hydra78.tripod.com/

Note: From now on, I'll be adding new links I find in my first post, not in this one.

877 · Post by **877** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 8:17 am

Thanks, WarpZone!

908 · Post by **908** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 5:43 pm

Thanks for the survival guide, dickgirl lover. Already, I can feel my expectations lowering, and a rugged, cynical callous forming around my soul, like armor. In return, I offer you greatly abstracted furre pr0n:
:sex: :slavedriver:

Thanks again, and once again, good luck getting your borked site unborked.

(Sorry about the last post, I didn't notice your latest post until this morning. I guess I scrolled to the bottom of the thread and missed it somehow in my eagerness to find out that "half the people who run z2 don't really like zzt anymore.")

Post by **Dr. Dos** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 5:47 pm

as for another site with zzt games there are none that are updated, but I know http://chocobo.org/~butz/zzt.html still has hundreds there last I checked.

908 · Post by **908** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 6:14 pm

For the record, it's http://www.chocobo.org/~butz/zzt.htm not http://www.chocobo.org/~butz/zzt.html . I about had a heart attack when that page didn't load.

So... yay! I guess I have lots of older ZZT games to play with, and a few of the best new ones.

What's the community been up to, these past few years? And by "the community," I mean "the group of people who play and make ZZT games," not this loose (as in sexually promiscuous) coalition of furres, sexual deviants, and sexually deviant furres.

No offense.

Fuckers.