A weird request...

Maestro · 08-11-2005, 02:12 AM

Greetings ladies and gentlemen.

First of all, I don't know if that post is against our forum rules, if so please delete it. I don't want to get ww2aircraft.net in troubles.

As far as I can remember, I always had a lot of respect for LucasArts Entertainment Company. For that reason, I always but once bought LEGAL copies of their games. (I must admit that I bought an illegal copy of their "Balance of Power" add-on CD. But I couldn't find it in stores.)

Until recently, old LucasArts' games could be bought directly from their company in California. But recently, they decided to get rid of their old stuff (pre-2000 (including the whole X-Wing serie)).

So, to anyone interrested, you can no longer get legal copies of "X-Wing '95", "TIE Fighter '95", "X-Wing VS TIE Fighter (1997)", "Balance of Power (1997)" and "X-Wing Alliance (1999)".

So, for the second time of my life, I decided to hack a LucasArts' game. I was lucky enough to find a Warez version of "X-Wing Alliance" on a web site. But unfortunately, like every warez, the videos have been deleted to save space.

If any of you own a copy of "X-Wing Alliance", may you upload the movies to a server, please ? Technically, the movies should be compressed in Smacker (.smk).

I know two free web hosting sites :

- www.megaupload.com (file size unlimited)
- www.rapidshare.de (50 MB file size max, split archives allowed)

Or, if you prefer, you can upload both CDs in .ISO format and I'll burn them. But I don't see why you would do that.

Anyone interrested can reply here, but I suggest you to PM me instead.

Pisis · 08-11-2005, 07:00 AM

Hi Maestro,

quite OT: another good free web is www.yousendit.com

plan_D · 08-11-2005, 10:18 AM

You'll probably find if they've stopped releasing it, it's become freeware on the internet anyway and is completely legal. It's the same with Hidden and Dangerous Deluxe.

Maestro · 08-11-2005, 05:42 PM

Pisis, I heard about yousendit... The lone problem with that site is that the uploaded file is deleted after 7 days or 25 downloads, whatever is first. While Megaupload and RapidShare delete the file after 30 days without download... Or until you delete it yourself.

Plan_D, I know what you're talking about... That's called Abandonware. Unfortunately, LucasArts doesn't like that. I mean, they write to the webmaster and ask him to not share their programs. I saw that on several web site... Like they don't wanna have troubles, they don't share them. Intead of a download link, you find a link to a F.A.Q. page where they explain what I just said.

If you can find a site brave enough to share those files anyway, that's not the "full" game. It's the same thing that I have already downloaded. All the game's files are there, but they deleted the movies to save space on their hard drive and make it smaller (so faster) to download. The game alone (without the cutscenes) is 104 MB. With the movies, the game takes two CDs.

That's why I wrote the first message... Because I looked over the Internet to find the complete game and I have not succeeded.

All I really need are those cutscenes...

Maestro · 08-12-2005, 02:03 AM

Here are a few screenshots that I took to compare "X-Wing", "X-Wing VS TIE Fighter" and "X-Wing Alliance". The X-Wing Alliance one is not from me, though.

marconi · 08-12-2005, 06:21 AM

I know one site were you an find 2 cd version, but there are some problems with it: this game might be in Russian and it can only be downloaded by Ukrainian users (i.e. you'll have to find Ukrainian proxy-server

)Besides i'm still not sure if it contans movies.

Nonskimmer · 08-12-2005, 06:45 AM

Neat screenshots though. I haven't played X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter in ages.

plan_D · 08-12-2005, 09:54 AM

My brother has 'em all. And I haven't played 'em in ages either.

Maestro · 08-12-2005, 05:09 PM

Yeah... I also got all of them...

X-wing, TIE Fighter, X-Wing VS TIE Fighter, Balance of Power, X-Wing Alliance (well, without movies)...

I also got several other Star Wars programs like Rebel Assault, Rebel Assault II (2 CDs), Dark Forces (demo CD) and Making Magic. I got all those programs (except the X-Wing serie) when I bought "LucasArts Archives Vol. IV" (I think it was Vol. IV) in 1997.

I still play X-Wing VS TIE Fighter... But most of the time, I create my own missions and use them with the demo version (X-Wing VS TIE Fighter : Flight School) that I got for free with the X-Wing CD. That version got all the ships included in Balance of Power (Medium Transport, Super Star Destroyer, Ship Yard...) and I don't need to delete Balance of Power missions to play my own missions.

Maestro · 08-15-2005, 04:03 AM

I know it probably won't change anything to the results, but I made a mistake and I want to correct it.

The videos in X-Wing Alliance are compressed in "Smush" (.snm) NOT in "Smacker" (.smk).

Why did they changed the compression ? I don't know... May be they thought Smackers were too easy to crack.

marconi · 08-15-2005, 06:03 AM

>May be they thought Smackers were too easy to crack.

What do you mean?

Maestro · 08-15-2005, 04:35 PM

Well, the Smacker compressor is made by a company called RAD Game Tools ( http://www.radgametools.com/default.htm ). The program called RAD Video Tools (wich allow poeples to make and read both Bink and Smacker files) is a freeware. So everyone can download the program and make new cutscenes or watch the standard ones.

Smackers are of great quality and take less hard drive space. I used them a couple of times to upload some movies here because the AVI file was too big and would have taken too much time to upload.