File Front archiving in progress

[SkyDebris]

In response to post #37972735. #37973200 is also a reply to the same post.

Dark0ne wrote: Back in the middle of 2015, FileFront.com quietly shut the doors to its various gaming hub sites (which were much like Nexus sites for game mods back in their hayday in the early to mid 2000s). Over the past few years File Front was extremely out-dated, slow or outright broken in many areas, lacking some TLC that it needed despite still having an active contingent of core users who still frequented their forums.

While File Front hadn’t really been updated properly in years with most games supported being released before 2010, it contained tens of thousands of files for lots of great (but now) old school games. While File Front had closed, GameFront.com, their parent site continued to operate. The Game Front site contained all the files previously located on their File Front properties, plus many many more. Unfortunately, the Game Front site was in even worse shape than the File Front sites were, making it an extremely poor archive of the File Front sites and absolutely horrible to navigate. Game Front file pages lacked any file images, poorly parsed file descriptions and no details about the author of the file.

Finally, Game Front announced they would be shutting their doors at the end of April, thus condemning hundreds of thousands of files to the void of the internet and all but removing any traces of tens of thousands of very old mods for some classic games from the internet forever. As a result of this announcement many people, sites and communities have been scrambling to save as many files as possible from the soon to be defunct Game Front community. Indeed, the best example I’ve found is at Gamefront.online, which seems to be an exact copy of the Game Front site before it went down, complete with downloadable files.

When we first heard about Game Front shutting its doors we knew that the files would be in safe hands inbetween an Archive.org team who were working on a full archive of Game Front, and members of the original Game Front community who were working on archiving the forums. However, the File Front sites, including their files, file images and category structure, were not going to see the light of day again in any reasonably usable format.

As a result, we’ve been working to save as many files from the File Front sites as possible and finding the best method to port them into our Nexus system. As File Front sites were largely like Nexus sites are now in terms of structure, we felt that focusing on the File Front files side of things would be in everyone’s best interest. The focus wasn’t just on not losing the files, but on saving the category structure, screenshots, file descriptions and author information that is actually what made the original File Front sites usable and easier to navigate for the games they supported.

With help over IRC from some of the archive team working on the Archive.org backup of Game Front and the help of certain original staffers from File Front and Game Front respectively we think we’ve managed to do that.

We’re currently working on importing our finished archive work from Game Front into our Nexus infrastructure, and some of the games and files are already available on the Nexus network for you to browse right now including the archived files for the original Star Wars: Battlefront, Supreme Commander and Unreal Tournament 3, among other games.

We don’t expect these sites to be popular or demanding on our servers, but I couldn’t sit and idly watch tens of thousands of mods for games I grew up with be lost to the internet forever. Games like Soldier of Fortune, Battlefield 1942, Unreal Tournament 2004, Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War that are long since past their prime, but are games I grew up playing and downloading mods from File Front for back in the day. I am extremely pleased to be able to archive these mods on the Nexus to keep them safe for the foreseeable the future.

Our archiving work continues, and will likely continue throughout the weekend and into next week at the current pace. If you have any problems or issues you’d like to report with the archive work please email us at [email protected] or use the usual reporting methods on the site if you’re a Nexus member.

MrGrymReaper wrote: I too have at least a couple of these namely the following:-

* Unreal Tournament 3 - Filefront has mods for this title but were only hosted there!
* Unreal Tournament 2004 - Filefront has mods for this title but were only hosted there!
* Return to Castle Wolfenstein - Also supported mods using Quake 3 based engine.
* Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic 1 & 2 - Also could use mods but possibly unofficially (may need checking).
* Star Trek: Elite Force 1 & 2 - It also supported mods using a modified Quake 3 Team Arena engine. Same also for this title about FileFront only mod hosting.


@Dark0ne - Please don't forget the Return to Castle Wolfenstein - Enemy Territory and the mods made for it.

@Dark0ne - Outstanding work. As far as I'm concerned it's literally preserving a key piece of the entire history of gaming.

Dealing with FF became so bad most avoided it at all costs any time the target content was available anywhere else - which eventually became a permanent situation.

@MrGrymReaper - Enemy Territory ... superb example. That's probably in my top 5 all time online raw addictive long-term fun I've ever had - or certainly tied for me with original 1942. With the right people and a packed house I can't think of ever having had more fun waging war.

I'm past my quick twitch days by quite a bit now so I don't know how good or faithful ET open source community projects are - but - I'd hope they're able to keep that and many others alive for future generations to experience.

[Alelujah]

In response to post #37972735. #37973200, #39819795 are all replies on the same post.

Dark0ne wrote: Back in the middle of 2015, FileFront.com quietly shut the doors to its various gaming hub sites (which were much like Nexus sites for game mods back in their hayday in the early to mid 2000s). Over the past few years File Front was extremely out-dated, slow or outright broken in many areas, lacking some TLC that it needed despite still having an active contingent of core users who still frequented their forums.

While File Front hadn’t really been updated properly in years with most games supported being released before 2010, it contained tens of thousands of files for lots of great (but now) old school games. While File Front had closed, GameFront.com, their parent site continued to operate. The Game Front site contained all the files previously located on their File Front properties, plus many many more. Unfortunately, the Game Front site was in even worse shape than the File Front sites were, making it an extremely poor archive of the File Front sites and absolutely horrible to navigate. Game Front file pages lacked any file images, poorly parsed file descriptions and no details about the author of the file.

Finally, Game Front announced they would be shutting their doors at the end of April, thus condemning hundreds of thousands of files to the void of the internet and all but removing any traces of tens of thousands of very old mods for some classic games from the internet forever. As a result of this announcement many people, sites and communities have been scrambling to save as many files as possible from the soon to be defunct Game Front community. Indeed, the best example I’ve found is at Gamefront.online, which seems to be an exact copy of the Game Front site before it went down, complete with downloadable files.

When we first heard about Game Front shutting its doors we knew that the files would be in safe hands inbetween an Archive.org team who were working on a full archive of Game Front, and members of the original Game Front community who were working on archiving the forums. However, the File Front sites, including their files, file images and category structure, were not going to see the light of day again in any reasonably usable format.

As a result, we’ve been working to save as many files from the File Front sites as possible and finding the best method to port them into our Nexus system. As File Front sites were largely like Nexus sites are now in terms of structure, we felt that focusing on the File Front files side of things would be in everyone’s best interest. The focus wasn’t just on not losing the files, but on saving the category structure, screenshots, file descriptions and author information that is actually what made the original File Front sites usable and easier to navigate for the games they supported.

With help over IRC from some of the archive team working on the Archive.org backup of Game Front and the help of certain original staffers from File Front and Game Front respectively we think we’ve managed to do that.

We’re currently working on importing our finished archive work from Game Front into our Nexus infrastructure, and some of the games and files are already available on the Nexus network for you to browse right now including the archived files for the original Star Wars: Battlefront, Supreme Commander and Unreal Tournament 3, among other games.

We don’t expect these sites to be popular or demanding on our servers, but I couldn’t sit and idly watch tens of thousands of mods for games I grew up with be lost to the internet forever. Games like Soldier of Fortune, Battlefield 1942, Unreal Tournament 2004, Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War that are long since past their prime, but are games I grew up playing and downloading mods from File Front for back in the day. I am extremely pleased to be able to archive these mods on the Nexus to keep them safe for the foreseeable the future.

Our archiving work continues, and will likely continue throughout the weekend and into next week at the current pace. If you have any problems or issues you’d like to report with the archive work please email us at [email protected] or use the usual reporting methods on the site if you’re a Nexus member.

MrGrymReaper wrote: I too have at least a couple of these namely the following:-

* Unreal Tournament 3 - Filefront has mods for this title but were only hosted there!
* Unreal Tournament 2004 - Filefront has mods for this title but were only hosted there!
* Return to Castle Wolfenstein - Also supported mods using Quake 3 based engine.
* Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic 1 & 2 - Also could use mods but possibly unofficially (may need checking).
* Star Trek: Elite Force 1 & 2 - It also supported mods using a modified Quake 3 Team Arena engine. Same also for this title about FileFront only mod hosting.


@Dark0ne - Please don't forget the Return to Castle Wolfenstein - Enemy Territory and the mods made for it.

SkyDebris wrote: @Dark0ne - Outstanding work. As far as I'm concerned it's literally preserving a key piece of the entire history of gaming.

Dealing with FF became so bad most avoided it at all costs any time the target content was available anywhere else - which eventually became a permanent situation.

@MrGrymReaper - Enemy Territory ... superb example. That's probably in my top 5 all time online raw addictive long-term fun I've ever had - or certainly tied for me with original 1942. With the right people and a packed house I can't think of ever having had more fun waging war.

I'm past my quick twitch days by quite a bit now so I don't know how good or faithful ET open source community projects are - but - I'd hope they're able to keep that and many others alive for future generations to experience.

I, for one, think you're doing an important work of historical preservation. Also, FileFront had been an absolute horrorshow to navigate or use in any productive manner, so thanks for scraping and copying all the authorial info along with the mods themselves.

[grodofraggins]

This is absolutely tremendous and completely necessary. The Unreal engine was my first experience with creating 3D environments and thus my first modding experience. GameFront closing was a shock to me and more power to the Nexus for saving years of hard work.

 

Thank you,

GrodoFraggins

[skyrimhitsta]

Superb work, hopefully you will also incorporate Dungeon Siege 1 and 2 mods, Diablo, Diablo 2 mods, among other's, and W40k dawn of war soulstorm is alive and well, plenty of superb mods, and it is not past it's prime. Maybe you even get Sudden Strike series mods, Secret weapons of the Luftwaffe mods, Mech Commander and Mechwarrior, Starsiege, Eartsiege, European Air Warmods, . Be well and a great work for the old player's.

[irishlad101]

thanks Dark0ne, i used to own copy of bridge commander about 2 years ago and i had it heavily modded. the computer that i had all my mods on had a fatal flaw which ruined my computer and destroyed all my data. i sold my disc about 3 months after that. now i bought another disc containing bridge commander and i about had a heart attack after i found out file front was shutdown. i thought it was game over no more modded ships and stuff besides kobayashi mod until i found nexus. I hope that this website wont just be for rescued mods but will be a place that will bring in new mods and modder's. Edited July 6, 2016 by irishlad101

[nurmi90]

In response to post #39609965.

nurmi90 wrote: My forum account just says "Sorry, you don't have permission for that!" and I cant access anywhere, not even my own account whats logged in.

My email is getting old subscription messages what I'd like to just unsubscribe ..help. :D

Bump.
#iStruggle

[axonis]

In response to post #39713565. #39713835 is also a reply to the same post.

phantompally76 wrote: Everything about this stinks. The Nexus is currently on a crusade to thwart mod piracy on consoles.....yet the Nexus is now the largest OFFICIAL repository for pirated mods on the internet. And that's precisely what these are...stolen, pirated mods that have been uploaded without securing permission from the individual mods' authors. Just because you're saving them from oblivion doesn't give you the right to upload them here without the expressed permission of each and every author whose mods you have "preserved". "Act now and ask for forgiveness later" is massively hypocritical when you're currently barking at Bethesda to make decisive action on console piracy.

Some of these FileFront authors will certainly be fine with their mods being on this site. But I know for a fact that many are not. Sure, they can contact you to have their mods removed, but the burden shouldn't fall on those mod authors to deal with that any more than Skyrim/FO4 authors should have to file DMCAs with Bethesda.net. You should have contacted them first. Then there is the matter of the thousands of mod authors who may never even know their files are on here at all. Stealing from someone without their knowledge is still stealing.

This isn't about saving archaeology from the ravages of time. These files didn't have to be uploaded immediately upon acquisition. You could have very easily archived these files and spent time securing the necessary permissions from the content creators before you uploaded them. But that wouldn't generate any hits or ad revenue for the website, would it?

You are delivering a hypocritical mixed message about mod piracy and authors' rights, and it is exceedingly damaging to the credibility of this site and this community. You simply cannot be opposed to mod piracy with one hand while actively engaging in mod piracy on your own website with the other. That is the very definition of hypocrisy.

Dark0ne wrote: I respect your opinion being different, but we fundamentally disagree with your interpretation. You've made it clear you won't be swung on this topic, and neither shall we.

Stick to this thread or the other one, but if you continue to cross post your opinion around the various threads currently active then they will be moderated.

His point, however, raises another one you can't simply disagree and be done with. What about their permissions ?

For example, I see that in nexusmods.com/starwarsbattlefront/mods/260 you're stating that "You are not allowed to upload this file to other sites under any circumstances". Who said that ? The original author or Nexusmods ?

[kekov228]

Всем привет

[DawnMS]

I think it's great you guys are doing this, nice job :) ... always better safe than sorry and i'm sure you guys are more than willing to hear any individual modder's input on their individual mods. Just my two cents :)

[CaptainScruffy]

Wow! Battlefield 1942! That brings back memories! There are some great emulators out there for DOS (I like DOS Box,) I play a few old Avalon Hill software titles like Third Reich, and Wooden Ships & Iron Men to name a few. Thanks you for all your effort. I'm sure a lot of people put a lot of time and effort into creating these mods and to see something just drop into the bit bucket is upsetting to me. I have an even more extensive collection of boxed tabletop wargames from all the old companies. I've been gaming since early 70s when I started high school - you know BC (Before Computers!)