Oddly mysterious save

  • linfuciuscont
    5th July Member 0 Permalink

    I managed to repair the file using a hex editor. The version byte of the header had been corrupted to E6 (version 230!), but changing that version to something reasonable produced a readable save. However, I'm not sure if or how I'm allowed to share the repaired save.

    Edited once by linfuciuscont. Last: 5th July
  • pacmanfan123
    5th July Member 0 Permalink

    @linfuciuscont (View Post) I mean, it's just a save. I see nothing wrong with sharing it. Also, great job repairing it! thx

  • linfuciuscont
    5th July Member 2 Permalink

    @pacmanfan123 (View Post)

    I uploaded a copy using the current version of TPT:

    Edited 2 times by linfuciuscont. Last: 5th July
  • NF
    6th July Member 0 Permalink

    @pacmanfan123 (View Post)

     Why do you keep apologizing? No need to apologize. You weren't around for it, neither did I have an account. Until April of 2012... Again @jacob1 could be right, we could be both right, who knows? Only four people likely know. @Sylvi, @Simon, @HK6, and possibly @Savask know the explanation to this save. Unfortunately @jacksonmj is no longer active, but I think they still maintain a website connected to the original saves under Skylark. Again, I think. 

     

    I honestly need sleep, I'm losing to a rug!

    Edited 5 times by NF. Last: 6th July
  • velsuki
    6th July Member 0 Permalink

    @linfuciuscont (View Post)

     how do you even get the files??

  • linfuciuscont
    6th July Member 0 Permalink

    @jansuki (View Post)

     I pressed the download button on the website.

  • jacob1
    6th July Developer 2 Permalink
    I wouldn't be shocked if some specific ancient version of TPT used the version header for something else, where 230 was an accepted value. The version field in saves used to be used for "number of elements in the game", so like imagine if the new version with BASE+SEED had a version +2 higher than the old one. That was changed pretty early on.

    The saving code in some version could have been bugged to write bad data to the header, as well.

    Server corruption seems less likely, but the server and the game were both very unstable back then so anything is on the table.

    Nice job repairing the save.
  • NF
    6th July Member 0 Permalink

    @jacob1 (View Post)

     People often talked about how the website was buggy and down half the time under Skylark, it was abandoned by Skylark in late 2009 if memory serves me right. So by the time Simon gets the code from a third party source, the game had been abandoned for  six months or a little more. I wonder if Simon found the game through YouTube videos. I know Geeks 3D (Last I checked had the original version of the game), way before categories were a thing. 

     

    Edit: Unfortunately that version of the game is no longer available and it looks like Geeks 3D was abandoned, taken down. I'm sorry if anyone wanted to play that version of the game. Unless it's available still on the website, but a moderator would have to verify this. I don't know where else it would be. 

    Edited 2 times by NF. Last: 7th July
  • jacob1
    6th July Developer 1 Permalink
    @NF (View Post)
    Skylark's version of the game is available here, repacked in a modern format:

    https://powdertoythings.co.uk/OldPowder/
  • pacmanfan123
    7th July Member 1 Permalink

    @NF (View Post) There's also the oldest version ever archived here: a rel="nofollow" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20090125224236/http://powder.unaligned.org/download.php. However, the FPS is extremely high on modern PCs.

    Edited 3 times by pacmanfan123. Last: 7th July