UT Potential release: UT Site Rips

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gopostal

Active Member
Jan 19, 2006
848
47
28
For years I have quietly been making off-site copies of the UT sites I visited and grabbing the downloads that were publicly viewable. All-in-all it's a rather extensive selection of UT 'stuff' that includes a lot of material I bet you considered lost or never publicly shared.

I've been mulling over some sort of way of sharing this out to the general UT admins so that it can be kept in some fashion. Right now it sits on a single HD and that's a shame because I know there are a lot of old timers that would dearly love to see some of this again. Overall I'm guessing (roughly) that it would be somewhere in the 25-35GB range in size once it was packaged and sorted correctly.

Now my questions to you:
1) I accept there are most likely unfinished projects in it, things that although were placed on a publicly viewable site were never meant to be shared openly, and old versions of stuff. I have no way of knowing what is what so are there objections to posting things pulled from public sites? Sorting the wheat from the chaff is nearly impossible, there are literally thousands and thousands of files in this.

2) How can I share something like this? I thought about using high-capacity thumb drives and mailing it to people that wanted it, then they could mail me back the cost of the drive if they were happy with it.

3) Is this something you guys are even interested in?

I just need to make some sort of decision with this material. The drive itself is several years old, the data has been moved a few times already, and frankly I need the room. It would be cathartic to clean it all up and either mothball the whole thing or share it with you. Thoughts?
 

GrndZero

Old School
Jun 21, 2012
3
0
0
NC-USA
I would be down for keeping a backlog of stuff. I could sort it out to its proper sections of IE:textures, maps, sounds.. etc. I already keep a pretty decent amount of things backed up ever since 1998 on DVD's. I am a bit of a pack-rat.
I realize I am new to this forum but I am not new to the Unreal Universe. I have a website that I can always make a page for to keep contact information for anyone who needs links and such. I do not have the money to upgrade it for a storage site but I could always keep it for contacts and weblinks. You could think of me as an off-site storage, heh.
 

BashBox

Just a casualty of unreal
Feb 26, 2011
18
0
0
Putting it up on bitttorent would be a wise idea for somthing that big , share as a folder not a single archive , so bittorrent clients can choose what files they wish to download as oposed to the entire thing.

I would be rather interested but only if it was free, since i have lost many good ut mods over the year and it could be very nostalgic. of to see stuff i never heard about

also if it was true that utfiles collected everything that was posted, then it missing a whole ton of stuff i know about lol
 
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GrndZero

Old School
Jun 21, 2012
3
0
0
NC-USA
One would not want to re-invent the wheel. :)

There is Skillz's UT files site serving a similar purpose: http://news.ut-files.com/

Perhaps you could come to an arrangement?

I still wouldn't mind keeping something like the OP has since I just went to that site and noticed there were at least one or two that I quickly scanned that I did not find on his site that I have and love in my stuff. Some very good files there but trying to download everything he has would take weeks, lol.
 

gopostal

Active Member
Jan 19, 2006
848
47
28
Let me be clear about how this was collected and then it will be understood this is not meant as an alternative to UT-Files. As I visited sites I regularly site ripped them, meaning I downloaded everything in it that was able to be seen by a web crawler. This *very* often included work not meant for release since quite a few otherwise savvy developers were clueless as to securing their web downloads from public view. I have things that people have probably forgotten they even did.

Now the problem is that I didn't do anything illegal but it has never been my intention to upset anyone by 'releasing' something they never meant to let see the light of day. There is just WAY too much to go getting permissions, etc. or to even take the time to open and check all the files. I would (of course) take time to purge all personal information and this would only be a collection of zips and mods and direct UT files.

So you can see why I ask this. It's got really good stuff in it but there is surely things people will not be happy that get dredged up from the abyss. I guess in the end I'm asking "Does anyone have any objections?" because if you don't then I'm going to move on with getting it ready.
 

Delacroix

Successor of Almarion
Jan 12, 2006
811
3
18
40
Warsaw, PL
Look, you're asking too general a question for too specific an issue. It's better if you just let it out in the wild and then address concerns as they show up. It's literally impossible to do otherwise. If there's a content dev still around who'll be concerned about some file being publicized, you'll just take it down. At least that's how I see it.

Also, you could mail me the high-capacity drive thing and I'd just return it to you after finding a way to host it & make a copy for myself for example.
 
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GF-REX

New Member
Jan 31, 2008
47
0
0
Kansas, USA
www.unrealrex.com
Definitely go for a torrent or something. I don't really have webspace for it, but I'd like to download it all and see what all is in there. I love old UT stuff.

If anyone has any issues, you could remove their stuff later on. Archive.org does web crawling all the time. Nothing wrong with that. :D

Mods and maps could get uploaded to ModDB or UT-Files. Sites may be able to get added to UT-Files, if Skillz agrees. For example, the Operation Na Pali sites been archived there. ( http://onp.ut-files.com/ )
 

Zur

surrealistic mad cow
Jul 8, 2002
11,708
8
38
48
Transfer the files via FTP to someone else. Have several people do the same and those files could stay around for a long while.
 

Arnox

UT99/2004 Mod Crazy
Mar 26, 2009
1,601
5
38
Beyond
Good to see I'm not the only one who is trying to preserve community content.
 

Torin

New Member
Dec 4, 2005
3
0
1
I'm with Delacroix and GF-REX on the permission issue. In terms of computer age it will be 'historical data' and as such, less likely to offend.

I was just recently trying to track down some UT2003 INV maps. The author had changed ISPs but somehow his old personal page was still up, but with broken DL and 'mailto:' links. He had an unusual gamer tag, which he still uses, so I was able to find him through that.
When I PM'd him, part of his reply was: "That was so many years ago. That was my page and I'm surprised that it still exists. I don't have access to any of those maps anymore." ... "They were a lot of fun." He has moved on.

If you are serious about releasing, perhaps you could put up a short summary of the data you have and ask the community to spread the word to the content authors. If they're still in contact with the community it would give them a chance to "opt out" before you publish.
It would also serve to draw out the collectors among us.

In terms of the release method, try this on for size:
Initial release: offer copies to those who send you a large (64GB?) flash drive or external HD and return postage.
Secondary release: set up a torrent and encourage those who received the initial release to act as seeds.

I wonder if any of the other collectors out there might be interested in sharing their collections like this? Could be fun; swapping files, discovering lost gems, filling up our hard drives ;)
 

DarkSonny

Beware!
Apr 8, 2008
298
0
16
Malaga, Spain
....
I wonder if any of the other collectors out there might be interested in sharing their collections like this? Could be fun; swapping files, discovering lost gems, filling up our hard drives ;)

as long as the interested person ( gospostal ) leaves things as author left as is it this could not be a serious problem if you publish all files intact ..and that is the million dollar question would you love to have those lost gems or get lost forever like another ut sites related today missing ( with all their contents gone for eternity)?

Me as a crazy and old ut fan my response is yes in the way i was explaining as long as you leaves files intact and with no changes.
 

gopostal

Active Member
Jan 19, 2006
848
47
28
I still have everything but due to my current battle I've shut everything down. Honestly we are broke, and are going to be broke for a while so webservers aren't in the financial plan.

If you want a copy of the entire repository I'd burn them to DVD's and mail them to you if you really want it. Alternatively I can put it on a high capacity thumb drive and mail that.

Altogether I think there is in the neighborhood of 25GB of stuff if you include the maps.