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Dealing with abandonware (2024)

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Re: Dealing with abandonware (2024)

#41

Post by nick_m »

I have a tangentially-related question. I've been using Novagraph Chartist since the Windows 3.1 days back when I was 17 (I'm now climbing 50!). It seems that the original company behind this has vanished, I've asked for support, but no joy there, I hope the author is still alive. I'm on Chartist 5.2. It needed online activation towards the end of its life.

Whilst in these modern days of hi-DPI screens and anti-aliased lines, I still love using Chartist - I know all of the keyboard shortcuts and I can use it to create a diagram faster than using anything else.

Does someone have a patch for it or something?

Thanks, Nick.

Re: Dealing with abandonware (2024)

#42

Post by 1313ed01 »

gyomu wrote: post #21
banbangtuth wrote: post #9

Kinda off topic but related. But is it realistic these days to just expect software to write once and run forever? I am a TypeScript/Frontend guy by trade, but I always admire languages like Go. It seems like a simple language that I can write once and maintain forever or once in a blue moon. Everytime I want to write something in TypeScript and then I pull bunch of crazy dependencies, I began to question if it is wo…

> is it realistic these days to just expect software to write once and run forever? Yes, but you have to put a bit of effort to make it so. For example, if you write your software as a ROM for an early game console (SNES/GBA/etc.), you can probably expect it to run for a very long time, as there will likely be people who want to play Final Fantasy 6 and Pokémon Silver for as long as computers are around. That's one e…

DOSBox! Super stable APIs that will never change. And it self-hosts compilers and editors (up to latest versions of Emacs and at least versions of vim from earlier this century) so anywhere your code can run you can also modify and recompile it.

(In practice I edit my code outside of DOSBox, and sometimes I use cross-compilers, but it is good to know that there is a fallback.)

Re: Dealing with abandonware (2024)

#43

Post by thaumasiotes »

avazhi wrote: post #23
deepsun wrote: post #3

Might be illegal to break someone else's proprietary software, no matter how abandoned it is. Try to ask them for source code, with the intention to open-source it. Then you (and maybe others!) can break it whole day long.

> Might be illegal to break someone else's proprietary software, no matter how abandoned it is. Oh no! Anyway Snark aside, what you do locally on your own PC in your own home is kinda nobody else’s business, especially when you aren’t cracking it to share it with others. Pretty sure all the arguments were already hashed out in the ‘80s when VCR companies tried to block recording television to cassette tapes. Literall…

> Pretty sure all the arguments were already hashed out in the ‘80s when VCR companies tried to block recording television to cassette tapes.

Why would VCR companies try to block this?

Re: Dealing with abandonware (2024)

#44

Post by jeena »

I'm not sure if it's abandon ware but I found a gist which attempted to get pictures from this Korean Kindergarten app for backup which we also use.

I tried it and it only half worked and you had to copy a cookie out of the browser which would expire after a couple of days.

I took it and extended it added a login with selenium or what it is called and now I can run it daily and get those pictures out and into my immich. Instance.

The script was already a couple of years old and outside of Korea nobody uses KidsNote, I made it used ware again: https://git.jeena.net/jeena/kidsnote-backup

Re: Dealing with abandonware (2024)

#45

Post by 1970-01-01 »

>I use a MacBook, and this application is Windows only, so executing it is out of the question.

This is where things went off the rails. Choosing hard paths should be done when you're exploring, and never when you're fixing a business issue. Why didn't they just try it out in a VM or even a mega cheap VPS? Why is doing it the easiest way imaginable completely out of the question?? I have no empathy for this kind of pain.

Re: Dealing with abandonware (2024)

#46

Post by 1970-01-01 »

kazinator wrote: post #20

That's real abandonware. These days people gripe and moan about "abandonware" when they have the source code. Oh shit, no new commit in 8 months! Abandonware!

To be fair, GitHub code rots much faster these days. I would assume anything with a specific job to do (not games) that is untouched for 8 months is circling the drain and expiring in another 8 months.

Re: Dealing with abandonware (2024)

#47

Post by close04 »

hulitu wrote: post #35
close04 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> there will likely be people who want to play Final Fantasy 6 and Pokémon Silver for as long as computers are around Is Final Fantasy 6 seeing a lot on new players today? Old games are played more by the people who enjoyed them when they were new. Even the landmark games are easily forgotten and younger players will never bother when they have so many modern choices.

> Even the landmark games are easily forgotten and younger players will never bother when they have so many modern choices. www.gog.com Features regularly on HN

The Titan submersible implosion features a lot on HN, and almost nobody here built such a contraption, or took one to the bottom of the ocean, or imploded. Naming a gaming storefront which may sell an old game doesn't answer the question whether young people want to play it.

My reasonable baseline assumption is that almost no young player is going to jump to play a 30+ year old game. I'll be generous here and not name things like Frogger or worse, The Oregon Trail. But give a kid who has seen modern games a copy of Diablo, or SimCity 2000, or even newer things like or GoldenEye 007 or System Shock and watch the "excitement". And these are the heavy hitters.

A lot of these oldies didn't age well even for the people who loved them way back when. It's hard to get young players excited about them. Very few oldies could stand on their own today.

Re: Dealing with abandonware (2024)

#49

Post by tracker1 »

garganzol wrote: post #7

The problem with that software title is caused by a hostile licensing system it uses. It relies on an offline form of online activation where the activation key is tied to your installation ID, which in turn depends on OS/hardware identifier of your computer. This is an overkill IMO. I cannot imagine people working with ceramic tiles cracking a static licensing system. Yes, they can overshare license keys but realist…

I've worked on parts of a training platform for a specific professional group... There's literally been widespread hacks to bypass the need to watch mandated training material. You'd be surprised the efforts people will go through to get to/through something they need.

Re: Dealing with abandonware (2024)

#50

Post by tracker1 »

1970-01-01 wrote: post #46
kazinator wrote: post #20

That's real abandonware. These days people gripe and moan about "abandonware" when they have the source code. Oh shit, no new commit in 8 months! Abandonware!

To be fair, GitHub code rots much faster these days. I would assume anything with a specific job to do (not games) that is untouched for 8 months is circling the drain and expiring in another 8 months.

I generally go by the state of the issues and unmerged commits instead of just the last commit date. Some things are just functionally complete.
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