EDIT #2: FINAL VERSION OF TRACK ARCHIVE WITH 30+ ADDITIONAL RECOVERED TRACKS ADDED TO THIS POST 3/2/24
EDIT: LATEST VERSION OF TRACK ARCHIVE WITH ADDITIONAL TRACKS IS ADDED TO THIS POST 12/20/23
I found a floppy disk in a box in my parent's basement today in the year 2023 with the pencil label "Stunts tracks, SAVE!" on it and the date, 1994. I was able to check it out with a USB floppy drive I bought awhile ago, and surprisingly I could read this almost 30 year old disk and see that it had ~240 files on it. The files of course were Stunts tracks and their highscore records, (so maybe around 120 individual tracks).
I tried copying them to my HDD and was able to get a portion of them, maybe about 70% of what was on the disk. I think its about 80 individual tracks.
So without further ado, here are mine and my brother's (and some of my dad's) Stunts tracks that we made between August 1992 (probably immediately after we got the game) and January 1994 when the disk was made.
Its personally nostalgic for me to find these long lost tracks, but maybe they will be interesting to others to see what current players of the game were doing when the game was still relatively new and there were no enhancement or edit tools or easily findable internet community. As it turns out, it seems the very first track that was saved was by my dad (judging from the file name daddy1), and it is an edit of default.trk. That is an example of how one might first learn the track editor by loading up an existing track and messing with it, rather than making one completely new by scratch. As the track list goes on, there are plenty of tracks that range between simple to sadistic, short, to long and complicated. Curvy dirt rally tracks, and extreme stunt tracks and weird experimental stuff too, such as long straightaways of slaloms just because my brother wanted to make me a "tough" track.
By the way, in 1992-1994, my brother and I would have been in elementary school and my dad in his late 30s. So that's the age range of us, the creators of these tracks at the time! Please enjoy my personal archive.
Oooh nice finding!! Thanks for sharing!!
It may be possible to recover the rest as well. HBCD has a bunch of tools you can try, and doesn't need installation.
And, internet as we know it, started in the middle of your timeframe. So unless your father was already a BBS enthusiast, you probably didn't have access to internet for well past 1994..
QuoteOn April 30, 1993, something called the World Wide Web launched into the public domain. The web made it simple for anyone to navigate the internet.
Quote from: Daniel3D on December 11, 2023, 09:59:59 AMIt may be possible to recover the rest as well. HBCD has a bunch of tools you can try, and doesn't need installation.
And, internet as we know it, started in the middle of your timeframe. So unless your father was already a BBS enthusiast, you probably didn't have access to internet for well past 1994..
QuoteOn April 30, 1993, something called the World Wide Web launched into the public domain. The web made it simple for anyone to navigate the internet.
What is HBCD? I'd be happy to try some tools to try and get more data off the disk. I also have old HDDs from our old PCs from the early and mid 90s, which almost certainly have more Stunts tracks saved on them, but I don't seem to be able to read these old HDDs via a USB adapter I bought, but they do spin up and seem to mechanically run smoothly. Might this tool help with recovering data from HDDs too?
Quote from: dukeofurl on December 11, 2023, 08:58:12 PMWhat is HBCD? I'd be happy to try some tools to try and get more data off the disk.
Download here (https://www.hirensbootcd.org/old-versions/)
Thanks, this looks like a giant collection of tools covering a variety of topics. Is there one in particular that might help me recover data from the floppy disk?
Wow I tried some software for getting corrupt files off floppies and it was working well with some other floppies I had that weren't working yesterday, so I tried this one as well. The software says the whole disk is bad and recovers no files, I am also unable to read it in regular windows explorer like I was yesterday... Good thing I grabbed what I could yesterday, this disk might be permanently messed up now.
Quote from: dukeofurl on December 12, 2023, 04:44:50 AMWow I tried some software for getting corrupt files off floppies and it was working well with some other floppies I had that weren't working yesterday, so I tried this one as well. The software says the whole disk is bad and recovers no files, I am also unable to read it in regular windows explorer like I was yesterday... Good thing I grabbed what I could yesterday, this disk might be permanently messed up now.
Try restoring the partition, or if you can boot in dos, try recovery tool from the dos menu. Windows is not always a good judge in these things. Also, not all tools work the same way, some are successful when others are not, depending on the issue.
Hm, how do I go about restoring the partition? Wish I could boot into dos with an old pc, but my working computer these days is a modern Windows 10 machine.
For what its worth, tried the tracks diskette again a few times in Explorer where it worked before, and in some tools, but didn't get anything showing up or downloadable tonight.
HBCD has a lot of tools for restoration and recovery.
I have had no luck accessing the floppy disk files... But I recovered more tracks from my old hdds from later years. I think it's around 140 tracks in total. Tracks were saved during these years: 1992, 1993, 1994, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2014. Will upload the new archive when I'm next at my PC.
Are there other Stunts websites that might want my tracks as part of an archive?
Quote from: dukeofurl on December 20, 2023, 01:35:44 PMI have had no luck accessing the floppy disk files... But I recovered more tracks from my old hdds from later years. I think it's around 140 tracks in total. Tracks were saved during these years: 1992, 1993, 1994, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2014. Will upload the new archive when I'm next at my PC.
Are there other Stunts websites that might want my tracks as part of an archive?
I am building a database.. over 4000 at the moment.
But there are several sites with collections. But I don't know if they are actively maintained..
New version of track archive is attached to the original post. Everyone may feel free to share these files with anyone anywhere, and/or upload them to any website. I think some highscore and even some old replay files that we thought interesting enough to save at the time (stuff like launching straight into air, power gear adventures, unusual crashes or other unusual car behavior) are in the archive as well.
That's lovely, thanks for unearthing them and sharing with us!
I couldn't resist a drive at ROB92-94/ROB44.TRK (RPL attached), which is a nice flowing OWOOT track. As a bonus, you even can do multiple laps!
Quote from: dukeofurl on December 21, 2023, 04:09:36 AMeven some old replay files that we thought interesting enough to save at the time (stuff like launching straight into air, power gear adventures, unusual crashes or other unusual car behavior) are in the archive as well.
1999-2000/TIMING!.RPL is art :D
Hey! It's really nice to see some tracks from back then. I uploaded some of my old tracks from the same period at some point. I don't know where. If I can't find them, I could upload some again here too
I looked up my database. I have them still sorted by origin.
So here is a track overload.
[to large to attach (5.3MB) so download here,] (https://mega.nz/file/wdcjRZQR#iHOx7KWYsL-WC45BzO2UPOBNp4zpNg2V_mOKa_uEhk8)
There are doubles, because some Track were in several collections. But there are also double used names. So not so easy to distinguish.
What is in that track archive^? Is it every known stunts track available to download online over the years?
By the way, I'm still messing around with that floppy disk that I initially got the tracks off of, but other than being able to read it the first time I ever used it, its been a total dud! I've even tried some data recovery software, such as BadCopy, which did an excellent job recovering files from 10 other disks I have, but its unable to show anything on this disk other than to tell me its totally messed up. Here's the log from the latest scan I did.
(https://i.imgur.com/WHCFCLK.png)
Quote from: dukeofurl on December 24, 2023, 01:55:30 AMWhat is in that track archive^? Is it every known stunts track available to download online over the years?
It's roughly every downloadable track I have found over the past few years.
Here are some of my old tracks mixed up with some made by my siblings or some friends and some dumb tests too
Quote from: Daniel3D on December 24, 2023, 01:49:37 PMQuote from: dukeofurl on December 24, 2023, 01:55:30 AMWhat is in that track archive^? Is it every known stunts track available to download online over the years?
It's roughly every downloadable track I have found over the past few years.
Thanks, that's very handy. I've downloaded it for my own use. Would it be worth uploading to archive.org? Seems like probably the largest representation of tracks made by Stunts users around, and since it goes back 30+ years, that seems pretty historically significant. Would really add a big dimension to the Stunts experience if you were someone who was studying it for some reason or perusing it as a nostalgia thing.
I think you can give the diskette another spin with MiniTool Partition Wizard and use its partition recovery feature
I have managed to recover the entire disk by... Of all things... Fixing up the old 1991 386 PC we used to play Stunts on, and reading it with the ancient disk drive in regular Dos (same drive we used to write the disk actually). I've got the files transferred over to my modern PC and will upload them soon. Bonus pic, running Stunts from floppy disk on my old 386!
The disk is definitely messed up. At one point it crashed the old PC with lots of gibberish flooding the screen and lots of PC speaker beeps, I've never seen a floppy read error go bananas like that, but with many many repeated tries I was able to get everything off it.
More pics
You have 386 CPU, but you don't have CRT monitor.
https://forum.stunts.hu/index.php?topic=4257.msg92988#msg92988
Also, the aspect ratio is wrong. For Stunts, it should be 4:3.
Quote from: dukeofurl on March 02, 2024, 10:19:50 PMMore pics
In a rare sighting, the elusive Stunts paper manual in its natural habitat, hunting copy protection prompts :D Great to see!
Quote from: Matei on March 02, 2024, 10:29:18 PMYou have 386 CPU, but you don't have CRT monitor.
https://forum.stunts.hu/index.php?topic=4257.msg92988#msg92988
Also, the aspect ratio is wrong. For Stunts, it should be 4:3.
Oh don't worry my friend, this was just a lightweight monitor that was easily available. I still have the 1991 era 4x3 CRT monitor that we used with this PC. I will pull it out and use it once I get the PC fully fixed up. Right now I need to take the top case off regularly as I deal with replacing and testing hardware and didn't want to have to deal with lugging it off and on the PC each time. 😉
This stretched display is what the monitor defaulted to.
Quote from: Duplode on March 02, 2024, 11:10:28 PMQuote from: dukeofurl on March 02, 2024, 10:19:50 PMMore pics
In a rare sighting, the elusive Stunts paper manual in its natural habitat, hunting copy protection prompts :D Great to see!
I was trying to guess them from the 5 or so that I remember, and then I remembered I could readily look them up as I had gotten the box with manual out next to me in order to get the diskettes! I always wanted to say "track" for this prompt. This one is a curveball though as you enter the adjective before the word "track".
Hello everyone, I've added the latest version of my track archive to the first post, as well as this one.
There is one new track in the JON92-94 directory, I think it is John6.trk, but the real stuff is in the ROB92-94 directory, where there are, I think, 30 or so new tracks and one new replay made by my brother, who in general, put greater effort into track making than I did. I hope someone has the time to give some of these a spin!
'92 through '94 is also the time when I built my own early tracks. Miss that time!
I got my first PC at the end of '98, so...
https://3dfx-banshee.de/articles/the-voodoo-banshee/
Quote from: Cas on March 03, 2024, 07:15:09 PM'92 through '94 is also the time when I built my own early tracks. Miss that time!
To many holes in my memory to be Sure. I know i bought my own computer (because I was unsatisfied with the quality of the one provided by my partners) shortly before going to Colombia on holiday. That was december 1996.
I know that around that time (before or after) my parents deforced and we moved out.
The new house had a gigantic desk for my computer. But I have no idea what the arrangements for that were in the old house..m.. so I think I started using stunts in 1997, probably not before.
By the way, I have been playing some stunts on my 386 and for whatever reason, Stunts 1.1 crashes immediately after the "loading stunts" message and locks up the machine. It is a good version that I've used successfully in dosbox... I used my disks to install the original copy I have - that appears to be version 1.0 and that works just fine, I wonder why.
Wild guess: are you starting that 1.1 version with a crack or with the original executable? (It doesn't sound likely that the crack is at fault, but it might be worth checking just in case.)
On the true DOS system, have you tried running Stunts with LoadFix or LoadHigh? Some differences in emulation have to do with the usage of the high segments in the first megabyte, because these were not very clearly defined in DOS. Sometimes, EMM386 or the UMB (upper memory block) configuration in your config sys would expect there to be RAM at some of those regions, but some motherboards would have something else. I have no idea what DOSBox does with it.
Try running my anniversary edition (new original) it doesn't need a crack and it is more memory friendly than the original.