[UPDATE 2/3 PM: Fixed Excel file download link. Sorry folks 😛 ]
Dear Home of the Underdogs fans,
I know it’s been almost forever since I last talked about abandonware or HoTU on this blog, forever since I last updated the site (3 years! How time flies). Now that HoTU is down permanently because our wonderful webhost (they *are* really wonderful; I’m not being facetious here) has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S., I think it’s time to update everyone on the situation, and how we can all help to revive the site 🙂
First of all, I’d like to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who sent me e-mails offering condolences, encouragement, pleas to get it back up, etc. All of you reminded me of the reason I started this site in the first place.
So here’s the current situation:
The games: as appalling as it may seem, I don’t have all the files anymore. I can probably try to find most of them on my archive CDs that are scattered around the house, but I suspect that getting them again from the Internet might be easier 😉 I have seen quite a few “HoTU games” torrents around the web.
The database content: I guess this was one major reason people came to HoTU. The good news is that ALL of the database content (game reviews, info, classifications etc.) is still intact (minus stats like download frequency, file size etc. that could be auto-generated again anyway) because I keep the info in one big Excel file – feel free to download the Excel master file here (14MB).
The web pages/organization: The site archive.org has archived some old versions of the site. But Mr.Creosote, a fellow “abandonware webmaster” has done one better by archiving site organization and so on – you can see his amazing efforts here: http://www.goodolddays.net/hotud/ 🙂
[UPDATE 2/3 PM: Fixed Excel file download link. Sorry folks 😛 ]
Dear Home of the Underdogs fans,
I know it’s been almost forever since I last talked about abandonware or HoTU on this blog, forever since I last updated the site (3 years! How time flies). Now that HoTU is down permanently because our wonderful webhost (they *are* really wonderful; I’m not being facetious here) has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S., I think it’s time to update everyone on the situation, and how we can all help to revive the site 🙂
First of all, I’d like to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who sent me e-mails offering condolences, encouragement, pleas to get it back up, etc. All of you reminded me of the reason I started this site in the first place.
So here’s the current situation:
The games: as appalling as it may seem, I don’t have all the files anymore. I can probably try to find most of them on my archive CDs that are scattered around the house, but I suspect that getting them again from the Internet might be easier 😉 I have seen quite a few “HoTU games” torrents around the web.
The database content: I guess this was one major reason people came to HoTU. The good news is that ALL of the database content (game reviews, info, classifications etc.) is still intact (minus stats like download frequency, file size etc. that could be auto-generated again anyway) because I keep the info in one big Excel file – feel free to download the Excel master file here (14MB).
The web pages/organization: The site archive.org has archived some old versions of the site. But Mr.Creosote, a fellow “abandonware webmaster” has done one better by archiving site organization and so on – you can see his amazing efforts here: http://www.goodolddays.net/hotud/ 🙂
Now that there have been quite a few kind souls who have offered to revive the site and keep it going, I think it’s time to make the discussion public – please join the HoTU Revival Project Google Groups if you would like to help. I will stop posting about HoTU here since this is meant to be just a personal blog.
I would like to also announce that I am leaving the huge (but hopefully not thankless) task of reviving HoTU in the competent hands of Dan Pinchbeck of Advanced Games Research Group at University of Portsmouth who just started a major game emulation/preservation project at his university. I will join the discussion on Google Group and help do whatever I can.
HoTU is no longer “my site” and it was never really mine to begin with, because without wonderful games there would never be HoTU. I always think of myself as only a caretaker of those games, although the site did naturally have to reflect my own tastes ;P
That said, I have a few basic wishes that I hope will be shared by the new caretaker(s):
1. The new HoTU should be a community-driven site that has Wiki-style content so that everyone can help update the games’ information, add their own reviews, etc.
2. Nobody should ever pay anything to download games (I had to use a lot of annoying banner advertising to cover bandwidth costs; I’m not sure how expensive/cheap webhosting is right now; it would be great if there could be fewer annoying pop-ups).
3. People should be able to add their own entries & files (subject to some editorial approval).
Looking back, I probably deserve the sorry fate of HoTU as I had been neglecting it for close to 3 years (in Buddhist terms we say “that’s karma”). But as clichéd as it may seem, life really did intervene in a big way and I have gotten myself preoccupied with many endeavors that eat up all of my free time. I shouldn’t complain, though, because I am not doing anything that I wish I weren’t.
I also still play games, although much less than before (my current favorites are Auditorium, Opera Omnia and Crayon Physics Deluxe. Indie games have really taken off). One of my columns (for a Thai indie film/art magazine) is even about “serious games” 🙂
Thank you again to all of you who helped give me inspiration to maintain HoTU for so long, sorry for having ‘disappeared’ for years, a huge THANK YOU to Dan, Mr.Creosote, and everyone who offered to help revive the site. Here’s hoping that we’ll see the revival of HoTU in some shape or form at some point in the future.
Hope to ‘see’ you on the HoTU Revival Project Google Group 🙂