This web page is dlfrom2g.htm. Created March
28, 1998 A.D. Last modified March 28, 1998 A.D. Please
inform me
of any invalid links that I may fix them! Hopefully if there's an invalid
link, it is due to a new version coming out.
Note: There may be quite a few graphics loaded due
to parts of this page which you may not even be viewing. You may with
to discontinue download of this page if it takes to long and just individually
load the graphics you're interested in.
Note: This is not necessarily meant to be a complete
archival system, and there may be software which could go on this page but
which I did not put on this page. This page is designed primarily for
my own use, so I'm not too worried about any complaints viewers may have
about less than total completeness.
Compressors,
Archivers, and the like.
Operating
Systems and related software.
Patches, etc. for Windows
(95)
Assembly
Mega-Demos
Free Games
Data
Viewers/Manipulators (Viewers, Editors, Converters for
graphics/sound/text/bytes/etc.)
Miscellaneous
Programs
Compression
Software
To decompress software, you need to have a decompressor
that supports whatever file you're trying to decompress. Find the section
on this page on how to compress the file for an uncompressor of that kind
of file.
Compressed files are generally identified by their
filename extention. Extentions supported on this page are:
Zip, Exe (Compressed
Executables), Arc, J,
gz, LZH,
Pak, Rar,
tar, tgz,
UC2, Zoo
Zip (Latest versions
for Info-Zip software:
Zip 2.2,
UnZip
5.32)
To compress software, I recommend
or
WiZ. Based
on the successful PKZip by PKWare, Info-Zip
can archive and compress data. Unlike PKWare's products, though, Info-Zip
is *FREE*. With Source code! Many people use
, another
alternative I do not recommend. I downloaded WinZip 6.1 and clicked
on Help, About, Acknowledgements, and read: "WinZip incorporates compression
code by the Info-ZIP group, which is used with their permission."
Basically, WinZip took the code from Info-Zip, added a couple of features
(such as shelling out and running Arj), and wants $29 registration fee for
it's interface.
If you want legal, free Zip support I recommend downloading a command
line version of Info-Zip, or WiZ. WiZ is basically the same thing as
WinZip: A graphical interface for Info-Zip. Except that WiZ is free.
Info-Zip, in addition to being free even for commercial use, has many different
command-line versions available, including
DOS,
Win32,
OS/2,
Linux, and
more.
Downloads:
(Related product:
: Use Zip-like technology
in your (commercial) programs, free)
(Related product:
: GNU zip)
Compressed Executables
There are a few products out there which will compress
executables files. These compressors will compress an executable, and
create an executable compressed file. When this executable file is
executed, it will uncompress itself, and then the uncompressed data will
be executed. These products tend to work very well. Here's a
small list and summary of each:
-
LZExe
(latest version found: lzexe91: Version 0.91)
-
LZExe compresses executable files, as is free for
use. It hasn't been updated in a very long time, however. My guess
is that it's been discontinued a long time ago. There's also
UnLZExe
version 0.8.
-
LGLZ
(latest version found: lglz104: Version 1.04)
-
LGLZ seems to be similar to LZExe, but claims its
better. This can also be freely used, although a donation is
requested.
-
Diet (latest
version found: Diet145F: v.1.4.5F)
-
Diet is similar to the above files, but it can also
compress data files if you keep the original executable. It does this
by acting as a TSR. My read on this: Cheap Stacker clone, which doesn't
require a seperate drive letter: Compressed and uncompressed files could
be in the same directory. Free for personal use. A license is
required for commercial use, but unfortunately the document doesn't say how
much the license cost.
-
PKLite
(latest version found: PKLtS201: Shareware version 2.01)
-
PKLite can compress not only DOS files but Windows
files as well. It appears (PKLite -l) that PKLite, unlike PKZip, does allow
for free personal use.
-
UCExe
-
UCExe, like LZExe, compresses executables in a format
that they are still executable. Unlike LZExe or PKLite, UCExe is not
a stand alone product, but is an executable packed with another product:
UltraCompressor II revision 3 PRO. UCExe is
shareware and is part of the UC2 shareware package: When you register UC2
you register UCExe.
Arc (Latest version:
PK361: version 3.61 and ARC602: version 6.02)
PKWare, the same people who made PKZip, released a program that
packed files,
called PKPAK,
into archives, called *.ARC. In comparision to PKPak, their new software
was so fast they called it PKZip. According to the documentation from
LHArc
v1.13c source code, System Enhancement Associates sued PKWare for infringing
on the rights of their Arc program,
Arc. There's also
ArcA(dd)
and
ArcE(xtract)
by Wayne Chin and Vernon D. Buerg.
Arj (Latest version:
Arj260:
Version 2.60)
Many years ago, Arj gave PKZip a real run for the money at becoming the major
standard of compressors. It had pretty much the same options as Rar
(although not the full-screen support), and far superior compression to PKZip
1.1. Arj was also free for personal use, unlike the shareware PKZip.
Probably the thing that kept PKZip in the lead is that the Zip file
format was public domain and thus quite portable by 3rd parties; the Arj
file format was not. Arj's
author is now sponsoring two compression programs: Arj and
Jar.
gz (GNU zip) (gzip)
(Latest version: gzip 1.2.4)
If you run into a *.gz file, you have GNU Zip
(more commonly referred to as
) to thank for that. Compressing with gzip is
not recommended, as it can only compress one file at a time. You can
download the DOS
version, the
source code, and probably other versions from the Info-Zip directories.
For other versions, check out
http://www.gzip.org.
J (Latest version:
Jar102: Version 1.02)
Jar is made by the author
of Arj and boasts increased compression comparing it closer to
Rar 2.02 than Zip 2.x.
However, it has less options than what Arj does. (This information
comes from the Arj Software home
page.)
LZH (Latest Version:
LHA255E: version 2.55 English, 2.67 patch)
LZH files are handled by
LHA,
an old program based on the older
LHArc.
Source code for
LHArc
is available in ZOO format. Source code for
LHA
2.11 is also available, as well as patches to versions later than 2.55,
Windows software, and more by visiting
http://www.bekkoame.or.jp/~h_ozawa.
Pak (Latest Version:
PAK 2.51)
NoGate Consulting released
Pak not long after
PKPak's 3.61 was released (according to copyright dates). By the way,
PKPak handles *.ARC files and are incompatible with data files made with
PAK. Want more confusion? Pak has a /ZS option which will create
a file using the .ZIP extention which only Pak, not PKZip or Info-Zip,
can recognize.
Rar (Latest Version:
Rar202: Version 2.02)
Rar has become a bit popular among a select few. Rar boasts greater
compression than other compressors including Info-Zip. Additionally,
it has a whole slew of options, like Arj. Furthermore,
Rar for
DOS has a full screen display (disable-able with -std). There's
versions for DOS, Windows, Linux, and more. Unfortunately, Rar is shareware
requiring expensive registration, and does not release source code so it
can't be ported by anyone but the author.
Included in Rar 2.02 is an UnRar.Exe, which the Rar_FAQ.Txt says is free
with source, although I didn't see the source anywhere. Latest source code
I could find (and it wasn't in the archive) was for
UnRar
version 1.05 (for DOS), which won't Unrar Rar's made with Rar version
2.0 (not all of them anyway).
The home site
had multiple links to all ports last time I checked.
Tar (Latest version:
Unknown. Go use Tar4DOS)
Tar is not a compressor, but rather an archiver. However, it still
has files in its own format similar to a comopressor, and so gets mentioined
here. There's a number of files in
ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/msdos/arcers
which look like they'll do the trick. Seems to me I've used
tar4dos.zip.
tar4dos.zip,
tar.zip,
tar320g.zip,
extar10.zip,
ltarv3.zip,
detar11.zip,
pdtar.zip
tgz (Latest Version:
See gzip and tar)
tgz is a three letter abbreviation (probably invented for MS-DOS systems)
for tar.gz, a combination of an archiving format (tar) with a compressing
format (gzip). So, first un-gzip the file in
question to product a *.tar file, and then untar
it. By the way, making these is not advised. Just use
Zip. Tar for many operating systems will have
a file untarred and ungzipped if given the right paramters.
UC2 (Latest version:
UC2Pro: Version Uc2R3P)
UltraComrpessor
II revision 3 PRO is quite slow to compress, but extremely, excessively
fast to uncompress. It's also fairly tight (smaller than Zip).
There's a 30 day trial period. After that, non-commercial
use is continued to be allowed. It also includes
UCExe. Every version of UltraCompressor 2 and
UltraCompressor 2 Pro which I have seen has always had the downloadable archive
called uc2pro.exe.
Zoo (Latest version:
ZOO210: version 2.10)
Zoo was, well, popular at one time, I guess. It was before I knew anything
about compression. If you want to try out this neat-sounding-name of a compressor
(or managed to get stuck with a .ZOO file) then download
ZOO210.Exe.
Operating
Systems
Free update to version MS-DOS 6.22 for all users of MS-DOS
6.0, 6.2, and 6.21, stored inside a registered version of PKZip's self-extracting
archives.
Files
from older versions of MS-DOS removed from 6.22, of possible
interest to some MS-DOS 6.22 users
DR-DOS
is now made free for non-commercial use, available
for download from
. The
kernel's source
code is even available for download.
Windows Related
Files
These two files are required by some Windows programs
to run under Windows 3.x, and should not be required by Windows 95 users:
WinG[ame]
makes Windows 3.x a bit more suitable for playing native games in, although
still not good.
Win32s,
a subset of 32 bit extensions for Windows 3.1.
DOSWinKey can disable the special Windows 95 keys on Windows
95 keyboards inside DOS sessions. This file has become a part of the
collection
of tools known as the
Kernel
Toys.
Microsoft's
Power Toys
for Windows 95 offer customization options, a utility to change video modes
on the fly, and more.
A
list of these tools is available.
Microsoft
PC Speaker Driver for Windows plays *.WAV type output from a PC Speaker,
but is not a MIDI device. Contrary to popular belief, this software
works with both Windows 3.x and Windows 95.
Assembly
MegaDemos
Assembly MegaDemos are basically movies on your computer, but instead
of being stored frame by frame and playing raw WAV-like sound, like what
the AVI and MOV formats do, the graphics are mathematically calculated and
the music often stored in a format like S3M (which was custom-made by
MegaDemo programmers).
has a database of many MegaDemos, as well as a search
engine.
Many people say that Future Crew's MegaDemo Second
Reality is the best. It won the Assembly '93 international demo
contest.
Second Reality
Disk 1/2 from www.gravis.com
Second
Reality Disk 2/2 from www.gravis.com
Second
Reality software search results from the Hornet Archive (The program
in one zip file, an update file, and S3M's of the music)
OTM's
Textro is a cool MegaDemo in text mode! It also has
partial
source available.
HeartQuake,
by Iguana, is yet another demo I like. So
is Verses
by ElectroMotive Force. HeartQuake, though, has some sort of
sources,
and some
more
sources, and the
music
player (not integrated) all available in seperate
downloads.
Free
Games
In case you didn't know, there are a lot of
games available for IBM PC's. A good portion of this is commercial
software which is not legally allowed to be distributed via the internet.
Another large portion is shareware. Both of those categories
have a large amount of games, many of which are of high quality. However,
they also require money.
Listed below are free games which you can legally
download, and which the author does not legally bind you to pay any money
if you like the game and want to play it six months from now.
Follow one of these links to learn more about the
individual software in question: Galactix (1.4 and
1.5), Pizza Worm 2.1g, Zorlim's
Arcade Volleyball 0.8, ...
Galactix (Cygnus
Software: Discontinued: Versions 1.4 and 1.5)
Galactix is a space-invaders type of game, except
much faster pace. Sometimes I can whip through a round in under 5 seconds,
just using my standard shot. All versions up to and including 1.4 have
labeled themselves as being shareware versions. Version 1.5 labels
itself as being "Free shareware", and all contact information has been removed,
so it appears that Cygnus Software no longer wants registration.
Version 1.4 can be downloaded from
www. .com.
The archive there has some installation problems, though: The
LZH's in the installation archive have been turned
into Zip's! Just unzip the contents of the
two zip's into the same directory as where you install the rest of the
files. |
 |
| Version 1.5 can be downloaded from
www.mabb.com.
Version 1.5 has some redone graphics, and no longer gives out contact
information for Cygnus Software. |
 |
As you can see from the screen shot from the older
version, you can get yourself quite an arsenal of firepower. You also
have a claw which you can extend to grab powerups, such as the bomb in the
above picture (The letter B). The enemies on both screen shots are
the same types of enemies: The differences of graphics show the difference
in versions.
Requirements for Galactix: 286 with VGA/MCGA video
support. Runs well on higher end systems.
Pizza Worm (by
Zorlim. Discontinued: Versions 1.2 and 2.1g)
Pizza
Worm: 212K of multiplayer fun. The player is a worm
which eats more and more pizza, growing with every pizza you eat. Of
course, if you bonk your head into the wall or even your own body , you will
be deemed an unfit navigator of the worm and the round will cease. There
are two versions of Pizza Worm available straight from
's page:
Version 1.2 and
version 2.1g.
(There's also a
java
version of the game, but the java version is incredibly unfinished to
the point that it really doesn't qualify as being the same game). Version
1.2 works on 286's and has a single player mode: Version 2.1g requires a
386 or higher and boasts a multiplayer mode.
 |
(Picture not yet made) |
| Version 1.2 single player |
Version 2.1g Mutliplayer |
(Discontinued: Version 0.8)
Zorlim's
Arcade Volleyball requires two players and, in my opinion,
isn't that excessively wonderful of a game, but I put Pizza Worm here, so
I figured I'd finish off the collection of Zorlim games. Object is
simply to bop a ball over the 'net (spikes, dives, bumps, etc. aren't
implimented).
Source code
is available (for ZAV as well as all Zorlim releases except for Pizza Worm)!
The last version developed was
version
0.8.
Note: The following is a list of games which work well with less than VGA
graphics.
Double Link is a shareware Dr. Mario clone. The old version
is available from many sites on the internet. There's
an updated
version as well.
Data
Manipulators
Hex
version 5.1: Loads up a binary file like a word processor (uses temporary
files if necessary), and saves the file later. This editor supports
inserting/deleting bytes, search and replace, and allows the edited file
to be accessed when it's open. It also has a handy Binary/Hex/Decimal converter.
Version 5.1 is the last version I found that didn't demand financial payment
for the full version. The author has since discontinued Hex and now markets
HexTool,
the not-free successor to Hex.
Misc which I haven't found/made
a spot for yet:
Microsoft's
Power Toys for Internet Explorer 4.0 adds some
little
niceties to your web browsing experience.