Thread

Macintosh Garden offline?

68kMLA Software 53 posts Sep 13, 2008 to Apr 14, 2009

View original thread

#1 Sat, 13 Sep 2008 - 13:29 68kMLA

Wow one day it was up, now for the last couple of days it has been offline. Anyone know what the deal is?

#2 Sun, 14 Sep 2008 - 20:32 68kMLA

I don't know, but I noticed the same thing. I had been there two weeks ago, now all of this week it has been down.

#3 Mon, 15 Sep 2008 - 23:08 68kMLA

http://web.archive.org/web/*/mac.the-underdogs.info/

I actually did try to leech the site via wget, but archive.org doesn't have it complete. Does anyone have a complete mirror on disk?

#4 Wed, 17 Sep 2008 - 22:16 68kMLA

Thanks for the link, but the web archive does NOT record downloadable files such as .ZIP, .SIT, etc.

I have some files from there which I've downloaded in the past, but not a complete mirror.

#5 Fri, 19 Sep 2008 - 20:00 68kMLA

Wait... if the Macintosh Garden is offline, then that means the entire Home of the Underdogs, the greatest source for Abandonware known to man (outside of a few rogue FTPs) is offline! 8-o

#6 Sat, 20 Sep 2008 - 03:07 68kMLA

Oh wow. Now preterhuman better get up soon.

#7 Sun, 21 Sep 2008 - 00:19 68kMLA

Oh wow. Now preterhuman better get up soon.

I tried contacting the owner of the site (Macintosh Garden) via xar@the-underdogs.org, but it didn't get through. Anyone know of an alternate address where I can contact him (and possibly one for the owner of HOTU itself)?

#8 Tue, 30 Sep 2008 - 05:36 68kMLA

Just to let you know, the Mac Garden is working fine for me.

#9 Tue, 30 Sep 2008 - 06:30 68kMLA

anybody know when preterhuman.net is coming back?

#10 Tue, 30 Sep 2008 - 16:08 68kMLA

Just to let you know, the Mac Garden is working fine for me.

Nice. Thanks for the status update! :beige:

#11 Fri, 19 Dec 2008 - 06:48 68kMLA

Thanks for the link, but the web archive does NOT record downloadable files such as .ZIP, .SIT, etc.
I have some files from there which I've downloaded in the past, but not a complete mirror.

This is a bit of a closed thread, but I just wanted to mention that the archive does actually archive non-HTML pages. Not sure if it's accidental or whatever, but this philosophy will probably cover all bases: If it looked like something just downloaded from the web archive and it worked, back it up in at least 16 places.

As an aside, I've been noticing that some files seem to be truncated at $SIZE - 1 bytes, so for example wgetting a 142368 byte file will cause wget to notify me of the connection being closed at byte 142367. :-/ [?]

-dav7

#12 Tue, 17 Feb 2009 - 22:12 68kMLA

For a (possibly temporary) solution, I'm assembling a Mac site in the vein of Mac Garden for some of my favorite software and games, many of which are grabbed from MG from when it was around.

http://mac.thebasingers.com

#13 Thu, 19 Feb 2009 - 17:33 68kMLA

GREAT. I, and this army of macs, applaud your effort!

:beige: :b&w:

;D :lol:

:beige:

:b&w:

;D

:lol:

:beige: :b&w:

;D :lol:

:beige: :b&w:

#14 Thu, 19 Feb 2009 - 17:45 68kMLA

For a (possibly temporary) solution, I'm assembling a Mac site in the vein of Mac Garden for some of my favorite software and games, many of which are grabbed from MG from when it was around.
http://mac.thebasingers.com

Nice one - I hope it grows to the size of the Macintosh Garden! :O

#15 Thu, 19 Feb 2009 - 21:35 68kMLA

It's not how big, but how long it will stay online. Extra points for rare software

#16 Thu, 19 Feb 2009 - 22:26 68kMLA

It's not how big, but how long it will stay online.

Also connection/download speed. Slow sites are the worst. *cough*LINE*cough*

#17 Fri, 20 Feb 2009 - 23:53 68kMLA

I would also be interested to hear if there is an archive of the Macintosh Garden files somewhere. It was such a great site and it is going to be very difficult to hunt down those old games without it. It is just a shame that there are no other sites with such a large archive as theirs, I guess we are now seeing one of the effects of having all your eggs in one basket... :-/

#18 Sat, 21 Feb 2009 - 00:03 68kMLA

*ding!*

Anyone remember that on the download page, it would pop up a

"Download from which server?

Mirror 1 (europe)

theunderdogs.org"

thingy???

Maybe 'mirror 1' is still up :b&w:

Quick, search your history and find that mirror! (i can't because i recently "nuked" my web-mac)

I'm gonna run over to my other web-mac and see if i can find it there!

#19 Sat, 21 Feb 2009 - 00:12 68kMLA

Unforunately, both mirrors are down as far as I can tell.

#20 Sat, 21 Feb 2009 - 00:19 68kMLA

Unforunately, both mirrors are down as far as I can tell.

...Have you checked???

The closest i have had in luck (stupid google) is getting a google cache of http://mac.the-underdogs.info/download.php?id=258

I need a cache of http://mac.the-underdogs.info/download.php?id=258&loc=1

archive.org doesnt even have that much

Grrrr...

#21 Sat, 21 Feb 2009 - 08:18 68kMLA

It's not how big, but how long it will stay online.

Click to expand...

Also connection/download speed. Slow sites are the worst. *cough*LINE*cough*

I disagree. Speed is totally irrelevant. I can get a file with 5kb/s or 5000kb/s, but i get the file in each case. If a site is offline however, then i would call this the worst kind of site

#22 Sat, 21 Feb 2009 - 16:20 68kMLA

Unforunately, both mirrors are down as far as I can tell.

Click to expand...

...Have you checked???

The closest i have had in luck (stupid google) is getting a google cache of http://mac.the-underdogs.info/download.php?id=258

I need a cache of http://mac.the-underdogs.info/download.php?id=258&loc=1

archive.org doesnt even have that much

Grrrr...

Yes, I have checked.

Here's the file index.

http://web.archive.org/web/20080106023835/mac.the-underdogs.info/index.php?show=all

And here's a game download page, for Oregon Trail.

http://web.archive.org/web/20061125095903/mac.the-underdogs.info/download.php?id=101

Each "mirror" is really linked through the-underdogs.info, which obviously is down. Neither of them work. The links themselves use a script, so I'm not even sure what domains they actually link to.

?id=101&loc=0 theunderdogs.org

?id=101&loc=1 Mirror 1 (Europe)

#23 Sun, 22 Feb 2009 - 20:24 68kMLA

It's not how big, but how long it will stay online.

Click to expand...

Also connection/download speed. Slow sites are the worst. *cough*LINE*cough*

Click to expand...

I disagree. Speed is totally irrelevant. I can get a file with 5kb/s or 5000kb/s, but i get the file in each case. If a site is offline however, then i would call this the worst kind of site .

Nope, I'd rather have an offline site than a site with slow as heck downloads.

#24 Mon, 2 Mar 2009 - 02:05 68kMLA

Thank you so much for MacHut and The Macintosh Conservatory.. We should start something to get Macintosh Garden back up..I for one was so close to finally grabbing all the games I wanted back..and then BAM! it hit me as hard.. as hard as I'd imagine it hit some of you..

I'm gonna ask my family/friends if they have any old mac software lying around that I could borrow. I'm turning an old G3 iBook into my gaming machine. It runs Mac OS 9.1, so in my mind, that's good enough to run a significant number of old PowerPC era games..and maybe some 68K..I wish my dad hadn't got rid of our old LC575.. (my username is a reference to a childhood computer)

I have a buncha games on my family's old first-gen iMac, mostly demos and freeware I collected..will see about exporting those to the Conservatory and MacHut.

Bumping this thread to say that we really need to revive the spirit of Macintosh Garden as best we can..I miss certain games that you could find there and not other places, and I hope anyone who finds new software to share with us can do so. It's pretty tricky when you're using an Intel Mac that has no support for Classic, much less the oldies..

#25 Mon, 2 Mar 2009 - 02:08 68kMLA

I have a buncha games on my family's old first-gen iMac, mostly demos and freeware I collected..will see about exporting those to the Conservatory and MacHut.
Bumping this thread to say that we really need to revive the spirit of Macintosh Garden as best we can..I miss certain games that you could find there and not other places, and I hope anyone who finds new software to share with us can do so. It's pretty tricky when you're using an Intel Mac that has no support for Classic, much less the oldies..

LC 575... that's actually the machine I'm using to upload the files to the site. :beige:

Thanks for the support! If you run across any oldies, PM me here or contact me at Mac Conservatory. Just found a good one myself, Space Madness. It's on the site now, and I recommend it!

#26 Mon, 2 Mar 2009 - 07:56 68kMLA

I emailed someone who is familiar with the Macintosh Garden situation, and asked if it's going to get back online or not.

Here's the reply I got:

Hi Josh,

It looks pretty grim. The webhost for MG's parent site Home of the Underdogs has declared bankruptcy. The MG and Underdogs admins haven't touched their sites or answered our pleas in years, and UD's only public statement about the bankruptcy was a one-sentence Twitter post. I doubt either of them have backups of MG's database, with its 10,000 threads of community discussion (and 1.2 million of automated spam.)

(Seriously... those are the actual numbers. If the average spam was only 100 bytes, that works out to several dozen novels' worth of spam.)

Meanwhile, the moderators and regulars have copies of all 900-odd games between us -- we just have nowhere to put them. (We were in contact with a web developer who offered to build and host a more robust site, but haven't heard from him in a couple months. So it goes...)

Dax

#27 Mon, 2 Mar 2009 - 09:18 68kMLA

DAMN!

#28 Mon, 2 Mar 2009 - 16:00 68kMLA

Preterhuman is back on hotline again. :b&w:

#29 Tue, 3 Mar 2009 - 07:18 68kMLA

Preterhuman is back on hotline again. :b&w:

It has been for a few months...

#30 Tue, 3 Mar 2009 - 23:41 68kMLA

Try emailing the person back and showing them that hotline site, I am sure they would agree to upload what they do have.

#31 Wed, 4 Mar 2009 - 05:40 68kMLA

There's an effort to resurrect Home of the Underdogs going on right now, and I would appreciate it if someone who has access to the Mac Garden files could get in touch.There is a Google group at http://groups.google.com/group/hotu-revival. Thanks!

#32 Thu, 5 Mar 2009 - 20:50 68kMLA

I'm going to join that group; looks promising.

#33 Fri, 13 Mar 2009 - 12:30 68kMLA

Is there still hope?

When I try to go to http://mac.the-underdogs.org, the upcoming screen says: webserver is up and working.

Let's hope this is the start of a renewal of Macintosh Garden.

#34 Fri, 20 Mar 2009 - 18:13 68kMLA

Is there still hope?
When I try to go to http://mac.the-underdogs.org,'>http://mac.the-underdogs.org, the upcoming screen says: webserver is up and working.

Let's hope this is the start of a renewal of Macintosh Garden.

While this link is http://mac.the-underdogs.org, the real site is http://mac.the-underdogs.info .

#35 Sat, 21 Mar 2009 - 22:33 68kMLA

Wackymacs, do you have enough room on the Mac Hut to support the archive?

#36 Mon, 23 Mar 2009 - 07:57 68kMLA

Enough space, yes, bandwidth, probably not. Why? Do you have a complete/partial mirror of the files?

#37 Mon, 23 Mar 2009 - 16:26 68kMLA

Man ....

Talk about synchronicity. lol

I'd just read that MG was down today, then read a another message that said some people were working to get it back online.

They said around April 1st, 2009 -- ignore the date coincidence! lol -- that there should be, at the very least, a placeholder website here > Macintosh Garden v2.0

:b&w:

#38 Mon, 23 Mar 2009 - 19:58 68kMLA

Enough space, yes, bandwidth, probably not. Why? Do you have a complete/partial mirror of the files?

No. I just thought it might be helpful for the people keeping the archive.

#39 Thu, 26 Mar 2009 - 12:21 68kMLA

BTW the Home of the Underdogs is back www.hotud.org

I've been asked to add some Mac games to the database via Excel spreadsheet.

I started last night, had 50 games down and turns out it didn't save....

PEBKAC I think.

#40 Thu, 26 Mar 2009 - 16:57 68kMLA

http://www.hotud.org/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=87&topic=14.0

It seems like http://www.macintoshgarden.org will soon be the place…

#41 Thu, 26 Mar 2009 - 18:24 68kMLA

Yay!

I hope someone is backing it up

#42 Fri, 27 Mar 2009 - 07:48 68kMLA

Yay! I hope someone is backing it up

I will do a regular mirror when it is online.

#43 Mon, 30 Mar 2009 - 01:45 68kMLA

Hi all,

I'm still working on the new Macintosh Garden, yes it will soon be up on the domain http://macintoshgarden.org . Here's a screenshot of the home page, please let me know what you think.

macgarden-home.png.48e7feee428b1548b28c7c5b9450dd34.png

#44 Mon, 30 Mar 2009 - 04:30 68kMLA

Technically Maxis didn't make A-Train.

#45 Mon, 30 Mar 2009 - 06:10 68kMLA

Nice!

Though personally i would prefer it to look like it did.

Personaly, i don't care i you make it flourecent orange text on a white background, as long as it gets up soon!

#46 Mon, 30 Mar 2009 - 21:34 68kMLA

Technically Maxis didn't make A-Train.

I didn't make a train either when I was kid.

#47 Tue, 31 Mar 2009 - 18:14 68kMLA

I went to MacintoshGarden.Org & all I get's a 404.

Tomorrow -- April 1st, 2009 -- is the day they said they'd at least have a placeholder.

I don't see anything.

:b&w:

#48 Tue, 31 Mar 2009 - 18:46 68kMLA

Hmmm... Me thinks that maybe this will be on Apple's release schedule... "tomorrow"

could mean at 11:59:59 at some other, un herd of country in the world...

So check back on the third

#49 Wed, 1 Apr 2009 - 02:31 68kMLA

Check back on the 3rd ....

Will do!

By the way, I love the new look!

Like a few've said -- ta have it back the way it was before'd be nice but this way's good, too.

It keeps the spirit, if you will, of the original design: attractive, clean & intuitively easy to navigate.

And that's what's importsnt.

Lastly, unless you have a 68000 or PowerPC-based Macintosh computer, Macintosh Garden's delights are useless.

Has anyone heard anything of a "Classic Mode"-like hack for Intel Macintosh computers ?

No -- I don't wanna use MinivMac or whatever -- they never seem ta work for me.

:b&w:

P.S. :

@MacGeek

Someone famous is from Evansville but I forget who. lol

#50 Wed, 1 Apr 2009 - 07:14 68kMLA

Hey guys,

Hmm, I don't know how that April 1st date ever came about. I'm going to try and put the site up as soon as possible, I just need to find suitable hosting. Mac Garden's not quite finished but I'm going to put it up and we can take it from there. Please join the Google group to keep up to date:

http://groups.google.com/group/macintoshgarden

There are a lot of games that need descriptions and screenshots etc. Is anyone interested in helping out? The site's a wiki so it's easy to edit.

@CaryMG,

Thanks so much for liking it! I did try to stay true to the original Mac Garden... and I'm hoping it will keep it real with today's younger audience. I'm really glad you like it, thanks

I'm on an intel mac too. It would be nice if we didn't have to emulate these old games, is there a better way? Mind you, I've had good luck with SheepShaver:

http://lowendmac.com/mac2win/08m2w/sheepshaver-for-mac-os-x.html

#51 Wed, 1 Apr 2009 - 12:58 68kMLA

Personally, I like Mini vMac.

http://minivmac.sourceforge.net/

It;ll be nice when they get the FPU emulation working for the mac 2!

#52 Thu, 9 Apr 2009 - 02:28 68kMLA

Macintosh Garden is now online, http://macintoshgarden.org

Please let me know of any suggestions, thoughts, ideas etc. We also need a lot of help to re-upload all the games, any help is welcome.

#53 Tue, 14 Apr 2009 - 20:18 68kMLA

I like it a lot !

I started my account & how cool was it that after clicking the ADVENTURE category, the 1st game I see is "Captain Blood" --

a game I uploaded to MG! lol

Continued success !

:b&w: