[OFFER] Quake Episode 1 - Shareware CDROM
I'm still going through my retro trove of CDs from decades ago. And I'm sure there may be demand for me to rip and photograph id Software's "Quake Episode 1 Shareware" CD-ROM.
A small story: I am an id Software fan. And I dug their work from the '90s from Wolf3D to Doom. But Quake was the reason for me to build a Pentium 266Mhz MMX 128MB machine back then. Let's just say it was not disappointing in showing off how some reasonably beefy hardware can make a 3D game like that shine! Coupled with Trent Reznor's background score played through a powerful yet precise speaker system and it is deeply immersive to say the least!
But the real thing is this: Is it okay to completely share a total rip of an awesome mixed-mode shareware CD when it is marked as shareware, including its redbook audio?
Or, how about this: What if id Software made a mistake and somehow included most of its commercial games on that disc in encrypted format, not anticipating that the encryption would be broken?
One day, back in the '90s, I went to Radio Shack and found that they had a couple of these discs for sale for$10 a piece. So I bought the last two. I unwrapped one of the CDs and also did some research online and found that there was a crack for the encryption. I downloaded the crack, ran it against the IDSTUFF sampler upon the CD via a MS-DOS 6.22 system with Microsoft Windows v3.1. And it worked! I retrieved the ill-gotten goodies and backed them up upon an ol' LS-120 diskette.
More than a couple decades later, here we are. The other disc is still sealed and untouched within shrinkwrap while its twin was taken out of its Digipak decades ago and placed within a Caselogic softcase filled with other Apogee/3D Realms CD goodies (yes, Apogee did release CD-ROM versions of their fully registered products... more at a later date). And, along with that disc, was the 1.44MB diskette where I saved the circa-1996 encryption crack!
While the LS-120 diskette was unreadable the ol' 1.44MB was readable via a cheap $15 USB 1.44MB floppy drive hooked up to my rather modern Core i7 8th Gen Intel laptop. Needless to say, the files on the diskette were retrieved, archived to 7-zip, and placed on flash storage. Likewise, full ISO, NRG, and FLAC rips of the Quake Shareware disc were generated.
If anyone is interested in a bit of gaming history here please let me know. I'll upload and place links accordingly for consideration for library submission.
From the circa-1996 notes within the crack distro:
Well here's an interesting situation. ID software has decided to release the shareware CD of quake with the _complete_ full version included in encrypted on the disc. In order to unlock the full version you have are supposed to call 1-800-IDGAMES... hahahaha. So if anybody feels like getting the game on CD for the NiN soundtrack or whatever i've heard you can get the s/w CD for under 10 bucks. As a bonus you can get the encrypted version of quake off the net! at ==> **DEAD LINK OMITTED -RD** as well as encrypted versions of doom2, heretic, hexen, add on levels, and more which can all be unlocked by this reg generator!!! there is also a chance that the crack will work with future "testdrive" products such as quicken, charts now, ... (lots to come), but they have not been tested yet.
Game on!
Comments
Quake was also a favorite of mine. First game to really scared me out of my chair. I am interested on getting the goodies!
I'm uploading the BIN+CUE 7-Zip archive into my Keybase cloud along with the crack. I don't have the fastest Internet access but it's chugging along. The BIN+CUE is the definitive data image of the disc itself, though I also created Nero NRG and ISO+FLAC rips as well in case anyone needs multiple versions of this meant-to-be-shared shareware. 😉
I'll provide links when things are all in place.
Thanks! Will wait for it.
The files are being uploaded here:
https://keybase.pub/rebeccadahl/Oldskool Software/Quake/
As a bonus, I also found my original 1997 Deathmatch Maker CDROM by Virtus Corporation. It is billed as the first authorized Quake level editor by id Software and I have not just the disc but its original box and a original pressing of 1998 Deathmatch Maker CDROM for Quake II by the same developer. Since both those titles are out of print... 😁
I had to hose and reinstall my Keybase installation due to database problems and me attempting to soak my Internet connection with data.
Now, to charge up my batteries on my Nikon and take some photos.
Thank you so much for the files and for the effort! unfortunately there is something wrong with the large .7z file, can't open it!
It's all uploading. It's going to take a few more hours but at least everything verifies here locally.
While this is still uploading...
... here are some shots from my 'droid phone which I took in haste:
The shots are the unwrapped copy of the Shareware Quake CDROM with the diskette containing the crack along with the manual and the latter are photos of the sealed shrinkwrapped Quake CDROM.
And just when I was extolling my praises of CorelDRAW Select Edition, it is now crashing on my W10 laptop when I perform advanced functions. Oh well... I'll fall back to CorelDRAW 6. 😑
I'll have to get used to GIMP.
Very cool pics! Thanks!
I've just confirmed that the Quake Shareware CDROM is now fully online via a test download and 7-Zip archive test. The BIN CUE image is ready for your consideration for archiving:
https://keybase.pub/rebeccadahl/Oldskool Software/Quake/Quake - Episode 1 Shareware Edition CDROM BIN CUE (1996) id Software.7z
Enjoy!
To wind down a day of Shareware Quake, I found not only the commercial version box in my closet but inside that box were shrinkwrapped sealed copies of not just the commercial version but another sealed shareware version! The pics below show the big commercial box to the left and to the right, up top is the shareware and down bottom is the commercial.
The print has better equalization on the commercial CD digipak plus there are differences in the UPC barcode area:
So much Quake! I wonder how much the sealed shareware versions would sell for, given that we all know what's on 'em? 😂
Really good, you have a treasure there!