Early Dink warez release
Hi everyone. Me and kerrek were trawling the internet archive for old 3D utilities etc when I decided out of interest to search for Dink. Up popped a couple of warez CD collections from 1998 with the same cracked release of Dink on them.
Upon opening it in DxWND it shows itself to be Dink version 1.02, with the readme dated January of 1998. In it, the original notorious copyright-infringing music from Shaurrie Whyte is mentioned by name in the credits along with some brief info about her. Dinkedit is rather notably missing, as is the CD soundtrack, and of course the "goodies" from the original CD which were mostly pictures of the RTSoft devs. Otherwise, the game itself seems to be fully intact.
Strangely enough it does include a few strange batch files that look like leftovers from the exe compilation process, and the AVI files consist of an RTSoft logo that differs from what i've seen previously along with a short intro video that features a bonca and not a dragon.
According to whatsnew.txt, there were a few minor changes from 1.02 to 1.03. I'm guessing that this 1.02 release went to beta testers and those that pre-ordered first in late '97. I remember reading an interview where Seth lamented that people were buying the game just to crack it and thus can only assume that this is that cracked release he was referring to. It works fine in Freedink in case you want to test it out. I've uploaded a ready-to-run archive of it here.
Upon opening it in DxWND it shows itself to be Dink version 1.02, with the readme dated January of 1998. In it, the original notorious copyright-infringing music from Shaurrie Whyte is mentioned by name in the credits along with some brief info about her. Dinkedit is rather notably missing, as is the CD soundtrack, and of course the "goodies" from the original CD which were mostly pictures of the RTSoft devs. Otherwise, the game itself seems to be fully intact.
Strangely enough it does include a few strange batch files that look like leftovers from the exe compilation process, and the AVI files consist of an RTSoft logo that differs from what i've seen previously along with a short intro video that features a bonca and not a dragon.
According to whatsnew.txt, there were a few minor changes from 1.02 to 1.03. I'm guessing that this 1.02 release went to beta testers and those that pre-ordered first in late '97. I remember reading an interview where Seth lamented that people were buying the game just to crack it and thus can only assume that this is that cracked release he was referring to. It works fine in Freedink in case you want to test it out. I've uploaded a ready-to-run archive of it here.
Yeah, I was bummed when someone told me it was on warez sites so quick. The only way to get the CD that early was to have done a pre-order. WHO WOULD DO SUCH A THING?!?!
someone who doest appreciate the har d work designers put in.
and i will nnever use those again(especially now there great and legal ways to get games cheap and so ope all of those sites pay the developers addequitely).
def a shame tho those illegal sites probably never will go down for sure
and i will nnever use those again(especially now there great and legal ways to get games cheap and so ope all of those sites pay the developers addequitely).
def a shame tho those illegal sites probably never will go down for sure
hey seth, i was playing the hip new game, dink smallwood by rtsoft and found a house in terris. it says to contact charlie but I CANT FIND HIM
The scene prior to Operation Bucccaneer was pretty insane. People went to all sorts of lengths to get rare and obscure releases, so a pre-order is not that far-fetched. I found another slightly later release of that Dink crack that explains that the initial release didn't account for a CD check that occurs slightly later on after loading, meaning a few extra people probably legitimately bought the game in those few weeks before it was fully cracked 
.
There's also another scene release of something called the "Dink Smallwood Addon Kit" which I can't seem to find. I assume it was just DinkEdit but it'd be nice to see if there was anything else included with it that's otherwise been lost to the sands of time.
.There's also another scene release of something called the "Dink Smallwood Addon Kit" which I can't seem to find. I assume it was just DinkEdit but it'd be nice to see if there was anything else included with it that's otherwise been lost to the sands of time.
