Stonish.net - Atari ST Menu disks (Euroswap, FOFT, SFX...)

[Methanoid]

@Methanoid : there is a missing list, but it's not accurate. Need to improve it a bit, that's why there's no link on the homepage to this list.
You can find it here: http://stonish.net/missingmenus.php
Also don't consider Pompey Pirates nor Superior /FOF menus in the list. I'm working on them, which takes time.

There's now more than 2750 disks on the site. Hope to reach the magical number of 3000 menus before the end of the year.

tHANKS but a dat of what you DO have would make it easy to run any collection through (like when looking for stuff not in TOSEC), renaming files and leaving files not recognised?

[Brume]

TOSEC? What is it?

[Methanoid]

TOSEC? What is it?

Very out of date

[Brume]

Good news for all menus collectors: I have recently met Rebel MC from the Fanatics.
He brought hundreds of floppy disks at home and I've started to dump them (Pulsion, Fanatics, Impact, Zuul, FMC-Connexion...). A few of them need to be repaired, but they work!
Of course they are perfect additions to fill the gaps on the website. Have uploaded some of them, but more will soon arrive.

Also, have found rare cracks and demos on Rebel MC's disks. I've started to send them to Lotek Style (for demozoo) and Marcer (for GameDVD project).

Hope you'll enjoy like I did

[Maartau]

[Brume]

Have some time today, so I'd like to work on the problem mentioned here by AtariZoll:
viewtopic.php?f=42&t=31867

After reading all messages, here is what I suggest about the state of each menu-disk:

1. menu-disk is missing
2. menu-disk lacks parts
3. menu-disk is slightly damaged
4. menu-disk is fine
5. menu-disk and all software are 100% tested

Let me know if it's OK for you and I'll modify the site consequently.
Of course, I'm ready to discuss. Any suggestion is welcome.
Thanks in advance.

[Stefan jL]

Maybe change number four to something like this:
.
.
.
4. menu-disk is fine but software untested
.

[Brume]

Thanks for your message, Stefan jL.
Well, that's not really exact, since I try to test all software on each disk.
I don't test them fully, but I try at least to start each game and play a few secs/minutes with it. So can't really say they are untested.

[Stefan jL]

Like this maybe is better:
"4. menu-disk is fine but software not fully tested"

[Killers]

Thanks
Are you Killer's from Passwords/Euroswap?

Oui

[Gumbo]

Good work -

[Brume]

Short announcement: Stonish is open for 3 years now (happy birthday). And it now offers its 3000th menu disk.
Thanks to everyone who helped me to recover/repair disks.
Hope to bring back to life more & more disks in the next weeks/months.
Enjoy

[MagikGimp]

Short announcement: Stonish is open for 3 years now (happy birthday). And it now offers its 3000th menu disk.

This is such great news. Time definitely flies and I love the coincidence (1000 menus a year?! I'll never get through so many!)
Big congrats Brume; here's to another 30.

[matt]

Congrats!

PP menus soon?

[Brume]

Thanks guys
Yes, PP soon

[MagikGimp]

PP menus soon?

Heh, I was going to start mouthing off about "completionists" and how the most ubiquitous cracking and packing group aren't really the point of Stonish. And then I tried to find where to download the menus! Not as easy as it once was it turns out!

Of course this site has been up for donkey's years (20 years now?) but never did host the disks themselves as far as I'm aware. I purchased the CDs from Rich @ Little Green Desktop years ago which had them (and more) and is my source of those menus but he stopped maintaining the site years ago too (I'm saying "years ago" an awful lot...) although you can still purchase downloads of the disk images by the looks of it here.

I did find this still up, which is nice, if people are desperate for them and I expect there are other sources too. Don't know what he means by "FIXED"; I'll perhaps have to check that out one day. I know they fixed a bunch of menus to make them work on the STE so that might be what that's referring to.
Often you find that the ROM sites have some here and there too but you're searching for specific games rather than the menus themselves in those cases which makes it harder to track down a full set.

[matt]

PP menus soon?

Of course this site has been up for donkey's years (20 years now?) but never did host the disks themselves as far as I'm aware. I purchased the CDs from Rich @ Little Green Desktop years ago which had them (and more) and is my source of those menus but he stopped maintaining the site years ago too (I'm saying "years ago" an awful lot...) although you can still purchase downloads of the disk images by the looks of it here.

That's my site

I have a CD with all the PP disks on... somewhere... but it seems that Brume already has them all but no time to catalog them?

most/all of the discs are here: http://thegamearchives.net/?val=0_2_1_0_0_4_25_0_16_8_0

as far as I know they're in TOSEC and Gamebase ST collections too.

http://gbst.atomas.com/gamebase%20impor ... README.php

[Brume]

Finding PP menus isn't the problem. They are well spread on the Internet for more than 20 years.

I've started to test them all a few months ago and found a tool on Menu #13 part IV a file checker. Have tried this tool of most of the menus and it appears that they don't match with the checking. In many case, it appears it's a minor issue (desktop.ini has been changed) but it some cases, .PRG or data files don't match.

As you know, I'm trying to upload the most perfect dumps possible. That's what I stoped to check PP disks and I moved to something else (FOF / Superior menus gave took me a look time to check recently).
I didn't find the time to find more sources of the PP collection, but it's in my TODO list, I promise

[MagikGimp]

That's my site

I feel a bit silly now! I did know about the loss of the original host for that site but completely forgot so sorry about that; I should have know better. It's great to see it still here.

Have tried this tool of most of the menus and it appears that they don't match with the checking. In many case, it appears it's a minor issue (desktop.ini has been changed) but it some cases, .PRG or data files don't match.

This is fascinating. I wonder if this is widespread and has always been the case- for as long as that website's been around! Nevertheless do you think it at all worth us checking other sources for the same problem? This isn't something to do with the STE fixes is it? Never thought it would be necessary to start tracking down Pompey Pirate disks again of all things!

[catmando]

That's my site

I have a CD with all the PP disks on... somewhere... but it seems that Brume already has them all but no time to catalog them?

most/all of the discs are here: http://thegamearchives.net/?val=0_2_1_0_0_4_25_0_16_8_0

as far as I know they're in TOSEC and Gamebase ST collections too.

http://gbst.atomas.com/gamebase%20impor ... README.php

Aside from the menus, how did you come by the information about the group written by The Alien?

[MagikGimp]

(from http://www.gingerbeardman.com/archive/)

Archive of http://www.ewtoo.org/~matt/

At the end of 2007, an old web server died. It had been hosting some old sites that were created between 1996 and 2000. I managed to rescue 99% of stuff from archive.org - everything bar a few images really.

So basically The Alien wrote the site himself (by himself) once apon a time, another thing he (and not anyone else!) did as the mainstay of the group. He'll be far too modest to tell you this himself of course.

[matt]

I created the PP site whilst at University, I was still into STs and was looking for things to make websites about that did not exist online at the time. The original URL: http://www.csc.liv.ac.uk/~u5ms/pp/ (archive.org link)
Alien found the site, it was early internet days after all, sent me an email and CD containing all the menus, and I asked him to write an email about the history of the group. During the course of our correspondence he forgot himself and told me his real name.

After I left Uni my account was to be closed so I moved my website to a friends server, which survived until 2007: http://www.ewtoo.org/~matt/pp/ (archive.org link)
So I used the archive.org to recover most of the files (what, no backup!?) and have hosted them on my own server since.

I lost touch with him, but I just checked and he is on Facebook

[Desty]

Just found Stonish today and was astonished by its usefulness... hope to see it evolve more, maybe we could have a comments/notes section for each disk image, or per program (since they're already stored in a table for easy cross-referencing). Great stuff!

[Brume]

Hey Desty, thank you very much for your message

Yes, something like a comments/notes section should be integrated.
It won't be included soon, because something else (huge! ) is planned with the site.
But that's definitely an option that needs to be included, you're right.

[aktiv8]

It won't be included soon, because something else (huge! ) is planned with the site.

Brume - you tease!

Look forward to whatever the huge plan is!