Can old demos from 2003 still be viewed?

[hyness]

I have some very old demos from 2003 and 2004 that I would love to watch, but I have never been able to figure out how and fear it may be impossible.  The files end in a .dm_83 extension, and all of my current demos end in .dm_84.  From my own research it appears you must run the same version of ET and the mod that created it, but I really don't know much more than that.  I tried renaming them to .dm_84 which caused them to show up in the list of replays, but they failed to play with the following error

 

demoMsglen > MAX_MSGLEN

 

I figured if anyone would know how to watch these, it would be the big brains here on FA.

 

Thanks!

[rMks]

@HarryAimpotter is good in this things - maybe he can help you

[RedBaird]

I think that you can change the extensions to .dm_84 and play them.

 

I seem to remember changing .dm_82's to 84s...

 

uhoh, did @rMks just beat me to the answer here? 

[Bynke]

Oh i wish i had kept old demos from 2003-2005

then i could have reexperienced old days playing were i played with clans like [.] descendants of thule from Denmark and [+] teamskill a dutch clan or even pracc with uM.

but they are long gone. If anyone would happen to have demos recorded from warleagues.no from waay down in echo groups from those years that would be cool to see.

I like watching these demos this youtuber has put up on youtube https://www.youtube.com/@homiertcw/videos great historic account there and many hours watching.

 

[Tukkonen]

Don't have that old demos to test things myself. Hopefully this link provides some help. Just needs 2.6 installation.

 

 

[RedBaird]

On 9/11/2023 at 11:05 AM, RedBaird said:

I seem to remember changing .dm_82's to 84s...

 

From Game update (patch) to Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory , a(n) action game, v.2.60, added on Tuesday, March 22, 2005.

 

" /demo can now specify .dm_83 extension explicitly, and will try dm_83 and dm_84 if extension isn't specified.  "

 

There are some dm_xx to AVI converters out there, too.  I can't find any of my old dm_82 files to test my 'change ext' idea on.

 

[RedBaird]

On 9/11/2023 at 11:01 AM, hyness said:

some very old demos from 2003

 

I was trying to find some dm_83 files online to test my method on and then remembered that YOU have some of those files.

 

(I even found a program to convert Nintendo files to dm_83 😄 )

 

You can just upload one of your dm_83 files here and I can test my thesis.  😄 

 

  OR you could provide a link to a file-sharing site. 😄

Edited September 15, 2023 by RedBaird
+ OR

[Cerium]

Go to a server that runs the mod the demo was recorded in and download the mod (example: you will need to download regular ET (doesn't work with ET Legacy last I tried) and download etpro to watch etpro demos)

Put demo in the demo folder of said mode (you can create 'demos' folder yourself) and Rename the demo to .dm_84

Launch said mod, go to demos and launch the demo

May need to download the specific map if you don't have it

 

 

[RedBaird]

@Cerium provided many details that I didn't think of! 😮 

 

Yes, if it is an 'old' demo, you might not have the same installation as you do now.  I have never considered what to do if a demo file was not in its original mod-folder.   

[hyness]

Sorry for the necrobump and late reply but I wanted to let you know that I was able to view the demos.  I'm still a bit high on the nostalgia 😁.  I was trying to view the files in ETLegacy and vanilla ET, but the only way (so far) I was able to view the demos was with the ET Demo Viewer through Wine (I use Linux primarily).  I thought I'd attach the demos here for anyone interested in a peek back into the ET scene in 2003 and 2004.  I haven't watched them all, but I did spot check a few and laughed a bit at the Iraq war talk (it had just started!).  I'll explore turning these into videos, but these demos are from a server called BSD (like the O/S).  I was told at the time it was just a server, not a clan. 

 

Thanks everyone for your help!

Demos from 2003-04

Edited November 3, 2023 by hyness

[RedBaird]

5 minutes ago, hyness said:

I was able to view the demos was with the ET Demo Viewer through Wine (I use Linux primarily). 

 

Very Interesting!  You found a new use for Clan Friend Sunlight's tool.  It has been very useful over the years, but I doubt that any of us thought of using it in this way! 😄 

 

(Link below for those who have not found it yet.  The Files menu has changed a bit.  In the Featured Downloads section, hit the > tab to see demo-View next. 😄 )

 

 

 

[RedBaird]

 

By The Way, if you have a demo-file that is too large to be uploaded, I have found that I can use certain kinds of text editors to cut the file in half.  Use the kind that do not add end-of-line characters to a file.  (I am not sure if I used notepad or notepad++ or a Hex-editor). 

 

ET or (maybe?) DemoViewer will complain about the 'abend' (unexpected end), but ET won't crash.  😄  

 

We should keep the complete file as un-edited evidence.

 

 

 

 

Edited November 3, 2023 by RedBaird
change you to we in last line