High Quality PSX Doom Music (who has the webspace?)
While discussing the current issues with mp3s over in the beta 6.6 thread, I started thinking about the playstation music pack I compiled back in the day, and how the community might enjoy me uploading it somewhere, if anyone is willing to provide the space. The pack replaces the music in both Ultimate Doom and Doom2 when used, and is higher quality than the tracks you can find on the Doom Depot. I obtained these tracks on the Doomworld forums a long time ago, when they were uploaded one at a time by a user named FirebrandX. The links for each track were deleted as people downloaded them, however - and are now long gone. I took it upon myself back in the day to package them, and rename the tracks accordingly - so each level would play the corresponding music from the PSX Doom. The pack also includes some Doom64 and PSX final Doom music for the extra levels not included in the PSX version of Doom. I balanced the volume of a few tracks so they would better fit the game as well.
I think it's time I stopped keeping this pack for myself, but first and foremost - Who possibly has the space to host it? The entire pack is 417MB. It really is a gem for any Doomer, and could possibly interest some people.
I think it's time I stopped keeping this pack for myself, but first and foremost - Who possibly has the space to host it? The entire pack is 417MB. It really is a gem for any Doomer, and could possibly interest some people.
Comments
I suppose they could be hosted on files.dengine.net but maybe not. Technically, it is illegal to distribute them.
I'd advice to upload them to mediafire.com, split the archive to 50MB RAR volumes if you need to (would be easier to upload incase it drops out). Or, if you prefer, I do have quite a few GB's of space to spare for hosting these files if needed (if Deng staff would prefer to not be held liable for such things) so I could PM you an FTP username/password for you to upload them to, and create a new subdomain on my currently-under-construction mainsite, something like doom.sonus-online.net (although I would throttle download limit as it's only a shared host right now).
Let's see what Dani, Jaako or KuriKai has to say though.
Hmm... I assumed that the Doom Depot had looked into that before releasing all those soundtracks on their site. If it really is illegal, then I won't upload it. I own copies of PSX Doom and PSX Final Doom as well, so I assume it's ok for people like us to have the soundtrack on our computers.
Also, regarding the size - I realized that there are some duplicates, since Ultimate Doom levels use some of the same tracks as Doom2 for the PSX version. I guess this could be remedied with an audio DED file. That way, I could delete the duplicates. I won't do any of this if it indeed turns out to be illegal to upload these files, however.
Well it's like abandonware (commercial games that can no longer be bought anywhere and the original publisher/developer doesn't support or even recognize it's existence, or the company doesnt exist anymore) or ROM's for Atari 2600 - its a grey area and a Lawsuit would be more trouble than it's worth. Usually the webhost is the first to shutdown such a site, if they feel it is against the ToS.
I remember reading about the High-Resolution Sprite Project team who sent an email to iD Software, they said it's ok to make and share these enhanced sprites "as long as it is designed and capable of only working with the full registered games". Anybody can extract Ogg's/Mp3's from a PK3 file though, and in this case particularly one of their games was reverse engineered and/or disassembled - a direct breach of the License Agreement.
Fact is, it's copyrighted material. To be honest, I don't think anyone would care. At least until it gains popularity. Doom Depot was an underground site, iD probably never knew of it's existence. But the fact that I even mentioned the word illegal here and now was a bit of a mistake, it's like a beacon for attention from people who could give you a corporate spanking.
It sucks doesn't it. The PSX music is awesome.
Maybe I/we could create a small tool to "build" the PK3 soundtrack from the original PSX disc(s). It is easily doable with a batchfile (or preferably an AutoIt script) and a few commandline tools (ripper, encoder and ZIP packager). This would get around the copyright issue since the original PlayStation disc would be needed, but obviously not everybody will be able to use them then. That's how projects like BartPE still exist - non-inclusion of original, commercial files but takes them from a valid source the user provides.
I dont know if the Deng staff will even reply to this. If they don't, I guess that's their answer on how they feel on this 'grey area' (i.e., no comment - we dont want anything to do with it) in which case a webhost is definately required.
Which I could provide.
Let me know if you want FTP details and I can do up the DED's easily for you and make a package, and start a mirror for files that the Deng team would rather not be held liable for.
Just a P.S. in referance to that statement. Technically that is not legal either [haha] but the validity of having such a thing can easily be defended - while it is a 'decompilation of end-user material', it's (a) for personal use in a product made by the same creator and is only compatible with it alone, (b) The user owns authentic copies of the game, (c) Would further raise interest/popularity in a game that still has life left in it, thanks to the community, therefore increasing possible profits for the parent company. My webhost, for one, has agreed to let some 'grey area' material be hosted on the site as long as a disclaimer / agreement based on points above is present, and if the original authors were to ever complain then I must remove the material in regard after they prove their identity.
That's actually a really good idea. I would actually love to have even higher quality recordings, like 320kbps, or even .WAV files. That would be really nice.
Sounds good. If we hear from the DENG team, I would be willing to do that if it's not too much of a legal issue.
For Final Doom, I can't remember how I did it (it was years ago) because it uses the newer Copy Protection from later PSX games. I think I used that Japanese Tool which can decode STR videos and understands the RAW filesystem format of many PSX discs.
I also have an original copy of Hexen for PSX
You know what? Who cares. Upload it somewhere like MediaFire or Rapidshare man and post the links here. I will download them, make a package out of them, combine them with the extra tracks unique to the Sega Saturn version (which was otherwise identical to PSX version), test it, upload it to my FTP, and post a final music-pack link here of our finished pack.
And if the Deng team like it, they'll mirror it on files.dengine.net