Elite / Frontier Rediscovered - Elite ships Screensaver

gunbladelad · Mar 1, 2013

I've been looking through my old hard drives when I recently got forced to change PCs and found an old screensaver that I managed to get via the alt.fan.elite newsgroup back in 2003.

It's called “Witchspace” and was written by John Mackay, based on code by Daniel Lindström. The copyright date on it is for 2003. Unfortunately, the original site for it (still referred to in the screensaver as http://mackayj.*****.net ) seems to be down (not surprising after 10 years) so I have no idea on how to contact the original author. (EDIT : the auto-censor seems to be scrapping part of the url - instead of the stars have "whoosh", but replace "wh" with "d". Haven't a clue why that would be censored...)

If anyone's interested, I'll probably upload it to Space Sim Central. Of course, if the original author is still about it would be great to get his approval to do so first.

Cmdr Andy B · Mar 1, 2013

does it come with a licence document? i ask as if it was released under GPL or one or the creative commons licences that in itself would be permission to distribute it.

gunbladelad · Mar 1, 2013

Unfortunately the only thing in the zip file itself is the screensaver - there's no documentation at all.

synchromesh · Mar 2, 2013

Wouldnt mind a look at it myself ....
Meanwhile i have a couple on my website here if you havent seen them :smilie:

http://www.eliteforever.co.uk/kris.html

Susimetsa · Mar 3, 2013

Several messages here about the said screensaver, seems to have gone through several iterations:

http://groups.google.com/group/alt....lt.fan.elite/browse_frm/month/2003-11?&&pli=1

But I could see no word of the license under which it was released.

gunbladelad · Mar 4, 2013

I did my own websearch before my initial post and came up with that discussion - among others seemingly based around it.

I believe it may have been done on request and shared freely upon creation without any licence stipulations. Unfortunately, there's no version number on the version I have, but it does have the Ship Zoom-in / Zoom-out as well as the Solid / Wireframe options. (No ship names as the discussions on alt.fan.elite seemed to suggest as a change for it)

EDIT : I have just uploaded the file to Space Sim Central now (6.15am, 6th March). It should be available in the "Elite" downloads section pending approval there.

gunbladelad · Mar 7, 2013

OK, good news folks.

It's now been approved and is available on Space Sim Central under the "Elite & Elite Clones" section.

Cmdr Andy B · Mar 7, 2013

gunbladelad said:
OK, good news folks.

It's now been approved and is available on Space Sim Central under the "Elite & Elite Clones" section.

cool, thanks for the time you've spent on this - any chance of a link to the page in the first post to save people hunting for it?

gunbladelad · Mar 7, 2013

Here we are

http://spacesimcentral.com/ssc/files/file/1002-witchspace-elite-ships-screensaver/

It shows up on the "what's new" bit at the middle of the page as soon as you go to downloads anyway.

GreeceyChops · Mar 11, 2013

Looks like you can't download it without having an account, and there's no free option, it's all paid membership.

Any chance of making it available on a free download site?

Steve · Mar 11, 2013

GarethR said:
Looks like you can't download it without having an account, and there's no free option, it's all paid membership.

Not true. The clue's in the words "You do not have to purchase a package to complete registration."

GreeceyChops · Mar 11, 2013

Steve said:
Not true. The clue's in the words "You do not have to purchase a package to complete registration."

Aha, thanks, I missed that bit. Saw the parts mentioning money and ran away before I clicked anything on impulse.... I spend too much like that, and I think I've spent about enough on E : D already!

synchromesh · Mar 11, 2013

GarethR said:
Looks like you can't download it without having an account, and there's no free option, it's all paid membership.

Any chance of making it available on a free download site?

You dont pay anything...you just need to create an account and sign in.
Just like here

GreeceyChops · Mar 12, 2013

synchromesh said:
You dont pay anything...you just need to create an account and sign in.
Just like here

Yeah I got that now - it was just because the account creation page had a huge section asking how much you wanted to pay, and only 1 line saying that it was optional, which I missed...

Sorted now anyway.

gunbladelad · Mar 12, 2013

Good to see this is starting to see interest. I might have to look about my old backup discs to see what else I have tucked away that's been forgotten about since.

gunbladelad · Feb 3, 2014

I do apologise for bumping such an old thread (even though it is my own), but I'd like to say that I've found another old screensaver tucked away on my hard Drive.

It's essentially just a wireframe Cobra MkIII (think of the title screen for Elite and you're there) and it's by a Scott Franke, who based it in turn on an older OpenGL screensaver by a Richard S. Wright Jr (Information's there in the config screen for the screensaver...)

If anyone's interested, I've just uploaded it to Space Sim Central - once it's been approved it should be available for anyone who's wanting it.

flip4blud · Feb 3, 2014

i made an account and it still wont allow me to download.
Sorry, you don't have permission for that!

[#10849]
Sorry, but you do not have access to any of the functions in our Download Manager

gunbladelad · Feb 3, 2014

It's probably still waiting for approval (admittedly I've not been to SSC to check up yet today)

EDIT : It is still awaiting approval, but it should be right here if approved.