Wargamer.com Games Depot - Where is it?

[Crossroads]

It seems Wargamer.com made a complete overhaul of their website. All for good I am sure, but I can't locate their Games Depot anymore for scenario downloads. [&:]

http://www.wargamer.com/Article/10026

Anyone found it?

[JosephM]

Hello Crossroads,

Unfortunately the new site no longer has the Games Depot on it, as it was largely unused so a decision was made to remove this from the site. I'm sorry for this.

[Crossroads]

ORIGINAL: Joseph M

Hello Crossroads,

Unfortunately the new site no longer has the Games Depot on it, as it was largely unused so a decision was made to remove this from the site. I'm sorry for this.

Ok, well that's bad news... So I assume all the old scenarios uploaded there are gone too?

I was looking for some old Panzer Leader and Panzerblitz situation conversions done with Campaign Series West Front and East Front II...

[wings7]

I hope the old scenarios re-surface somewhere. Anyone here have the expertise, time and contacts to bring this great resource back?

Patrick

[JosephM]

Hello Crossroads,

Unfortunately they are not available as a resource on the site anymore. You could contact the Wargamer guys directly if you are looking for the scenarios for adding to a new site.

[Crossroads]

Thank you Joseph,

I was able to contact the scenario designer I was looking for directly, and he actually has all the files still available.

I do hope nothing is lost forever regarding other scenario designer's work.

[RyanCrierie]

I'm mightily disappointed in this decision.

I can understand part of the reason to close down the Scenario Depot; as interactive elements of a website require careful scrutiny which absorbs time -- just try running a blog and leaving for six months -- only to find it overrun with spambots.

That said; it seems it would have been less damaging to the community as a whole to set it to READ ONLY mode; instead of deleting it.

There was a lot of stuff there not available elsewhere; as the Scenario Depot was the go to place for the computer wargaming community for a good couple years in the early Aughts (00s).

Let me put it this way:

Steel Panthers 1: 562 Scenarios
Steel Panthers 2: 315 Scenarios
Steel Panthers 3: 11 Scenarios

Steel Panthers World At War: 555 Scenarios

Steel Panthers MBT: 188 Scenarios
Steel Panthers WW2: 104 Scenarios

TOAW III: 70 Scenarios
TOAW Vol 1: 211 Scenarios
TOAW Vol 2: 55 Scenarios:
TOAW COW: 257 Scenarios
TOAW: WOTY: 27 scenarios

West Front: 217 Scenarios
East Front II: 157 Scenarios

Panzer General II: 344 Scenarios

[Erik Rutins]

Nik at the Wargamer just sent me this link. I'll see if there's anything we can do to allow this resource to remain available for the community:

http://old.wargamer.com/gamesdepot/

[Crossroads]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

Nik at the Wargamer just sent me this link. I'll see if there's anything we can do to allow this resource to remain available for the community:

http://old.wargamer.com/community/gamesdepot/

Great news! [&o]

[wings7]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

Nik at the Wargamer just sent me this link. I'll see if there's anything we can do to allow this resource to remain available for the community:

http://old.wargamer.com/community/gamesdepot/

Yes, great news! [:)]

Patrick

[RyanCrierie]

I'm sad to say that this just doesn't work.

Problem 1: I brought up the TOAW Volume I section to browse; and I saw at the bottom:

"Maximum 50 results found. Please refine search with more keywords..."

There are 211 Scenarios for TOAW Volume I on the Scenario Depot.

Problem 2: Database links are broken. I brought up the following scenario:

http://old.wargamer.com/community/games ... p?sid=1292

The Operational Art of War VOL I : Denmark

File Author :
File Added : 6 NOV 2000
Total Downloads : (Last 30 Days : 0)
Click to Download -
Click to
Download

Location : Denmark, Northern Europe
Opponents : Danes Germans
Date : 9 APR 1940
Scale : company battalion regiment 10km/hex

Description :

German attack on its small and unprepared neighbor Denmark. Historically this plan was carried out simultaneously with the attack on Norway.

Yet when I click on the DOWNLOAD FILE link, I get:

Active Server Pages error 'ASP 0126'

Include file not found

/file.asp, line 1

The include file '/includes/db.asp' was not found.

[Crossroads]

ORIGINAL: RyanCrierie

I'm sad to say that this just doesn't work.

Ah, you are right. I tried the link late last evening and did a sample search, but did not proceed into downloading anything.

I can confirm a similar error report when attempting a download.

[shunwick]

Guys,

The games depot at Wargamer has been broken for a number of years. Look at the Computer Gaming forum over there and find the thread entitled Games Depot. I began that thread over three years ago.

Best wishes,
Steve

[Wargamer Editor]

Hi guys,

Apologies for not getting back on this sooner.

Basically as Joe mentioned above we decided to remove the Games Depot from the new site because, as far as we could tell, it had gone the way of the Dodo in terms of use. However, the information should still all be on our servers and the link Erik posted takes you to what was accessible through the old site at the point we changed over.

If there is demand we can certainly look into making the resource available through the new site in some way.


Cheers,

Nik

[shunwick]

Nik,

Thanks for the interest. The problem began when the Games Depot began malfunctioning many years ago and many scenarios were unable to be downloaded. Without a fix for the problem, or much in the way of acknowledgement that there was even a problem, people lost faith in the games depot and stopped using it for uploading new scenarios.

Whether or not there is enough interest in the Games Depot at this point is debatable.

Best wishes,
Steve

[Wargamer Editor]

OK, looks to me like the issues started before my time and probably explains why I hadn't really noticed as people have given up on it in the main.

I'll talk to the tech people to see what data we have that still exists - it may well still be on the servers but other things are what stopped access.

[Crossroads]

I am happy to announce that having exchanged some emails with Alan R. Arvold, he has maintained a copy of all his scenarios. In co-operation with him I am posting all of them to The Blitz Wargaming Club Scenario DB so they remain available for everyone. Downloading scenarios from The Blitz does not require a membership nor a registration.

See HERE (Prokhorovka: The Ultimate Battle) and HERE (Ode To Panzerblitz / Panzer Leader).

It would be nice of course should Matrix / Slitherine come up with a polished Scenario Depot to support all their great games, though. Don't you think?

Hint hint wink wink [:)]


Edit: Those are Matrix Campaign Series scenarios I am uploading there, to be specific.

[RyanCrierie]

Any update on the Games Depot? Is the data (the saved ZIP files of the scenarios) there; just locked behind a corrupted database, or is it worse?

[RyanCrierie]

The Internet Archive has a copy of the 2011-Mid 2003 Scenario Depot here:

https://web.archive.org/web/20110303050 ... amesdepot/

Scenarios with an upload date from before mid-2003 weren't archived. [:@]

[IainMcNeil]

Its probably best to move the discussion to the wargamer forums where the team can see it as they don't come over here very often?