Exile 1 version history (Windows)

[Mr_Flibble]

Until recently I did not realise that the first two games went through some very serious graphical changes after the initial release. I started digging for old versions and found quite a few old shareware packages of Exile: Escape from the Pit. However, I'm a bit confused about the chronology and release dates of those games.

 

Here's the versions that I found (mostly at cd.textfiles.com):

• v1.0.1: exile101.zip
  
• v1.0.3: EXL103.ZIP
  
• v1.1: exile11.zip (October 20, 1995)
  
• v1.1: exl11.zip (November 7, 1995)
  
• v1.1.1: EXILE111.ZIP
  
• v1.1.2: EXL112.ZIP

I've also found (through Google Groups) copies of comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg newsgroup posts made by Jeff Vogel that announce the release of v1.0.1, v1.0.2, v1.0.3 and v1.1 for Windows.

 

Some of the shareware packages include a file called VENDINFO.DIZ which contains detailed information about the game, such as the release date of the current version and reasons for update. And here's where the tricky part comes in: the dates in VENDINFO.DIZ (and date stamps on the files where VENDINFO.DIZ is not included) are way off compared to the newsgroup announcements, especially for versions 1.0.1, 1.0.2 and 1.0.3.

 

The news about the upload of v1.0.1 was posted on August 11, 1995, however the date stamps on the files in the v1.0.1 shareware package are from June 11, 1995. For v1.0.3, the announcement was apparently made on September 25, 1995, yet the VENDINFO.DIZ indicates July 14, 1995 as the version date instead. I would assume that the dates on the files themselves are correct, but then it means that no reliable date for v1.0.2, for which a shareware package seems to be unavailable.

 

Another quite confusing thing is that in the announcements, the shareware archives' filenames always follow the pattern of exile1xx.zip. Conversely, inside VENDINFO.DIZ the packages are universally called EXL1xx.

 

The third thing I was wondering about is that the version numbers as reported in each version are three digits separated by full stops (1.x.x), however VENDINFO.DIZ theres a single digit separated by a full stop from a two-digit number (1.xx). I would assume that since VENDINFO.DIZ files were apparently generated by the use of some programme and not manually, perhaps the limitations of that programme prevented from correctly giving both the version numbers and the file names, however I'd like to have this confirmed.

 

Any clarification on these questions will be deeply appreciated.

[Slawbug]

You probably already know this, but the Windows versions of Exile 1 were released some time after the Mac versions, and have a different version number scheme. For the Mac versions there were three major release chunks:

 

The initial release -- had slightly cruder graphics than most 1.x releases, a few majorly different mechanics (notably 1 action per character in combat and no AP system or ability to move multiple squares per round), and possibly an extra building in Silvar

1.x -- used the original graphics set

2.x -- released much later (after Exile III), replaced the original graphics set with Exile III's graphics, and also added a Beethoven MOD track that played in the same manner as Exile II's music.

 

I would assume that for the PC versions, 1.1.x corresponds to 2.x, 1.0.x corresponds to 1.x, and there is no equivalent to the initial release version.

 

Given the site you're looking at, I think that most of the discrepancies in filenames, numbers, and release dates, are due entirely to the shareware CDs and don't come from Spiderweb directly. The games were Shareware, so it's quite possible that Spiderweb had nothing to do with either putting them on the CDs, writing those descriptions, or naming the zip files. Also, I believe Spiderweb games were still under a distribution agreement with Fantasoft during that time period. I think there just isn't much up this tree.

[Mr_Flibble]

You probably already know this, but the Windows versions of Exile 1 were released some time after the Mac versions, and have a different version number scheme.

I know that the game was first developed for Mac and then ported to Windows, however the newsgroup messages I found clearly concern the Windows versions, not the Mac ones.

 

Also, the archives I have found show no apparent signs of tampering, except for an occasional archive comment that was added to advertise a shareware CD or a BBS (such as The Pier CDs and Cream of the Crop).

 

It's true that I do not know if VENDINFO.DIZ files were made by Jeff Vogel or not. He mentions in one of the posts that he updated the documentation in accord with ASP standards, and using VENDINFO.DIZ files might have been one of the requirements.

 

I would assume that for the PC versions, 1.1.x corresponds to 2.x, 1.0.x corresponds to 1.x, and there is no equivalent to the initial release version.

The Windows version 2.0 is the first to use the new graphics, and I think it was synchronized with the Mac update to v2.0.

 

Versions 1.1.1 and 1.1.2 still use the old graphics set, and v1.0.3 has the old interface. The VENDINFO.DIZ file in v1.0.3 also has this interesting comment:

Reason for version: First wide-scale release.