206 lines
10 KiB
HTML
206 lines
10 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
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<head>
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<title>2000_NSA.nfo</title>
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<style type="text/css">
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@font-face {
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font-family: nfo;
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font-style: normal;
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font-weight: normal;
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src: url(nfo.eot);
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}
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.nfo {
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padding: 12px;
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font-family: nfo, courier new;
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font-size: 11px;
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line-height: 1em;
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</style>
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</head>
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<body>
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<pre class="nfo"> In 1998, three people decided the future of how the scene should shape
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itself and released a 10-point information document stating how a game
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release should be conducted. In the past year, many of these rules have
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been broken by its founding members and other groups have purposely
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broken the agreement. In lieu of recent events, the deciding figures
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of three groups, Class, Myth & Divine, have converged and agreed upon
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a new set of rules based on the original Faction rules and Myth's
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recent proposal and have been updated, modified and agreed upon by a
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consensus to a new standard to better suit the scene in this millenium.
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These groups have been active participants in shaping the scene in the last
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6 months, and were given active participation in voicing their point of
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view. These new rules will allow for a more fair and competitive scene
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while ensuring a quality-minded environment for the scene. These deciding
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figures have bestowed themselves to be called the N.S.A., Network Software
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Association. These rules have been ratified and approved among the three
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groups and will be recognized and followed immediately on this date,
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March 26th, 2000.
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1. The disk limit is as of now 65 x 2,915,000 bytes. This equates to a
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total of 189,495,000 bytes of compressed data. Groups may not go over
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the total size to prevent any future cheating. Acceptable compression
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formats at this time are ACE or RAR or any future compression that
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supports multiple volumes and long file names, followed by the
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traditional PKZIPing.
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The limit for standard game add-ons is 35 x 2,915,000 bytes for any add-
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on that includes Music, Speech, Commentary or Play By Play for the
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original release. Any add-on that does not fit this criteria will be
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restricted to 25 x 2,915,000 bytes. Only the group that won a game
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release is allowed to release the add-ons for the game.
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2. To prevent sloppy rips, a re-release of a game is allowed to make groups
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release proper and respectable releases. The following provisions
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include:
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a) it can be ripped in >=10 disks less than the previous release by us-
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ing only lossless compression methods. Lossy compression will not be
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permitted to compromise the release to fit under this condition.
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b) it can be ripped in >=15 disks less of the size of the previous
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release by using mp3-compression while not downgrading any wavs
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or mp3's sound quality using lossy compression.
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That means all the essential gamedata must be still included in the re-
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release. No essential data is allowed to be removed to be considered a
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valid re-release. A re-release from a competing group may not use tools,
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original crack or any other files from the previous release that were
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modified for the original game rip.
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The re-release of a rip can be done by any group and must be done in
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at most 48 hours after the release of the original rip, as possibly
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every game is rippable in a smaller size if enough time is spent.
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3. Every release under this limit MUST be a functionally and playable
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complete game with no essential data missing to complete the game.
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This means that included will be every component necessary for
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the successful completion of the game e.g.:
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- all game executables that are needed,
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- every level (single AND multiplayer),
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- every track (including practice),
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- all actor graphics & models etc,
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- sound effects
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- registry settings to play on the Internet (e.g. Zone/DirectPlay)
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4. Any lossless compression method to reduce the size of selected game data
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is ALLOWED (e.g. uharc).
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5. Lossy compression is ALLOWED for sound, videos and non-texture graphics
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(e.g. jpeging of menu screens) but lossless compression is encouraged
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before using lossy compression. Lossy compression of textures is expli-
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citly FORBIDDEN to prevent the many problems inherent to that.
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6. Sound effects WILL and MUST be included. To reduce the size of rips when
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possible, standard waveformat files (PCM) should be mp3-compressed
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if possible in a reasonable state of time and is over the size of 20
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disks. If the soundfiles exist inside a bigfile its highly regarded
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when time is invested to extract those files to compress them. Groups
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are not to required to index bigfiles though. Downgrade of sound quality
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to sound files to allow the game to fit the limit will not be permitted.
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It is allowed to rip music, commentary/speech and ambience files as long
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as the game remains playable. Speech files MUST be included if there
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exist no on-screen subtitles. It is okay to remove commentary from a
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release if size does not permit it.
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It is highly regarded when all sounds, speech and music are included in
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a rip and not intentionally put out as addons.
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7. It is allowed to remove gamedata that exists in multiple resolutions or
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formats as long as the game remains playable on a typical system which
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is defined by a PII-300 with a D3D-card and soundcard.
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- high-resolution textures for highend systems.
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- low-resolution textures for low-end systems if there is no
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possible options to include the high-resolutions in the release.
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If size permits, it is expected that high resolution be released
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as an add-on.
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- high-screen resolution graphics data standard of 800x600 (or 640x480
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if other than 800x600 is not applicable)
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- at least one hardware-dependent data must be included, and must be
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in Direct3D mode or any other hardware data modes that are accepta-
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ble (e.g. Glide textures). A release of software mode only with all
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hardware-dependent data and textures removed will not be allowed in
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future releases.
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8. Movies (intros, cutscenes) should be removed if they aren't game-related.
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Movies must be ripped in a way so that the gameplay experience is not
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compromised, e.g. framing of movies is highly regarded. It should always
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be avoided to create situations in which user-input is necessary on
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black screens because the video normally shown has been blacked out.
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9. Other allowed add-ons for games include:
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- cutscenes/movies
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- commentary/speech
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- music
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- manual/documentation
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- editor
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Intro and Outro add-ons are EXPLICITLY FORBIDDEN. Not more than 2 add-ons
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should be released for a game release.
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10. Children's games (aka Kiddie games) and Edutainment software do not
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qualify under these rules guidelines for acceptable releases. Kiddie
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games are usually defined via the game target audience of '5-12 years'
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as stated by the game's producer. Common sense should be based on
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common sense by all groups to identify what really is a kiddie game.
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Platform games are not to be considered kiddie games.
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11. Levelpacks, game add-ons etc. for rips are only allowed if they are offi-
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cially released/authorized by the same company/developer/publisher that
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put out the original game. If possible by its size, the add-on should be
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made as a standalone and not needing the original game release. The
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original missions may be removed to allow the game add-on to become
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standalone if not size can not permit the original game. It should be
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explained in the NFO if and why a game add-on isn't made to be standalone.
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12. In regard to games distributed in the United States that are LATER
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distributed in Europe or vice versa under the same or different name /
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publisher. These games if released AFTER another group's release are
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counted as DUPES unless it can be proven that there is a clearly
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noticeable PLAYABLE difference in the latter release (more than just
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tiny differences in graphics or sound). Differences in filedates and
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Game Titles between Euro and US releases are NOT a good enough reason to
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re-release the game.
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13. A brief outline of what has been stripped from the game should be
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clearly stated in the game-release .NFO, as well as information as to
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whether or not Add-Ons can be expected.
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14. Fully cracked Update Patches and Trainers are highly regarded, though
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they are not the responsibility of any group (including that of which
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released the original game). If 2 trainers from the same or different
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groups are released for 1 game, this does NOT qualify as a dupe unless
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the latter trainer provides no new features over the prior trainer. Beta
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update patches will not considered a valid release among any game group.
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No group shall release a cracked patch for a game if a generic patch
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exists for a particular game in the scene. If a generic crack exists, a
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new patch-release must specify that the generic crack does not work
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anymore.
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15. If two or more rips of the same game get released, the first working rip
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wins. Sites should not nuke any release until the winning rip has been
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proven to work correctly and follows the above ruleset.
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16. No group shall do a rip using another's groups work, be it an iso crack
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or tools written by another competing group. Any third party tools shall
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be acceptable. A crack from an ISO or past release (even in other
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languages) shall not be used unless permission is given from the
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cracker/creator of the original release group.
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All appointed HQ (Headquarters) should abide by these rules to the
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fullest extent permutable. Any group that competes in the gaming rip
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scene will and must abide by the above rules to allow fair competition
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among all competitors.
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Signed,
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Leaders, Council Members and Seniors of Class, Myth & Divine.
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</pre>
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</body>
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</html>
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