Darkstar deal from Strategy First

warreni

warreni

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For MST3K, space, and FMV nerds. . . Strategy First has an 80% off code for use on any single item on its online store. Darkstar, an "interactive movie" featuring Dr. Forrester, TV's Frank and the prop mistress from Mystery Science Theater, is on sale for $6.95. The coupon code knocks the price down to $1.39 for a digital download. If you want a physical copy, you can go to the game's website and order a 2-DVD box for $7.95 + $5 shipping.

EDIT: It helps if I list the code; it's "HAPPYHOLIDAYS"
 
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Thanks for the tip. I've always wanted to check this out, so I couldn't pass it up for $1.39. I'm now downloading at a blistering 40K/sec, so hopefully, I'll get to play it before the year is over ;)
 
[quote name='The End']Awesome.

Thanks warreni & thanks Zbornak for bumping this. I might have missed it otherwise.[/QUOTE]

Same, I would've missed if not for the re-bump. Thanks.
 
[quote name='Zbornak']I'm now downloading at a blistering 40K/sec, so hopefully, I'll get to play it before the year is over ;)[/QUOTE]

Good lord, you weren't kidding. It probably would have been faster to just buy the Disc copy.
 
You say it's one single item? I put Darkstar in my cart, applied the coupon, then added a second item and it took 80% off everything.
 
Bad Rats is $1 after coupon without that pesky Steam DRM.

edit: Oh wait, it says Steam achievements. Sweet! Steam redeemable!?
 
Just FYI for all those considering getting this, the download link they send you expires after 5 attempts. Something to keep in mind if your connection is weak. I'm still on the first of 22 files with an hour to go (first file=638 MB). The game comes on 3 DVD's (retail). The install size is bound to be less than that, but being as how it's an interactive movie, it's not going to be much less. I'll update with the final download size when I have it, but at 60.8K/sec...........I'll update this post in a few days. :)
 
Videos of this game were actually a little hard to find on Youtube.

It seems like it might have that 'so bad it's good' type of quality about it. The intro was actually pretty neat though.
 
I can't remember why I had that game bookmarked from a year or two ago. I think it was the legendarily long development time, among other things.

Anyway, thanks for the heads-up, OP! I'm in for either a "so bad it's good" game as mentioned above or a flat-out train wreck. :)

Downloading at 29.0k/sec for the next 7 hours it seems @_@; Really makes you appreciate clients like Steam that generally don't bork things up if your connection breaks.
 
[quote name='NeoGutsman']I can't remember why I had that game bookmarked from a year or two ago. I think it was the legendarily long development time, among other things.

Anyway, thanks for the heads-up, OP! I'm in for either a "so bad it's good" game as mentioned above or a flat-out train wreck. :)

Downloading at 29.0k/sec for the next 7 hours it seems @_@; Really makes you appreciate clients like Steam that generally don't bork things up if your connection breaks.[/QUOTE]

I remember the good old 90s where you'd be downloading something for hours and then it would get to 97% and crap out and I'd be like

khan.jpg
 
Ooooo I'm at 99% complete on the first of 22 files. And it's only taken me 3 hours to get here. I had just assumed that they other 21 files were small 5MB files, but after what walkonshadows posted about the game being on 3 DVDs, I doubt that I'll be playing this anytime tonight. Or tomorrow night.

EDIT: Doh, the second file is the same size as the first. I joked above about how it would have been quicker if I had just bought the DVD. Not joking anymore.

EDIT #2: Just did the math. If all 22 files are 640MB, this download is gonna be almost 14GB!!!! Holy shit.
 
You may want to back up those files once you download them. Unless they changed their policy, the links they give you expire after a certain amount of time.
 
[quote name='The End']Ooooo I'm at 99% complete on the first of 22 files. And it's only taken me 3 hours to get here. I had just assumed that they other 21 files were small 5MB files, but after what walkonshadows posted about the game being on 3 DVDs, I doubt that I'll be playing this anytime tonight. Or tomorrow night.

EDIT: Doh, the second file is the same size as the first. I joked above about how it would have been quicker if I had just bought the DVD. Not joking anymore.

EDIT #2: Just did the math. If all 22 files are 640MB, this download is gonna be almost 14GB!!!! Holy shit.[/QUOTE]

I just did the math, and it takes me 2 hours and 44 minutes per file. The first file was setup-1.bin, the second file I'm downloading now is setup-2.bin. Now assuming the best case scenario, that there's only 21 .bin files and 1 setup.exe file (like GOG does there downloadable games), and since all the parts are the same size, that means it's 21 files times 2:44, meaning a grand total of 57 hours and 4 minutes start to finish (13.4 Gigs). And that's assuming one file isn't 640 MB. Yep.
 
[quote name='The End']Ooooo I'm at 99% complete on the first of 22 files. And it's only taken me 3 hours to get here. I had just assumed that they other 21 files were small 5MB files, but after what walkonshadows posted about the game being on 3 DVDs, I doubt that I'll be playing this anytime tonight. Or tomorrow night.

EDIT: Doh, the second file is the same size as the first. I joked above about how it would have been quicker if I had just bought the DVD. Not joking anymore.

EDIT #2: Just did the math. If all 22 files are 640MB, this download is gonna be almost 14GB!!!! Holy shit.[/QUOTE]

Boy, I was torn about getting the obscenely-cheap DL version and ponying up the extra dough for a "collectible" disc copy-looks like I may regret going with my instincts. The site does say it's 14 Gb, so I don't doubt the veracity of your calculations.

I have a feeling this is going to bump up my lameness rating again. Hell, if the email you get from SF is correct and you only get five "tries" to download the whole thing, I have a feeling we probably did waste $1.39. Okay, I guess the moral of the story is this: Never buy any DDLs from Strategy First--even virtually free ones aren't worth it.

This is just one reason I've had an exhausting and crappy Tuesday; I'll probably just ask my wife if I can buy the boxed version tomorrow. :hot:
 
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Holy cow, I feel like it's 1999 and I'm downloading... anything. :p

I now feel like I paid a buck fifty for a funny download story about a game that's probably not worth it.

I usually wouldn't balk about downloading this much data for a game or two on Steam, but the slow speed and the uncertainty of it all make me anxious. I've downloaded 3.5 GB in about three hours... of the first file @_@;
 
I got Darkstar One from Gamersgate some time ago (and in true CAG fashion haven't gotten around to playing it yet...) but it's about 4.5GB - it fit on a single DVD. I doubt the SFI version is much, if any, different.

Edit: Oh, this is Darkstar the FMV game - never mind, then it is around 10GB - 15GB.
 
It looks like the downloader is a version of GetRight, a download manager. There's an option to "Finish Downloading Later", so it shouldn't all have to be done at once. Hopefully, download speeds will eventually pick up.
 
I have to say that the 80K/sec rate of my transfer is by far the fastest download rate of anything I've ever downloaded from Strategy First.
 
[quote name='warreni']Boy, I was torn about getting the obscenely-cheap DL version and ponying up the extra dough for a "collectible" disc copy-looks like I may regret going with my instincts. The site does say it's 14 Gb, so I don't doubt the veracity of your calculations.

I have a feeling this is going to bump up my lameness rating again. Hell, if the email you get from SF is correct and you only get five "tries" to download the whole thing, I have a feeling we probably did waste $1.39. Okay, I guess the moral of the story is this: Never buy any DDLs from Strategy First--even virtually free ones aren't worth it.

This is just one reason I've had an exhausting and crappy Tuesday; I'll probably just ask my wife if I can buy the boxed version tomorrow. :hot:[/QUOTE]

No, don't worry about it man. I've had this on my wishlist for quite a while (Big MST3K fan) so I was stoked to see it not only on sale, but for as little as $1.39. In fact, my first post in this thread originally read something like "Awesome. You've now offset any lameness points that you might have gotten from the LittleBigBunch bundle". Before hitting send though, I deleted the reference to the LittleBigBunch thread because I figured that most people wouldn't get the reference and it would confuse the fuck out of a lot of people.

It's not your fault that the download speed is so incredibly slow.

Speaking of downloads, I left mine running overnight, and when last I checked, I had completed 5 and was working on part 6. All parts are 640MB. On the upside though, at 640MB, 7 parts should fit on a DVD. So if Walkonshadows is right about the last part probably being only a MB or so, we should have no trouble fitting the whole thing on 3 DVDs if we decide to back the files up. And considering how hard it is proving to be to download, you'd have to be nuts not to want to back it up.
 
[quote name='The End']No, don't worry about it man. I've had this on my wishlist for quite a while (Big MST3K fan) so I was stoked to see it not only on sale, but for as little as $1.39. In fact, my first post in this thread originally read something like "Awesome. You've now offset any lameness points that you might have gotten from the LittleBigBunch bundle". Before hitting send though, I deleted the reference to the LittleBigBunch thread because I figured that most people wouldn't get the reference and it would confuse the fuck out of a lot of people.[/QUOTE]

I got the reference :lol:
 
[quote name='The End']
Speaking of downloads, I left mine running overnight, and when last I checked, I had completed 5 and was working on part 6. All parts are 640MB. On the upside though, at 640MB, 7 parts should fit on a DVD. So if Walkonshadows is right about the last part probably being only a MB or so, we should have no trouble fitting the whole thing on 3 DVDs if we decide to back the files up. And considering how hard it is proving to be to download, you'd have to be nuts not to want to back it up.[/QUOTE]

Well, I'm hoping but not optimistic that the speeds may increase later.

Well the official distro is on two dual-layer DVDs, but I think three single-layer discs should work:




CgsC4H3gWwAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIDfxz953SWDVkxkywAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==
 
I can't wait to play this for the first time when my grandkids teleport to my sky retirement home. I hope by that time my cy-butler can mind-project my fourth clone body to the living room as we play Darkstar after a festive food tablet absorption ritual.
 
Just to let you know, I've been downloading since this 7 EST yesterday. I'm on file 14 of 22. Averaging 109Kb/sec. Soooo, I'll have it by this weekend. :)
 
Yeah, I'm on part 14 now too. Been downloading just as long as you have.

I only hope that Microsoft doesn't update something while I'm asleep and decide that my computer needs to be restated. That and a blackout is all I fear. I'll get it eventually, but I aint ever gonna buy anything from Strategy First again.
 
Part 8 here. And you're right--if I get an automatic restart I'm boned, because I don't see any way to go back to a specific file in the list.
 
Hurray, it successfully finished downloading. Part 21 was 178Mb & Part 22 (which was the installer launcher) was only 333KB. Grand total for the download was 12.67GB.

Now to back this sucker up. Don't wanna have to go through that again.
 
[quote name='Zbornak']I finished after a brief 57 hours. I hope the installation is an equally epic experience.[/QUOTE]

Maybe. Mine crashed after installing Quicktime 7 because it didn't recognize that I now had Quicktime 7 installed, so that was kind-of funny. OTOH, I'm always disappointed in these QT-based games and software because if for some crazy reason I decide I want to play them 10 years from now, they won't work with the then-current OS and version of Quicktime.
 
What the frak? I managed to download all the files today (with most seeming to download in about 30-50 minute intervals according to the time stamps). However, as I was installing the game, the installer asked for setup-6.bin... which was nowhere to be found in the download folder!

This is comically terrible. There's no way to download an individual file as far as I can see. I'm going to try running the downloader again to the same folder; hopefully it spot checks to see what's there and what's missing. Let me back up the folder first...

The funny thing is that I'm not even mad. I was kind of expecting something like this. I'll update soon... :p

EDIT: Hah! It's downloading everything all over again. I'll let it download part six then cut it off. Good thing I made a backup of the other files (and that I wasn't missing, say, the last file :p).

EDIT: Downloaded up to part 7, copied the missing part 6 over and began the installation some time ago. Found that it was stuck on some .mov file error for a long time. Retrying but not holding out hope that it will install...
 
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Argh, I keep getting some "I/O" error notifications on a series of .mov files. I had to cancel the installation yet again :( Anyone else able to play this yet?
 
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