The Old EA SimCity 3000 Building Exchange

[CorinaMarie 29,894]

I've been poking around in the WaybackMachine archive of the Building Exchange and so far I've been able to download every file from the pages I've been on. (120 files so far.) I'm curious how stable those pages are. Like would it be worth creating an index to the currently valid links I've found? For example, I've created a Firefox Archive of some pages and then tested the download links from my C-Drive copy of the page. They all worked for me.

Anyone care to give this a test and see if the links work for you? I've attached two sample .maff files.

Edit: I removed the linkys since no one was downloading them.

[catty-cb 4,412]

A while back I was downloading files from the old exchange ... 573 files so far and found that while most of the links still work, quite a few of them don't ... I'm assuming because the Wayback never saved the file

[CorinaMarie 29,894]

9 hours ago, catty-cb said:

... that while most of the links still work, quite a few of them don't ... I'm assuming because the Wayback never saved the file

I was originally working from this linky:

On 4/18/2017 at 10:10 AM, pclark06 said:

Old SC3000 Exchange for the BAT (before Unlimited Building Architect Plus came out - this version didn't have support for props like cars yet)
http://web.archive.org/web/20070109085101/http://simcity.ea.com/obe/Building_Exchange.html

And was finding some that were lost. However, I jumped back in time to here and here and so on. I've been downloading them alphabetically. Of the first 120 files, I've gotten 120 with no bad download links.

[CorinaMarie 29,894]

Just an update.

Working from the 2001 archive, there are 699 entries for buildings starting with the letter A. I have successfully downloaded all 699 of them without any missing. I've also made offline Firefox Archives of all 35 pages. There are a few missing images on the index, but those files were still downloadable. If they are ones I put on the STEX, my new, larger pics from within the BAT will resolve that minor issue.

Btw, if I get the official OK from Dirk to host these files here then y'all might want to follow the SimCity 3000 Files section of the STEX.

[Yohane Architects 127]

On 5/16/2017 at 11:54 AM, CorinaMarie said:

I've been poking around in the WaybackMachine archive of the Building Exchange and so far I've been able to download every file from the pages I've been on. (120 files so far.) I'm curious how stable those pages are. Like would it be worth creating an index to the currently valid links I've found? For example, I've created a Firefox Archive of some pages and then tested the download links from my C-Drive copy of the page. They all worked for me.

Anyone care to give this a test and see if the links work for you? I've attached two sample .maff files.

 

SimCity Building Exchange - A 01.maff

SimCity Building Exchange - A 02.maff

Can you reupload the Hall of fame buildings on CB?
I loved them buildings.

[CorinaMarie 29,894]

24 minutes ago, Yohane Architects said:

Can you reupload the Hall of fame buildings on CB?

Looking thru the list starting here, I don't see one called Hall of Fame. Or does that refer to the entire list? @catty-cb did make those files available to @Cyclone Boom and me in one large zip file. I confess I've only peeked inside.  I'm also uncertain if the entirety of these files are ones we intend to host here since they are already available on her site. 

I do plan to play around with the Landmark Converter Tool and then upload it here. I'm holding off on that until I've learned it and made screenshots.

[catty-cb 4,412]

14 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

Looking thru the list starting here, I don't see one called Hall of Fame. Or does that refer to the entire list....

 

@Yohane Architectsunless I'm very much mistaken is referring to here

https://web.archive.org/web/20021001073439/http://simcity3000unlimited.ea.com/us/simexchange/index.phtml

Unfortunately by the time SC3K came out, EA Games had added login and passwords to the site so they are impossible to download them, had I realized that EA Games was simply going to delete the old sites with no warning whatsoever then I might have made more of a effort to save some of the custom content, its possible the SimCity 3000 Revival Project

might be able to help ....maybe worth talking to @pclark06about it, also given some of the names listed are very familiar it might be work seeing if any of them are still active and still have their SC3000 files.

-catty

[Yohane Architects 127]

@catty-cb here is the hall of fame on that site.
https://web.archive.org/web/20030602200141/http://simcity3000unlimited.ea.com:80/us/simexchange/index.phtml

I would download them myself if I didn't forget my old account back in 2003.

[catty-cb 4,412]

Yes that's the "Hall of Fame" I linked to in my last post and unfortunately when EA Games deleted the websites they also deleted the login servers that would allow you to login (and I still have my login and password for this site), even if they hadn't the Wayback Archives only backs up websites and files that can be reached publicly so either way all we can do is admire the pictures.

sorry 

[Yohane Architects 127]

Oh! so it doesn't link to the actual page then.

I probably need to make My Own First Interstate Library using SC3URK and GIMP.

[catty-cb 4,412]

15 minutes ago, Yohane Architects said:

I probably need to make My Own First Interstate Library using SC3URK and GIMP.....

Look forward to seeing it, also that question you asked over at CB re the Maximum number of landmarks you can have in a city .... sorry haven't been able to find an answer for you

[CorinaMarie 29,894]

*Cori admires this pic from that site*

 

On 5/21/2017 at 2:19 PM, catty-cb said:

... either way all we can do is admire the pictures.

Except for the first one from the Hall of Fame list. We can get a really nice earlier version of it from this page.

Here's my pics of it:

[catty-cb 4,412]

That's great

[Cyclone Boom 17,031]

How about 10,433 buildings...

https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://simcity.ea.com/obe/bld//*

By appending a /* to the URL, this acts as a wildcard filter to find the full extent of the Wayback's archived SC3K buildings (inside /bld).
Or at least that's what it appears...

Taking this back a level to the /obe directory (23,466 results):

https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://simcity.ea.com/obe//*

(OBE?)

The filter box at the top allows narrowing down by file name or type (.bld). A quick search for Better_Merchants finds the file and a small preview image (as shown on the listing). A nice bonus of the filter is it works pretty much instantly. Filtering the first link for buildings doesn't reduce the list size. So this indicates that as expected, it only contains buildings and no other file types.

One issue is there doesn't seem a way to retrieve pages from which they're referenced, such as the index lists. Other than perhaps searching using the naming scheme of known pages. This means finding the author info or file descriptions could be a challenge. Unless the "Architect" shown on the building (in game dialog) always represents the file's author?

Also a minor inconvenience is clicking each listed file opens up the calendar view. From here, you then have to pick from a time saved to physically download it. However, this may be an interesting way to check if any buildings have been updated or have newer versions stored. Considering this, it's possible that some buildings are therefore duplicated in the overall count (over 10k does sound rather a lot should they all be unique). Then again, who knows...

Hope this is useful anyhow. And if this was common knowledge already, just thought I'd point out my discovery.

[CorinaMarie 29,894]

A little discovery on those rare, but missing files. Say you see this:

 

While that's on screen just click thru the other capture dates and this one turned into this:

 

And then I was able to get the file. This has happened twice and each time I got the missing one. Of the first 1,274 files, I've now downloaded 1,274 of them. (100% success so far.)

[catty-cb 4,412]

That's fantastic find    

[CorinaMarie 29,894]

So, it had been going very well. I've gotten an additional 705 buildings from the C category. However, now I get either "504 Gateway Time-out
The server didn't respond in time." or "Sorry. This snapshot cannot be displayed due to an internal error." depending on which bad mood it's in.

I do hope this is a short term problem cause there are some extremely nice buildings intermingled with the decent and ho-hum ones.

Edit: Nevermind. I found a work-around.

[catty-cb 4,412]

I think I got similar messages when I was trying last year, sometimes coming back later and trying again works, other times tho it appears they are lost for good .... still without the wayback all of them would be gone 

[CorinaMarie 29,894]

Wow, you were quick on the reply. I wound up going thru the calendar part, selecting another date cause the triangle thinger was giving the same error and now I'm getting files again. (I had deleted my post, but I put it back since you replied to it.)

Edit: All C done. Total is now 2,153 buildings with 100% success so far.

[catty-cb 4,412]

1 hour ago, CorinaMarie said:

Wow, you were quick on the reply.....

luck of the draw, shame it doesn't with lottery tickets 

[CorinaMarie 29,894]

Sneak peeks of buildings from the exchange I'd like to upload:

 

And, btw, I've downloaded all of the D block now. Total buildings I have: 2,485.

[racerua 0]

Just a quick question. I enjoyed playing scenarios in SC3000U. Is there a possibility to retrieve some of them from the old exchange? And is there any website with scenarios? Couldn't find any for a while.

[CorinaMarie 29,894]

 Major Announcement 

I have now successfully downloaded the entire SC3K Building Exchange (minus a few ungetable files). With @Cyclone Boom's approval and special increased file size limit, I have attached all 10,403 buildings in 10 zip files to a Private Message.

Anyone who would like to get a copy of these files should post here and then one of us already in the group PM will include you. I'm not sure how long I can take up all this file storage space so time is of the essence. They will be deleted in the near future.

Again, post here if you want included for downloading these files.

[CorinaMarie 29,894]

3 minutes ago, racerua said:

Just a quick question. I enjoyed playing scenarios in SC3000U. Is there a possibility to retrieve some of them from the old exchange? And is there any website with scenarios? Couldn't find any for a while.

At this point I don't personally know, but hopefully someone will have a positive answer for you.

[catty-cb 4,412]

12 minutes ago, CorinaMarie said:

At this point I don't personally know, but hopefully someone will have a positive answer for you.

You've got copies of them in the bulk zip file I sent to the SimTrop Staff, but in the meantime they are all here

https://community.simtropolis.com/clubs/26-city-builders-website/cbex?folder=SC3%2Band%2BSC3K%2BDownloads

[CorinaMarie 29,894]

4 minutes ago, catty-cb said:

You've got copies of them in the bulk zip file I sent ...

Ah. Cool. I confess I haven't even unpacked the zip file. I got distracted with getting this forum going and then my building exchange retrieval project.

[catty-cb 4,412]

2 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

I have now successfully downloaded the entire SC3K Building Exchange (minus a few ungetable files). With @Cyclone Boom's approval and special increased file size limit, I have attached all 10,403 buildings in 10 zip files to a Private Message.....

Thank you 

I indexed the STEX a few years back so I'm very much aware of just how much work was involved in doing this project, if I could stick a medal on you I would.

-catty

[Cyclone Boom 17,031]

Awesome job!

Click by click, page by page, letter by letter, salvaging all these long lost files is a highly commendable achievement.

 

8 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

I'm not sure how long I can take up all this file storage space so time is of the essence. They will be deleted in the near future.

I think one week sounds reasonable. So if anyone would like a copy, please reply before Tuesday 6th June and we'll invite you into the PM.

(Bear in mind the total combined size is 644 MB.)

[racerua 0]

Can I have the link to those files, please?

[rsc204 21,866]

Longer term is there an issue with uploading these files to a file-sharing service and allowing people to download them there? I mean resurrecting them for one week only is short-termism. Inevitably there will be those who simply don't see them within the time frame.