Downloading online only games from Itch.io

cat · Tue 10/10/2023 20:38:09

Quote from: heltenjon on Tue 10/10/2023 18:52:50Online play only

Is it actually possible to download such games nonetheless? Could you download the whole wrapped package an run it locally?

LimpingFish · Tue 10/10/2023 23:04:12

Quote from: cat on Tue 10/10/2023 20:38:09Is it actually possible to download such games nonetheless? Could you download the whole wrapped package an run it locally?

If you really want to, you can download "Painted Hills.ags", "audio.vox", and "acsetup.cfg" using a download manager, stick them in a folder with the "acwin.exe" from AGS 4 Alpha (renamed to Painted Hills.exe), along with "sdl2.dll", and bobs your uncle.

EDIT: In fact, you don't even need to rename "acwin.exe", just drop it in the folder.

heltenjon · Wed 11/10/2023 00:43:52

Quote from: LimpingFish on Tue 10/10/2023 23:04:12
Quote from: cat on Tue 10/10/2023 20:38:09Is it actually possible to download such games nonetheless? Could you download the whole wrapped package an run it locally?

If you really want to, you can download "Painted Hills.ags", "audio.vox", and "acsetup.cfg" using a download manager, stick them in a folder with the "acwin.exe" from AGS 4 Alpha (renamed to Painted Hills.exe), along with "sdl2.dll", and bobs your uncle.

For the archivists among us, this could be really useful. @TheTMD @arj0n @gabriel19681_1
There are games out there that the uploader does not have the files for anymore.

TheTMD · Sun 15/10/2023 18:52:58

Hi all
well, i was a bit worried talking about the techniques that one may use to download such games.
I mean, if the author is uploading a game only online, is it "honest" to download it anyway, or at least is it honest to share the technique or the game?
So, after this preface, since we are in argument
@LimpingFish: i should try your method, i think it's simpler than mine, for AGS games

1) I download all the files from the page, html included
I check all the files that are being downloaded by the page, while loading the game
(in ITCH, for example, all the games are identified by an index folder, so in the downloaded files list, i can filter only the files of the game, discarding the other that are loaded by the page)

2)than i use a local hoster, some kind of emulator of a host, that makes the game believe it's running on the server
This is working for most of the games that haven't a download link (not only ags, but unity and so on)

if the amount of files is large (lets say more than 20), i use the option to copy all the links. Edge have an option to copy all of them to be used with a command line (under windows)
I've an excel file that, with some formulas, generate the command lines to be used within a batch file.
Then i run it, wait for the files to be downloaded, use the host emulator, check if the network tab is giving any error (404 error, or similar), if all is ok i'm adequately sure that the game is fully downloaded

P.S.: the host emulator is free and i don't think it's against any law

Spoiler

taken by the fear that certain things actually cannot be written, and considering that LimpingFish also remained vague, I modified the message to eliminate direct references to software or commands

[close]

T.

tag2015 · Mon 16/10/2023 22:34:59

You can also use the itch.io client, it will download all the resources for the online-only games (it works on Windows, haven't tested on other platforms but I suppose it'd be the same)

TheTMD · Tue 17/10/2023 18:25:02

Must check that also.....for a lazy person like me it's gold!!!
..................
done....works just fine, not for all games, but not sure why
after installed the game, i may use the host emulator to play the game without the itch client!

it sure save me from a lot of manual operations!

LimpingFish · Thu 19/10/2023 01:23:21

I meant to go into more detail sooner, but I've been without internet for the last few days. Anyway...

All I had to do to download the files was add ".ags", ".vox", and ".cfg" in the list of extensions the download manager is set to look for, and reload the game's itch page a few times until the DM caught the files. You may have to add them one at a time, removing the last before adding the next, as the page might hang as the DM intercepts the files.

I presume any AGS game playable on itch will work the same way.

Quote from: tag2015 on Mon 16/10/2023 22:34:59You can also use the itch.io client, it will download all the resources for the online-only games (it works on Windows, haven't tested on other platforms but I suppose it'd be the same)

Or you could just do that. You will need a itch account, though.

For the record, install the game in the itch client, click on "Downloads", right click the game, choose "Open folder in explorer", open the ".Web" folder, grab the files needed, pop them in a folder with "acwin.exe" and "SDL2.dll", and...well, you get the idea.

TheTMD · Sun 22/10/2023 09:24:02

Quote from: LimpingFish on Thu 19/10/2023 01:23:21the list of extensions the download manager is set to look for

I understand that your download manager is integrated with the browser, to check the extensions that are downloaded by a page.
I don't use download manager much, in the meaning i don't check how they may really help me, i just put the links in the list and use them as a helper to recover downloads from one session to another, so this is quite new. I've checked Free Download Manager, that i use not integrated with the browser, and I'm not sure that it has something similar to yours.
Which DM do you use?

LimpingFish · Mon 23/10/2023 20:57:37

I use XDM, which is available for download on github.

While it's installing, it should ask you to pick an add-on for whatever browser you're running. If it doesn't, just go into the main program (once it's installed) click Tools>Browser Monitoring, and pick the add-on for your browser. Once you've installed the add-on, it will add an icon to your browser extension toolbar. This is where you'll be notified of available files to download.

When you run the main XDM program, you can again click on Tools>Browser Monitoring, scroll down to "XDM will automatically take over downloads from browser for below file types" and add the extensions in the available window. You''l probably have to do them one at a time (add AGS extension, get .AGS file from itch, delete AGS extension, add VOX extension, get .VOX file from itch, etc.) because, in Firefox anyway, the itch page tends to hang once you start to intercept the files.

TheTMD · Wed 25/10/2023 18:52:44

I'm downloading it!
sharing the experiences, i'm using the itch.io client, that really is time saving for my standard operations
I put here the 'detailed' version of the commands i use for downloading a game from the page

1) When loading a page i use the network tab, under the developer tools, to check all the files that are loaded
Not always all the files needed by a game are fetched in one row, in those case i need to play the game as much as i can to be sure all the files are loaded
For Unity games, on itch for example, generally the only need 10 files or less, and they are all downloaded in one step
On edge and chrome I've found that it's possible to "Copy all for cURL (cmd)", that allow me to get all the addresses of all the files loaded
This is good for many files, if few i download them manually, creating the necessary forlders. The path is is visible on the network tab

2) With an excel file i can manage the addresses, creating the command lines for cURL, by formulas

3) copy and paste all the formulas in a .cmd file, that is some kind of .bat (never checked exactly the differences)

4) the cURL start downloading the files on the list, creating the needed folders

5) the index.html is downloaded via cURL. using the host emulator, that I've searched and found on itch itself (really i doesn't remembered that)
https://uusoft.itch.io/unity-webgl-local-hoster
i can load the index.html file and, let's say 99/100, the game start

All by hand, but i find myself confident that this method may be used on any system (except for the emulator)

cURL is like wGET on linux, but for what I've understood, less powerful: it may be defined like a manual download manager

Again, i'm not a tech, and i'm sure that cURL may be used with best result, for instance by downloading all the files from a path (i use cURL because, once, a tech friend showed me how to use it when i needed to get files from a wayback machine page)
Another program i use, not often, is HTTrack Website Copier, it's like the old teleport pro (for those who know it), but generally i don't get much luck downloading sites

T.

Khris · Wed 25/10/2023 19:28:47

Before the "web 2.0", most files were directly linked in the HTML source of a website. Current web apps use JavaScript code that loads these resources in the background using the fetch API.

However you can still find the requested URLs because just like before, the browser will download everything into its cache folder first.
You just need to open the dev tools (F12 in Edge/Chrome/Firefox) and check the network tab.

In the case of AGS web games it's even easier if you open the console tab (and turn on XHRs in the top right corner).
Opening the game URL will display the static URLs like this:

On Firefox at least you can now right-click these links and select "Open URL in new tab" and the browser should simply start the download (because it doesn't know the file type).