When was novert actually developed?

[Woolie Wool]

The current upload of novert of idgames is from 2003, but the description makes it clear that the utility is much older than that and was distributed in deathmatch communities long before being uploaded to the archive. Does anyone know about the origins of this utility?

[Grazza]

Istvan Pataki's version that you mention is from 2000 (2003 was the upload date to the current archive), and is the one you find most places.

 

I have a version from 1997 (attached), at least, assuming the date-stamp of the file is correct. Looking at the binary file, this was made by someone called "Deity". Offhand, I don't recall that handle, though it might be someone we've heard of, or that someone can remember.

 

I wouldn't be too surprised if someone had made a similar utility at an earlier point, but the most likely place to find it would have been the file libraries of the CompuServe Action Games forum, or the usenet groups. I don't have a file of that name among the stuff I downloaded back then, but it's not the sort of file I probably would have downloaded at the time. Of course, it might have had a different name, but it probably would have been a .com file, and I don't see any others that look promising.

 

Edit: well OK, duh, "Deity" is Istvan Pataki (email address given in 2000 was deity@sch.bme.hu ), so it looks like he made a version of it at least as far back as 1997. Note: the 1997 and 2000 binary files are not identical.

 

novert.zip

Edited June 8 by Grazza