ZipNews Reader archive / keygen

[cryu]

Hello,

Due to retirement, the ensuing boredom, and overwhelming nostalgia, I've been putting together replicas of the machines I used in the 80s/90s.

One of the bits of software I used quite a bit was a pretty neat offline USENET reader named "ZipNews Reader". It was written by Jack Kilday (who ran the Northern Lights BBS in Portland, ME), and was available in a demo version on SIMTEL.

A downside of ZNR was that it was pretty crippled unless it was registered. Sadly, I lost my registration key years back ... but I managed to reverse-engineer the key format and encryption algorithm (with the help of IDA, dosbox, and a not-terribly-obfuscated-but-rather-buggy C implementation in uqwk) and put together a key generator.

I haven't been able to find Jack's contact information (nlbbs.com has been owned by a domain squatter for awhile), and ZNR "releases" (in quotes because it was in perpetual beta) are pretty hard to find, so I'm running on the assumption that ZNR is now abandonware. I've put the key generator (written in python) and all of the ZNR versions that I could find in a git repository at https://codeberg.org/cryu/zipnews_reader so that others who remember ZNR can scratch their nostalgia itch

The key generator can also decode keys (it's a symmetric cipher with a fixed key and a known-plaintext preamble), so if you still have a key lying around, you can decode, alter, and re-encode it. (And please do let me know if the format of the key differs from that of the key generator, so I can correct any issues)

If anyone has versions other than 0.92d, 0.92n, 0.92u, and 0.93b, please send them along so that I can preserve them in the repository.

Share and enjoy

Edit: codeberg looks to be having backend issues, so the version of the keygen that actually decodes keyfiles hasn't made it into the repository yet. I've attached it to this post.

 

[doshea]

I never used that software, but nice work! I did a quick Google search for "site:cd.textfiles.com zipnews" and http://cd.textfiles.com/smmodem/MADNESS.TXT for example seems to have 0.92i (looks like the actual file is in http://cd.textfiles.com/smmodem/BBSDOOR2/), so that Google query may be a way to find more versions. Also http://discmaster.textfiles.com/ is back so that's probably an even better way to find more versions (it'll almost certainly pick up anything that's also on cd.textfiles.com).

 

[cryu]

@doshea Thanks for the kind words. This was a fun little project; I hadn't analyzed copy-protection in any meaningful way since the late nineties, and it was neat to see that I could still do it.

Thank you very much for the pointer to textfiles.com, as I wasn't aware that it existed. I found three more versions via a discmaster search, and added them to the repository. Still nothing newer than 0.93b; perhaps that was the last version released, though I have a dim memory of using a 1.0 beta.

Cheers

 

[taoteh1221]

I'm Jack's son, I'll post back here after passing on info about this to him through my mother (he is not on his laptop often, due to old age not letting him type easily anymore). This is so cool, thanks for preserving my Dad's work!

 

[ajacocks]

Welcome to the forum @taoteh1221 !

Please pass on our respect and best wishes to your father.

- Alex

 

[taoteh1221]

Welcome to the forum @taoteh1221 !

Please pass on our respect and best wishes to your father.

- Alex

Thanks Alex, I will let him know.

 

[taoteh1221]

Finally heard back from my mother today, after she showed my father the emails from my chats with @cryu, and this forum link:

"Dad got a kick out of the interest in his ZipNews from decades ago. At this point, we have no idea where any info is, but I will let you know if I find it! I think it's so cool that they are really into it. Give them our best. M"

If she finds anything, I'll pass it along here.

 

[taoteh1221]

So @cryu is cleared licensing-wise now as well. Leaving the exact quote from my Mother (who is my Dad's current caregiver in his older years) here, in case any "powers that be" prefer some type of proof on permission to redistribute ZipNews Reader, INCLUDING source code (if she locates any floppy disks I can duplicate with greaseweazle):

"Dad gives his permission for Chris to do whatever he wants with ZipNews as long as he is not contacted or emailed. Off the top of his head, dad isn't sure he even has any of the materials left of the project. M"

My username @taoteh1221 has been associated with me for decades, so anybody can just Google it and contact me if need be.

She'll eventually get around to looking for any old floppy disks in storage, but she's very busy caring for him in his older years...so it could be awhile before she does. Hopefully we can get some source code for porting to Linux, we'll see!

 

[cryu]

Thank you very much for all of this, Mike. I do hope that your folks manage to find more bits of ZNR lying around, but no worries if it's all gone and I'm a few decades late

I've nearly got uznr (the uqwk-like NNTP-to-ZNR packaging tool) to a point where it's usable. I intend to update the repository documentation today (real-life commitments permitting) with usage notes, example scripts for uznr and DOSBox, and so forth.

Profuse thanks to you all for being so incredibly cool about this project, and especially to your dad for writing ZNR in the first place. I don't think anyone will try to contact him about this project, but the README will make it *very* clear that he isn't involved.

Cheers

 

[taoteh1221]

Thank you very much for all of this, Mike. I do hope that your folks manage to find more bits of ZNR lying around, but no worries if it's all gone and I'm a few decades late

I've nearly got uznr (the uqwk-like NNTP-to-ZNR packaging tool) to a point where it's usable. I intend to update the repository documentation today (real-life commitments permitting) with usage notes, example scripts for uznr and DOSBox, and so forth.

Profuse thanks to you all for being so incredibly cool about this project, and especially to your dad for writing ZNR in the first place. I don't think anyone will try to contact him about this project, but the README will make it *very* clear that he isn't involved.

Cheers

Your very welcome Chris. Feel free to quote / reference me from my previous post into a license.md|txt file, to cover yourself legally for redistribution. Sounds like things are moving along on modernizing it. I'll have her look for old HDDs as well. I do know he got rid of all his old computers years ago, but maybe she'll find some old storage devices if we get lucky. Enjoy hacking on modernizing / tweaking ZNR!