Looking for old copies of missing concept/promo artwork from old Polypack threads
Hey there! I'm currently undertaking a bit of a challenging project wherein I am attempting to archive as much concept/promotional art as I can from the many Polypack threads from the 2009 Polycount Pack Contest. That includes submissions that were accepted into the game, completed submissions that were not accepted, and even submissions that were not fully completed. If the thread has "Polypack" in the title and has concept art in it, I want to archive it.
Here's the Polycount-specific folder of my archives (WIP) with what I've saved thus far: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ZGO_CkQ0EZcpcE4wod_MInWNLVRJ8MBr
I've ran into a bit of a brick wall with archive.org where the snapshots for these forums only go back to around 2016. And at that, some threads that have their first page snapshotted in 2016 end up having other pages either not snapshotted at all, or snapshotted a year or more later than 2016. And even in those 2016 snapshots some missing artwork is still missing.
If you happen to have any copies of concept art or promotional shots from those threads and would like to contribute them to the archives, post them as a reply to the thread! I will be setting up a spreadsheet in that folder with a list of submitted images and who submitted them.
Replies
2016 would be when the forum thread URL format changed because of the new layout/host. You might have some luck at least for popular threads if you can find the old link format, but I also don't know if theres a reliable way to do that :( Good luck.
Hey there's an idea. I suppose I could shoot 13throgue a DM on twitter and see if he recalls the old URL format. Maybe that might bring me better luck in finding stuff 😮
So I did get the old forum URL, planetquake.com/polycount
However, the archive.org snapshots of the site are only visible up until 2006, after which point trying to view snapshots results in an HTTPS 301 error and you get redirected to a snapshot of a Polycount.com page that doesn't exist.
I'm still looking for any old artwork from the various "Polypack" threads for the TF2 Polycount contest of may-June 2010. Lots of stuff from imageshack and dropbox are just gone and I'm hoping someone out there has saved images from those threads.
Also, any missing images for the 1850's TF2 player models, or even the actual assets themselves that were being worked on years ago would be lovely to have archived. I've got the 1850's Heavy, Soldier, Scout and I think either the Medic or the Engineer model & materials. I've seen renders of the Abe Lincoln Pyro but I don't have the model for that.