First Seed Material / REFMAP gone; resource recovery operation go!

[King Arthur]

NOTE: I posted the original topic regarding this over at RPGMaker.net (http://rpgmaker.net/forums/topics/15396/) and also posted this mirror topic here so that more eyes may stumble upon it.

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As a large number of us will likely know, the REFMAP resource suite and its host First Seed Material have been a long-standing fixture in the RPG Maker community. REFMAP has long been the gold standard to which all other original resource works are compared.

Today, I unfortunately came to find out that Tekepon, the home of First Seed Material and REFMAP, has died and gone away from the internet. Eaten by the passing sands of time. May it rest in peace.

First Seed Material URL (no longer working): http://www.tekepon.net/fsm/ (still down as of 05/24/14)
Wayback Machine URL: http://web.archive.org/web/20140214073503/http://www.tekepon.net/fsm/

What can we as a community do about this?
While this is a sudden and very sad turn of events, I believe that we as the RPG Maker community should come together and commence an operation to recover as much of the lost First Seed Material and REFMAP resources as feasibly possible. First Seed Material and REFMAP have had a lasting impact in our community and I feel it is our duty to ensure that they are not forgotten.

To this end I have searched for and uploaded to my locker the following official (as provided on FSM prior to its demise) REFMAP resource collection archives:
http://rpgmaker.net/media/content/users/6088/locker/project2000.exe - RPG Maker 2000 resource archive.
http://rpgmaker.net/media/content/users/6088/locker/project2003.exe - RPG Maker 2003 resource archive.
http://rpgmaker.net/media/content/users/6088/locker/vx_sample.exe - RPG Maker VX resource archive.

I have also procured and uploaded the two game archives for Material Quest Vol. 1 & 2, which served as sample games showcasing REFMAP resources in action:
http://rpgmaker.net/media/content/users/6088/locker/material_vol1.exe
http://rpgmaker.net/media/content/users/6088/locker/material_vol2.exe

Please note that you must extract and run the games under Japanese locale (emulators like AppLocale will also work) in order for them to function properly.

PepsiOtaku's archive:

http://rpgmaker.net/forums/topics/15396/?post=542222#post542222Here's all the 2000/2003 resources I have that are FSM. Oddly enough, I don't have any of the actual people charsets, but I have all the chipset related charsets, as well as monsters.

I included all of the chipsets, including some popular edits and obscure ones found through the forum. I also included the mackie facesets, of which I believe are all there, as well as the roco facesets (although I'm not sure those count).


http://rpgmaker.net/media/content/users/40/locker/firstseedmaterialrm2003.zip

Little Wing Guy's archive:

http://rpgmaker.net/forums/topics/15396/?post=542447#post542447

Okay here are the 2K3 side battlers I told you about, as well as some random extras, like the pixel facesets which you might not have.

First Seed Battlers

The ones in this style:

GrandmaDeb's Mediafire mirror for vx_sample.exe:

If you have the vx_sample game you have 27 char sets and the tiles. =]

Mack's two-tile high Characters and outstanding Tiles from his Blog, available in a VX sample game (You do not need VX to access the tiles and character files.)

(please do not repost this link elsewhere - thank you.)

GrandmaDeb's archive of Mackie's facesets (also available inside PepsiOtaku's and Little Wing Guy's archives above):

I do not have have the original compressed file by Mackie, which I believe was called face_m,and held sixteen files with sixteen faces each.

But this is the complete set, I believe.

Here are Mackie's Faces

What are we missing?
As of writing (05/18/2014), we are missing any and all resources that were not covered under the archives I have uploaded above. A good example are the sets of REFMAP facesets. The two Material Quest games contain some of Mackie's facesets, but they are far from being complete.

As of 05/20/2014 we are still missing the two facesets done by 梅 (Ume). I believe we have most of the facesets by Mackie and わちゃ (Wacha), if anyone can cross-reference that would be awesome. PepsiOtaku and Little Wing Guy have also provided a plethora of REFMAP-related/derived stuff, thanks guys!

It would also be greatly appreciated if other community members can mirror the archives we have provided above. Having only RMN as the only source to download these archives is unreliable from a POV of redundancy.

The First Seed Material Terms of Use (the English translation is unfortunately not available) does not state any restrictions to redistribution of REFMAP resources or the Material Quest games as long as such actions do not infringe upon laws and regulations in your region and do not harm or defame First Seed Material.

Closing words
If an administrator or applicable staff member can sticky this topic and bring more attention to First Seed Material's demise, it would be highly appreciated. I was unaware that FSM was gone and the revelation honestly took me by surprise.

 

[Archeia]

I pinned it for you.

I WAS surprised when it was down without any notification/words or cues from the Japanese-based RMers from twitter. I just assumed their domain expired? And I'll mirror these in my FTP soon.

 

[Shaz]

Why is it down? Do you know that it's permanent? Domain expiry would have been my first thought too.

 

[King Arthur]

I am assuming that their hosting plan with Coreserver lapsed because the domain is still pointing to a Coreserver server (or at least it's trying to). If the domain expired we wouldn't be getting redirected to an error page provided by their hosting provider. (Note that I am simply assuming Coreserver is FSM's hosting provider, I might be wrong on this assumption obviously).

As for whether this is permanent? I honestly have no idea as I am completely unaware of the goings-on over in the Japanese RM community. I actually only noticed this today because I'd randomly opened FSM to be met with a 403 error. My hope is they come back and we can all breathe a sigh of relief, but regardless I felt this turn of events was something that the RM community over on our side of the Pacific should be made aware of.

 

[Jomarcenter]

Let's me check my PC. I remember I downloaded every visible resources of FSM.

Edit: Good news I have the character sets for VX/VXACE.

Do you guys need it?

And also if the domain just expired. We could still recover if we know the I.P. Address of the server itself.

 

[GrandmaDeb]

King Arthur, I COMPLETELY understand what you are doing.


(lol more than you know!)


But the most important thing to do first would be to have a copy of their terms of service.


Is that included in the files you have? That would be great!


But honestly I find it hard to believe this will last. They are still very active.


I am hoping they come right back. =]

 

[Archeia]

Okay I just checked twitter and it is domain expiry.

 

[King Arthur]

King Arthur, I COMPLETELY understand what you are doing.

(lol more than you know!)

But the most important thing to do first would be to have a copy of their terms of service.

Is that included in the files you have? That would be great!

But honestly I find it hard to believe this will last. They are still very active.

I am hoping they come right back. =]

I have indeed linked to a Japanese copy of their Terms of Use (http://web.archive.org/web/20090908174227/http://www.tekepon.net/fsm/modules/siteinfo/index.php?mode=terms) that was still available on the Wayback Machine. Unfortunately an English copy doesn't seem to be archived.

I went over the ToU (I can read Japanese) when I wrote the post and it is largely (paraphrased) "we own copyrights, do not use in any way that violates laws or is harmful or defamatory to FSM" with no specific mention of any restrictions regarding redistributions. The original, unmodified archive files I uploaded above do not have a ToU or ToS file in them.

And yes, I do hope that this is just a small hiccup and that FSM comes back. I made this topic in the probable event of a worst-case scenario so we have a contingency plan to keep the REFMAP resources alive.

Okay I just checked twitter and it is domain expiry.

It's good to hear news, I sincerely hope they can resolve that and get back up soon. (っ´ω｀)っ

 

[Ellie Jane]

Oh no!


I have some of the faces saved in this directory (this is within my game), if they are needed. It's a large part of the original set of faces (lots missing though) plus many of my own edits.


http://afar.ws/img/faces/

 

[GrandmaDeb]

Well I have strong hope for a quick recovery, but the old rule stands:


If you see something you like - DOWNLOAD it - along with a copy of the current terms and conditions, with annotation of the artist (preferably in the file name) lol


but DOWNLOAD it. =]

 

[Clord]

Yeah there is some awesome stuff for those who don't want to pay for better sprites. Some non-commercial projects are quite reliant of such resources.

 

[King Arthur]

Added a link on the OP to an archive provided by PepsiOtaku over on RMN.

 

[King Arthur]

Added link to an archive provided by Little Wing Guy over on RMN, seems to have most of the REFMAP facesets along with a bunch of other REFMAP-related and derived stuff.

Also editted parts of the post to better reflect the resources we have recovered/collected to date.

First Seed Material is still down as of 05/20 from what I can see over here, still redirects to a Coreserver 403 page. Does anyone have any updates on that front? :\

 

[//Cache.]

It's a tad bit upsetting seeing a decent resource site down due to domain expiration.
But, if anyone knew how to get in touch with the original owner of the site, then we could have it back up and running.

__________________________________

Note aside, I am trying to find the resources from fsm.
The sprite addons (cloth/acc/hair/eyes) But, fsm is down. :c

 

[GrandmaDeb]

Isn't something like this likely to be resolved on an active site like FSM?


or is that a vain hope?

 

[King Arthur]

Usually website administrators tend to be on top of things like domain renewals, especially if the site in question is active like FSM was; regaining control of an expired domain can be an extreme pain in the butt (screw domain squatters). The fact the domain expired at all is unsettling, given that.

The worst part though is since we have almost no solid information beyond that their domain expired, anything we can shake a stick at regarding its current status is blank speculation at this point (beyond that it's down).

 

[GrandmaDeb]

With the number of active blogs who post there I am surprised there is no more chatter...

 

[Jomarcenter]

Usually website administrators tend to be on top of things like domain renewals, especially if the site in question is active like FSM was; regaining control of an expired domain can be an extreme pain in the butt (screw domain squatters). The fact the domain expired at all is unsettling, given that.

The worst part though is since we have almost no solid information beyond that their domain expired, anything we can shake a stick at regarding its current status is blank speculation at this point (beyond that it's down).

Most of the time you could just automatically paid the domain every year/month via a credit card (Depends on the domain provider). If they set their accounts to automatically paid the domain. they may change credit card, the card is expired, or something that cause them to not automatically paid the bills. So let's try to contact them about it. But if anyone here or in the Japanese forums or someone in japan have any contact details/information to that person. They should also try to contact in-person. (If you know) and notify them that their site is down. maybe they forgot about it (Since the last news in their site is in 2009) maybe they will be back and provide the full resources or maybe bringing the site again.

And don't worry about the domain squatters. Some Domain providers also have a time limit to temporary lock the domain from anyone to get it. So if they paid on time before the domain went on sale. They can bring it up in no time.

 

[Archeia]

With the number of active blogs who post there I am surprised there is no more chatter...

You and I both. I checked all those who use RM and active in FSM and this is what I got:

@Archeia_Nessiah 私の分かる範囲で言うと、First Seed Materialのレンタルサーバーの期限が切れていて、利用できない状況です。関係者ではないので、それ以上のことは私にも分かりません。力になれずすみません。

Which translates to, all they know is that its domain is down. Everyone's panicking over here though.

 

[GrandmaDeb]

Hmmm, well I have a boatload of stuff from FSM but no permission to repost any of it.


Fortunately, many of the very best resources were from blogs which are still up.