Made an appeal to the Petz Community today
Aug. 3rd, 2025 04:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
malyminPosted it on Whiskerwick and RKC forums. The forums may be less active these days, but they're still a better place for long-term discussion than Petzcord.
I like that the games have survived this long as abandonware, but if OpenRCT2 (a fanmade re-implimentation of RCT2 with constant QOL and feature updates) can coexist with GOG's Rollercoaster Tycoon Bundle (an official re-release compatible with modern systems), then I don't see a "legitimate" way to get Petz as conflicting with a potential OpenPetz project.
Skissors on the Hacking/Modding discord mentioned in 2022:
Also that reminds me, Petz is gonna stop working on January 19, 2038, so hopefully we'll figure out something by then haha
remember the y2k bug? basically the same deal but with less catchy branding. Most 32bit computer programs store the date using how many seconds it has been since epoch (00:00:00 UTC 1 January 1970). They usually do this using an signed 32bit integer. Now a signed 32bit int can hold a pretty big number, but it does have a maximum. Once that number reaches its maximum, it will do what's called an integer overflow error, and flip to the smallest number it can hold, which in this case is a very large negative number. It just so happens that on 03:14:07 UTC 19 January 2038, it will be exactly one signed 32bit's worth of seconds since epoch. The next second, that date variable is going to flip, and the program will think the date is way way before epoch, 20:45:52 UTC 13 December 1901 to be exact. This understandably will cause problems for lots of computer programs, Petz included. stancymckatt is correct though, all we'll need to do is set the computer clock back to sometime before that day and the game will work just as before. Might lead to some messed up family trees though lol.
And that date, while distant, looms over my head.
I like that the games have survived this long as abandonware, but if OpenRCT2 (a fanmade re-implimentation of RCT2 with constant QOL and feature updates) can coexist with GOG's Rollercoaster Tycoon Bundle (an official re-release compatible with modern systems), then I don't see a "legitimate" way to get Petz as conflicting with a potential OpenPetz project.
Skissors on the Hacking/Modding discord mentioned in 2022:
Also that reminds me, Petz is gonna stop working on January 19, 2038, so hopefully we'll figure out something by then haha
remember the y2k bug? basically the same deal but with less catchy branding. Most 32bit computer programs store the date using how many seconds it has been since epoch (00:00:00 UTC 1 January 1970). They usually do this using an signed 32bit integer. Now a signed 32bit int can hold a pretty big number, but it does have a maximum. Once that number reaches its maximum, it will do what's called an integer overflow error, and flip to the smallest number it can hold, which in this case is a very large negative number. It just so happens that on 03:14:07 UTC 19 January 2038, it will be exactly one signed 32bit's worth of seconds since epoch. The next second, that date variable is going to flip, and the program will think the date is way way before epoch, 20:45:52 UTC 13 December 1901 to be exact. This understandably will cause problems for lots of computer programs, Petz included. stancymckatt is correct though, all we'll need to do is set the computer clock back to sometime before that day and the game will work just as before. Might lead to some messed up family trees though lol.
And that date, while distant, looms over my head.
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Date: 2025-08-04 03:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-08-06 03:59 am (UTC)At least a Whiskerwick moderator (Arie@LittersFactory) stickied it! That's more support than I was expecting.
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Date: 2025-12-20 01:50 am (UTC)See, I own an old laptop from 2000 that no longer knows what date it is, and unlike newer computers, which just freak out, it's old enough that being confused about the date doesn't bother it. Just, every time I boot it up, it asks me what date and time it is, and I tell it something, and it goes, "oh good, I'm so glad I know now," and that's that.
So if you found an old enough computer, it probably would be similar! And since Petz is quite old, it'd probably still run on it no trouble!