XNL Future Technologies Time Capsule

The Time Capsule projects and/or products are basically projects (and sometimes products) which I have developed mostly over two decades ago (when publishing this page on 20-01-2024). Some of those projects are around 20 years old, some 24 years and some a bit younger.

Those projects where mostly made in my early days of programming and some even dating back when I was around the age of 13! Most of the ones that I decided to (finally) release on my current platform where just small utils and/or programs. Some of them where ‘game tweaks’ and more of the a like.

Present day use of the Time Capsule Projects
Some of the Time Capsule Projects which you can find on this page are basically ‘completely useless’ these days because they might have become obsolete, they might not be compatible with modern operating systems (or hardware) anymore, or they are just ‘way outdated’ by now. While others are still usable almost 20 years (or so) later. All the projects (and products) which are Time Capsule Projects are marked with [TimeCapsule] in their project/product/page title.

Why (re-)release these projects now?
Most of these project had never seen the ‘daylight of the internet’ but where mostly only shared ‘hand-to-hand’, via diskettes (and later USB sticks) or via email (as attachment). And while some of the utils/tools and programs where actually used by quite a lot of users (especially for me at that age) and for some even over 1000 users, they had never been truly published and/or distributed “properly”. And therefor I thought it would be fun to have a small ‘glimpse back into the past’ on some of my older projects.

Some Time Capsule Projects had minor updates/changes before they where published here
Some of the Time Capsule Projects published on this (new) platform did received some minor updates and/or changes before publishing them. However those changes will not affect the layout/interface of the projects, they will not alter the code and/or functionality in anyway etc. Those changes often just included adding the new website URL to them and removing old email addresses from them (often replaced with [redacted]). For some I have even added ‘present day notes’ (sarcasm notes/remarks that is) to my own code and what I did/wrote back then.

But to keep the projects ‘authentic’ for the XNL Future Technologies Time Capsule, these changes have been made on an actual physical computer (laptop) from back when I made them (an Intel Pentium III), on the actual operating system I initially wrote them on, and using the exact same development software I used back then. A nice visible example of this is my TextSpec 2.0B, where I have also published photo’s of the computer and Visual Studio 6 running on Windows 98 to make these changes. And to keep the ‘authenticity’ of the projects even closer, I also made sure that IF a project needed to have (outdated) personal information removed for publication, that the computer I’ve made the changes with was set to the exact (last) date I worked on that project. However, most Time Capsule Projects have not received any changes, simply because I just don’t have the source-code anymore (explained bellow).

No more support for (most) Time Capsule Projects
Most of the XNL Future Technologies Time Capsule projects will no longer be supported and/or maintained unless clearly otherwise stated on the page of the project/product. This means that I/we will not give any support in using the projects/products, but it also means that they will not receive any updates at all anymore (ever!). Even if I for example know that there is a (crucial) bug in one of those Time Capsule projects, I will most likely NOT update it to preserve the ‘Authenticity’ of the Time Capsule Project. IF I’m aware of (serious) bugs in those (old) Time Capsule Projects, I will however state this on the page of the project in the ‘Known bugs and issues tab’ for example.

The reason I’m not updating them anymore is that I just wanted to give a small glimpse in the past when I just started making things and software, and If I would now fix all the bugs, crappy grammar/spelling and issues from back then, then this would defeat the whole purpose of me creating this ‘Online Time Capsule’ 😉 And to be honest: For some of the (recently) published Time Capsule Projects I don’t even have the source code anymore unfortunately. Many years ago (when my back up skills where apparently as ‘good’ as my programming skills back then 😉) I suffered a hard-disk crash (an literal hard-disk crash where the head of the drive went haywire and killed half of the HDD instantly) which made me lose many of my projects and their source codes. I have managed to get quite a few executables back by asking users from back then If they still had their copy, but obviously they did not had the source codes.

I just downloaded a Time Capsule Project but can’t get it to run/start on my (modern) machine!
That is very well a possibility indeed 😂, especially because some of those projects where developed for (much) older operating systems like Windows 98 or even MS-DOS. Most of them you should be able to get them to run though, because I have not published the ones that really aren’t going to run anymore on modern systems. And neither did I published the ones that required hardware, drivers or run-times that are no longer available (or in my archives).

For most of the Time Capsule Projects I have published instructions on their pages which should help you to get them to run again. It is however possible that you would need to install vintage (almost fossil?) run-times for some of the Time Capsule Projects, or that they are intended to actually run on older hardware/operating systems.

The Time Capsule Project/Product I just downloaded says it’s missing a file or run-times!
Yes I know! I just explained why this is in the section above. But because a lot of people these days only ‘speed-read headlines’ searching for what they (think they) need to know, I decided to add this extra section 😉

Most of those runtimes and missing files for the Time Capsule Projects can be found in this section of my website. I do however strongly recommend to read the instructions of the downloaded Time Capsule Project to see if there any additional requirements to get it to run.

Should I still use the Time Capsule Projects/Products?
Honestly? For most of the Time Capsule Projects: NO! You should not use them in anyway (for serious purposes)! You can still (try to) run them for educative purposes though. Unless it is otherwise stated that you can still use them these days, just don’t use them anymore for daily tasks, serious tasks and definitely don’t use them for business tasks. Simply for the obvious reasons stated above. It could be that a Time Capsule Project states on it’s page that you can still use it these days, but for all Time Capsule Projects basically the same rule applies: USE AT YOUR OWN RISK

What is/was TB/TB Software Corp?
The name TB Software Corp. or a logo with this name in it is something you might see when using/running one of my older Time Capsule Projects, as well as programs/utils names which start with TB in their project/product name. TB Software Corp. was a ‘hobby company name’ I came up with as a kid where TB stood for The Boss (my first ‘computer nickname’ in MS-DOS games which my father back then came up with for me). TB Software Corp was however never an officially registered company name or trademark (owned by me at least), and the “logo” was made by me in Macromedia Flash 5 with very poor design skills back then😂. However I later started to use a more serious/personal nickname so “The Boss” got kicked to the curb never to be used again.

“Disclaimer”: if you had (or currently have) a company with the name TB Software Corp, don’t be mad, I was just a ‘dumb kid’ with a dream to release software back then 😉😂. No trademark or copyright infringement was ever intended. And if there is/was an actual company, trademark etc with this name I hereby ‘officially declare’ that I had nothing to do with that company and/or trademark 😉.

What is TeamXNL?
Some of the Time Capsule Projects you might see (or might get uploaded later after this page has been published) might also have ‘TeamXNL Branding’ or a TeamXNL logo. This however is actually one of my/our trademarks which is officially registered. Previously TeamXNL was my/our gaming community and I often developed small tools, programs and game-modifications for this gaming community. These days TeamXNL is still used as one of our names (and trademarks) but nowadays TeamXNL represents this community (which is why we are using this domain as our main website), TeamXNL these days also refers to our team of XNL Future Technologies staff members (not the community members, but the actual people running the community & platform, the people creating the software, 3D models and publications etc.). But if you encounter a Time Capsule Project displaying TeamXNL (and often a logo with “Grand Theft Auto Themed letters” and a skull), then this is most likely a project of mine from the TeamXNL gaming community days.

Copyright for XNL Future Tech Time Capsule Projects
So, because these projects are considered outdated or even ‘fossils’ by you, I assume the copyright has also expired? Well no, If you had assumed this then you are wrong 😉. That I don’t update/maintain them anymore, that they are (sometimes) over 20 years old, doesn’t take away that I have written them myself. I (and thus XNL Future Technologies) am still the legal copyright holder of those projects. For some of them I even have released the source code (if I still had it), and for each project I will most likely put the copyright and/or usage licenses on the page of the project itself. So no they are not “just up for grabs” now 😉.

Last Updated: 21-01-2024