Army Men (1998) original Windows demo: source preflight

Task NEW-GAME-ARMY-MEN-DEMO-20261015; owner /root/new_game_refill_after_jedi; observed 2026-10-15 14:00 UTC. This refills the lane held on Jedi Knight's unanswered licence prompt. Next: acquire and identify the archived demo on the coordinator's authorized remote host after its current owner releases it. No package bytes, installer, game, build, browser, or licence input were executed for this preflight.

Selection and coverage

At base b5a7e11db85b4a1e9a383fee6bafebdd096baea7, case-insensitive searches for army.?men|desperados found no match in lib/apps.js (including DESKTOP_APPS), TODOS.md, docs, ops, or the candidate corpus. Shared messageboard search and all-ref subject/path history searches likewise found no existing Army Men qualification or owner. Desperados was considered but not claimed: Army Men has a smaller available archive with a published digest. This is the first Windows Army Men, not Army Men RTS, a console version, source rebuild, replacement engine, or an already-qualified title.

The archive's catalogue identifies The 3DO Company as developer/publisher and labels the distribution 1998-09-14, Demo, Microsoft Windows. This is archive metadata, not proof of the executable's internal version or publisher authenticity. Original package readme, copyright/version information, licence, and game executable remain uninspected. Acquisition must confirm them before registration or execution.

Excluded lead: Internet Archive item army-men-beta-demo describes its copy as second-hand and possibly leaked to a BBS. Do not substitute that February 1998 beta or the separately indexed source-code collection.

Exact source and recovery pins

Archive directory: https://archive.thedatadungeon.com/army_men_1998/distributions/1998-09-14_microsoft_windows_demo/

Metadata fetched directly without binary GET: SHA-256 sidecar, member listing. Digest is a recovery pin supplied by the mirror; no independently computed package digest or inner executable hash is claimed yet. The catalogue's September 1998 date must not be presented as a verified build date.

Acquisition handoff (not yet run)

1. Obtain the coordinator's exclusive acquisition grant and independently confirm the preceding remote owner has released the host. Use a fresh remote task directory, with at least 512 MiB free; preserve local host headroom above 2 GiB. No full fixture copy, local build, or local binary download. Allow 120 seconds and 20 MiB for this one package, with no retry loop or fallback to another distribution:

   demo_url='https://archive.thedatadungeon.com/army_men_1998/distributions/1998-09-14_microsoft_windows_demo/a.zip'
   curl --fail --location --connect-timeout 15 --max-time 120 \
     --max-filesize 20971520 --proto '=https' --proto-redir '=https' \
     --output a.zip.part "$demo_url"
   test "$(wc -c < a.zip.part)" -eq 18373265
   echo 'dd1faca49d6e5adc0a3db58831039274930b468caa713f1c0fb4fe074754908f  a.zip.part' | sha256sum -c -
   

   Run each command only if the previous command succeeded. On any mismatch, retain the failure receipt and stop; do not execute or repin changed bytes.

2. List and CRC-test the ZIP without executing it. Require exactly the one relative regular member a.exe, 18,418,688 bytes, no symlink/path traversal, and extract into an empty owned directory. Compute its SHA-256. Inspect PE headers/version resources and identify the self-extractor format. Use existing supported archive extraction only, bounded to 60 seconds, 5,000 files and 256 MiB expanded content; inventory before extracting. If the format is unsupported, report it rather than launching the installer under this acquisition-only grant. No imports, filename or game route is guessed.

3. Preserve original readme/licence/setup metadata, all file hashes and the normal launch instructions. Confirm this is the unmodified original demo, not a retail repack or prototype. Record installer requirements and the actual game EXE/data working directory. Stop at any licence choice; neither extracting files nor an acquisition grant authorizes answering or bypassing a licence. Send the small identity/readme/inventory report for review and request a separate bounded execution allocation through the coordinator.

Actual gameplay target

After package identity and launch route review, start the original program with its supplied data through the ordinary documented installer/launcher route. A separate runtime grant should bound first startup to 120 seconds guest wall time / 150 seconds controller time, preserving the first real failure or visible screen. Do not invent a launcher filename, command-line mission selector, memory patch, or menu coordinates before observing them.

The intended proof is a playable demo mission: enter through its visible menu, use the original readme's controls to move the player soldier, release the input, then demonstrate a second visible action (for example aiming/firing if documented). Capture before/after positions and ordinary input delivery plus a reviewed full gameplay image. A setup dialog, licence, title/menu, intro, static terrain, or autoplay is not completion. No FPS/audio claim without separate measurement and inspection.

Save original package and extracted assets remotely with the reproducible URL, size and hashes; Git preserves this recipe, not ignored binaries. Preserve small evidence under a unique scratch/runs/<UTC>-army-men-demo-.../ folder, recording actual source/module/fixture hashes, command, terminal state, cleanup and screenshot identity. Until a candidate corpus entry exists, keep the report in investigation notes rather than attaching it to another game. Publish dashboard result.json last only after registration and evidence review. Public registration/distribution/deployment requires separate review.

Validation for this source-only change: bounded registry/history/ownership searches, live metadata/HEAD observations, and git diff --check. No runtime tests are represented by these source checks.

Later investigation: 2026-10-20 BltFast conformance uses the retained original same-surface trace. Its upward geometries pass; a separate synthetic downward-overlap bug is fixed with source-level tests. Normal build and five full-VM DirectDraw suites passed on 2026-10-20, with two baseline-reproduced descriptor fixture corrections. The game's upward striping remains unexplained; actual pitch/HRESULT and pre/post pixels need a new diagnostic.

The paired-call observer provides a bounded external adapter and passing independent JS fixtures. Actual capture and initial terrain review remain pending an authorized accessible runtime.