Accurate version history lists of shareware titles?

[MrFlibble]

I've noticed that the help files of Apogee/3D Realms shareware games usually list only changes made in the current version, and not all changes from v1.0 to the current version. Thus I decided to look through the change lists of all versions of Rise of the Triad to compile a single lists for easy reference. To my surprise, it turned out that the change lists in v1.1 and v1.2 are identical, except the section title which says "What's new in v1.1./v1.2" in the v1.2 help file. The v1.2a patch only altered the game executable, hence the change list is still the same as in v1.1 and v1.2. The help file in v1.3 listed the changes pertaining to that version, but that's it. Which leads me to believe that those lists are rather inaccurate or incomplete, and the logical question is, are there other sources that describe in detail the changes introduced by each version? I'm not talking only about Rise of the Triad here, it appears that back then people seemingly did not pay much attention to detailed accounts of differences between versions in general...

[Litude]

Finding complete and accurate change logs for games as old as these is a tedious task. Newer Apogee games have incomplete and sometimes maybe even inaccurate lists of changes in the help file just as you figured, but for older games even this doesn't exist.

You can find out some stuff by reading FAQs and such that exist around the net. IIRC in the case of Rise of the Triad, the 1.2a patch fixed something that was supposed to be fixed in 1.2 but it turned out it wasn't. You can read more about the Rise of the Triad patches over here. From the sound of it, it seems 1.2 was a bug fix patch to 1.1 so essentially the change log in the help file is correct.

If the game patch file doesn't provide a change log and you can't find anything on the internet, you're on your own. E.g. in the case of the Commander Keen series, I have been trying to figure out (with the help of many others) the exact changes between each version and then been documenting them over at the KeenWiki. And that naturally requires a quite in-depth knowledge of the game in question.

Malvineous (the maintainer of both KeenWiki and ModdingWiki) briefly mentioned that he might start another wiki where generic information and information such as version histories for classic games could be stored.

[MrFlibble]

If the game patch file doesn't provide a change log and you can't find anything on the internet, you're on your own. E.g. in the case of the Commander Keen series, I have been trying to figure out (with the help of many others) the exact changes between each version and then been documenting them over at the KeenWiki. And that naturally requires a quite in-depth knowledge of the game in question.

Yeah, I've documented the differences between v1.0 and v1.07 of Dune II that way In addition, there are also at least three different versions that have the number v1.07, one is the patched US version (with the title "The Building of a Dynasty") and the others are different overseas releases (called "The Battle for Arrakis"), that support three languages (English, German and French), with minor changes between them regarding the quality of French and German translations.

Malvineous (the maintainer of both KeenWiki and ModdingWiki) briefly mentioned that he might start another wiki where generic information and information such as version histories for classic games could be stored.

That would be nice