Borderlands.the.pre.sequel-reloaded Direct
Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel is not the best game in the franchise. But it is the most interesting one. It is a melancholy, funny, broken, and brilliant intermission—a moon shot that didn't quite land, but whose low-gravity echoes can still be felt in every butt-slam and laser beam of the games that followed.
It is the only game in the series where you feel the weight of gravity’s absence. It is the only game where you watch the charming corporate stooge become a monster. And it is the only game where you can play as Claptrap, whose action skill (the maddeningly random "Vaulthunter.exe") is a meta-joke about the unreliability of heroes.
In the sprawling, bullet-ridden cosmos of Borderlands , mainline numbers usually tell the whole story. Borderlands 2 was a cultural phenomenon—a perfect storm of looter-shooter mechanics, meme-worthy dialogue, and the late-game brilliance of Handsome Jack. Then came Borderlands 3 , a mechanical marvel with a divisive narrative. But wedged between them, in a low-gravity purgatory, sits the black sheep of the family: Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel . Borderlands.The.Pre.Sequel-RELOADED
You play as one of four (later six with DLC) "Vault Hunters" hired by the ambitious Hyperion programmer, John, who will become Handsome Jack. The framing device is a flashback: a captured Athena being interrogated by the Crimson Raiders. As you watch Jack descend from a charismatic, if arrogant, corporate man into a paranoid, vengeful tyrant, the game refuses to justify his actions. It explains them.
The moon’s reduced gravity fundamentally changed the combat loop. Gunfights became aerial ballets. Players could boost-jump, hover, and slam down into crowds, scattering enemies like bowling pins. The Oz kit—a breathing apparatus that doubled as a boost pack—added a survival layer. Running out of oxygen created a ticking-clock tension, while shooting oxygen vents to replenish it turned the environment into a weapon. Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel is not the best game
For those who downloaded the RELOADED release, firing it up today feels like archaeology. You see the unused textures, the placeholder NPCs, the ambition of a studio trying to build a cathedral in a crater. And in that flawed, scrappy ambition, The Pre-Sequel becomes not a prequel at all, but a requiem for a version of Borderlands that could have been.
This scene release preserved a snapshot of the game before the "Claptastic Voyage" DLC (arguably the best piece of Borderlands DLC ever made) and the level-cap increases. It allowed modders to dig into the game’s code, unlocking the cut "Ultra-Precious" rarity and rebalancing the abysmal drop rates. In many ways, the modding community around the RELOADED release kept The Pre-Sequel alive long after 2K Australia closed its doors in 2015. History has been kind to The Pre-Sequel , if not generous. Critics initially lambasted its pacing, the repetitive environments (gray and gray-er), and the lack of a traditional endgame (no raid boss at launch). But players who returned—especially those on the RELOADED version who added community patches—found a gem. It is the only game in the series
The Pre-Sequel is worth playing for the "Claptastic Voyage" alone. If you find a preserved RELOADED copy, apply the community patch, embrace the Australian drawl, and enjoy the view of Pandora from the lunar surface. It’s lonely up there. But the loot is good.
The pivotal moment—witnessing the murder of the innocent scientists and the subsequent strangulation of the traitor—is masterfully clumsy. It’s not heroic. It’s the sound of a psyche breaking. For players of the RELOADED version, who might have missed the day-one patches, this raw narrative edge remained intact. Jack’s line, "These pretzels suck," is still funny. But you remember it because it follows him burying a man alive. It is impossible to discuss The Pre-Sequel ’s long tail without acknowledging the RELOADED release. In the mid-2010s, 2K Games employed aggressive DRM strategies. The RELOADED crack became the definitive way for many to play the game on older hardware or without mandatory internet.
For those who acquired the RELOADED release in the years following its 2014 debut, The Pre-Sequel represented more than just a stopgap; it was a fascinating, flawed experiment. It dared to ask: What if the villain was the hero? And what if that story took place on the shattered surface of Elpis, the moon of Pandora? Development duties for The Pre-Sequel were handed from Gearbox Software to 2K Australia (formerly Irrational Games Australia). This was a critical piece of context often lost in the initial reception. The studio, known for Tribes: Vengeance and BioShock ’s multiplayer components, infused the game with a distinct, dry, anti-authoritarian humor reminiscent of classic Australian sci-fi like The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert meets Mad Max .
15 thoughts on “How to install Adobe ColdFusion 9 x64 on Windows Server 2016/2019 x64”
Great article, lots of steps but worked like a charm. CF 9 is the last version I have, but I recently upgraded servers to Windows 2016 Server and didn’t want to upgrade CF at the huge cost for the small website I maintain. Still trying to get other websites to work other than the default, but I’ll get through that now that CF is working.
Hi Tom
Glad to hear things worked well. Enjoy and Cheers
Tom
This is a really good tip particularly to those new to the blogosphere.
Simple but very precise information… Thanks for sharing this one.
A must read article!
Up graded the server to 2016, the reinstall worked like a charm, lots of information, obviously lots of time and work put into this. Thank you very much for sharing.
The JWildCardHandler wildcard broke the regular sites so I removed that handler and so far everything is working fine for me anyhow.
Didn’t want to update from CF 9 could not justify the expense for 2 websites we serve.
Thanks again for a great how-to post!
Tom, this is indeed a very helpful breakdown. (There are still other ways to make things work, but I’m sure many will be satisfied with this alone.)
That said, and while you mention security a few times, it really should be emphasized very strongly to people doing this: beware that you’re using a version of CF that is 9 years old! (as of this writing): since then we have CF10, 11, 2016, and 2018, all of which have had major security enhancements (and of course many other enhancements).
Keep in mind that CF9 stopped being updated in 2013. There have been no more public bug fixes–or security updates to it–since then. That said, some good news is that some of the security improvements in 10 were actually also made available as security hotfixes for 9 (and even 8 back then), so at least having those updates in place would be better than running a stock 9 install.
But many people find that they have never have applied any CF9 updates, let alone security updates.
I have many blog posts about CF9 updates, and I did one that pulls all the info together (including tools and other resources), which may help some readers in that boat:
http://www.carehart.org/blog/client/index.cfm/2014/3/14/cf9_and_earlier_hotfix_guide
I can also help people with doing such updates, if interested. Though again I always warn folks that this is a bit like putting lipstick on a pig.
And I’m simply warning folks here that trying to force CF9 to work on Windows 2016 (or 2012) is basically playing with a loaded gun. You’re updating the OS because you want to/feel you have to but you are not updating CF (perhaps because it will cost money or you fear compatibility issues, or whatever).
Maybe the better analogy is that it’s a WW2 era gun. You might be able to get it cheaper, or it’s just “what you know” and prefer to use, and you MIGHT take really good care of it, but just beware that if not taken care of it may well explode in your face. So be careful out there.
You are God send…. CF9 works now on Windows 2012
Following your guide, with minor adjustments, I was able to get ColdFusion 9 to run on Windows Server 2019! My only problem is now ASP.net sites serve up “404 – File or directory not found. The resource you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable.” errors. I moved the five Handler Mappings “Script Map” down from the top level to a specific CF9 site thinking it would help the ASP.net site. The CF9 site runs beautifully yet the change didn’t help my ASP.net situation. I’m hopeful someone can provide insight into what may have caused this problem and how to fix it.
Hi Rick
> My only problem is now ASP.net sites serve up “404 – File or directory not found.
Did you remove all handler mappings as described?
Regards
Tom
I only added the handler mappings, left the others alone. Although the original ones fell below the fold post moving the custom Handler Mappings to the top of the Ordered List.
Try to move the Static Handler Mapping with the wildcard path (*) below the .asp or .aspx handler and probably play around with the 32-bit application pool setting “Set Enable 32-bit Applications”. Also check if you have a blocking rule at “Request Filtering” options within IIS. To be sure, execute a ‘iisreset’ command after your modifications and before you test.
I am looking at doing an inplace upgrade from 2008r2–>2012r2 with CF9 installed. Has anyone seen how this reacts?
I didn’t. Maybe you install a fresh server and then use the “Packaging&Deployment” functionality to migrate all your stuff over to the new server. Have a look at the CF Administrator at “Packaging&Deployment” -> “ColdFusion Archives”. I don’t know if this works. You probably try it on a testsystem first. I always installed fresh and did a manual migration.
Thanks for response! I was trying to avoid building out a new box as I will be retiring Cold Fusion (finally) in 2020.
I will give the upgrade path ago (2008r2–>2012–>2016) in my test environment and report back what craziness happens.
OK,
The in place upgrade from 2008r2–> 2012 r2 standard went well. I am working through Java.lan.NullPointerException 500 error with CF9 though. Keep you all posted.
Hello,
Just wanted to drop in and say that I successfully did an in-place upgrade of a 2008r2 box running CF9 and it went really well. Aside re-installing .net 4.7 our CF9 installation didn’t seem to mind. Good luck out people.