I'll answer both questions below:
zip/7z: There's two reasons I went with 7z. The first is to delineate files that have had extra processing done to them, or files that were created while working on the archive (such as archives of mods). Unmodified files will be in zip format. If a file is 7z, its been worked on by the archive and is not exactly as packaged by the developer.
The second reason is storage. Windows only supports the deflate compression method when working with zip files, which really doesn't get very good compression when compared to 7z. Converting our archives of the wastes from zip to 7z saved several hundred mb of space. Several other similar examples have made a strong case for using 7z where reasonable.
If the archive begins to reach its storage limit of 25gb, we may start converting more zip archives to 7z as a way to save funds on extra storage, but fortunately we're not near that point yet.

There are no plans to set up a mirror of the entire archive. This is primarily because many of the files are available from other sources, so we'd essentially be creating triplicate copies and using up server resources that could be better spent on those games that aren't available elsewhere.
There will also be a lot of changes and additions to the archive (such as the presently nonexistent game recordings section), so any mirrors would mean a tremendous amount of updating.
I'm already having enough difficulty matching my local copy to the server, and really don't want to take on keeping track of a dozen community members who also want every new game on their systems.

Hi John,

This is pretty awesome! I helped develop Ace Fire and Chopper Challenge back in the day, great to see them in the archive. Unfortunately, the links to the installers are broken. http://www.agarchive.net/pages/devs/xSite.html

I believe I do have both games in case you need them.

Hi John.

This will be hugely useful for audiogames.net and keeping the database uptodate, since we can point people to pages in the archive to download out of use games if nobody is hosting them, as well as your webpages for each developer with the history and information about the company which people will want to read.

Great to have this resource available, even if it does mean a lot of work for me .

edit: okay I've checked a couple of things. Interestingly enough, Last crusade and mudsplat still have their developer's websites up, go and check the homepage links in the audiogames.net database. Yes, it seems nuts but it's actually true!
So, feel free to update your various listing with those games and information.

John,
The link to credits and thanks is broken.

Sorry all for the long delay in responding. To summarize:
All of the issues reported have been fixed.
I received a huge email this morning in which was detailed about a hundred different broken links and typos. A huge thanks goes out to whoever took the time to write it, since I'm now pretty confident in saying that the archive should be stable and all links should be working.

Phil: I've added 1995 as PCS's start date. Do you know who did write devil star scavenger hunt?
As far as my email goes, please use the agarchive contact addresses, or just link directly to our contact page. This will make sure that if somebody else is working on the archive they'll be able to answer requests, rather than everything going to my personal email.

Thanks to everybody for the feedback, and for checking out the archive.
I'm glad its finally out there for everybody to use, and its nice to see such a positive response from the community.

mojsior:
After a bit of testing, I seee no obvious way to get the game to run; all of the files in the directory appear to be binaries, and none of them want to execute.
I've removed the game from the archive for the moment. Hopefully somebody else has a working copy and can send it along.

I'll search my old hd and see if I have a working copy of Mario. I had it in the what would've been abandonware games bt sync folder, which was a trainwreck which led to things being uploaded, deleted, and it just overall becoming a disaster with it being left open.

Thank you I will save it into my dropbox.

hey guys, any ideas who  was the  developer of the age of  slodder?
that game sounds pritty awesome, to sad it's discontinue huh,

@Johm, looking through the archive I note that on the Bpc programs page you don't have a listing for the game Fartman. I wonder if that is one you could also include in your hosting?

@Figment, I'm currently going through the audiogames archive and adding links to the appropriate pages to game pages in the database, fixing download links as necessary. Obviously this is a major undertaking,but should hopefully help when your looking for certain abandoned games who's hosting is doubtful, as well as provide some nice summaries of developer history for missing titles.

As regards age of slaughter, there is actually a topic kicking around on the forum somewhere. It was an attempt at a medeival themed stratogy game with an emphasis on controlling your population including executions. it never really got beyond the very early demo phase, particularly because the developer was rather young at the time and not particularly interested in professional documentation, presentation or planning.

I never made a database entry since the game wasn't really complete enough to have one, but it might be an interesting curiosity, I do recall it having some sort of amusing voice acting and sound effects around the torture, albeit games like Castaways have since done a rather better job of that style of game.

This is a very nice resource. In regards to the PCS Dos games, you don't actually have a full version of the car racing game both links point to a demo. My breakout conversion can be found Here, though it won't be updated as I managed to lose the source. A rewrite isn't out of the question though.