So I was sent these files, thankyou very much, but for some reason I am still unable to play them. Any ideas?
That's more of a classic software problem... probably on your end. Back in the day before mp4 was even invented, there were *MANY* different video formats and codecs, as the older generation here will no doubt remember. Try VLC player if you haven't already, which should play most of the old formats. If that doesn't help, WinFF will convert most of them to something more digestible to modern machinery. Also, extract any ZIP files to your hard drive, do not just open them from within Explorer. The above is for Windows machines, if you have a Mac or something else, ask Jeeves. Oh, sorry, wrong century: Ask Google.
Hope this helps!
One day, historians will have absolutely no record of everyday culture from the time starting in about 1995 and continuing, since all the data will have been lost or become unreadable...
--SC