test-drb October 2006

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

217 participants
352 discussions

by aliensrcooluk＠yahoo.co.uk

Sorry, forgot something (see bottom of email) --- Bryan Pope <bpope at wordstock.com> wrote: > And thusly were the wise words spake by Jim Leonar d > > > > A mutual acquaintance of mine is trying to write a > thesis and needs a > > little help. He writes: > > > > "The project that I am working on is for my > Masters in Library > > Information Science degree with a focus on > Archiving. For my paper I > > have to write a 10 to 12 page paper on a subject > that involves the > > preservation of something that has archival > significance. So I decided > > to do it on video games and what steps are being > taken to preserve them > > on the media that they were originally written o n > such as Atari and > > Nintendo cartridges some of which are degrading > significantly and no > > longer work on the game systems they were design ed > for." > > > > If anyone has any help or leads for him, or any > experience archiving > > ROMs/cartridges that may degrade over time and h ow > to properly preserve > > them, please drop him a line at > "andrew.pacilli at simmons.edu". Your > > input can shape an archivist's future :-) > > For Atari 2600, can you not just take a .bin > downloaded from AtariAge > and burn it to a suitable EPROM that is then > installed on a suitable > cartridge PCB? AtariAge even sells everything you > need to make your > own cartridges. As for Nintendo, I believe they > will be releasing > their back catalog for play on their new console, > Wii. > > Cheers, > > Bryan > Thats not strictly true. Nintendo are releasing *their* games for their old machines, such as the SNES (aka Super Famicom in Japan), for play on the Wii (pronounced "we" - it apparently means "all" in Japanese) However, there are about 2500 (perhaps more?) SNES games of which only 100 or so are by Nintendo. Plus, what about the games by companies that no longer exist, such as Psygnosis (bought by Sony around 1999), Bitmap Brothers (ok, still around but appear to be dead), Probe (dead), US Gold and their subsidiary Kixx (dead) and many others. *** forgotten bit follows *** I have found that some of my SNES and Megadrive games (on cartridges) sometimes fail to run the first time after ages (eg. a few years) of not being used. With the exception of one or two, they have all worked on the 2nd or 3rd attempts. I'm not sure why that is, but aslong as they work :) Regards, Andrew B aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk

17 years, 9 months

Experience with cartridge archival?

by aliensrcooluk＠yahoo.co.uk

--- Bryan Pope <bpope at wordstock.com> wrote: > And thusly were the wise words spake by Jim Leonar d > > > > A mutual acquaintance of mine is trying to write a > thesis and needs a > > little help. He writes: > > > > "The project that I am working on is for my > Masters in Library > > Information Science degree with a focus on > Archiving. For my paper I > > have to write a 10 to 12 page paper on a subject > that involves the > > preservation of something that has archival > significance. So I decided > > to do it on video games and what steps are being > taken to preserve them > > on the media that they were originally written o n > such as Atari and > > Nintendo cartridges some of which are degrading > significantly and no > > longer work on the game systems they were design ed > for." > > > > If anyone has any help or leads for him, or any > experience archiving > > ROMs/cartridges that may degrade over time and h ow > to properly preserve > > them, please drop him a line at > "andrew.pacilli at simmons.edu". Your > > input can shape an archivist's future :-) > > For Atari 2600, can you not just take a .bin > downloaded from AtariAge > and burn it to a suitable EPROM that is then > installed on a suitable > cartridge PCB? AtariAge even sells everything you > need to make your > own cartridges. As for Nintendo, I believe they > will be releasing > their back catalog for play on their new console, > Wii. > > Cheers, > > Bryan > Thats not strictly true. Nintendo are releasing *their* games for their old machines, such as the SNES (aka Super Famicom in Japan), for play on the Wii (pronounced "we" - it apparently means "all" in Japanese) However, there are about 2500 (perhaps more?) SNES games of which only 100 or so are by Nintendo. Plus, what about the games by companies that no longer exist, such as Psygnosis (bought by Sony around 1999), Bitmap Brothers (ok, still around but appear to be dead), Probe (dead), US Gold and their subsidiary Kixx (dead) and many others. Regards, Andrew B aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk

17 years, 9 months

Pertec / 9 track cable question

by fireflyst＠earthlink.net

Hi all, I've had a malfuntioning magtape setup on my 11/23+ for some time and I'm wondering, is it the card, cabling, or drive? here's what I've got: Overland OD3201 magtape drive (works fine when the parallel port connection is used when connected to a PC) Dilog DQ132 pertec tape controller Two straight-through ribbon cables, 50 pin IDC on one end, 50 pin cardedge on the other. J1 on card is cabled to P1 on drive. J2 on card is cabled to P2 on drive. When I try to perform an operation on the tape drive, it times out The drive does spin a bit first. Rewind operations work correctly. It seems to do this no matter how I have the card configured. Are these cables really supposed to be straight through, or what am I missing? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks! Julian

17 years, 9 months

new part-faulty RAM chips?

by julesrichardsonuk＠yahoo.co.uk

Does anyone know if the Sinclair Spectrum ever made use of RAM chips that were known to be part-faulty as-new? This was just asked over on another mailing list... I recall discussions about such chips in the past on here, where manufacturers would sell 'faulty' RAM to vendors at lower cost where only half of the address map could store data reliably. However, I'm sure that was late 70s or so, not the early 80s when the Spectrum existed; by then I would have thought that the manufacturers would have had the reliability issues sorted out and would simply dump faulty stock? Anyone able to confirm? cheers Jules -- If you've ever wondered how you get triangles from a cow You need buttermilk and cheese, and an equilateral chainsaw

17 years, 9 months

Western Union Teletype Model 15 or 19

by ENelson＠mayerbrownrowe.com

I am in possession of a Western Union teletype machine - I don't have the exact model number with me. I would like to get rid of it and was hoping you might have some idea as to how I can sell or relocate it. Thank you in advance of your consideration. Elaine Nelson Telephone: 312.701.8010

17 years, 9 months

Zebra_Design.pdf

by aek＠bitsavers.org

>Did anyone happen to download "Zebra_Design.pdf" "An Outline of the >Functional Design of the Stantec Zebra Computer" I've just made scans available on http://bitsavers.org/pdf/stantec in the past few days I'm trying to locate a copy of the document which describes the Algol compiler for the Zebra. The copy that was recently donated to CHM was has severe termite damage.

17 years, 9 months

Classic ports missing on modern machines (was Re: PDT-11/150 down)

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

On 10/18/06, Sridhar Ayengar <ploopster at gmail.com> wrote: > Robert Feldman wrote: > > We have a Dell box at work that doesn't even have a Centronics parallel > > port -- just USB ports. I needed to get a USB-to-Parallel converter > > cable to hook up the laserjet to this box. > > My new PC doesn't have one either, but that's no big loss as all of my > printers are on the network in one way or another. That's true at my place, too, but I have plenty of uses for a parallel port on a machine that has nothing to do with printing and I'm not happy to see that port go on modern machines. (examples - parallel-wired LCDs on LCDproc, analog meters, etc). Likewise, I lament the loss of the serial port on modern laptops (still on desktops so far). I probably have some serial device plugged into my primary desktop 90% of the time. -ethan

17 years, 9 months

ID an 8" disk format

by kelly＠catcorner.org

I've started to read some of the disks. Does anyone recognize the following strings? I'm trying to ID the source OS for the following (it is the ROM source for a Panasonic KX-D4911 terminal). Here are some of the strings: IN-III MACRO ASMB. (Z80.ZILOG) VER. 1-01 830131 DATE 60. 1.10 PAGE 1 SYSTEM ANALYZER IN-III VER. 2-2 ISIS IN-IIIDIN6301 DINZ80B This was a pretty standard DS/DD 8" disk that read right in using a catweasel and also with imagedisk. I think it might have been an Intellec-III, but that is based on the repeated appearance of ISIS, and the fact that it is ROM source. Any clues? Thanks, Kelly

17 years, 9 months

DEC-20, VAX-8600, PDP-11/70 and Update computer club...

by bqt＠softjar.se

Since we've been mentioned, I might as well fill in the blanks and correct the errors. Yes, Update, located in Uppsala, Sweden, have two DEC-2060 machines. Both were operational when we stopped running them. The last we stopped in 1993 or 1994 (don't remember for sure now). I believe we could atleast get one of them back into running shape if we just had space. But at the moment we don't. And this all is in the hands of Uppsala University. The machines are Aida.Update.UU.SE and Carmen.Update.UU.SE. (Not sure if the DNS is being maintaned for these right now.) While we're at it, we also have one VAX-8650, which is operational. We only need to turn the key, and it will boot. Normally we boot NetBSD on it, but we can also boot it into VMS or Ultrix. (Krille.Update.UU.SE) And someone also mentioned DECsystem-570, which is a PDP-11/70 in a corporate cabinet. We have one 11/70 (in the old style) which also is just a turn of a key away from running. (Magica.Update.UU.SE). However, we do not have any KS-10 machines. I believe Stacken (the computer club at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden) have both KS-10 and KL-10 machine still around. In the past they also had a KA-10 machine, which might still be around. And I know of another private individual who have a working KI-10 machine in Stockholm. That is actually a tri-CPU KI-10. As for periperials, we have: RP07 (2) RP06 (4) TU77 (2) TU78 (1) And of course we have MSCP disks and HSCs for the VAXen and PDP-11s. (Oh, and we have another 11/70 and 8650 in storage) Some images and pictures (rather incomplete) can be found at: http://www.update.uu.se/~bqt/computers.html There should be some somewhere on Updates official pages as well, but I can't find any right now... Johnny

17 years, 9 months

Semi-OT: "Inkjet Printable" CD/DVD blanks

by healyzh＠aracnet.com

Strange question, but it directly relates to preservation of classic computer data. My perfered brand of CD/DVD blanks are the Verbatim DataLifePlus disks. There is no doubt in my mind that these disks have a good long lifespan (though I do need to see about doing a data refresh on some). However, due to their cost, they are no longer that easy to obtain. One source I've been considering using seems to only sell the ones that are "InkJet Printer" ready. I have no desire to use an inkjet printer to do this, does anyone know how safe is it to use a standard "CD Marker" on these blanks? It seems to me that these might actually be easier to write on, and be able to read what you've written than most I've been using. Zane

17 years, 9 months

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test-drb October 2006