Software Marathon

[Alex]

Hello

I need everyone here who is passionate about software preservation to read this. The purpose here is not to break any rules but as an archivist and I can't really help myself.

So here is the deal, we all know that these shiny discs that we all love and the bits that are sitting there are eventually going to fall to the bit rot.

If you have any discs or disc images I need you to please think about passing them on to the internet archive or you can pass them on to me and I will dutifully get them to Jason Scott who works for the internet archive. If you want to bypass me simply email jason at jason@textfiles.com or if you want me to help please contact me at santospoland@gmail.com. I don't want to think you are limited to only Mac related material, it can be anything at all. I just sent Jason over 1.5TB of Apple disc images and they are all at the archive.org.

So if you will please, if you want FTP access I want to help you save those bits for the long term. They will ALL end up on the internet archive.

 

[Cory5412]

We should also consider putting this stuff up on VTools, so it's easy to access using vintage Macs, and so we can apply our own organization to it. I've personally had a heck of a time finding things on IA and I'm glad it's somewhere, but it's not a particularly great place to get started with a platform or for a casual look-round.

I'm in the process of copying the Macintosh Garden collection from IA onto VTools - the next step from there will be to start actually organizing it.

 

[LaPorta]

I am in the process of imaging all of my floppies and sending them to Tools for sorting and archive. I also keep them all locally on my home RAID drive.

 

[olePigeon]

Oh, goody.  Yet another excuse to use my new Applesauce when it gets here.

 

[Cory5412]

Can the applesauce make disk images that'll work on older Macs?

It's important that as we think about the need for flux imaging, we also remember that it's important to make this stuff accessible.

If anyone's in an imaging mood, PM me to get a VTools account. Pretty much make a folder in Public and drop stuff in there. I'm still sorting through the MacGarden collection and for the moment I'm going to be favoring newly imaged diskettes/CDs unless there's some reason that the MG copy is better.

 

[olePigeon]

@Cory5412 Applesauce can also produce Disk Copy images from the flux read in addition to .WOZ images.

Most of my software is already in Disk Copy 4.2 format, but I'll be reimaging them to .WOZ.  I'll also try making some DC 4.2 copies of my copy protected software.  See how it works.

 

[LaPorta]

I’m looking into getting an AppleSauce myself, hoping that it makes Disk Copy 4.2 files.

 

[Cory5412]

Good news that the AppleSauce can make both types of images.

If you just want to make DC4.2 files, you can use DC6 or DC4.2 on a real Mac to do it. Most of us have those, and the AppleSauce does need a working Apple floppy drive to do its work. (I eventually need to work on doing some diskette drive maintenance, I believe a few of my systems have drives that need it.)

@olePigeon please PM me for a VTools account if you haven't already. (everybody else is welcome to do this too!)

Include the user name you want, the email alias you want if you eventually want to test email, and a starter password if you want me to set something specific.

For the moment, because of my moving things around and an OS error I had a few weeks ago, file permissions are a little bit weird and so the best thing to do is make a folder for your uploads in Public.

Long-term, I'm happy to have VTools ripped for other people's use, or even a complete copy uploaded to IA, but I'd prefer that that be held off on until it's a little more sanely organized. Once we get things complete, I'm even happy to copy whatever anybody wants to a USB hard disk and mail it to them, but the organization and filling, plus initial complement of hardware, is still being worked on.

 

[Cory5412]

By the by, "Marathon" is a good way to think of it. This is a long process and by all accounts we're "behind" - but our goal is absolutely "to finish" - not to finish first.

From a quality and completeness perspective, I'll admit it would be nice to have a complete and uniform archive of flux and dc42 images with cover art or whatever, but having a functional archive of usable software/games/whatever is arguably more important.

If what it takes to get that is a new toy, then I'm all for it.