The Software Preservation Network (SPN) will be ending their activities in about a year. Thankfully, they will be taking the time to make sure the work done will not be lost.
Over the years, SPN has done great work to advance knowledge and capabilities towards software preservation. 💜
Still, it always comes backs to sustainability.

#digipres #softwarePreservation #softwareHeritage

https://www.softwarepreservationnetwork.org/thoughtful-sunset-for-the-software-preservation-network/

I'd previously been under the impression that the details of the #ARPANET IMP-to-IMP protocol (as opposed to the well documented #1822protocol for Host-to-IMP communications) had been lost, but it turns out that's not the case. In fact, it appears that in the last 15 years copies of multiple versions of the full source code for the #IMP software have been recovered by using OCR on hard copies. Much more information at https://walden-family.com/impcode/. I don't know the extent that the protocol itself has been reverse engineered from the code.

I love that this was written using #Midas, a programming language which was developed by a hospital. I think I did actually already know that, maybe from https://katiehafner.com/books-new/where-wizards-stay-up-late/ - presumably #BBN just used code they already had from an earlier consulting project.

Anyway - preserve your software projects. I'm sure many of the people doing this in the 60s and 70s didn't realise that what they were doing would be historically significant at the time.

#retrocomputing #computerhistory #softwarepreservation

The Winter #Olympics continue! ⛷️

🏂 Celebrate gaming history by revisiting 1985’s "Winter Games" from our classic software collection ❄️

💾 #SoftwarePreservation is how we go for the Gold! 🥇

🕹️ Play it on your favorite vintage platform ⤵️
https://archive.org/search?query=winter+games&and%5B%5D=mediatype:%22software%22

#8bit

RE: https://mstdn.social/@swheritage/115932187489013105

We’re excited to welcome @swheritage to the #DPGRegistry 🎉

As an Open Data DPG, Software Heritage collects, preserves, and shares all public software source code, ensuring it remains accessible for everyone in the long term.

https://www.digitalpublicgoods.net/r/software-heritage

#DigitalPublicGoods #OpenData #OpenSource #SoftwarePreservation #DPGs

Love the excitement of everyone involved in this Unix V4 find and the data retrieval. They are all up in the sky, and I completely understand it. And it shows how reliable magnetic media can be if stored well. That is the spirit of what makes vintage computing so fascinating to me. Great that the channel gave this so much air time.

https://youtu.be/m-3RJaKcw_4?si=_5FXAdBYFB57N-a4

#vintagecomputing #computerhistory #softwarepreservation #unix

I have been working on regenerating the (long-lost) source code for Nodes of Yesod, a game I wrote for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum in 1985. I have been picking away at this Z80 disassembly for nearly 20 years, starting with IDA and later moving to Ghidra.

While the project has been technically complete for some time (it reassembles to a binary identical to the shipped game), my goal is to release a fully documented codebase that is actually readable for future developers and historians.

To that end, this weekend, I compared the Claude Code CLI and the Gemini CLI for the specific task of identifying and defining symbols for methods, labels, and constants. In the past, I've run into context memory issues with the web interfaces, but the CLI tools seem to handle this single 30K+ line file very well.

Here is the breakdown:

Claude Code CLI: It is faster and understands the Z80 context with very few mistakes. However, it is significantly more expensive for this volume of work, running into Pro plan rate limits relatively quickly.

Gemini CLI: This allows me to work much longer before hitting rate limits on the Pro plan. It requires more iteration to get the output right, but it is a great workhorse.

The screenshots below show an example of the results, including some ASCII art Claude generated directly from the raw sprite bitmap data, and a section of code constants where both the name and comments were determined or augmented by Claude.

#SinclairSpectrum #OdinComputerGraphics #OldDogNewTricks #RetroDev #RetroGames #ReverseEngineering #SoftwarePreservation #ClaudeCodeCLI #GeminiCLI

Warm yourself by the virtual fireplace in this cosy 8-bit #Christmas scene. No MS-DOS or floppy 💾 drive required to stoke this very 1980s hearth. Thanks to software preservation, the flames are still crackling on the Internet Archive.

✉️ Open the full 1986 Sierra On-Line "A Computer Christmas" card ⤵️
https://archive.org/details/sierra-christmas-card-1986

#RetroComputing #VintageComputing #8bit #SoftwarePreservation #ComputerHistory