Mastodawn

really happy to have discovered something hiding in plain sight for several years: robyn & rand miller's original Myst pitch document from 1991.

it's a succinct work of art in itself. i'm surprised at how much of the world design was already on paper.

as all of the copies found elsewhere online are heavily compressed webp/jpeg, i've uploaded the robyn's original PNGs to IA here:

https://archive.org/details/myst_proposal

originally from robyn's site:

http://www.robynmiller.net/video-games-films

#digiPres #softwarePreservation #archival #gamedev #myst #cyan

vga256 May 2

a quick tour of Electronic Arts' Information Resource Centre (IRC) in Burnaby, BC. this is the internal library that EA employees could use to research games/movies/magazines for development and marketing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTm3b1CR9E0

my copy of Ultima VI came directly from the old library at Distinctive Software, before it was bought by EA and added to the IRC.

link courtesy of [email protected]

#canada #softwarepreservation #history #libraries

Vicky Rampin (née Steeves)Apr 28

speaking of #digitalPreservation and #softwarePreservation , today in my Pratt class we are gonna play the CURATE game: https://schreibman.eu/digcurv/curate-game/

@remram44 printed custom game pieces for me on the 3d printer!!!!

very excited to play test!!

vga256 Apr 25

several years ago I began archiving educational software. Dangerous Creatures had the BEST Win95 Plus! Pack theme. 😻

edit: I totally misremembered. The dangerous creatures theme with the cougar deskop was sorta ok. the BEST theme was called Jungle. it came with the Plus! For Kids Pack

for @david_bardos

#multimedia #softwarePreservation #digipres #win31 #win95

Digital Preservation Coalition Apr 14

How do we preserve software and keep digital content accessible? 💾

Join our Software Preservation & Emulation Showcase for lightning talks and discussion exploring real-world approaches, from floppy files to virtual worlds.

🗓️ 28 April 14:00–16:00 (UTC)
💻 Online
🎤 Case studies + panel discussion

🔗 Register here: https://www.dpconline.org/events/eventdetail/770/-/every-object-an-orchestra-a-software-preservation-emulation-showcase

#DigitalPreservation #Coalition #DPC #SoftwarePreservation #Emulation #digipres #community #JoinUs

Hackaday [Unofficial]Apr 1

OldVersion is Back, and Better than Ever

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://hackaday.com/2026/04/01/oldversion-is-back-and-better-than-ever/

OldVersion Is Back, And Better Than Ever

You know what they say — you can’t keep a good website down. OldVersion.com, the repository of outdated software that has been serving up old versions of tools you need for the last twe…

Hackaday

13 Apr 2

OldVersion is Back, and Better than Ever https://hackaday.com/2026/04/01/oldversion-is-back-and-better-than-ever/
#Retrocomputing #Digitalpreservation #Softwarepreservation

OldVersion Is Back, And Better Than Ever

You know what they say — you can’t keep a good website down. OldVersion.com, the repository of outdated software that has been serving up old versions of tools you need for the last twe…

Hackaday

MireilleNappert Mar 18

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/

Thoughtful Sunset for the Software Preservation Network | Software Preservation Network (SPN)

Phil Feb 14

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