#[1]alternate

  IFRAME: [2]https://www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-NLXNPCQ

[3]Ars Technica

  [4]<-
  [5]->
  0
  ____________________

    * [6]Biz & IT
    * [7]Tech
    * [8]Science
    * [9]Policy
    * [10]Cars
    * [11]Gaming & Culture
    * [12]Forums
    * [13]Newsletter
    * [14]Subscribe
    * [15]Store

[16]View Full Site

    * [17]Dark on light
    * [18]Light on dark

[19]Log in

[20]Register

  [21]Forgot your password?
  [22]Resend activation e-mail

[23]Gaming & Culture / Gaming & Entertainment

Lost something? Search through 91.7 million files from the '80s, '90s, and
2000s

Discmaster lets you sift through 11 terabytes of CD-ROM and floppy disk
archives.

  by [24]Benj Edwards - Oct 18, 2022 9:31 pm UTC
  [25]Login to bookmark [26]94

  [floppy-disc-scanner-800x450.jpg]
  Search through millions of vintage files with Discmaster.
  Aurich Lawson | Getty Images

  Today, tech archivist Jason Scott [27]announced a new website called
  [28]Discmaster that lets anyone search through 91.7 million vintage
  computer files pulled from CD-ROM releases and floppy disks. The files
  include images, text documents, music, games, shareware, videos, and
  much more.

  Discmaster opens a window into digital media culture around the turn of
  the millennium, turning anyone into a would-be digital archeologist.
  It's a rare look into a slice of cultural history that is often
  obscured by the challenges of obsolete media and file format
  incompatibilities.

  The files on Discmaster come from the Internet Archive, uploaded by
  thousands of people over the years. The new site pulls them together
  behind a search engine with the ability to perform detailed searches by
  file type, format, source, file size, file date, and many other
  options.

  "The value proposition is the value proposition of any freely
  accessible research database," Scott told Ars Technica. "People are
  enabled to do deep dives into more history, reference their findings,
  and encourage others to look in the same place."
  [29][beatles_search_result-640x448.jpg]
  [30]Enlarge / Searching for "Beatles" on Discmaster returns images,
  sounds you can hear, and documents you can read.
  Ars Technica

  Discmaster is the work of a group of anonymous history-loving
  programmers who approached Scott to host it for them. Scott says that
  Discmaster is "99.999 percent" the work of that anonymous group, right
  down to the vintage gray theme that is compatible with web browsers for
  older machines. Scott says he slapped a name on it and volunteered to
  host it on his site. And while Scott is an employee of the Internet
  Archive, he says that Discmaster is "100 percent unaffiliated" with
  that organization.

  One of the highlights of Discmaster is that it has already done a lot
  of file format conversion [31]on the back end, making the vintage files
  more accessible. For example, you can search for vintage music
  files--such as MIDI or even digitized Amiga sounds--and listen to them
  directly in your browser without any extra tools necessary. The same
  thing goes for early-90s low-resolution video files, images in obscure
  formats, and various types of documents.

  "It's got all the conversion to enable you to preview things
  immediately," says Scott. "So there's no additional external
  installation. That, to me, is the fundamental power of what we're
  dealing with here."

  In the Discmaster Twitter announcement thread, people are already using
  the service to rediscover programs they [32]lost during the 1990s, rare
  [33]BBS files, [34]ZZT worlds, [35]bitmap fonts, shareware [36]they
  wrote 20-plus years ago, and [37]vintage music software. There is a lot
  of user-created data in the set, not just professional releases.
  [38][christmas_images-640x365.jpg]
  [39]Enlarge / Using Discmaster, you can search through vintage stock
  photo CD-ROMs on many subjects.
  Ars Technica

  "It is probably, to me, one of the most important computer history
  research project opportunities that we've had in 10 years," says Scott.
  "It's not done. They've analyzed 7,000 and some-odd CD-ROMs. And
  they're about to do another 8,000."

  Humans being humans, you'll also find a large amount of vintage
  pornographic media represented in the Discmaster data set--it's easy to
  run into by accident. Users who want to avoid NSFW material should
  select "Strict" in the "Safe Search" options near the bottom.

  By casting a wide archival net, everything is captured and available in
  its unvarnished form. "The [resources] they are choosing are very
  specifically compilation and presentation CD-ROMs, like the best
  shareware discs," says Scott, "pulling in the ones that were meant to
  be encapsulated plastic resources of information."

  Scott is no stranger to radical acts of digital archivism, having
  participated in [40]backing up GeoCities, preserving Flash files,
  [41]making thousands of MS-DOS games playable though a web browser, and
  more. On his personal site, Textfiles.com, he has hosted archives of
  BBS files and [42]CD-ROMs for almost two decades. But until now, those
  resources had never been searchable with the degree of precision that
  Discmaster allows.

  "Maybe some people don't want to go through a pile of old things," he
  says. "But if you are somebody for whom going through a pile of old
  things would really positively affect you, this is Shangri-La."

  [43]Expand full story

  [44]Reader comments 94

  You must [45]login or create an account to comment.

    * [46]Share
      -
    * [47]Tweet
    * [48]Reddit
      -

  [49][benj_ega_small.png]

  [50]Benj Edwards / Benj Edwards is an AI and Machine Learning Reporter
  for Ars Technica. For [51]over 16 years, he has written about
  technology and tech history for sites such as [52]The Atlantic,
  [53]Fast Company, [54]PCMag, PCWorld, Macworld, [55]How-To Geek, and
  Wired. In 2005, he created [56]Vintage Computing and Gaming. He also
  hosted The Culture of Tech podcast and contributes to Retronauts.
  Advertisement
   [57]<- Older Story [58]Newer Story ->

  [59][condenast-logo.png]
  CNMN Collection
  WIRED Media Group
  © 2022 Condé Nast. All rights reserved. Use of and/or registration on
  any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our [60]User
  Agreement (updated 1/1/20) and [61]Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement
  (updated 1/1/20) and [62]Ars Technica Addendum (effective 8/21/2018).
  Ars may earn compensation on sales from links on this site. [63]Read
  our affiliate link policy.
  [64]Your California Privacy Rights | Do Not Sell My Personal
  Information
  The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed,
  transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written
  permission of Condé Nast.
  [65]Ad Choices

References

  1. http://feeds.arstechnica.com/arstechnica/index/
  2. https://www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-NLXNPCQ
  3. https://arstechnica.com/
  4. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/10/us-citizen-got-16-years-in-saudi-arabian-prison-for-tweets-his-son-says/
  5. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/10/sharing-mass-shooter-content-online-should-be-illegal-ny-ag-says/
  6. https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/
  7. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/
  8. https://arstechnica.com/science/
  9. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/
 10. https://arstechnica.com/cars/
 11. https://arstechnica.com/gaming/
 12. https://arstechnica.com/civis/
 13. https://arstechnica.com/newsletters/
 14. https://arstechnica.com/store/product/subscriptions/
 15. https://arstechnica.com/store/
 16. http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2022/10/lost-something-search-through-91-7-million-files-from-the-80s-90s-and-2000s/?view=grid
 17. http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2022/10/lost-something-search-through-91-7-million-files-from-the-80s-90s-and-2000s/?mobile_theme=light
 18. http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2022/10/lost-something-search-through-91-7-million-files-from-the-80s-90s-and-2000s/?mobile_theme=dark
 19. https://arstechnica.com/civis/ucp.php?mode=login&return_to=%2Fgaming%2F2022%2F10%2Flost-something-search-through-91-7-million-files-from-the-80s-90s-and-2000s%2F
 20. https://arstechnica.com/civis/ucp.php?mode=register
 21. https://arstechnica.com/civis/ucp.php?mode=sendpassword
 22. https://arstechnica.com/civis/ucp.php?mode=resend_act
 23. https://arstechnica.com/gaming/
 24. https://arstechnica.com/author/benjedwards/
 25. https://arstechnica.com/civis/ucp.php?mode=login&return_to=%2Fgaming%2F2022%2F10%2Flost-something-search-through-91-7-million-files-from-the-80s-90s-and-2000s%2F
 26. https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2022/10/lost-something-search-through-91-7-million-files-from-the-80s-90s-and-2000s/?comments=1
 27. https://twitter.com/textfiles/status/1582166249018048512?s=20&t=dvAkNYdobjJYP1X8QvzFvw
 28. http://discmaster.textfiles.com/
 29. https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/beatles_search_result.jpg
 30. https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/beatles_search_result.jpg
 31. https://github.com/Sembiance/dexvert
 32. https://twitter.com/Nbreeden2/status/1582414059848491008?s=20&t=0skShSSIPv82pH9EdhMxpg
 33. https://twitter.com/AkBKukU/status/1582196395317944320?s=20&t=0skShSSIPv82pH9EdhMxpg
 34. https://twitter.com/cbrzeszczot/status/1582402662405767168?s=20&t=0skShSSIPv82pH9EdhMxpg
 35. https://twitter.com/damienguard/status/1582356841950220288?s=20&t=0skShSSIPv82pH9EdhMxpg
 36. https://twitter.com/marcusdempsey/status/1582251151541485568?s=20&t=0skShSSIPv82pH9EdhMxpg
 37. https://twitter.com/analogstik/status/1582438982415106048?s=20&t=0skShSSIPv82pH9EdhMxpg
 38. https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/christmas_images.jpg
 39. https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/christmas_images.jpg
 40. http://ascii.textfiles.com/archives/1956
 41. https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/10/thousands-of-dos-games-have-been-added-to-the-internet-archive/
 42. http://cd.textfiles.com/directory.html
 43. https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2022/10/lost-something-search-through-91-7-million-files-from-the-80s-90s-and-2000s/
 44. https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2022/10/lost-something-search-through-91-7-million-files-from-the-80s-90s-and-2000s/?comments=1
 45. https://arstechnica.com/civis/ucp.php?mode=login
 46. https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Farstechnica.com%2Fgaming%2F2022%2F10%2Flost-something-search-through-91-7-million-files-from-the-80s-90s-and-2000s%2F
 47. https://twitter.com/share?text=Lost%20something%3F%20Search%20through%2091.7%20million%20files%20from%20the%20%E2%80%9980s%2C%20%E2%80%9990s%2C%20and%202000s&url=https%3A%2F%2Farstechnica.com%2Fgaming%2F2022%2F10%2Flost-something-search-through-91-7-million-files-from-the-80s-90s-and-2000s%2F
 48. https://www.reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Farstechnica.com%2Fgaming%2F2022%2F10%2Flost-something-search-through-91-7-million-files-from-the-80s-90s-and-2000s%2F&title=Lost%20something%3F%20Search%20through%2091.7%20million%20files%20from%20the%20%E2%80%9980s%2C%20%E2%80%9990s%2C%20and%202000s
 49. https://arstechnica.com/author/benjedwards
 50. https://arstechnica.com/author/benjedwards
 51. https://www.benjedwards.com/
 52. https://www.theatlantic.com/author/benj-edwards/
 53. https://www.fastcompany.com/user/benj-edwards
 54. https://www.pcmag.com/authors/benj-edwards
 55. https://www.howtogeek.com/author/benjedwards/
 56. http://www.vintagecomputing.com/
 57. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/10/us-citizen-got-16-years-in-saudi-arabian-prison-for-tweets-his-son-says/
 58. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/10/sharing-mass-shooter-content-online-should-be-illegal-ny-ag-says/
 59. http://www.condenast.com/
 60. https://www.condenast.com/user-agreement/
 61. https://www.condenast.com/privacy-policy/
 62. https://arstechnica.com/amendment-to-conde-nast-user-agreement-privacy-policy/
 63. https://arstechnica.com/affiliate-link-policy/
 64. https://www.condenast.com/privacy-policy/#california
 65. https://www.condenast.com/online-behavioral-advertising-oba-and-how-to-opt-out-of-oba/#clickheretoreadmoreaboutonlinebehavioraladvertising(oba)

You are viewing proxied material from 1436.ninja. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.