Preserving computing history isn't easy. Just like today, companies back in the 1980s and '90s encrypted their software to prevent copies of it from ever being made. While that certainly made sense at the time to prevent piracy, flash forward to 2016 and it makes preserving the pieces of computing history a little tricky.
Thankfully, one savvy software archivist who goes by the name 4am is on the case. While the 4am Collection on the Internet Archive isn't new, it did recently surpass 500 pieces of software available for use in an everyday Internet browser. It's quite an accomplishment, as Internet Archive blogger Jason Scott explains in his extensive write-up on all the work that goes into preserving this kind of software for the modern age.
Each piece of software includes copy protection that prevents the software from being copied. But this isn't like modern day DRM. Each instance of copy protection is unique, and could have all kinds of different effects, ranging from forcing the Apple II operating system to respond in strange ways to modifying the performance of the computer's floppy drive.
Some of the more popular arcade games, titles like Frogger, Donkey Kong and others, have been "cracked" and released online before, but many of the educational and lesser known titles in the 4am Collection are appearing online for the first time.
"Because many educational and productivity software programs were specialized and not as intensely pursued/wanted as 'games' in all their forms, those less-popular genres suffer from huge gaps in recovered history," Scott writes. "Sold in small numbers, these floppy disks are subject to bit rot, neglect, and being tossed out with the inevitably turning of the wheels of time."
Even better is that 4am has written extensive "walkthroughs" on how to remove the oftentimes complex copy protection for each title.
"4am do their best to walk the user through what's going on, and even if you might not understand the exact code and engineering involved, it leaves the reader smarter for having browsed through it," Scott writes.
You can check out all of the preserved software here.
