Tech archivist Jason Scott recently unveiled Discmaster, a brand-new website that enables anyone to look through 91.7 million old computer data that have been extracted from CD-ROM and floppy disc releases, as per Ars Technica's report.
If you're a child of the 90s or 80s, this website is perfect to have a blast from the past and revisit the memories of your childhood.
Unique Glimpse
Discmaster offers a unique glimpse into a period of cultural history that is frequently hidden by problems with outdated technology and incompatible file formats.
The Internet Archive, where thousands of users have submitted data over the years, is where the files on Discmaster originate. The new website groups them all together under a search engine that allows users to conduct in-depth searches by a variety of criteria, including file type, size, date, format, and source.
Anonymous history-loving programmers created Discmaster and asked Scott to host it on their behalf. Discmaster, according to Scott, is "99.999 percent" the creation of that unidentified group, right down to the retro grey theme that works with web browsers on earlier devices.
And although Scott works for the Internet Archive, he told Ars Technica that Discmaster is "100 unaffiliated" with it.
One of Discmaster's features is that a sizable chunk of file format conversion has already been completed on the back end, making the old files easier to retrieve. For instance, you can search for and listen to old music files directly in your browser without any additional software.
Computer History Research Project
People are already using the service to find programs they misplaced in the 1990s, such as rare BBS files, bitmap typefaces, ZZT worlds, and old music software, according to the Discmaster's Twitter announcement thread.
"It is probably, to me, one of the most important computer history research project opportunities that we've had in 10 years," Scott said in a statement. "It's not done. They've analyzed 7,000 and some-odd CD-ROMs. And they're about to do another 8,000."
Not all data from Archive.org is integrated into Discmaster due to legal reasons, as noted by Interesting Engineering. The website specializes in archival media and shareware but some files might be missing or unavailable.
However, users can still access unreadable text files by clicking the link with its (.txt) extension.
Scott is well known for his radical digital archivist ways. According to Ars Technica, he has joined efforts in supporting GeoCities, made tons of MS-DOS games playable through a web browser, conserved Flash files, and many more.
He has been hosting BBS files and CD-ROM archives on his personal website, Textfiles.com, for about 20 years. But up until now, Discmaster was unable to perform the kind of precise searches that are now possible on those resources.
This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by Joaquin Victor Tacla
