Questions tagged [software]
For questions about the applications and programs that can be run on retro devices (computers, etc.)
22
votes
17answers
6k views
Was self-modifying code possible using BASIC?
Was self-modifying-code possible using BASIC?
Parameters:
On commonly affordable home-computers before 1984
Code that changes its own instructions while it is executing
Using BASIC only
Not using ...
2
votes
1answer
228 views
Historical speed of linear programming solvers
A few years ago, I remember seeing a video of Ray Kurzweil discussing how linear programming was an example of how software (algorithms) - independent of hardware - is also getting faster (...
8
votes
5answers
335 views
Build automation tools before make?
I realized that make was "only" invented in 1976 and seems to be one of the first build automation tools (at least it's probably the oldest still in use). Make with its shell focus seems like a total ...
2
votes
2answers
433 views
What is a .95END file?
While cleaning out some old computers owned by my grandfather I came across some files marked with the file format .95END that had creation dates in early 1995 (though they could be from much earlier, ...
5
votes
2answers
222 views
In what way could the Sperry Univac BC-7 computer “speak and understand” English?
Researching for this question I ran across this 1978 advertisement for Sperry:
Sperry Computer Ad 1978: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I74sVdw7gkc
The computer is nicknamed "B.C." and the actor ...
81
votes
20answers
17k views
Have programming languages driven hardware development?
Programming language development has been influenced by hardware design. One example from this answer mentions how C pointers were, at least in part, influenced by the design of the PDP-11. Has the ...
1
vote
1answer
162 views
How was the modem MNP protocol implemented in software?
When first modems for PCs started to appear in the USSR in late 1980s, they usually were in the form of an ISA card, and supported a bare minimum of the Hayes AT commands. Given the quality of Soviet ...
3
votes
3answers
429 views
Pirated spreadsheet software introducing intentional errors?
Was there ever a case of a spreadsheet application introducing intentional floating-point errors when it detected that it had been pirated? Particularly errors that were small enough to go unnoticed ...
3
votes
1answer
160 views
Ways To Test iMac G3 Before Buying
I am going to buy an old iMac G3 Over the next couple of days/weeks, and I want to make sure that I am buying a system with no problems. I usually ask for the serial number and good pictures before ...
0
votes
2answers
182 views
Combination of processor and windows version
Have an old(ish) laptop with a "Pentium T4400 @ 2.20 GHz" processor, and some old software that requires "Win 95 or NT".
With a view to running this software on that hardware, I tried installing ...
7
votes
1answer
404 views
Colorful print ad in ca. 1990 magazine
I'm trying to find a software ad in a comic book style that I remember from one of my father's computer magazines in the early 1990s. I know this is a long shot, but somebody might recall it or even ...
45
votes
11answers
17k views
Why not use fractions instead of floating point?
Considering all those early home computers, the ZX Spectrum, the Galaksija, the VIC-20, the Apple I/II/III, and all of those, they all have some 8-bit CPU which does integer arithmetic and no floating ...
5
votes
1answer
595 views
Microsoft Flight Simulator 1.0 “DIVIDE BY ZERO” command
I was reading an Wikipedia article named "History Of Microsoft Flight Simulator" and I noticed something weird about Microsoft Flight Simulator 1.0:
November 1982
sometime during 1981-82
...
14
votes
5answers
4k views
Security Issues with Bootable Games
I'm not sure if this is the correct place to ask this question or Information Security, but here it goes.
Certain storage mediums can also be bootable, for example USB drives or CD/DVDs. These ...
3
votes
1answer
545 views
How did PC boot games handle saving?
I was reading on this RCSE page about old PC games that you had to boot into to play.
Obviously the machine that the game would run on would at least have enough RAM and necessary graphics ...
3
votes
4answers
546 views
How was corporate training done before PowerPoint?
The usual thing today is a laptop (maybe desktop) PC (or Mac) connected to a video projector to display content from PowerPoint (or Keynote) slides. How was it done, in general, before this hardware ...
4
votes
0answers
398 views
Rainbow Technologies Ltd DRM system for DOS
A number of games from the early 1990s appear to be protected with a DRM system developed by Rainbow Technologies Ltd. The system allows content in the games to be unlocked by sending the manufacturer ...
7
votes
1answer
238 views
How did Drive Overlay programs break BIOS disk barriers on older PCs?
I was just reading a thread on Vogons about OnTrack and EZ-Drive setup, and it occurred to me that I have no idea how they work.
Please explain why the barrier existed and then how the overlay ...
6
votes
1answer
307 views
Is there a non-paging ITS for the PDP-6 or PDP-10?
In the late 60s, the Incompatible Timesharing System ran on a PDP-6 without any paging hardware (i.e. an MMU in modern terminology). See the Jargon entry for BLT, for example, which states (my ...
9
votes
2answers
321 views
Can 6502 programs be transliterated to the SPC700?
The SPC700's instruction set is derived from the 6502's, but moves the instructions around and adds a few. But is it fully backwards compatible?
Assuming that the program fully separates data and ...
6
votes
4answers
996 views
What is the (usually lower quality) “software rendering” mode visible in so many “second-generation” FPS games?
During a conversation, a friend of mine sent me this picture:
It's the first Thief (I guess), with so-called software rendering.
I already experienced this effect in Quake 1-2 and to an extent, in ...
17
votes
2answers
4k views
First commercial DOS game?
What was the first commercial game sold for use on IBM/MS/PC DOS after the IBM August 12, 1981 release.
0
votes
1answer
310 views
What was the name and origin of this security software?
I am trying to find a free software for security, that I downloaded for tracing someone attached to my computer. I remember using this on my Windows 98 system. You could see on a map where the ...
5
votes
1answer
219 views
Did Radio Shack initially attempt to get a monopoly on commercial software for the TRS-80 Model I?
This question is about the era of the TRS-80 Model I, ca. 1977-1979. Originally there was no software you could buy, other than BASIC itself, which was in ROM. You would write your own, or type in ...
6
votes
3answers
491 views
Identification of old text-to-speech voice/engine
I have heard it many times before, but I can't recognize where the TTS file/engine comes from. But what in do know is that it sounds very old, so it seemed appropriate to post this question here.
...
5
votes
1answer
399 views
Need help identifying math game where equations let you move from room to room?
Can anyone help me find an old math game where equations let you move from room to room? I played the game on an Apple II back in middle school and I want to use it with my daughter to teach her math. ...
10
votes
1answer
933 views
Where do command line switches originate from?
In Linux we have command line switches traditionally started with minus ls -al. In Windows those start with slash dir /b.
I remember that on RSX-11M that I used to deal with and later on RT-11 the ...
11
votes
2answers
983 views
Where did Fast InvSqrt() come from?
The fast inverse square root algorithm is probably best known for its use in Quake III Arena, the source code of which was released to the public a few years after its release. However, the algorithm ...
11
votes
4answers
700 views
Old school backup systems: what are they?
So being a sysadmin for several years, I learned that "Jesus saves, but God makes tape backups," several times over.
Watching Season 2 of Halt and Catch Fire, there is some data loss.
Being that ...
9
votes
1answer
741 views
Was there a 'git' in the 1990s?
I seem to remember using a source code control system back in the early- to mid-1990s called git. Am I nuts?
I used to work at IBM way back then. We didn't use it for a big project, but I distinctly ...
8
votes
2answers
2k views
What is the best way to obtain old versions of Windows?
I'm wondering what the best way obtain old versions of Windows would be, specifically:
DOS
Windows 95
Windows 98/SE
Windows 2000/ME
Windows XP Professional
Windows 7 Professional
Microsoft Office for ...
3
votes
0answers
457 views
What are some programs known to take advantage of Intel MMX instructions? [closed]
Although MMX techology, introduced in 1997, is long superseded by SSE series of extensions, it's still included in every modern x86 CPU for backwards compatibility.
What are some examples of ...
20
votes
2answers
2k views
How did Windows ME “cripple” DOS?
Windows ME includes the ability to create a bootable DOS floppy. This floppy contains versions of COMMAND.COM and IO.SYS that are "crippled" to remove real mode. This is done with only one changed ...
-7
votes
1answer
601 views
How many old computing methods are still with us today? [closed]
Reading some of the questions here got me to thinking... how many of the old methods, software or hardware, are still with us today?
My two examples:
HTML. It's line oriented, for crying out loud. ...
4
votes
0answers
265 views
Find the PGP SDK
Starting in 1998 (I think) the PGP company run by Phil Zimmerman released the PGP SDK for Mac, Unix and Windows. This was a big event because it was the first time that comprehensive, high grade ...
59
votes
11answers
16k views
Did Apple not originally allow anyone to develop software for the Macintosh?
This probably nearly belongs on Skeptics.SE but here goes.
Within the last few years I've become an Apple convert for the most part, which occasionally brings me into (usually) good natured conflict ...
21
votes
4answers
4k views
What was the first piece of software to be called an engine?
Nowadays I hear a lot about graphics engines, game engines, physics engines etc. but don't remember the term being used much, if at all, back in the 80s and the 8-bit era.
I'm not including Charles ...
1
vote
0answers
411 views
How were 3D effects created before GPUs? [closed]
Games like Super Mario 64 were revolutionary: full, round, hi-definition 3D models moving in real-time and able to be interacted with. This was because they were designed for machines with separate ...
88
votes
16answers
22k views
How was early randomness generated?
Many programs make use of randomness, from BASIC guess-the-number games to encryption key generators. This randomness could have been generated in many, many different ways: hardware, software, ...
10
votes
1answer
486 views
What API did the POKEY module provide?
The POKEY module was used in many, many Atari arcade games, including most that contained the Atari Math Box. It could be used to sample potentiometers, scan matrices of switches and, more famously, ...
19
votes
2answers
1k views
Actual code written by Ada Lovelace?
I have seen some claims that Ada Lovelace was the first programmer.
Is there any actual code to back this up?
5
votes
1answer
297 views
What are some names of professional music software for the Macintosh Classic / SE?
I'm not asking for opinions, recommendations or reviews. I'm looking for professional, graphical music creation software for the classic line of Macintosh computers. I'm not looking for mod or ...
70
votes
2answers
15k views
Why does the Minus World exist?
In Super Mario Bros. for the NES and Famicom there exists a secret world, accessible by clipping through a wall to the first warp zone and entering the left-most pipe.
This pipe will take you to ...
18
votes
1answer
2k views
Why does Ms. Pac-man turn upside down?
Ms. Pac-man is a game where you navigate a small yellow circle around a maze, collecting dots and fruit whilst avoiding brightly-coloured monsters, or ghosts. This time, however, the yellow dot has an ...
18
votes
1answer
1k views
Why can you not move on the last level on Dig Dug?
The objective of Dig Dug is to eliminate underground monsters by inflating them until they pop, or by squashing them with large rocks. Once all of the monsters have escaped or been defeated, the level ...
34
votes
1answer
6k views
Why does the kill-screen glitch occur in Pac-man?
Pac-man is a game where you navigate a small yellow circle around a maze, collecting dots and fruit whilst avoiding brightly-coloured monsters, or ghosts. As long as there was at least one 'man left, ...
10
votes
2answers
1k views
What is the instruction set of the PDP-7?
The PDP-7 was a bookshelf-sized "minicomputer", with keyboard, magnetic and paper tape and printer I/O. According to Wikipedia, the first version of UNIX (then named Unics) was programmed in assembly ...
21
votes
4answers
3k views
Why did Pokémon Red have so many overflow bugs?
(This question also applies to other Game Boy games, but Pokémon seems to be one of the best-documented.)
Pokémon Red & Blue (Red & Green in Japan) is a pair of Game Boy games about capturing ...
20
votes
3answers
2k views
How did Elite (BBC Micro) compress resources?
Elite, an Acornsoft game for the BBC Micro, is a game in space.
Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is.
-- Douglas Adams
...
9
votes
3answers
472 views
How can I copy software which is too large for one Atari ST floppy disk?
I have downloaded the STOS game creator from the STOS download page. I'm trying to copy the software from my computer to a floppy disk formatted on an Atari ST, but I get an error message saying the ...
