spiralofhope logo
spiralofhope logo

S
piral of Hope
Better software is possible.
Styles
Table of Contents

Todo

Oldschool Linux

(it's a working logo, don't chew me out)

/Oldschool Linux/ will be usable as a general-purpose light Linux distribution, but it has a focus on oldschool platform and operating system emulation/virtualization, demos, games, art and music.

Its current target era is pre-Windows: DOS, c64, Amiga, Atari, etc. Software will be Linux-native where possible, but two-stage software will be examined .. such as emulating DOS to run a DOS program.

  1. Platform Emulation (DOS: DOSBox and DOSEmu, other platforms like c64, Amiga, Atari)
  2. Console Platform Emulation (NES, Sega Genesis, Arcade, etc)
  3. Virtualization
  4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demoscene Demos (intros, demos, megademos, democomp-related stuff)
  5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_art_scene Art (ASCII, ANSI, pixel, etc)
  6. Music (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Module_file MODs etc, c64 SID, and more)
  7. Games (Free, not abandonware - either platform-specific, console or arcade games)
    1. This is a secondary interest.
It will be a consumer distribution, and not a producer distribution. It will come with viewers and players as well as actual content. It will be a branch off of the Unity Linux base. It is currently in the planning stages.

Oldschool-Windows and producer editions may be considered in the future.

To do lists

Begin with a quick review of each item.

Later, follow up with an in-depth review and pick best-of-breed items.

Contact the developers of the best-of-breed and let them know my intentions. Ask for a link and some hype. Check their site for any reference stuff to use (ROMs, etc)

To do

Do more research to see if someone else has done this. Determine if I can borg their work, or get them to merge with me.

  1. Follow resources to get more links. See if some of these resources can be permanent references so I don't have to maintain big lists.
  2. Follow up with dead links, see if the project moved. If not found, check archive.org for reference at least.
  3. Test Linux items
  4. Test DOS-only items under DOSBOX DOSEMU VMWare etc whatever.
  5. Test Windows-only items under Wine VMWare etc / whatever.
  6. Learn to package for Unity Linux.
  7. Package all software, and commit everything into the Unity Linux repository.

Random stuff

  1. http://www.defacto2.net -- The Scene News, Archives & Portal
  2. Emphasis on the PC cracking scene.
  3. http://www.defacto2.net/portal.cfm?category=Old%20School&sort=name links
  4. http://www.worldofspectrum.org/ - The official world archive for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum and the largest on-line gaming center on the Internet
  5. http://www.hugi.scene.org/ Hugi diskmag
  6. http://www.pain.scene.org/ PAiN diskmag
  7. http://www.shine.scene.org/ Shine diskmag
    1. As of 2009-04-13, not updated since 2000
  8. http://www.old-computers.com
    1. http://www.old-computers.com/forum/ forum
  9. http://members.quicknet.nl/blankendaalr/dbgl/ DBGL - dosbox game loader
  10. http://www.exotica.org.uk/wiki/UnExoticA - figure out / ask how they did that cursor! It even works without JavaScript!
  11. Was there much of an original Apple scene? Probably. Research it.
  12. Was there an OS/2 scene?
  13. Was/is there a BeOS scene?
  14. Who am I missing? Probably a bunch of stuff. Even programmable calculators had a scene.
  15. http://www.zophar.net/pdroms.html
  16. http://textfiles.org should have lots of stuff I could use. There ought to be ASCII artwork in there, maybe even ANSI artwork, packs and the like.
  17. I should have an emphasis on user contributions.
  18. http://urukrama.wordpress.com/2008/10/26/giving-new-life-to-an-old-computer/ Giving life to an old computer - mentioned Canto, which is gold. Check the rest out.
  19. http://kmandla.wordpress.com/ - check him out re. light footprint software
    1. http://kingofgng.com/eng/topics/emulation-retrogaming/ -- also make sure you check out their other categories!! Good Old Gaming is good.

To consider later

  1. A primer
  2. A list of resources
  3. Telnet links to online BBS'
  4. Parties? I have a list..

promo videos:

  1. BBS: the documentary
  2. The Amiga and DOS Demo disks
  3. Anything else?

More notes

About Me | Contact Me
© spiralofhope.com, all rights reserved.
Individual pages or files may have their own copyright / licensing. 		Green Web Hosting! If you've found this website useful, donate towards my web hosting bill.
DreamHost - Unlimited space and bandwidth.
As low as $8.95/mo.
$40 discount with the promo code SPIRALOFHOPE