Floppy discs

[Greenslade]

I have just got a Floppy disc USB player, where can i find games that will be small enough to fit on a floppy Disc?

 

[Ahhzz]

I have just got a Floppy disc USB player, where can i find games that will fit on a floppy Disc?

I would probably start here...

My Abandonware FAQ

Questions and anwsers about my abandonware: what is abandonware, do I have to register, when do we post new games on the site

www.myabandonware.com

there's also abandonia, but that place is full of popups and misdirects, so travel at your OWN risk...

 

[Greenslade]

I would probably start here...

My Abandonware FAQ

Questions and anwsers about my abandonware: what is abandonware, do I have to register, when do we post new games on the site

www.myabandonware.com

Thanks very for your advice i will do, It is just a novelty for me, as i have never used one before. My number one Retro yutuber

.

. cool.
I see you can play a lot of the games you can get on Floppy discs ,on the browser with MY ABANDONWARE.

 

[hat]

NES/SNES ROMs come to mind...

 

[Solaris17]

Zork

Zork - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I think its all public and you can get the source

 

[eidairaman1]

I have just got a Floppy disc USB player, where can i find games that will be small enough to fit on a floppy Disc?

Just search downloadable games for floppy disks

 

[Ahhzz]

Zork

Zork - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I think its all public and you can get the source

hahahaa there's a flash from the past

 

[Deleted member 202104]

hahahaa there's a flash from the past

It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.

 

[80251]

Is it still possible to boot off floppies? I seem to remember some ancient DOS-CGA games required booting off a floppy.

 

[Jetster]

I have a few from back when they gave floppy disks as demos
And I also have DOS boot disks for 6.22

 

[AsRock]

I have a few from back when they gave floppy disks as demos
And I also have DOS boot disks for 6.22

Ooh good times, one of the main reasons to buy a magazine .

 

[eidairaman1]

Is it still possible to boot off floppies? I seem to remember some ancient DOS-CGA games required booting off a floppy.

W11 still supports them. Only if the bios allows I'd say.

 

[Icon Charlie]

Do you know what is Ironic? A piece of 25+ year old equipment that can be still used today. The definition of what is obsolete is really subjective. I have my HP G85 printer as backup. 22+ years and it still works.

 

[caroline!]

I got some from here

Retro Dos (Floppy Disk) Games Collection : Muhammad Yusuf Mujahid : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

This Collection is based on the Dos games which i collected since 1991-1994. They don't run smoothly on Windows OS, therefore they are made run able with...

archive.org

No ads, viruses or crapware downloaded. A warning though: ALL of the games include a copy of DOSbox so their size is larger than usual, other games like DOOM don't fit on a single diskette.

Here's software as well

Internet Archive: Digital Library of Free & Borrowable Texts, Movies, Music & Wayback Machine

archive.org

There are other sites like my abandonware but they're not that good, and if you're looking for some very specific game or software you might have better luck using search engines or P2P networks.

I've been playing around with a full height 5.25" drive that I managed to repair and still have to check all of the diskettes that came for free with it, got it from an office building that was throwing away old stuff.

 

[Greenslade]

Zork

Zork - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I think its all public and you can get the source

It looks boring just text.

I got some from here

Retro Dos (Floppy Disk) Games Collection : Muhammad Yusuf Mujahid : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

This Collection is based on the Dos games which i collected since 1991-1994. They don't run smoothly on Windows OS, therefore they are made run able with...

archive.org

No ads, viruses or crapware downloaded. A warning though: ALL of the games include a copy of DOSbox so their size is larger than usual, other games like DOOM don't fit on a single diskette.

Here's software as well

Internet Archive: Digital Library of Free & Borrowable Texts, Movies, Music & Wayback Machine

archive.org

There are other sites like my abandonware but they're not that good, and if you're looking for some very specific game or software you might have better luck using search engines or P2P networks.

I've been playing around with a full height 5.25" drive that I managed to repair and still have to check all of the diskettes that came for free with it, got it from an office building that was throwing away old stuff.

I will check them out thanks, The My Abandonware.looks the bestSounds cool, getting that drive with all those Disks from an office building that was throwing away old stuff. I will go for that one Retro Dos (Floppy Disk) Games Collection

 

[Frick]

To my recollection a 1.44MB floppy held NESticle + a bunch of NES roms.

 

[Greenslade]

Do you know what is Ironic? A piece of 25+ year old equipment that can be still used today. The definition of what is obsolete is really subjective. I have my HP G85 printer as backup. 22+ years and it still works.

It is yes. And a printer that is still working after 22 yearsI bet it is hard to get ink for it.

To my recollection a 1.44MB floppy held NESticle + a bunch of NES roms.

Thats something else for me to check out ,thanks.

 

[BSim500]

It looks boring just text.

Text adventures like Zork and Colossal Cave Adventure were exactly what very early DOS games consisted of though (remember mainstream floppy discs typically peaked at 1.44MB 3.5". Actual floppy capacities varied down to the era of 170kb 5.25" for early PC's). Disc-based DOS games really fit into 3 categories though:-

1. Will fit uncompressed on to a floppy, ie, game was less than 1.4MB and could be run directly off a 3.5" floppy disc (possibly with extra space to save game or a prompt to use a "data disc" to save the save game onto).

2. Install-only, ie, you used a floppy (or multiple floppies) to install a game but you couldn't run it directly off the disc because the files were stored compressed and installed usually via starting an "install.bat" that called a utility like pkzip. Doom (1993) came on 4x floppies IIRC.

3. "Not a chance in hell", ie, later "FMV" / "multimedia" DOS games that came on CD-ROM like The 7th Guest, etc, could be several hundred MB (ie, 1x 650MB CD-ROM = 451x floppies...)

Anyway some of my favourites were : Arctic Adventures, Bio Menace, Crystal Caves, Secret Agent, Prince of Persia (1989), Elite Plus / Frontier Elite 2 (the predecessors to Elite Dangerous), Lemmings 1-2, Cyber Empires, Cannon Fodder, Doom 1-2, many adventure games like Loom, etc. But even then a lot had to be cut out to squeeze some onto a floppy, eg, Sam & Max Hit The Road CD-ROM was "talkie", floppy was text only.

 

[caroline!]

It is yes. And a printer that is still working after 22 yearsI bet it is hard to get ink for it.


Thats something else for me to check out ,thanks.

Depends on the printer. I can still get ribbons for my FX-85 and it works on Windows 10 -given you have a parallel port available- after what, 35 years? now that's backwards compatibility.

The design was so good Epson decided even new printers will use the same ribbon cartridges, 8750 black. No wi-fi, no smart features, just print

 

[TheEndIsNear]

Thanks very for your advice i will do, It is just a novelty for me, as i have never used one before. My number one Retro yutuber

.

. cool.
I see you can play a lot of the games you can get on Floppy discs ,on the browser with MY ABANDONWARE.

You never used a floppy. I feel so old. We still use 8 inch floppys to load the honeywell computers

 

[Greenslade]

Text adventures like Zork and Colossal Cave Adventure were exactly what very early DOS games consisted of though (remember mainstream floppy discs typically peaked at 1.44MB 3.5". Actual floppy capacities varied down to the era of 170kb 5.25" for early PC's). Disc-based DOS games really fit into 3 categories though:-

1. Will fit uncompressed on to a floppy, ie, game was less than 1.4MB and could be run directly off a 3.5" floppy disc (possibly with extra space to save game or a prompt to use a "data disc" to save the save game onto).

2. Install-only, ie, you used a floppy (or multiple floppies) to install a game but you couldn't run it directly off the disc because the files were stored compressed and installed usually via starting an "install.bat" that called a utility like pkzip. Doom (1993) came on 4x floppies IIRC.

3. "Not a chance in hell", ie, later "FMV" / "multimedia" DOS games that came on CD-ROM like The 7th Guest, etc, could be several hundred MB (ie, 1x 650MB CD-ROM = 451x floppies...)

Anyway some of my favourites were : Arctic Adventures, Bio Menace, Crystal Caves, Secret Agent, Prince of Persia (1989), Elite Plus / Frontier Elite 2 (the predecessors to Elite Dangerous), Lemmings 1-2, Cyber Empires, Cannon Fodder, Doom 1-2, many adventure games like Loom, etc. But even then a lot had to be cut out to squeeze some onto a floppy, eg, Sam & Max Hit The Road CD-ROM was "talkie", floppy was text only.

Thanks for all that info.So i have to look at games less that are less than 1.4mb to run them directly off the Floppy Disc.

 

[caroline!]

We still use 8 inch floppys to load the honeywell computers

I hope a two-week long course and flipping 18 switches in a particular order isn't required for that.

Thanks for all that info.So i have to look at games less that are less than 1.4mb to run them directly off the Floppy Disc.

Back to the future 3.

 

[Greenslade]

Ooh good times, one of the main reasons to buy a magazine .

Cool.

 

[TheEndIsNear]

I hope a two-week long course and flipping 18 switches in a particular order isn't required for that.


Back to the future 3.

The 4400 had switches and buttons on it. I still can remember how to boot it. They just replaced that machine 5 years ago. At a nuclear plant. The oldest one left running in the U.S. A hunk of junk I like to call it.

 

[Greenslade]

I just saw this video from one of the top Retro you-tubers on floppy Disc s

Very interesting video as are all his videos.It is interesting to note that newer discs from 2000 on are not so good and unreliable even top makes like Sony according *8- bit guy* ,that,s bad news for me.