9 Jul
2019
9 Jul
'19
6:28 p.m.
I've succeeded in copying the files from floppy. Thanks to everyone for
the great suggestions!
I used a USB-to-serial adapter, combined with PuTTY and the usual serial
tools (DB-9 to DB-25 adapter, gender changer, and null modem). I even
dug out my AT&T PC 6300 MS DOS manual for details on writing BAT files
(although the main script had a bad habit of exiting after the first
file got copied). I wound up calling a 3 line script separately for each
file to be copied over, and using PuTTY's scrolling history to save the
files.
I've collected these and other old Usenet maps here:
http://www.stargatemuseum.org/maps/
I hope to display these (and hand out a few copies!) in Seattle this week.
Does anyone have anything put together that can easily do the "leroy"
thing described here:
http://www.stargatemuseum.org/maps/032383.GRF.txt
and produce the graphical map it contains?
Mary Ann
On 6/23/19 4:10 PM, Mary Ann Horton Gmail wrote:
Hunting around through my ancient stuff today, I ran
across a 5.25"
floppy drive labeled as having old Usenet maps. These may have
historical interest.
First off, I don't recognize the handwriting on the disk. It's not
mine. Does anyone recognize it? (pic attached)
I dug out my AT&T 6300 (XT clone) from the garage and booted it up.
The floppy reads just fine. It has files with .MAP extension, which
are ASCII Usenet maps from 1980 to 1984, and some .BBM files which are
ASCII Usenet backbone maps up to 1987.
There is also a file whose extension is .GRF from 1983 which claims to
be a graphical Usenet map. Does anyone have any idea what GRF is or
what this map might be? I recall Brian Reid having a plotter-based
Usenet geographic map in 84 or 85.
I'd like to copy these files off for posterity. They read on DOS just
fine. Is there a current best practice for copying off files? I would
have guessed I'd need a to use the serial port, but my old PC has DOS
2.11 (not much serial copying software on it) and I don't have
anything live with a serial port anymore. And it might not help with
the GRF file.
I took some photos of the screen with the earliest maps (the ones that
fit on one screen.) So it's an option to type things in, at least for
the early ASCII ones.
Thanks,
Mary Ann