From a1fced4f3c7e93c049bf103f7cf88ec4a10f3ce5 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Jeff Parsons Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2017 09:57:02 -0700 Subject: [PATCH] Updated "Adventures in Math" README --- apps/pcx86/1983/adventmath/README.md | 19 +++++++++++++++++-- 1 file changed, 17 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) diff --git a/apps/pcx86/1983/adventmath/README.md b/apps/pcx86/1983/adventmath/README.md index d49c0185f..ae681bd98 100644 --- a/apps/pcx86/1983/adventmath/README.md +++ b/apps/pcx86/1983/adventmath/README.md @@ -205,7 +205,20 @@ but it does so purely for convenience (and because it predates the "autoType" fe An alternative approach, adopted by the Internet Archive, involves modified disk images (eg, with custom batch files) loaded into tightly coupled machine configurations. While this approach offers ease of use, it's difficult for the user to download or inspect the software exactly as it was originally distributed, or to load the software into any -machine configuration other than the "mystery" configuration chosen by the Internet Archive. +machine configuration other than the "mystery" configuration chosen by the Internet Archive. + +Also, the Internet Archive's overall "emulation experience" is often not very faithful. Their rendering of "Adventures +in Math" gives the impression that the game ran *much* faster than it actually ran on a 4.77Mhz IBM PC. +While the Internet Archive's emulator can be configured operate at different speeds, it's unclear which of their +holdings have already been "tuned". As a fallback, they do provide some user controls: + +> "While the program is running, press CTRL-F11 to slow the program down. Pressing CTRL-F11 repeatedly will slow it +down further, until the speed is more reasonable. (Pressing CTRL-F12 repeatedly will attempt to speed things up.)" + +but in general, the user has no idea what speed they have currently selected, or what the target speed should be. +For users who simply want "to play the game," that may be fine, but an historian would probably prefer to see how the +game originally operated and how each screen was painstakingly rendered, to better understand both the original user +experience and the challenges that early software developers faced. The failure to archive software exactly as it was originally distributed, generally as one or more disk image (IMG) files along with scanned (PDF) copies of the documentation, is the most serious problem we collectively face. I don't @@ -214,7 +227,9 @@ and those earlier "archivists" often didn't take the time to thoroughly preserve On the other hand, the Internet Archive could do a better job of cataloging its holdings, recording the provenance of everything they have archived, maintaining a clear separation of original material from subsequent modifications (including -any modifications created solely for ease of emulation), and providing more control over machine configurations. +any modifications created solely for ease of emulation), providing more control over machine configurations, and +enabling the use of third-party emulators -- like PCjs -- that may be able to do a better job running and rendering +some software packages. In addition, I would hope that anything the Internet Archive "archives" itself (ie, from original distribution media) is duplicated and preserved according to a *much* higher standard than any files, documents, etc, it has simply scraped