At the risk of wandering off-topic from DSpace, when archiving non-PC software (i.e., for operating systems other than MS-DOS/PC-DOS or Microsoft Windows, and not on standard IBM format disks) it is advisable to create an image of the original disk with software like 22Disk or ImageDisk. In that way, you can recreate a disk that will run on the original hardware. This is especially important where the original disk was copy protected by non-physical means.
For more information on archiving old software, you might want to post a question to Classic Computer Mailing List at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or look in their archives. Bob -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of MacKenzie Smith Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2008 9:55 AM To: Jeane Teixeira Cc: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Dspace-tech] Computers games' repository Hi Jeane, Jim was right that you can store any sort of digital object in DSpace (with metadata) including software programs like computer games, but to make a game truly useful over time requires a bit more effort... you probably know all about this so I apologize if this is old news, but most games (i.e. interactive software programs) only run in very specific computing environments, sometimes with specific I/O devices, and DSpace doesn't do anything to support that requirement now. So you could get the game binary from a DSpace archive, but it won't necessarily run. We ran into this issue with CAD models that we're trying to archive and that depend on particular CAD software to open. We are investigation archiving the CAD software along with the model, and providing an emulation or virtualization environment (e.g. via VMWare or QEMU) to run the software and open the model. If that works, then something like that might make your games playable in the future. The other strategy is to store the game (source code ideally, or binary if that's what you've got) along with *a lot* of information about the game (e.g. screen shots, descriptions of how it worked, hardware requirements, etc.) so that in the future people can figure out how to recreate its operating environment and get the right emulator for their computer. Hope this helps, MacKenzie > > Hello, > > I am new in this list... > > I'd like to know if is possible to use the Dspace to create a > computers games' repository. > > Thanks. > Jeane > -- MacKenzie Smith Associate Director for Technology MIT Libraries ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: Microsoft Defy all challenges. Microsoft(R) Visual Studio 2008. http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/vse0120000070mrt/direct/01/ _______________________________________________ DSpace-tech mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/dspace-tech ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: Microsoft Defy all challenges. Microsoft(R) Visual Studio 2008. http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/vse0120000070mrt/direct/01/ _______________________________________________ DSpace-tech mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/dspace-tech
