Is it possible to use old software on new computer?

[SnoJetter]

I'm no computer wiz, so here goes: I have some old games on 5.25" disks. Can these be copied to a 3.5" disk and then played on new XP based PC's? The floppies I would like to copy are 360K and 512K (low density and double density?) disks.

Obviously, a machine that has both 5.25 and 3.5 drives would be needed. I imagine the disk "density" issue is going to pose a problem. Thanks for any input. Regards,

Kyle Sands <>< Huntley, MN

[Erik]

The best answer is probably maybe.

Some of the software is probably either copy protected or designed to boot from the disk it's on. If that's the case then duplicating the contents of the media to another media may or may not actually make the program work.

In other cases the programs may require other aspects of the hardware that don't exist in newer machines. Usually this will be clock related and the new machine will be way too fast for the program. Sometimes older software made DOS or BIOS calls that won't be in a newer machine.

A well written, well behaved older program should copy over to modern hardware fairly well.

Good luck!

Erik

[Barry]

When I bought my previuos computer, a P3 450 mhz, back when that was a very fast computer, I asked that it be built with a 5.25 floppy because of the number of old programs I have.

They managed to do it but they had a hard time finding a drive. And the one they found didn't work very long. Also they initially thought the bios wouldn't support it, but it did. It turned out to be one of the last motherboards that did support a 5.25 drive. Just lucky.

When the drive quit working, remmebering how long it took them to locate it, I just found an old 486 computer with a 3.5 and 5.25 drive that I could use for copying stuff over. I think I paid $29 for it.

Most stuff copied over okay. A few things didn't. Mostly games didn't. I've since found a lot of those by browsing abandonware sites.

A few of the disks had gone bad over the years and wouldn't copy for that reason but I managed to recover most of the stuff I cared most about.

Barry

[CP/M User]

"Erik" wrote:

> The best answer is probably maybe.

> Some of the software is probably either
> copy protected or designed to boot from
> the disk it's on. If that's the case then
> duplicating the contents of the media to
> another media may or may not actually
> make the program work.

I've got one game here (called Bubble Ghost)
which is the IBM PC & Compatables version
which is so particular, I haven't got it to run
on any of my IBMs. The disk is copy
protected, 5.25" disk, requires 256k, PC 1512
CGA/EGA. I've tried getting it to work on my
1.2Mb 5.25" disk drive & it doesn't work. I
think it needs a 360k (as a bootup) in order
to work, it's that fussy!
Doesn't look to me that the game has been
tampered with & it certainally is the original
disk which has been write protected.

But yeah, I think most of those ol' game (like
you said) have been designed so they don't
run at a normal speed. Certainally games
from the 80s more so, because by the end
of the 80 a machine like a 386 running at
16Mhz is perfectly acceptable & IMO not a
great deal of speed difference, well unless
someone was designing a game for the
original PC at 4.77Mhz or whatever &
wanted to make sure it would be just as
playable on a 16Mhz machine.

Cheers,
CP/M User.

[carlsson]

Today there are external, USB controlled 3.5" disks. I wonder if any of those manufacturers could be convinced to produce a similar 5.25" unit?

[Classicsat]

With enough bucks, someone could make a one-off or a small run.