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Brian Thomas, Aditi Worcester, Austin Hixson, Samantha Bruner

Brian Thomas, Aditi Worcester, Austin Hixson, Samantha Bruner. Outline. 1. Background: the creators, the game, how the tapes got to the Briscoe 2. Scope and Contents of the Collection 3. Hardware 4. Process/early challenges - Commands 5. E mailing the creator (s)

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Brian Thomas, Aditi Worcester, Austin Hixson, Samantha Bruner

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  1. Brian Thomas, Aditi Worcester, Austin Hixson, Samantha Bruner

  2. Outline 1. Background: the creators, the game, how the tapes got to the Briscoe 2. Scope and Contents of the Collection 3. Hardware 4. Process/early challenges -Commands 5. Emailing the creator(s) 6. Accomplishments 7. Moving forward

  3. Background • Origin Systems • Richard Garriott • Wing Commander • Chris Roberts • C I C (Combat Information Center) • Ben Lesnick

  4. Scope and Content 36 Digital Data Storage Tapes

  5. Scope and Content But what's on them?

  6. Hardware

  7. Process Research • Manual pages • Published material (print and online) • Online Forums, most critical because • It provided directions • Problem workarounds • Practical advice on issues • BUT, not complete or reliable • Breaking Dracula

  8. Process The setup • Challenges in creating a valid connection • New card and cable • Challenges in getting the computer to communicate with the drive • Loading the st driver module • Loading other modules • Finding out which drive is correct

  9. Process Testing the setup • Created test content • Wrote content to a spare tape • Tested extraction/image commands on the tape

  10. Process • Imaging the tapes: sudodcfldd if=/dev/st0 of=CIC_tape_#.imghash=md5 hashlog=CIC_tape_#.md5 • Results:

  11. Process Imaging the tapes: Attempt 2 • Added options • sudo dd if /dev/st0 of=CIC_tape_#.img bs=512 ibs= 512 obs=512 count=1 conv=sync,noerror,notrunc • Mixed success • Produced images with mass to them, but which were unreadable.

  12. Process Further imaging attempts: • John Filo's program

  13. Process • At Alex North-Keyes's request, we extracted the first KB of one of the images we had created for him to analyze. • Discovered that the tape contains a POSIX tape archive

  14. Analyzing the Partial Images • tar tvf and tar xvf • tar tvf lists the contents of the file • tar xvf extracts the contents • However, this command risks overwriting files in the same directory.

  15. Analyzing the Partial Images • less CIC_firstkb.img

  16. Analyzing the Partial Images • od CIC_firstkb.img

  17. Analyzing the Partial Images • strings CIC_firstkb.img

  18. Communication with Stakeholders An important part of our process Who were the stakeholders? • Zach Vowell of the Briscoe • The donor, Ben Lesnick of the CIC site Resources? • Alex North-Keys • John Filo

  19. Communication with Stakeholders What do we know about the tapes? Part 1 Ben Lesnick - the Donor • Provided us with contextual information about the provenance of the tapes • Connected us with the primary source of outside help, Alex North-Keys

  20. Communication with Stakeholders What do we know about the tapes? Part 2 Alex North-Keys • Person responsible for setting up the system used to create content • Familiar with how the tapes were created and under what system • Expert at command line in Linux/Unix and provided multiple options to try that we did not realize on our own • Came in to try to retrieve content

  21. Achievements • Learned a lot of commands • Gained firsthand experience with the challenges of working with legacy media • Discovered the creating environment and the format of at least one tape • Made contacts with experts in the field and consulted with creators • Ben Lesnick • Alex North-Keyes • John Filo

  22. Moving Forward - IRIX • Put Alex in contact with Zach Vowell so that the project can move forward - Maintain contact with Briscoe Center - Interview Alex

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