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\/<\/span> Using Discmaster, you can search through vintage stock photo CD-ROMs on many subjects.<\/div>\nArs Technica<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
“It is probably, to me, one of the most important computer history research project opportunities that we’ve had in 10 years,” says Scott. “It’s not done. They’ve analyzed 7,000 and some-odd CD-ROMs. And they’re about to do another 8,000.”<\/p>\n
Humans being humans, you’ll also find a large amount of vintage pornographic media represented in the Discmaster data set\u2014it’s easy to run into by accident. Users who want to avoid NSFW material should select “Strict” in the “Safe Search” options near the bottom.<\/p>\n
By casting a wide archival net, everything is captured and available in its unvarnished form. “The [resources] they are choosing are very specifically compilation and presentation CD-ROMs, like the best shareware discs,” says Scott.<\/p>\n
Scott is no stranger to radical acts of digital archivism, having participated in backing up GeoCities, preserving Flash files, making thousands of MS-DOS games playable though a web browser, and more. On his personal site, Textfiles.com, he’s hosted archives of BBS files and CD-ROMs for almost two decades. But until now, those resources had never been searchable with the degree of precision that Discmaster allows.<\/p>\n
“Maybe some people don’t want to go through a pile of old things,” he says. “But if you are somebody for whom going through a pile of old things would really positively affect you, this is Shangri-La.”<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n