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Vintage Software - How do you like yours?

Vintage Software - How do you like yours?

  • Buy full retail package (used or new)

    Votes: 8 57.1%

  • Buy full retail package and refurbish it.

    Votes: 1 7.1%

  • I only use SW I already owned from before

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • DL, DL, and DL! Bandwidth is cheap!

    Votes: 5 35.7%
  • Total voters
    14
S

Shadow Lord

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 16, 2010
Messages
3,235
Location
California
The subject has come up before as to why there is more interest in HW then SW and many people, including myself, believe that SW can be copied while HW can not.

But how about those of us who do buy old SW? I know there are guys here that collect old games, Sierra SW, utilities, etc. I personally buy old utilities and productivity packages that I can use on my vintage system as well as old games.

I buy old SW packages because frankly now I can get to try all he old programs/games I couldn't before at a fraction of the cost. Plus I get access to manuals, and inserts which would not be available when you dl the SW. However, I also refurbish the SW. That is if I buy a SW package that has been registered to someone else I try to get a clean image of the original SW to put on my disks. I am not sure exactly how kosher this is but the way I see it I now own the license to the SW and simply putting a clean copy on the original disks is no different then if the disks were not registered to begin with.

So how do you like to get your SW?
 
I don't think there are too many folks that don't download it as well but if I come across it I gladly buy it. I can't say how many times I've felt obligated to pay for a boxed copy of Civilization for a few bucks. Just seems right. I usually get it to a friend who hadn't had a legit copy yet. Anyway, I love having originals whenever I can but understandably the space it takes becomes and issue quickly.

Same thing with manuals though. I always like to have the manuals and later technical manuals for the systems I own as well (when available and regardless of if I have a soft copy).
 
I really like having the complete package with the old software. If the price is reasonable, I'll get it on eBay. Sometimes friends give me software. Have a really nice IBM Macro Assembler package (original books, disks) in the old IBM slip-binders, friend of mine gave me this.

At RePC in Seattle, I found a complete Novell NetWare 3.12 a while back - books, software, everything. Five bucks :) It was awesome. I used to administer it back in the day, loved having the complete package to use, and to look at. Nice red manuals.

Also, I used to use dBase III Plus a lot, so I found a NIB copy on eBay. Was great to actually break the shrinkwrap. Now I've got it loaded on a DOS PC.
 
I'm not picky at all of where I get my software. Most of it I've downloaded from various FTP sites, and some I've received from generous members here. If I do see software in the original packaging, sure it makes the deal better, but it's the data on the disk that matters most. After all, what good will a Norton utilities box do for a hard drive error? Pretty much all I have on my flash drive now (up to 5GB) is DOS utilities.
 
For me, having boxed software/manuals next to my machines makes the retro experience more complete.
So, if the price is right, I'll buy it.
 
Option 2 - how do you define "refurbish"? To my mind that could cover anything from cleaning pigeon poop off the disk (my level) to porting to a new platform, revising whole modules, and re-purposing in ways not imagined by the original authors. Some people on this forum seem capable of all these levels of refurbishment.

I favour the position that any software no longer distributed or supported by its legal owners is fair game for free downloading as "abandonware". It's the equivalent of recycling dumped equipment that has obsolete but "licensed" software already installed. But I would draw the line at trading such abandonware for profit, buying or selling.

Copyright was established to give creators a limited period of monopoly to benefit from their creation. It has been seriously perverted into a realm for speculation in "intellectual property" by traders unrelated to any creative endeavour.

There was a period when TurboDOS was the Rolls Royce of S-100 operating systems. A few months ago, when some hobbyists showed interest in reviving TurboDos for vintage systems, the owners (who were the actual creators) had the grace to consign their rights to the public domain for hobbyist use. An obsolete product with no current commercial value became a legacy domain with the possibility of living on as an educational and recreational product.

Would any lawyer- or troll-dominated organisation have done that?

Rick
 
Most of the software I am looking for is obscure development environments. Without manuals, those tend be unusable so I have to look for complete packages.
 
DOS lives on!! said:
I'm not picky at all of where I get my software. Most of it I've downloaded from various FTP sites, and some I've received from generous members here. If I do see software in the original packaging, sure it makes the deal better, but it's the data on the disk that matters most. After all, what good will a Norton utilities box do for a hard drive error? Pretty much all I have on my flash drive now (up to 5GB) is DOS utilities.
Click to expand...

Well, I don't buy empty boxes. I buy only full or very close to retail package. For me that means it has at the bare minimum the original disks, the manuals and the box. I don't go crazy if the reg card is missing or filled out and things like that but the SW has to be usable for me to get it!
 
RickNel said:
Option 2 - how do you define "refurbish"? To my mind that could cover anything from cleaning pigeon poop off the disk (my level) to porting to a new platform, revising whole modules, and re-purposing in ways not imagined by the original authors. Some people on this forum seem capable of all these levels of refurbishment.
Click to expand...

Rick,

I mentioned what I consider to be refurbishing in my OP. Basically, returning the disks to their original unadulterated state. I generally don't buy SW that has pigeon poop on it (i.e. I buy SW that generally looks complete and is in decent shape). My biggest req. is that I want the SW in my house and can be able to use it. For example a while back I bought Spinrite II full retail. It looked brand new. I use it all the time on my older MFM/RLL drives. Same thing w/ NU, PC tools, Copy II PC, etc...
 
I like to have manuals to go with software for completeness more than anything else. Sometimes its out of gilt having used a piece of sw for years without a "licence". At a greatly reduced cost of course.....
 
Back in the day, though, paper manuals were actually sometimes useful.
Nowadays, though, you get a paper "idiot" guide at best, and then you either download it or use the dvd/cd. Not much incentive to buy the physical media, unless you've got a real slow internet connection.
patscc
 
I myself download most stuff, as I usually can't find it elsewhere, or it's just a LOT faster to download something like MS-DOS. There are some things I still want to buy, such as OS/2 on floppies, especially Warp 3 as I'm not into writing forty-some odd floppy disks.
 
Shadow Lord said:
You've never used DOS???? ;D
Click to expand...

Indeed I have. Since the beginning, and every day since. I do have a lovely binder with IBM DOS 3.3 as well as recently acquired boring shrink wrap versions of MS-DOS 6.2 and 6.22. I used to have a bunch of those nice IBM binders a long time ago, but I didn't value them then and have no idea where they went. I wish I had them now.

I've also got some not too pristine Kaypro manuals and other miscellaneous stuff. There was a NIB LOTUS 123 on a shelf in the basement, I noticed earlier. And there were some boxes of Red Hat 4.0 and 5.0 too (basically kept as ephemera and not software). So yes - I'm not completely out of the loop.

However, I don't really collect that stuff except as it's found at undefined and mysterious places. I certainly don't buy it. What I was hinting at earlier is that (outside of my original DOS) I've just used BBSs, later Simtelnet, and after that, it's been FOSS the whole way. No boxes.

I was also thinking that the words "DL, DL, and DL!", as written in the poll choices, seemed kind of loaded, and not really representative of "apt-get" or "pkg_add". Perhaps I read it wrong. Anyway, on Mars we use "make install clean". ;)
 
patscc said:
Aw, c'mon, isn't ANYONE going to ask what MOS stands for ?
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Having worked in the film industry I didn't have to ask. It means "without sound". Exactly how that applies to software is a bit of a mystery, but perhaps it suggests that I don't sing along when I type - which is true. Did you have some other meaning in mind?
 
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