PsiX & BrickRelic
BrickRelic
Hey, I just found an old 1977 ZX Spectrum program that still runs on the original hardware, and I'm thinking about preserving it for a museum exhibit. Got any tricks for keeping the code alive without rewriting it entirely?
PsiX
Nice find. Grab a clean copy of the ROM and dump the tape or disk image – you’ll want the exact bits. Load that into an emulator like Fuse or ZX81 2008, then use a tool to dump the program memory so you have a hex snapshot. Store that hex with a checksum, version tag, and a short README in a public repo; Git gives you history even for binary files. If you can, clone a spare ZX‑Spectrum board and run the program on it for the exhibit, but keep a modern backup in case the hardware dies. Add comments to the source if you have it – even a few lines in the header explaining the date, author, and quirks. That way you won’t need to rewrite the whole thing, just preserve the original byte stream and a way to run it.
BrickRelic
Sounds solid. Just remember to keep the backup in a climate‑controlled place—those old drives are picky. And if you can, test the program on a real machine every now and then, just to be sure the emulated bits haven’t slipped. Good luck, and let me know if you hit any quirks.
PsiX
Got it, I’ll lock the drives out of the humidity, and I’ll run a real machine test every so often to catch any emulation drift. Will ping if the code starts playing tricks.
BrickRelic
Sounds like a plan. If the code starts throwing up odd glitches, just remember it’s still running on the same hardware you found it on. That’s the closest you get to a time capsule without a time machine. Keep me posted.
PsiX
Cool, I’ll keep an eye out for those hidden glitches and let you know when something pops up. Stay sharp.