Engineer runs MS-DOS from a vinyl record because why not

Nov 24, 2020 12:37 GMT  ·  By

If you’re nostalgic about MS-DOS, how about finding that old-school floppy disk and giving it a try right now? After all, it’s not like we’re too busy these days given the madness that took over the world.

But Slovak engineer Jozef Bogin has decided to push things a step further. So what he did was indeed boot MS-DOS, but instead of using a traditional floppy disk, he actually launched the whole thing from a vinyl record.

The whole experience is detailed in the video at the end of the article, though we must warn you that keeping the volume to a lower level is definitely recommended, despite some effects in there actually sounding rather familiar.

As you can see, MS-DOS isn’t booted on a new-generation computer such as a Microsoft Surface or something that costs a small fortune but using an original IBM 5150.

Old IBM PC

The audio loading process is actually surprisingly fast, and while MS-DOS came in a rather lightweight package, it’s still impressive to see how all the data has been transferred to the IBM PC from the vinyl. As per cdm, the whole magic comes down to demodulating the audio signal via BIOS after receiving information from the PC speaker timer and the peripheral input port connected to the vinyl record.

While this may sound like rocket science for some, it’s actually an experiment that could keep you busy for a while. Of course, there’s no actual benefit in doing this, other than the fun of playing with old-school software in a way that only a few people managed to do before.

You can find the full video below, and for more information on how the whole thing was made, you can check the developer’s official blog post here.