[TUHS] Floppy to modern files for Usenet maps

[Arthur Krewat]

Does the AT&T have a serial port?

Kermit would be the way I'd go, but since you say you have nothing with 
serial ports, that could be a problem. A cheap usb-to-serial port might 
be in order. Then you can run Kermit 95 on a Windows 7 or earlier 
machine. (might work on later OS's too, but it's not supported)

The flip side is how to get Kermit onto the DOS machine.

I used a floppy recovery service a while back to read my old Commodore 
64/PET disks - he was relatively inexpensive, and very responsive.

http://retrofloppy.com/



On 6/23/2019 7:10 PM, Mary Ann Horton Gmail wrote:
> Hunting around through my ancient stuff today, I ran across a 5.25" 
> floppy drive labeled as having old Usenet maps. These may have 
> historical interest.
>
> First off, I don't recognize the handwriting on the disk. It's not 
> mine. Does anyone recognize it? (pic attached)
>
> I dug out my AT&T 6300 (XT clone) from the garage and booted it up. 
> The floppy reads just fine. It has files with .MAP extension, which 
> are ASCII Usenet maps from 1980 to 1984, and some .BBM files which are 
> ASCII Usenet backbone maps up to 1987.
>
> There is also a file whose extension is .GRF from 1983 which claims to 
> be a graphical Usenet map.  Does anyone have any idea what GRF is or 
> what this map might be? I recall Brian Reid having a plotter-based 
> Usenet geographic map in 84 or 85.
>
> I'd like to copy these files off for posterity. They read on DOS just 
> fine. Is there a current best practice for copying off files? I would 
> have guessed I'd need a to use the serial port, but my old PC has DOS 
> 2.11 (not much serial copying software on it) and I don't have 
> anything live with a serial port anymore. And it might not help with 
> the GRF file.
>
> I took some photos of the screen with the earliest maps (the ones that 
> fit on one screen.) So it's an option to type things in, at least for 
> the early ASCII ones.
>
> Thanks,
>
>     Mary Ann
>
>