The defining moments in computing and video game history - verified, dated, and sourced.
A field guide to this blog's evidence-first computing history: what belongs here, how sources are weighed, and why popular myths get corrected.
Set up 86Box, PCjs, or MartyPC to recreate the 5150's real hardware - 8088 at 4.77 MHz, floppy-only boot, PC DOS - and feel the 1981 constraints.
Where to legally read the code behind computing history: Netscape 1998, early Unix via TUHS, museum releases like MacPaint, and id's GPL drops.
A practical checklist for verifying tech history claims before repeating them: earliest sources, denials, primary documents, and citogenesis traps.
Run preserved historical software in your browser through archive.org's collections, check provenance metadata, and use emulated originals for research.
Official re-releases like Atari 50, Arcade Archives, subscription libraries, licensed mini consoles, and original hardware - legal paths to 1983-era games.
Run Navigator or Mosaic via oldweb.today, a period VM, or archive.org emulation - and pair them with Wayback captures for the real 1990s experience.
Image floppies at the flux level with Greaseweazle or KryoFlux, verify with checksums, follow 3-2-1 storage, and archive disks before they fade.
Move from a secondhand claim to a verified fact using SEC filings, court opinions via RECAP, Usenet archives, and contemporaneous announcements.
Use Google Patents, Espacenet, and USPTO records - filing dates, prior art, assignments, litigation - to trace who actually built what first.