68kMLA Classic Interface
This is a version of the 68kMLA forums for viewing on your favorite old mac. Visitors on modern platforms may prefer the main site.
| Click here to select a new forum. | |
| EDUCOMP HyperCard Stacks | |
| Posted by: luRaichu on 2024-12-19 11:40:10 I have come into possession of twenty 800k floppy disks from EDUCOMP which appear to contain various HyperCard stacks. I'd won them at auction on eBay originally as a source for cheap 800k diskettes to use with a Mac Plus, but now I see these may contain software that hasn't been archived yet. Please let me know if you are interested or have any information reguarding EDUCOMP, as I'm not aware of much (at all). Following is a list of all 20 disks, their item number and alleged contents according to the labels: 430: HELP/TIPS STACK V.1 432: UTILITY STACKS V.1 433: FUN & GAMES STACKS V.1 435: PRODUCTIVITY STACKS V.1 436: SOUND&MUSIC STACKS V.1 437: STACKWARE ART/PUBLISHING STACKS 438: STACKWARE TELECOMM. STAACKS V.1 439: The AIDS Stack 440: STACKWARE BILL SEZ STACK 441: STACKWARE MISC. STACKS V.1 442: STACKWARE BUSINESS STACKS V.1 443: FOOD/HEALTH STACKS V.1 444: STACKWARE FUN & GAMES STACKS V.2 445: MISC. STACKS V.2 537: EDUCATION STACKS V.4 550: MINIFINDER STACKS 555: PROG./UTIL V.4 568: Prog/Util Stacks V.5 573: Util Stacks V.6 585: Adult Stacks V.1 Hopefully most of these still read properly. Will update when I verify contents/get more info. Edit: There is an address and phone number listed on the back of the floppies. 742 Genevieve, Ste. D Solana Beach, CA 92075 (619) 259-0255 From disk #568 on, a new address is being listed. The phone number is still the same. 531 Stevens Ave. Solana Beach, CA 92075 (619) 259-0255 | |
| Posted by: thecloud on 2024-12-20 15:03:45 EDUCOMP was a company who downloaded every piece of freeware and shareware they could find on BBS systems and internet archives, then published a catalog. You could buy disks from their catalog with collections of games, fonts, utilities, HyperCard stacks, dithered bitmap porn, you name it. It served a purpose for people who weren't online (and most people weren't, in the late 80s/early 90s.) They never asked the authors' permission to include software in their collection, as far as I was aware. By 1990 the company had been renamed to EDUCORP. Twenty 800K disks wouldn't take up very much space if you imaged them with Disk Copy and then compressed the resulting images, so it would certainly be a good idea to do that before reusing the floppies. But I suspect anything they contain will have been archived elsewhere, since the content was not exclusive to EDUCOMP. (Edit: on the other hand, it could well be that these collections contain stuff that was never archived anywhere else.) | |
| Posted by: thecloud on 2024-12-20 15:42:56 Surprisingly, Internet Archive doesn't seem to have the EDUCOMP/EDUCORP disk catalogs or the shareware disk collections. They used to be everywhere, like AOL disks. I probably have some put away in a box somewhere. | |
| Posted by: thecloud on 2024-12-20 22:52:19 Based on these two links, it appears they changed their name from EDUCOMP to EDUCORP around 1988. VINTAGE (1987) CATALOG: EDUCOMP PUBLIC DOMAIN SOFTWARE MACINTOSH PC Q | #1806771042Own a piece of IT history:VINTAGE (1987) CATALOG: EDUCOMP : PUBLIC DOMAIN/ SHAREWARE SOFTWARE FOR MACINTOSH COMPUTERSDimensions: 5 x 7 1/2 (116 pages)Item is being sold as-is. - Suitable for framing$
www.worthpoint.com
VERY RARE 1988 EDUCORP CATALOG - MAC MACINTOSH PUBLIC DOMAIN / SHAREWARE SOFTWAR | #4073672142EduCORP almost Free Macintosh Software Catalog 1988 • Near Mint Rare catalog of cheap Public Domain and Shareware software from 1988 for the MacRare Early Catalog of Public Domain Software for the m
www.worthpoint.com
Was this the auction you won? 
Vintage Apple Macintosh Mac EDUCOMP Public Domain Shareware Software LOT (T776) | eBayAll Original. See Pics.
www.ebay.com
Definitely consider imaging these and uploading to the Internet Archive! | |
| Posted by: luRaichu on 2024-12-21 14:47:20 Yes that's the one. | |
| Posted by: luRaichu on 2024-12-22 09:45:47 Next step is to use my Mac Plus to see which HyperCard stacks are on the disks and [if they're/how many are] already on the Internet Archive collection. Instead of using a dedicated diskette backup device like Greaseweazle I'm thinking of just making Disk Copy images on the Mac Plus and transferring them to a PC via BlueSCSI. I'd always archive disks that haven't already been archived. | |
| Posted by: nathall on 2024-12-26 20:53:42 I’d be very interested in getting these images, if you’re able to make them. | |
| Posted by: luRaichu on 2025-01-12 17:30:33 The EDUCOMP diskettes are now available on the Internet Archive, saved for posterity. 
EduComp HyperCard Stacks [Disks 430-585] : EduComp : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet ArchiveThis is a collection of imaged 800k Macintosh floppy diskettes containing HyperCard stacks & utilities published by EduComp/EduCorp from 1987 to 1988.All...
archive.org
Next, I put my BlueSCSI's microSD card in a USB SD card reader and mounted the emulated hard disk on my Linux box. From there the Disk Copy images went straight up to the Internet Archive. It's HFS -> Internet 🙂 Disk #433 could not be read ("This disk is unreadable"), while disk #435 errors with: The disk "435 Productivity Stacks v.1" cannot be used, because a disk error occurred.I will hold on to the problem floppies just in case there is a magical way to recover the data on them. TODO: Scan front of floppies, so everyone can see what the labels look like. | |
| Posted by: nathall on 2025-01-12 23:52:59 Right on! Thank you. | |
Posted by: Andy on 2025-01-13 10:30:37will hold on to the problem floppies just in case there is a magical way to recover the data on them. You can try reaching out to the Applesauce FDC community. It's hardware that can do flux images and might have better luck reading then the mac system software. There's a link to their discord on the website https://applesaucefdc.com/ | |
| Posted by: thecloud on 2025-01-13 11:18:52 Thanks for taking the time to image the floppies! One thing to keep in mind next time you make Disk Copy images: they do have a resource fork where the data checksum is saved. Resource fork information is lost when you upload the file as data to a server, unless you wrap the disk image in a container that preserves both forks. For example, you could add the disk image to a StuffIt archive, or use the Compress item to create a zip file on current versions of macOS. | |
| Posted by: LaPorta on 2025-01-13 11:58:57 Yes, why were bare DC42 images uploaded without a container? | |
| Posted by: luRaichu on 2025-01-13 13:31:24 I don't think the resource fork is needed for these images. Why would you need the checksum? What you get from the Internet Archive page is a verbatim copy of the floppies (I checked the hashes). I chose to present the images this way for easier handling outside of classic Mac OS. Though, I guess it wouldn't hurt to also provide a Stuffit archive with everything inside. | |
| Posted by: LaPorta on 2025-01-13 13:44:04 Just because you run into the issue of a real Mac or emulator not being able to read the images because the type and creator codes are wiped out, for one thing. | |
| Posted by: thecloud on 2025-01-13 14:19:12 For these specific images it's not a big deal, because the original disks had bad sectors and the checksum isn't going to be something you could use reliably to compare your image against someone else's copy. The images mount fine in an emulator and the files can be read. But imagine a scenario where the image later gets corrupted on the server, and its data no longer matches the saved checksum. You'd want some way to detect that the image data changed since it was created, and that's what the checksum stored in the resource fork provides. (I see that there are hashes computed by IA on these files and stored in a separate XML file on the server, but Disk Copy and other classic Mac software won't know to look for that or be able to use it to verify the image.) The data checksum isn't the only reason to preserve the resource fork. As mentioned, keeping the file's type and creator codes intact is another important reason. And sometimes other resources must be present in order to successfully open a file. Any classic Mac file which could possibly have resources or metadata should really be archived in a container format which preserves them, so nothing is lost. | |
| Posted by: luRaichu on 2025-01-18 15:36:49 Page is updated with huge 600dpi scans of the disks. They may take a bit to load. The Disk Copy images now live inside a MacZip archive, preserving the resource forks. You can click "View Contents" on the zip and download individual images if you'd like. | |
| 1 |