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TOSEC

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Wildqat (talk | contribs) at 21:19, 16 March 2010 (Rewrote to present tense since TOSEC is not dead; TIM is disco). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

The Old School Emulation Center (TOSEC) is a website and retrocomputing initiative founded in February 2000 by a person who used the pseudonym "Grendel". The virtual team of contributors to the project provides quality assurance tools and guidelines for cataloging and validating ROM images and disk images. TOSEC's own cataloging efforts primarily focus on abandonware, public domain software, and anachronistic electronic media for microcomputers, minicomputers, and video game consoles.

TOSEC catalogs computer software, firmware, e-books, user guides, and disk magazines from sundry varieties of optical disc, floppy disk, magnetic tape, and other media. The TOSEC databases contain metadata for the software and/or firmware of more than 180 computing platforms. In 2001, the project had more than 40 volunteers.

TOSEC's principal works include:

  • The TOSEC Naming Convention v2009-12-24[1], a document which defines a filename scheme for systematically describing and collating disk and ROM images.
  • Databases cataloging software and BIOS firmware for various video game consoles, microcomputers, and minicomputers. TOSEC distributes the databases as data files usable by ROM image validation tools, such as clrmamepro. By referencing the metadata in the databases, a person or computer program can identify files containing imaged media, and evaluate their data integrity. TOSEC's most recently-published catalog update is dated December 27, 2009.
  • TOSEC Information Manager (TIM), a discontinued freeware utility software program for Microsoft Windows, used for validating a collection of imaged media against a TOSEC database. TIM compared generated checksums to recorded checksums in the database, and renamed the user's matching files according to the TOSEC Naming Convention (TNC). TIM was also used as a distribution method for the official databases, and could generate datfiles for RomCenter and clrmamepro. TIM was officially discontinued with the 27 December, 2009 TOSEC data update in favor of distributing the data files in clrmamepro format.[2]
  • alt.binaries.emulators.tosec, a Usenet newsgroup for the proliferation of imaged firmware and secondary storage media. On 1 November, 2000, in the charter and proposal for the group's creation, TOSEC founder "Grendel" described the purpose he intended for TOSEC and its newsgroup.[3]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ http://www.tosecdev.org/index.php/tosec-naming-convention
  2. ^ http://www.tosecdev.org/index.php/downloads/category/10-2009-12-27
  3. ^ http://groups.google.com/group/alt.config/msg/1e485f0f766f2b21?dmode=source

References

  • Carless, Simon (2004). Gaming Hacks: 100 Industrial-Strength Tips & Tools. Sebastopol, California: O'Reilly Media. pp. 46–49. ISBN 9780596007140. Retrieved 16 March, 2010. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  • TOSECdev.org, the official TOSEC website. Retrieved on 16 March, 2010.
  • TOSEC.org, the (old) official TOSEC website, currently redirects to tosecdev.org. Retrieved on 16 March, 2010.
  • TOSEC Naming Convention, hypertext version of the latest TNC, hosted by TOSECdev.org TOSEC Project Homepage. Retrieved on 16 March, 2010.
  • TOSEC Naming Convention, an (outdated) hypertext version of the TNC, hosted by the toseciso.org CD Dumping Project. Retrieved on 16 March, 2010.
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