ByteRot is only as good as what people bring to it: files for the FTP, and words for the site. If you have something from the old days that isn't easy to find any more, or something you know that's worth writing down, it belongs here.

Write articles and how-tos

We're always looking for people to publish articles and how-tos. The FTP keeps the bits alive; writing keeps the knowledge alive. Some ideas:

• How-tos: getting a sound card working in DOS, installing OS/2 on real hardware, dumping your own cartridges, setting up a period LAN, fixing that one driver conflict.
• Articles: the history of a machine or a company, a teardown, a restoration log, a look back at a game, an interview, your own memories.

How to submit:

1. Write it in plain text. Simple Markdown is welcome (**bold**, ## headings, - lists) but not required. Pictures as GIF or JPEG.
2. Start the file with the header below.
3. Upload it to /INCOMING on the FTP named ARTICLE - your title.txt (with any pictures in the same directory), or hand it to staff in #retro.
4. We'll tidy it up, put your name on it, and publish it. It shows up on the front page and gets announced in #retro.

title: Getting a Sound Blaster 16 working in DOS
type: howto
author: yournick
summary: One or two sentences saying what it covers.

Your text starts here...

Leave out type: howto for a regular article.

What we're looking for on the FTP

• Lost drivers: the disk that came with the sound card, the OEM video driver nobody mirrored, BIOS updates for boards that are long gone.
• SDKs and dev tools: console SDKs, DirectX/Glide/OpenGL kits, compilers, assemblers, debuggers, docs that came with them.
• Operating systems: install media, boot disks, betas and odd OEM builds.
• Console and computer dumps: ROMs, disk and tape images, preferably verified (and say which tool you dumped with).
• Software, games and utilities for anything retro, PC or console.
• Manuals, datasheets, magazines and scans.

How to upload

1. Get an account: !req in #retro (see Connect).
2. Log in to ftp.byterot.net with passive mode on.
3. Make a directory in the right section and platform, named so a human can find it: product, version, platform, media. For example /DRIVERS/WIN9X/Creative Sound Blaster AWE64 Drivers v4.36.
4. Upload into it. Disk images (IMG, ISO, ADF, D64...) beat loose files.
5. Add a FILE_ID.DIZ if you can: a few lines saying what it is, what it runs on, and where it came from. The bot quotes its first line when it announces your upload in #retro.

Not sure where something goes? Put it in /INCOMING and staff will file it.

A FILE_ID.DIZ template

Creative Sound Blaster AWE64 drivers
Version 4.36, Windows 95/98
Original driver disk, 3x 1.44MB images
Dumped by yourname, 2026

Credits

Uploading earns download credits (ratio 1:5). Filling something from SITE REQUEST pays 1:8. DRIVERS, UTILS and the LIBRARY are free to download anyway, because nobody should go broke fetching a chipset driver.

Good manners

• Retro only: roughly anything up to the mid-2000s.
• Check !search first. A better dump is welcome, an identical copy is not.
• No malware. Bad dumps, wrong sections and junk get nuked.