~/projects/insert-disk-234 projects13 playablehumanmachine
insert-disk-2.asm$9CC0 · city.bin

INSERT DISK 2

A web page that recreates installing a 1990s PC game under MS-DOS, from the BIOS beep and the IRQ/DMA settings to the "Please insert Disk 2 of 9" prompt. It invents a new fake game on every load.

run/play/insert-disk-2/
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README.mdinsert-disk-2/index.mdx

A reenactment of installing a PC game from floppies (or a CD-ROM) in the 1990s. It boots through a fake BIOS POST and MS-DOS, INSTALL.EXE runs on its own, and from there it’s your job to get the thing installed.

What you do

  1. Accept the license and pick Typical, Full, Compact or Custom.
  2. Edit the destination path.
  3. Configure the sound card: choose the card, set the IRQ, DMA and I/O port, and press Test Sound. If the settings are wrong you get the classic “no card detected” error. Auto-Detect also works.
  4. Watch the files copy, with an overall progress bar and a per-disk one.
  5. Swap disks when it asks, and get through the occasional read error.
  6. Reach INSTALLATION COMPLETED SUCCESSFULLY and launch the title screen.
The Sound Card Configuration dialog with Sound Blaster 16 at port 0x240, IRQ 7, DMA 1, and a green line confirming Auto-Detect found it
Sound card setup after Auto-Detect. Set the IRQ or DMA wrong by hand and Test Sound reports no card.

The game is made up

Every load generates a different fictional game: genre (3-D action, graphic adventure, RPG, space sim, racing, RTS, pinball), title, publisher, release year, disk count and system requirements. Add ?seed= and any string to the URL to get the same game every time. The current seed is shown on the welcome and title screens.

Details

  • It’s one self-contained HTML file with no dependencies and no network calls, so it also works offline.
  • PC-speaker beeps, floppy-drive grinding and a Sound Blaster FM test jingle are all synthesized with the Web Audio API. Sound starts on your first keypress or click.
  • Everything works from the keyboard (Enter, Esc, arrows, Tab, Space) or the mouse.
  • There’s a CRT scanline flicker you can turn down, and a sound toggle.

Nothing is actually written to disk.