Fascinating talk from Derbycon 2012 on Rescuing the Prince of Persia from the Sands of Time, and the story of what happens when you have an old floppy disk with original source code from the late 80s.
Earlier this year, Jordan Mechner, the creator of such games as Karateka, The Last Express, and Prince of Persia, was sent a box of old material from his father’s closet. In it was the original source code to Prince of Persia for the Apple II, a 1989 game he’d sold after years of work. The only problem was, he had no idea how he could rescue it from the fading floppy disks. In a fast-paced storytelling atmosphere, computer historian Jason Scott talks about how that source code was rescued, what it means to bring something lost back from the shadows, and what lessons can be learned from the process.
Note: there is swearing and this guy has an epic beard.
Kudos to the Linux Outlaws for pointing to the link.