Works on the bare metal, reading from the bare metal oxide.
Very quick & easy.
Here's a tutorial, most of this is ordinary 21st Century floppy handling, geared toward this SPoC floppy image-
to make the 3.5inch floppy-
-Make sure all necessary PC mainboard bios settings are adjusted to fully enable Floppy, Legacy, FDD, Read/Write, USB FDD, etc.
optional quality ckecks-
Quick format a 3.5inch floppy using any version of MS-DOS or Windows.
Using your favorite disk editor, write F6 hex consecutively on every byte of the floppy over sectors 1 through 2879, leaving only sector 0 untouched in its formatted condition.
Quick format the floppy again using any version of MS-DOS or Windows.
Select a 3.5inch floppy which passes a thorough sector check fully without any defects.
-using the WindowsME DOS version of SCANDISK.EXE while booted to the Windows98SE version of DOS is ideal for this diagnostic test. Other Win9x SCANDISK versions while booted to their Win9x DOS's are OK too.
Using your favorite bit copying routine, or disk editor, copy his default image to the floppy bitwise.
to boot the floppy-
Any PC made within almost 3 decades should work, as long as it supports 3.5inch 1.44MB floppies correctly. The PC does not need a hard drive, and may not need more than 128K to 512K of memory.
On modern UEFI systems you will probably need to disable Secure Boot and might need to be in Legacy, Bios Compatibility mode.
--you will likely revert these settings afterward in BIOS when you are completely finished using 20th Century SPoC
Make sure your PC bios has its setup boot order giving the appropriate floppy hardware (mainboard or USB) the highest priority.
-Make sure all other necessary additional bios settings are adjusted to fully enable Floppy, Legacy, FDD, Read/Write, USB FDD, etc.
--you may or may not want to revert these settings afterward in BIOS when you are completely finished using 20th Century SPoC
As a performance check, there should be no problem booting to a Windows98 startup floppy.
-a proper 64-bit mainboard handles this perfectly
Leave the SPoC floppy inserted to the drive.
Restart the PC.
It boots to the MS-DOS 3.31 on the SPoC floppy and automaticlly runs the batch file AUTOEXEC.BAT,
which launches GRID.EXE \programs\spoc.run
then you eventually see the Space Shuttle logo
to operate SPoC-
after the floppy boots, progress stops at the screen "GMT OF LAUNCH" where you set the GMT time of your launch,
his defaults are-
YEAR 1989
DAY 352
HOUR 23
MINUTE 46
SECOND 0
(you can change data on this screen if you want to by backspacing & typing)
leave his defaults
-you will have to accept this by typing ALT-RETURN where SPoC asks for CODE-RETURN
the next screen "Set time in GMT" is where your actual system time is displayed, and you set your actual system time on your mainboard hardware back to the 20th Century.
-this GMT System time will need to be somewhat later than the above GMT Launch time, you will be using your system to plot the course of the Shuttle starting from your point in time after the launch had taken place-
DAY 354
HOUR 15
MINUTE 41
YEAR 1989
-accept this by typing ALT-RETURN where SPoC asks for CODE-RETURN
if "CAUTION: Vector more than 2 days old" message appears, the system date is more than two days later than the most recent vector data (shown on the following screen).
--After you you are completely finished using 20th Century SPoC, you will have to correct your system time back to the 21st Century before your PC will be normal again.
the next screen "M50 STATE VECTOR (KFT) WITH GMT TIME TAG" has your "recent" Shuttle coordinates at a certain GMT time later than the launch, there is no year entry, it is assumed to be less than 2 days earlier than your newly-set 1989 system time.
his defaults are-
Day (GMT) 353
Hour (GMT) 0
Minute (GMT) 59
Second (GMT) 35
leave his defaults
-accept this by typing ALT-RETURN where SPoC asks for CODE-RETURN
"Inclination" & "Approx. orbit" info appears
-accept this by typing ALT-RETURN where SPoC asks for CODE-RETURN
if "CAUTION: Vector more than 2 days old" message appears, the vector date is more than two days earlier than your 1989 system time.
the next screen gives you the option to display the World Map,
select "DISPLAY WORLD MAP" with the up/down arrow keys, then ALT-RETURN where SPoC asks for CODE-RETURN
- or -
accept this by typing ALT-M where SPoC asks for the CODE-M shortcut
the next screen gives you the option to select the communication and observation features
select "INVOKE DEFAULT COMMUNICATION SITES" with the up/down arrow keys, then ALT-RETURN where SPoC asks for CODE-RETURN
- or -
accept this by typing ALT-D where SPoC asks for the CODE-D shortcut
now you get the "live" map as the Shuttle orbits in "real" 20th Century time.
to stop the map and return to its menu-
type ALT-ESC where SPoC would normally want CODE-ESC
-you return to the previous menu
to restart the map or exit to DOS 3.31-
select using the up/down arrow keys, then ALT-RETURN where SPoC asks for CODE-RETURN
- or -
restart map by typing ALT-M or exit to DOS by typing ALT-ESC
in DOS while booted to the floppy, at the A> prompt-
restart SPoC by typing-
grid \programs\spoc.run
- or -
a:\grid \programs\spoc.run
to start only the GRID emulator itself, at the A> prompt type-
grid
- or -
a:\grid
when within GRID-
-use ALT-Q followed by ALT-RETURN to QUIT
-use ALT-ESC followed by ALT-RETURN to CANCEL
reboot to the floppy by leaving it inserted and simultaneously holding CTRL-ALT-DEL
- or -
shut down from DOS using the power button on the PC
--After you are finished using the SPoC floppy, you will have to revert your system time back to the correct 21st Century time in BIOS before you fully boot back to your regular modern operating system.
--On modern UEFI systems this is also the time to return the Legacy, Bios Compatibility mode and Secure Boot settings to your preferred options for modern operating system usage.
Very quick & easy.
Here's a tutorial, most of this is ordinary 21st Century floppy handling, geared toward this SPoC floppy image-
to make the 3.5inch floppy-
-Make sure all necessary PC mainboard bios settings are adjusted to fully enable Floppy, Legacy, FDD, Read/Write, USB FDD, etc.
optional quality ckecks- Quick format a 3.5inch floppy using any version of MS-DOS or Windows. Using your favorite disk editor, write F6 hex consecutively on every byte of the floppy over sectors 1 through 2879, leaving only sector 0 untouched in its formatted condition. Quick format the floppy again using any version of MS-DOS or Windows. Select a 3.5inch floppy which passes a thorough sector check fully without any defects. -using the WindowsME DOS version of SCANDISK.EXE while booted to the Windows98SE version of DOS is ideal for this diagnostic test. Other Win9x SCANDISK versions while booted to their Win9x DOS's are OK too.
Using your favorite bit copying routine, or disk editor, copy his default image to the floppy bitwise.
to boot the floppy-
Any PC made within almost 3 decades should work, as long as it supports 3.5inch 1.44MB floppies correctly. The PC does not need a hard drive, and may not need more than 128K to 512K of memory.
On modern UEFI systems you will probably need to disable Secure Boot and might need to be in Legacy, Bios Compatibility mode. --you will likely revert these settings afterward in BIOS when you are completely finished using 20th Century SPoC
Make sure your PC bios has its setup boot order giving the appropriate floppy hardware (mainboard or USB) the highest priority. -Make sure all other necessary additional bios settings are adjusted to fully enable Floppy, Legacy, FDD, Read/Write, USB FDD, etc. --you may or may not want to revert these settings afterward in BIOS when you are completely finished using 20th Century SPoC
As a performance check, there should be no problem booting to a Windows98 startup floppy. -a proper 64-bit mainboard handles this perfectly
Leave the SPoC floppy inserted to the drive.
Restart the PC.
It boots to the MS-DOS 3.31 on the SPoC floppy and automaticlly runs the batch file AUTOEXEC.BAT, which launches GRID.EXE \programs\spoc.run then you eventually see the Space Shuttle logo
to operate SPoC-
after the floppy boots, progress stops at the screen "GMT OF LAUNCH" where you set the GMT time of your launch, his defaults are- YEAR 1989 DAY 352 HOUR 23 MINUTE 46 SECOND 0 (you can change data on this screen if you want to by backspacing & typing) leave his defaults -you will have to accept this by typing ALT-RETURN where SPoC asks for CODE-RETURN
the next screen "Set time in GMT" is where your actual system time is displayed, and you set your actual system time on your mainboard hardware back to the 20th Century. -this GMT System time will need to be somewhat later than the above GMT Launch time, you will be using your system to plot the course of the Shuttle starting from your point in time after the launch had taken place- DAY 354 HOUR 15 MINUTE 41 YEAR 1989 -accept this by typing ALT-RETURN where SPoC asks for CODE-RETURN if "CAUTION: Vector more than 2 days old" message appears, the system date is more than two days later than the most recent vector data (shown on the following screen). --After you you are completely finished using 20th Century SPoC, you will have to correct your system time back to the 21st Century before your PC will be normal again.
the next screen "M50 STATE VECTOR (KFT) WITH GMT TIME TAG" has your "recent" Shuttle coordinates at a certain GMT time later than the launch, there is no year entry, it is assumed to be less than 2 days earlier than your newly-set 1989 system time. his defaults are- Day (GMT) 353 Hour (GMT) 0 Minute (GMT) 59 Second (GMT) 35 leave his defaults -accept this by typing ALT-RETURN where SPoC asks for CODE-RETURN "Inclination" & "Approx. orbit" info appears -accept this by typing ALT-RETURN where SPoC asks for CODE-RETURN if "CAUTION: Vector more than 2 days old" message appears, the vector date is more than two days earlier than your 1989 system time.
the next screen gives you the option to display the World Map, select "DISPLAY WORLD MAP" with the up/down arrow keys, then ALT-RETURN where SPoC asks for CODE-RETURN - or - accept this by typing ALT-M where SPoC asks for the CODE-M shortcut
the next screen gives you the option to select the communication and observation features select "INVOKE DEFAULT COMMUNICATION SITES" with the up/down arrow keys, then ALT-RETURN where SPoC asks for CODE-RETURN - or - accept this by typing ALT-D where SPoC asks for the CODE-D shortcut
now you get the "live" map as the Shuttle orbits in "real" 20th Century time.
to stop the map and return to its menu- type ALT-ESC where SPoC would normally want CODE-ESC -you return to the previous menu
to restart the map or exit to DOS 3.31- select using the up/down arrow keys, then ALT-RETURN where SPoC asks for CODE-RETURN - or - restart map by typing ALT-M or exit to DOS by typing ALT-ESC
in DOS while booted to the floppy, at the A> prompt-
restart SPoC by typing- grid \programs\spoc.run - or - a:\grid \programs\spoc.run
to start only the GRID emulator itself, at the A> prompt type- grid - or - a:\grid
when within GRID- -use ALT-Q followed by ALT-RETURN to QUIT -use ALT-ESC followed by ALT-RETURN to CANCEL
reboot to the floppy by leaving it inserted and simultaneously holding CTRL-ALT-DEL - or - shut down from DOS using the power button on the PC
--After you are finished using the SPoC floppy, you will have to revert your system time back to the correct 21st Century time in BIOS before you fully boot back to your regular modern operating system.
--On modern UEFI systems this is also the time to return the Legacy, Bios Compatibility mode and Secure Boot settings to your preferred options for modern operating system usage.
hope this helps