Recovering old QBasic files
Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 3:27 am
Hello,
I'm new to these forums, but an old QBasic user. I used to make some games and programs with QBasic v1.1 back around 1996, and haven't touched any of those files in these years since then. I only moved them from old PCs to floppy disks to newer PCs to CDs to even newer PCs to USB drives, so they are still with me.
The problem is, now that I was trying to run them again, I see that the files have been corrupted, or at least changed to a format not compatible with new filesystems. Out of about 15 BAS files I had, only one of them seems to be intact (I can run it with QBasic, and read the code normally). The rest is full of strange symbols, not ascii characters, and of course QBasic doesn't understand them. I wonder if anyone of you has had the same problem, or can help me recover them. It looks like the string literals I had in the code are intact, and also the music notation for the tunes of the game are still in good shape, but the rest is rubbish if seen with any text editor. The first thing I thought was that I was looking at compiled binary code instead of source code, but as I understand QBasic does not compile anything, and the files have a .bas extension anyways.
Together with my files I had 2 examples that QBasic itself brought: "Nibbles.bas" and "Mortgage.bas". Nibbles is intact, and can be run perfectly. Morgage, on the other hand, seems to have the same corruption as my other files. I paste here part of this Mortgage.bas as I see it in a text editor, let's see if anyone can detect the problem. I'd be extremely grateful if someone could help me recover my files.
???? The IBM Personal Computer Mortgage ?? Version 1.00 (C)Copyright IBM Corp 1981, 1982 J?? Licensed Material - Program Property of IBM n?? Author - Glenn Stuart Dardick ??? Modified by Ayodele Isaac Anise; September, 1986. ??? SEG ??SAMPLES$?"NO" ??? ? ??SAMPLES$?"YES" ?? ?:? ,:? ,,:? (:?:? ,:? "IBM" /?? ,,:? "Personal Computer" \?
,:?
,,:? ??(?)??(,?)???(?) ?? ,,:? ??(?)?" MORTGAGE "???(?) ?? ,,:? ??(?)??(, )???(?) ?$?
,,:? ??(?)?" Version 1.10 "???(?) .? ,,:? ??(?)??(,?)???(?) L8? ,:? ,,:? "(C) Copyright IBM Corp 1981, 1982" ?B? ,:? ,,:? "Press space bar to continue" ?L? ? ?? "" ? ? L ?VCMD$ ? ? ?`? CMD$ ? " " ? ? ~ ?j? CMD$ ???() ? ? ? ?t? V ~? ,:?:? P:? AMORT(?,):? ?? SEG? =?? (??() ? 0 )??0 ? COLS ? ? M?? P:COLS? W?? SEG a?? ? w?? ??(I$)? ? ? ??? ??(I$,,)?"2" ? ? ? ??? ??(I$,,)?"1" ? ? ? ??? ? ??? SAMPLES$ ?? "YES" ? ? ? ???? "SAMPLES",? ??? ? ?? ?? - MAIN OPTION MENU D?? ,:?:? ,:? " MORTGAGE ANALYSIS " d?? ,:? ,:? "OPTIONS - " ??? "1 - MORTGAGE PAYMENT $$$ "
(... continues like this for quite a bit more)
I'm new to these forums, but an old QBasic user. I used to make some games and programs with QBasic v1.1 back around 1996, and haven't touched any of those files in these years since then. I only moved them from old PCs to floppy disks to newer PCs to CDs to even newer PCs to USB drives, so they are still with me.
The problem is, now that I was trying to run them again, I see that the files have been corrupted, or at least changed to a format not compatible with new filesystems. Out of about 15 BAS files I had, only one of them seems to be intact (I can run it with QBasic, and read the code normally). The rest is full of strange symbols, not ascii characters, and of course QBasic doesn't understand them. I wonder if anyone of you has had the same problem, or can help me recover them. It looks like the string literals I had in the code are intact, and also the music notation for the tunes of the game are still in good shape, but the rest is rubbish if seen with any text editor. The first thing I thought was that I was looking at compiled binary code instead of source code, but as I understand QBasic does not compile anything, and the files have a .bas extension anyways.
Together with my files I had 2 examples that QBasic itself brought: "Nibbles.bas" and "Mortgage.bas". Nibbles is intact, and can be run perfectly. Morgage, on the other hand, seems to have the same corruption as my other files. I paste here part of this Mortgage.bas as I see it in a text editor, let's see if anyone can detect the problem. I'd be extremely grateful if someone could help me recover my files.
???? The IBM Personal Computer Mortgage ?? Version 1.00 (C)Copyright IBM Corp 1981, 1982 J?? Licensed Material - Program Property of IBM n?? Author - Glenn Stuart Dardick ??? Modified by Ayodele Isaac Anise; September, 1986. ??? SEG ??SAMPLES$?"NO" ??? ? ??SAMPLES$?"YES" ?? ?:? ,:? ,,:? (:?:? ,:? "IBM" /?? ,,:? "Personal Computer" \?
,:?
,,:? ??(?)??(,?)???(?) ?? ,,:? ??(?)?" MORTGAGE "???(?) ?? ,,:? ??(?)??(, )???(?) ?$?
,,:? ??(?)?" Version 1.10 "???(?) .? ,,:? ??(?)??(,?)???(?) L8? ,:? ,,:? "(C) Copyright IBM Corp 1981, 1982" ?B? ,:? ,,:? "Press space bar to continue" ?L? ? ?? "" ? ? L ?VCMD$ ? ? ?`? CMD$ ? " " ? ? ~ ?j? CMD$ ???() ? ? ? ?t? V ~? ,:?:? P:? AMORT(?,):? ?? SEG? =?? (??() ? 0 )??0 ? COLS ? ? M?? P:COLS? W?? SEG a?? ? w?? ??(I$)? ? ? ??? ??(I$,,)?"2" ? ? ? ??? ??(I$,,)?"1" ? ? ? ??? ? ??? SAMPLES$ ?? "YES" ? ? ? ???? "SAMPLES",? ??? ? ?? ?? - MAIN OPTION MENU D?? ,:?:? ,:? " MORTGAGE ANALYSIS " d?? ,:? ,:? "OPTIONS - " ??? "1 - MORTGAGE PAYMENT $$$ "
(... continues like this for quite a bit more)