Posted on 02/08/2016 2:33:58 PM PST by dayglored
The Internet Archive has opened a new collection dubbed the Malware Museum that lets you run old DOS-era viruses in your web browser.
There are 78 samples to play with, all uploaded earlier today and collated by Mikko Hypponen and Jason Scott. The cheesy old code is executed in your browser using a JavaScript version of emulator DOSbox. Much to our delight, there some classics in the museum, particularly Casino.
Running these cyber-fossils will take you back to the bad old days when code could do anything it liked on machines -- security wasn't a consideration at all. As such, malware could blow away whole disks on certain dates, pop up badly written messages to interrupt your work, or mess around with text on your screen. Some viruses were particularly destructive, and others pretty harmless albeit infuriating as they infected files and disks.
You can also download the viruses from the collection if you wish to peek inside the executables.
"The Malware Museum is a collection of malware programs, usually viruses, that were distributed in the 1980s and 1990s on home computers," Archive.org notes.
"Once they infected a system, they would sometimes show animation or messages that you had been infected. Through the use of emulations, and additionally removing any destructive routines within the viruses, this collection allows you to experience virus infection of decades ago with safety."
(Excerpt) Read more at theregister.co.uk ...
What was that virus that prompted you to erase your own hard drive and all your diskettes?
It’s like an electronic house of horrors.
No thanks, I have no nostalgia for the nasty things. I dealt with them as part of my job for years.
First virus I ever dealt with was “Yankee Doodle” virus. Every keystroke played a note from Yankee Doodle, and wrote a random byte on a random sector on the A: floppy drive.
Back in the Turbo XT / DOS days.
"And who's a good virus? ... You are, yes you are!"
Stoned.Empire.Monkey virus
Those were the days...
Tequila.
Frodo.d!
LOL.
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