DocJade has accomplished a remarkable technical feat by running the game Factorio from 1,250 classic 3.5-inch floppy disks using a custom file system called Fluster, developed in Rust. This unconventional approach highlights the complexity of working with archival hardware constraints.
Custom File System in Use
Introduced as an answer to the challenge of using thousands of floppies, Fluster divides each disk into 512-byte blocks, creating 2,880 blocks per disk. The file system can manage up to 65,000 disks, equivalent to around 90 GB of data. This intricate system leverages inodes, directory blocks, and extent blocks to distribute files across a vast number of disks efficiently.
The innovation extends beyond managing data blocks; Fluster includes features like checksum validation and allocation tracking while navigating the physical limits of vintage floppy disks.
Hardware and Implementation Challenges
Originally developed on Windows, the project shifted to Windows Subsystem for Linux to incorporate FUSE file systems, introducing challenges with USB passthrough. Managing hardware constraints proved significant, as nearly 500,000 disk swaps were reduced to about 1,500 through caching.
The meticulous manual process included sourcing 1,250 old AOL trial floppies, wiping and testing them, with around a 10% failure rate. The setup requires extensive effort, taking over a week of daytime work to load the game, yet exemplifies a unique archival achievement.
Outcome and Open Source Release
Despite limitations, such as a lack of locked file support, Fluster allows pre-saved game loads, letting DocJade complete Factorio in under nine hours. This bold integration of old technology and new software development signals a creative expansion of historical media's applications.
Fluster has been released as open-source, inviting broader experimentation and evaluation by the tech community perhaps driving new archival strategies.
