Top all-time · #4013
Adventures in PC Emulation
Personal blog · martypc.blogspot.comsystemshardwareprogramming
Adventures in PC Emulation is a personal blog at martypc.blogspot.com about systems, hardware and programming. Since 2023, 19 different Hacker News readers have linked it 40 times, most often “Bus Sniffing the IBM 5150”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-09-03, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (5) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link this blog by the author of the MartyPC emulator for posts on early PC hardware, including floppy copy protection schemes, bus sniffing and DMA, plus an interview with a copy protection founder.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 5 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- Bus Sniffing the IBM 51503 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2023-10-01
- PC Floppy Copy Protection: Vault Prolok3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2024-09-29
- PC Floppy Copy Protection: An Interview with Robert McQuaid3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2024-10-02
- Emulator Debugging: Area 5150's Lake Effect2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2025-05-17
- 60fps Video on a CGA? – The GlyphBlaster2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2026-05-10
- Emulator Debugging: Pianoman 3.02 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-07-06
- PC Floppy Copy Protection: Formaster Copy-Lock2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2024-08-25
- PC Floppy Copy Protection: Softguard Superlok2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2024-08-31
- PC Floppy Copy Protection: Electronic Arts Interlock2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2024-09-17
What Hacker News says?
To add on top this, the author wrote multiple blog posts on their setup [0, 1, 2]. The project itself is hosted at https://github.com/dbalsom/arduinoX86 [0]: https://martypc.blogspot.com/2023/06/hardware-validating-emu... [1]: https://martypc.blogspot.com/2023/05/exploring-dma-on-ibm-pc... [2]: https://martypc.blogspot.com/2023/10/bus-sniffing-ibm-5150.h...
Comment linking /2023/10/bus-sniffing-ibm-5150.html
on “MartyPC is a cross-platform emulator of early PCs written in Rust”Submitted Decoding the NEC V20 Microcode as a story · 150 points
HN discussionAnother great article from the same author that I found when browsing their blog after the previous article: https://martypc.blogspot.com/2023/06/hardware-validating-emu... Probably should be a separate HN submission at some point.
Comment linking /2023/06/hardware-validating-emulator.html?m=1
on “PC Floppy Copy Protection: Softguard Superlok”Submitted PC Floppy Copy Protection: Softguard Superlok as a story · 128 points
HN discussionDon't miss the interview with Robert McQuaid, a fascinating read: https://martypc.blogspot.com/2024/09/pc-floppy-copy-protecti...
Comment linking /2024/09/pc-floppy-copy-protection-interview.html
on “PC Floppy Copy Protection: Vault Prolok”Submitted The Complete Bus Logic of the Intel 8088 as a story · 81 points
HN discussionYes, it was apparently very visible: https://martypc.blogspot.com/2024/09/pc-floppy-copy-protecti... But as I mentioned in a sibling comment, I’m not sure it was ever confirmed that it was really a laser that made that mark.
Comment linking /2024/09/pc-floppy-copy-protection-vault-prolok.html
on “Defeating a 40-year-old copy protection dongle”Submitted Emulator Debugging: Area 5150's Lake Effect as a story · 69 points
HN discussionThe accompanying interview with the founder of Quaid Software who defeated the Vault Prolok is also very interesting: [0] https://martypc.blogspot.com/2024/09/pc-floppy-copy-protecti...
Comment linking /2024/09/pc-floppy-copy-protection-interview.html
on “PC Floppy Copy Protection: Vault Prolok”Submitted PC Floppy Copy Protection: Formaster Copy-Lock as a story · 65 points
HN discussionSubmitted PC Floppy Copy Protection: Vault Prolok as a story · 63 points
HN discussionSubmitted PC Floppy Copy Protection: Electronic Arts Interlock as a story · 29 points
HN discussionSubmitted Exploring the NEC V20 CPU as a story · 24 points
HN discussionSubmitted PC Floppy Copy Protection: Xemag Xelok as a story · 10 points
HN discussionSubmitted Executable Emoji as a story · 5 points
HN discussionSubmitted PC Floppy Copy Protection: Electronic Arts Interlock as a story · 5 points
HN discussionSubmitted Exploring 16-bit Bus Access on the PC/AT as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted Hacking the Book8088 for better accuracy as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted Emulator Debugging: Area 5150's Lake Effect as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Emulator Debugging: Area 5150's Lake Effect as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted PC Floppy Copy Protection: Softguard Superlok as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted PC Floppy Copy Protection: Formaster Copy-Lock as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted The 8088MPH CPU Test as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Bus Sniffing the IBM 5150 as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted 60fps Video on a CGA? – The GlyphBlaster as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted 60fps Video on a CGA? – The GlyphBlaster as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted PC Floppy Copy Protection: Vault Prolok as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted PC Floppy Copy Protection: An Interview with Robert McQuaid as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Complete Bus Logic of the Intel 8088 as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Bus Sniffing the IBM 5150: Writing a 8088 Sigrok Decoder as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
