What's DiscMaster?
DiscMaster is a search engine for vintage data hosted on the Internet Archive.
Most of this data is from before the internet, or when the internet was still very slow,
During this time files were shared via physical media such as Floppy Discs and CD-Rom, or via the web with a protocol called FTP.
Much of this “Vintage Data” never made it to the modern internet and is not searchable via any search engine.
Discmaster is a search engine for this older generation of pre-web and early web assets.
To learn more, check out the official tutorial (with demonstration videos!) by the Internet Archive or head straight over to the DiscMaster website and poke around yourself.
Warning: DiscMaster's almost 900 million data files includes a large number of NSFW files. Most of these are hidden from the search by default (unless you turn off safe search), but not all videos are filtered out. Also, anyone can upload content to the Internet Archive, so some of what's preserved there may be offensive. Browse at your own risk!
Key Details
What's The DiscMaster Jam?
An online-only week-long game jam, using vintage computer files from archive.org.
How does the jam work?
When the jam begins, each participating team will receive a DiscMaster care package to get you started: a randomly assigned collection of vintage files including images, textures, audio and fonts (and more!). This is just a starting point—we strongly encourage you to dive into DiscMaster yourself and mine for treasure!
Games participating in the jam must get at least 50% of their assets from the DiscMaster archives. There is a special prize category for games that exclusively use DiscMaster assets.
When do we start?
The jam will take place over April 21-29 2025.
This is a global game jam, so check the listing below for local days/times:
Canberra 2025/04/21 - 12pm (Noon) (Timezone: AEST)
Canberra 2025/04/29 - 4:59pm (Timezone: AEST)
San Francisco 2025/04/20 - 7pm (Timezone: PDT)
San Francisco 2025/04/28 - 11:59pm (Midnight) (Timezone: PDT)
Please look after yourself during the jam period and be aware of burnout.
Where's the jam happening?
On your computer! And in the DiscMaster Jam Discord, where we'll be organizing teams & sharing our work! Come join us, we're a friendly lot.
Are there any prizes?
The Internet Archive is sponsoring a total prize pool of $1,750 USD (Thanks, Internet Archive!).
To submit to the jam, at least 50% of the assets used in your game must come from DiscMaster.
There are three prize categories:
- DiscMaster Spelunker
- Five $150 USD cash prizes are on offer for games that exclusively use DiscMaster assets.
- DiscMaster Tourist
- Up to five $100 USD cash prizes are on offer for games that use 50%+ DiscMaster assets.
- Save Our Discs
- Five $100 USD cash prizes are on offer for games that implement the jam theme of media preservation.
- Five $100 USD cash prizes are on offer for games that implement the jam theme of media preservation.
Industry judges (to be announced) will select the winners in each category. All submissions will be double checked for eligibility.
Want to participate?
1. Register here!
2. Join the Discord: https://discord.gg/7JQTtDQyy5
3. Form a team (or go solo).
4. When the jam starts, each person signed up to the jam on itch.io will receive a link to a DiscMaster care package of files. The care package is just a starting point to introduce you to what you'll find in the database—you don't have to use these files, and you're encouraged to dive right into the DiscMaster database yourself!
5. Make a game across the period of the game jam. Work as much as you'd like during the jam period, but don't crunch or burn yourself out! Make sure to keep a record of all the assets that you use in your game—the itch.io submission form will require that you submit a list of the assets you used.
6. It's time to upload your game! As part of submitting, you'll select which prize categories the game is eligible for, and submit a list of all the different assets used in the game (DiscMaster & others)—so we hope you kept track!
Rules
- Don't start work on your game early...but you're welcome to jump into DiscMaster, have a dig around, and start saving assets.
- Keep your game free for the duration of the jam and the judging period, so that everyone can play!
- We're an inclusive and constructive space; don't submit games that go against that.
- To stay within the spirit of the jam, you may not use generative AI to create new assets for your game. You may use AI for simple subtractive processes like background removal.
- To be eligible for any of the prizes, at least 50% of the assets used in your game must come from DiscMaster.
- Submissions that don't include a list of all the assets used will be disqualified.
More questions?
Check out the official FAQ which is being constantly updated.
If that doesn't cover your question, create a new post in the community or join the jam Discord and try the #ask-and-answer channel.
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