• nonentity@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    6
    ·
    edit-2
    3 days ago

    The raw capacity of a 1.44MB 3.5” diskette[0] is 2MB, 1MB per side. The FAT12 formatting chews >25% of its usable capacity. I realised this when the ‘backup’ systems for the Super Nintendo could write a 16Mbit cartridge to a single diskette.

    This raises the question: Is a console game up to 2MiB eligible?

    [0]: 3.5” are diskettes, 5.25” and 8” are floppies.

      • nonentity@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        3 days ago

        I lived through all 3, and I’ve always called them diskettes. My recollection is they were called that in the original Sony documentation, which appears to be elided from my brief searches this evening.

        I’ll chalk it up to colloquial laundering, much like all 8P8C ports and cables now being called ‘Ethernet’.