Nukefix: Simulating your nuclear weapons program

http://www.nukefix.org/nukepix.html

by xk3 • 2 years ago

139 42 2 years ago

ldayley• 2 years ago

I was pretty young when I last saw web pages look like this but it warms my heart to see one again (unmodified since October 2001!). I think I’m going to find a way to get this running on an old machine this week…

usgroup• 2 years ago

Truly. Immediately awash with nostalgia. Although I do feel its missing a spinning GIF, a visit counter and a visitors book :-)

jdewerd• 2 years ago

Haha, yep. Under construction!

rtkwe• 2 years ago

Wow blocked by my work filter for "Compromised Sites" wonder how old that entry is.

baq• 2 years ago

Screenshots look like early Windows 95, so ordovician give or take a few MY.

Aloha2• 2 years ago

This looks pretty neat to play around with, too bad the download link appears dead.

edm0nd• 2 years ago

You can send $10 for a floppy disk version!

http://www.nukefix.org/purchase.html

krylon• 2 years ago

None of my computers have floppy drives. :blushing-emoji:

__alexs• 2 years ago

Might be worth a shot. The original developer still seems to be alive and doing stuff at https://fixdst.com/

RankingMember• 2 years ago

Only infrequently is there a download problem. But if you are unable to download from your present location, please send me an e-mail (with your e-mail address clearly indicated), and I will send you, as an e-mail attachment, the same Nukefix program that would normally be downloaded.
It would be helpful if you could include a very short description of the difficulty you had. Thanks.

http://www.nukefix.org/help1.html

netrap• 2 years ago

The FTP works but it won't allow anonymous logins.

Aloha2• 2 years ago

what credentials work?

I've tried anon, no username/pass, etc

skissane3• 2 years ago

According to ftp://retronn.de/archiv/old_cds/pcwelt_08_2000/pcw_mat/inhalt/PCW99.PDF page 2, this software was included on a 1999 German CD-ROM "Ausgabe 2/99" (I think that's the CD-ROM that came with the February 1999 issue of the German PC-WELT magazine), at the path "\sharewar\sw\intsich\nukefix.exe". Unfortunately I can't find an ISO of that specific CD-ROM anywhere online, but maybe someone out there has it.

mike_d• 2 years ago

If you want less Excel and more Wargames in your nuclear simulations, DEFCON is fun to spend a few hours in once in a while.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1520/DEFCON/

seabass-labrax• 2 years ago

Given that the slogan of DEFCON is "Everybody Dies" and the slogan of Nukefix is "The Challenge Is To Develop a Safer World", I think they have somewhat different victory conditions... As a resident of one of the nine countries possessing nuclear weapons, I'd prefer that people gave the latter slogan more attention than the former!

getwiththeprog• 2 years ago

Safer nukes are the most dangerous thing. It only works if everybody is MAD.

TeMPOraL• 2 years ago

I think they have somewhat different victory conditions...

DEFCON theme is more that everyone has already lost, now they're only competing for who loses the least.

Apocryphon• 2 years ago

I prefer the rather inscrutable Bravo Romeo Delta

https://homeoftheunderdogs.net/game.php?id=143

https://jasonlefkowitz.net/2014/11/choreographing-armageddon...

RugnirViking• 2 years ago

fascinating! and playable on the internet archive in-browser https://archive.org/details/msdos_Bravo_Romeo_Delta_1993

pimlottc2• 2 years ago

The screenshots are very confusing to me... it appears to be a Windows (95?) application, with variable width fonts, graphs, mouse support [0], but then certain elements, like the menu [1], look like a class DOS apps, with fixed width fonts and ANSI line drawing characters. Some screens, like data tables [2], look like they're completely DOS-based, while others have a weird combination of DOS and Windows elements [3] [4] [5].

Quite strange! I suppose perhaps it started life as a DOS application and then moved to Windows, with old pages keeping the same fonts/layouts to save time. Makes for an odd look...

0: http://www.nukefix.org/pixx/stpage.gif

1: http://www.nukefix.org/pixx/stmenu.gif

2: http://www.nukefix.org/pixx/twork.gif

3: http://www.nukefix.org/pixx/preempt.gif

4: http://www.nukefix.org/pixx/ageone.gif

5: http://www.nukefix.org/pixx/mseefran3.gif

GrumpyNl• 2 years ago

Looks a lot like a old pascal program.

pimlottc2• 2 years ago

That could be. The font is quite familiar

almostnormal• 2 years ago

Screenshot 1 looks interesting. A mixture of a text- and graphical mode. Was that possible natively? Is what looks like text mode also graphical?

skissane3• 2 years ago

From the article:

Nukefix runs on IBM compatible computers. It cannot be run on a Macintosh (sorry). In Windows 3.1 or earlier (but not in Windows95/98), after downloading, always exit to DOS before running Nukefix. The setup program will run either under DOS or Windows95/98/2000. Nukefix is designed to run under Windows95/98/2000 or DOS.

So yes, an old DOS/Windows program. The article also says:

There is no charge for Nukefix, if you download it. If you wish to purchase the identical version on a floppy disk for $10 (shipping included), you may do so.

and

With a 56k modem downloading, Nukefix, version 2.3, typically takes about four minutes, but may, depending upon Internet speeds, take longer (1,274 k bytes).

and finally:

Updated: October 14, 2001

This software is really old. I suppose nuclear weapons haven’t changed much in 20-30 years. OTOH, it probably won’t run natively on recent platforms

bee_rider• 2 years ago

The website looks like it hasn’t been updated in decades, but did they add the bit about the epidemic recently or should we be worried that these folks just about predicted the present?

s0adex• 2 years ago

Looking at the wayback machine, it seems the Epidemic text is there as early as 2001. But you shouldn't be worried, as the prediction has been made earlier than that and it's just simple mathematics (Population*Time=Pathogen Evolution)

hadlock• 2 years ago

That doesn't take into account zoonotic crossovers like covid and the handful of avian flu cases in recent the

genewitch• 2 years ago

from 1995, i present La Grippe, by the Squirrel Nut Zippers...

Specifically this part https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-O8iOBW6JBM&t=31s

So either this random ska band was prophetic, or there was already a notion that this sort of thing could happen (and did in the mid 2000s iirc and nearly did again in 2013?)

ThinkBeat• 2 years ago

Strange game. The only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of chess?

nox101• 2 years ago

On the topic of nukes, the latest Hardcore History addendum is kind of terrifying. It's an interview with author Annie Jacobsen about her new book, "Nuclear War"

https://www.dancarlin.com/addendum/

Chilko• 2 years ago

Thanks for sharing this, I'm a long time HH and Common Sense listener but had no clue about this Addendum podcast

NegativeLatency• 2 years ago

As a fellow Dan Carlin fan I’d also recommend this podcast (not by Dan Carlin): https://www.armscontrolwonk.com/

hypeatei• 2 years ago

I remember seeing her on Lex Fridmans podcast, too. It's pretty insane how close we are to a complete annihilation everyday; the US had a close call involving a "test" tape being inserted and alerting real agencies of an incoming attack.

Narew• 2 years ago

There was also this site to simulate area affected : https://www.nukethis.com/

Nukefix: Simulating your nuclear weapons program

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