*.M1, *.IN1, *.P1 Files from around 1995 - any ideas what program from?

[ljlbray]

I've just been handed a floppy disk with file types

 

.M1, .M2, .M3

.IN1, .IN2, .IN3, .IN4

.P1, .P2, .P3, .P13, .P14, .P15, .P16, .P22, .P23, .P24, .P25, .P32, .P33, .P34, .P35

 

with the description

 

These files were created and saved to the floppy disc sometime after 1995 but around about then. I can’t remember what programme I would have used then – it would have been a more popular commercial kind of thing – like Word but obviously not Word.

 

Does anyone have an idea (or recollect) of what sort of program this person would have used to make files with the file types as above?

 

Thanks

 

Laura

[dwhyte85]

Have you tried to open with notepad? Right click, open with and select notepad.

 

It may tell you in the files first line the type of file it is.

[GREED]

Google them. Just done a quick sample and all look to be ascociated with different programes, most likely system type files for those apps.

[LosOjos]

You may be able to get some kind of an idea from FILExt - The File Extension Source however that website is one large "Registry fix" scam. It does give you the names of the file type though so you can get a clue where to look from there.

[ljlbray]

Yup tried that, just get null values in notepad...Now I've had another look there's files called *.ENG, *.TTL, *.PRO *.ack and *.bib too. Apparently this was the user's dissertation at uni...

The TTL is a Tera Term macro file, the ack is an acknowledgement file and bib seem to be the bibliography. May be some old database program?

This ia the header in the files when in notepad - can't find anything about EPFX80.PRS anywhere...

 

ÿWPC¾

ûÿ 2 . B ÿÿV T ÿÿW ª ÿÿ- #| x if 10 cpi ÿÿs U x x x

ÂëÂx „|ü @Ž Rß þþþþþþþÿþÿÿÿÿÿÿþÿÿÿþÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿEpson FX-80/100 EPFX80.PRS Ûx Œ

@É ‡Ï ! LÓ USUK ÓÐÅ 3Ø' 3Ø'Standard Ð6Â& Ð6Â& Standard , ’n ½ D Epsoÿÿ Þ x'Å ÐÒT I. A. 1. a.(1)(a) i) a) 1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 T Òûÿ 2 Ò ÿÿ ` ÿÿ b j V | x' #| x Sans Serif 10 cpi ÿÿs U x x x

ÂëÂx „|ü @Ž Rß þþþþþþþÿþÿÿÿÿÿÿþÿÿÿþÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿûÿ 2 Š W - [ ˆ ÿÿ

J Epson FX-80/100 EPFX80.PRS Ûx Œ

@É ‡Ï ! LÓ USUK ÓÐÅ 3Ø' 3Ø'Standard Ð6Â& Ð6Â& Standard , ’n ½ D Epsoÿÿ Þ x'Å ÐÒT I. A.

[LosOjos]

It may be code for a programmable printer Epson used to make: http://files.support.epson.com/pdf/fx80__/fx80__uv.pdf

 

EDIT:

The full support page is here: http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/support/supDetail.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&infoType=Overview&oid=14285&prodoid=8490&category=Products

 

You may want to fire up a VM with Win95/NT and install the software from Epson's site to see if it can read them...

Edited December 15, 2010 by LosOjos

[ljlbray]

I've given her TextEdit, which opens the text after the garbled header. Thanks anyway!

[CESIL]

The FX series was not programmable...it was just possible to send a command language to them just like postscript and PCL.

 

Many moons ago I was an Epson trained engineer and worked on all the early Epson dot-matrix printers and even the first inkjet model the SQ2000 (SQ stood for Squirty, they claimed) which would p*ss ink all over you if you got the disassembly wrong...

 

Oh and I think the mystery files may be from some version of Wordperfect although they may have been indexed (hence the bib file) by a storage system. The WPC at the start of the file is a Wordperfect extension and IIRC PRS files were printer definitions for wordperfect too.

Edited December 17, 2010 by CESIL

[sRyalls]

I came across this cos I had the exact same question today.

 

The belated answer is that those files are associated with a proprietary GUI package from the 90s: https://docplayer.net/docview/63/50201757/#file=/storage/63/50201757/50201757.pdf