Punchcard

Punch-card item

Punchcards are the low-tier alternative to Floppy Disk and Hard Disk Drive, only being capable of storing 80 characters each, but allowing bootstrapping in case one does not want to use the built-in UEFI and Advanced OS installation floppy disk. These stamped cards are created in Punchcard Machine and read by a Computer connected to a Punchcard Reader. If a computer boots it immediately attempts to find a punchcard reader with a punchcard in the reader slot. If it finds one, it runs the instructions encoded in that punchcard. Otherwise it tries to find a Mainboard and uses the UEFI's stored instructions instead.

To see what instructions are stored on a punchcard, simply mouse over the item in an inventory and read the tooltip.

Stamped punchcard in punchcard reader machine.

For information on how to programmatically read contents of punchcards, see Punchcard Reader. Please note that punchcards are single-use in the sense that you cannot recycle or edit them afterwards. You however can read a punchcard as often as you like, even programmatically.