[voxel]

in reply to: Book Suggestions #8349

Here’s a selection from my collection!

André LaMothe’s books aren’t going to turn you into an expert, super-optimising MSDOS game developer, but they are *fun* and are a journey through all the important topics. They’re a great introduction if you’re doing this as a hobby and want to enjoy the process. They use a mixture of assembly and C to build ‘engines’ and libraries from scratch.

I wouldn’t recommend actually buying the physical copy of the allegro api (though I have a spare copy if someone wants it), but allegro 4.2 works on MSDOS and is a hugely featured library that can do just about anything you’d want. Definitely worth looking at if you’re more excited about making *games* than spending your life writing engines.

OpenGL isn’t really a thing on MSDOS, but I include it because implementations, partial and otherwise, do exist, and to me it’s a good way to go if your interest is in portable 3D games. If you’re dreaming of 3dfx games, these can be helpful. Super dry though.

Depending on where you’re at in your programming journey, you might want a textbook on collisions. It’s in no way DOS specific but ‘REALTIME COLLISION DETECTION’ is pretty much The Reference on the subject. Can definitely live without this.

Finally I included ‘The Elements of Computing Systems’ because it’s a great lesson on the real low level hows and whys of computer architecture. Definitely not essential but really interesting if that’s your kink.

Keep us (me) updated!

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[voxel]

in reply to: Hello World from Australia! #8074

Checking in from Brizzy

[voxel]

in reply to: So, what about that stupid hawk? #8034

it’s pretty annoying! but it won’t kill you outright so long as you’re in combat stance. you just need to time an attack at the right height to send it back on its way (in the first location you meet it)

[voxel]

in reply to: Christmas Lemmings #7913

oh no!

[voxel]

in reply to: Abandonia data breach #7861

Not only did I register, I think I even donated many years ago to support their preservation efforts 😮

[voxel]

in reply to: Beginner programming advice for DOS? #7014

Animated gif showing the whole process

[voxel]

in reply to: Beginner programming advice for DOS? #7012

I saw a bottled dos-dev environment today. If you have visual studio code you can install this via the extensions tab, and it’ll download a full djgpp environment for you, even bundles dosbox-x for testing https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=badlogicgames.dos-dev

[voxel]

in reply to: QuakeWorld Multiplayer on DOS #5835

rnlf took the server offline for personal reasons

[voxel]

in reply to: QuakeWorld Multiplayer on DOS #5829

The server is password protected, preventing players from joining!

[voxel]

in reply to: How to play Mechwarrior 2 + information resources on the game #5018

Thanks for the comprehensive post, not bad for a freebirth toad! I’m guessing you’re something of a fan.

[voxel]

in reply to: Hello! #4881

Welcome! I’m in Ipswich QLD, we’re practically neighbours. If we can just get a few more aussies (kiwis also acceptable) we can stage a coup

[voxel]

in reply to: Beware of the mouse driver (tech support post) #3676

Great news! Any idea why Genius mouse driver was freezing the game?

[voxel]

in reply to: Sandwarriors #3322

What genre would you describe this as? There were quite a few similar games on DOS and then the genre mostly died out. Terminal Velocity and Hellbender were quite similar, perhaps with not quite the view distance of Sandwarriors

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[voxel]

in reply to: Modem gaming over the internet #3109

Hi Void, check out https://www.dosbox.com/wiki/Connectivity for a small guide on how to do this (skip ahead to the Serial/Modem section). Note that both players need to change your dosbox.conf to enable a modem, or from the dosbox prompt type ‘serial1 modem’ or similar. Use port forwarding on the host machine’s router to forward a port (I recommend 5000, supposedly the dosbox default, though in my experience it tries to use 23) and make sure it’s forwarded to the host machine. The client player can then ‘dial’ the host by using the hosts’ public IP address as the phone number!

[voxel]

in reply to: Register here! #3077

I’m in for this highly topical tournament that deals with Global Worming :V

[voxel]

in reply to: Where to get it? #3061

Also some physical copies available on ebay, this is the only boxed floppy version I saw in my ten seconds of searching

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Nomad-PC-game-complete-3-5-disk-Gametek-1993/333229555690?hash=item4d96077fea:g:DGUAAOSwVidc~vyt

[voxel]

in reply to: Where to get it? #3060

I haven’t been able to find anywhere selling the game, but it is available for download from

https://www.myabandonware.com/game/nomad-1zt

or via archive.org (will this link remain valid? I don’t know) https://ia802706.us.archive.org/cors_get.php?path=%2F6%2Fitems%2Fmsdos_Nomad_1993%2FNomad_1993.zip

[voxel]

in reply to: wipEout vs other racing games #3005

I think it hits a sweetspot between simulation and arcade game – it’s definitely not a realistic driving sim but it’s also not easy like an arcade racer. My ability to enjoy a race game is directly proportional to how much i get to hold the accelerator – and with wipeout you can pretty much hold it the entire time and use the airbrakes to slide around corners.

The sensation of speed, having to learn the airbrakes to corner, and the worse-than-death penalty of having your velocity reduced to almost zero for bumping the wall all work together to create a high difficulty curve and a very rewarding sense of mastery.

[voxel]

in reply to: Time Trial tournament #2962

Bumped my way around ALTIMA VII for a time of 3:56.2 and a best lap of 01:15.7

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[voxel]

in reply to: My Verdict #2916

Your games folder sounds impressive, any chance of some pictures? I promise not to steal your game passcodes

[voxel]

in reply to: The Packaging #2906

Whoah! This is what BIG BOX is all about. Thanks for taking the time to post these – I don’t think I ever bought a game with such elaborate packaging.

[voxel]

in reply to: Snakeman death scream #2814

I’m just impressed that you’ve managed to kill enough snakemen to notice this

[voxel]

in reply to: Things in X-COM that don't make much sense #2765

I think we can all agree that this would be a terrible tactic when faced with any enemy armed with explosives

[voxel]

in reply to: RPGs #1877

KEEF THE THIEF

Naughty Dog’s first game and notable for having been made with placeholder text that was supposed to be replaced with generic fantasy garbage but they decided what they had was so funny they should keep it.

[voxel]

in reply to: Multiplayer #184

Thank you for the highly authentic LAN experience. Sorceress and I managed to ‘start’ a game but it turned out that we had different versions and so it quit out. But at least we know it should work in theory?