developing new retro games

[Chilly Willy]

Thinking about making a retro game and was wondering...

[tienkhoanguyen]

Jesus Christ!hehe

Being completely honest, I have dedicated my career to MS-DOS programming.

In fact, MS-DOS has proven to be close to the building blocks of programming.

If you know MS-DOS programming you can move on to higher languages.

MS-DOS has so little room being based on 64K that you need to know it all.

Programming in Borland Turbo C 2.01 makes me appreciate the structure.

It is so easy that I was able to pick it up within a year's time.

However you must take into account I have started when I was 9 years old.

So starting as a kid probably made it easier than I would have otherwise.

Just like ALL pianist starts at about 8 years old.

[tienkhoanguyen]

Jesus Christ!hehe

I figure the fingers has to be broken and made very nimble for a pianist.

When they are old the bones have already matured and calcified.

So the mind has to break into thinking like a computer.

Or else it has to use high level languages like BASIC.

With the advance of technology people can go into programming at later ages.

This is because speed is no longer a necessity.

The computer is fast enough to handle human languages to a point.

However older technology requires a more formal structure.

[pseudocoder]

Thinking about making a retro game and was wondering...

If you're interested in making games, then you should take a stab at them whenever you get the chance... the medium isn't important, but the experience is. I like to try the old school games at any stage... it's fun to see how others tackle challenges.

I'm not a programmer / developer, but this dos stuff has been intriguing to play with. It's been equally fun to see the thought process of other developers of any level; Tien keeps pumping out demos like a mad man, so there's always something to try. Quadko is holding out on us... I just know there's some long forgotten demo burned on a cd someplace.

Best of luck to you, and happy programming.

[Chilly Willy]

I think I'll make something simple first. It won't be DOS compatible as I'm still reading tutorials for QuickBASIC. It will be optimized though for older hardware and written in PureBasic.

[CPT Worm]

A friend of mine always said try to build a copy of Tetris.
If you can do that, you pretty much have the gist of programming.

[Chilly Willy]

Thanks CPT Worm, pseudocoder and tien!

I've already been programming for over a decade. Have a few apps on the Mac App Store too. I'm just coming back to what I enjoy the most. That being pixel art, animation and games.

I enjoy the limitations and prefer to play games where I can use some of my imagination. I find today's games overdone and boring. So I figured I would create something similar to the era I grew up in. Whether it be for DOS or newer hardware. Well I prefer if it still ran on a Pentium II or III. I don't care much for seeing these newer retro style games today that state they need a dual core processor and 2 gigs of ram. That's just ridiculous.

Anyways, I get to work on something and hopefully you guys will enjoy it when I'm done.

[tienkhoanguyen]

Jesus Christ!hehe

First I just want to say I never intent to offend you especially now that I have been given an official title CPT Worm.

Thanks pseudocoder for still being around. I miss those inspiring replies of your's.

Chilly Whilly - there are obviously at least a bunch of wonderful people on this particular form!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Chilly Willy]

I love tacos!hehe

First I just want to say I never intent to offend you especially now that I have been given an official title CPT Worm.

Thanks pseudocoder for still being around. I miss those inspiring replies of your's.

Chilly Whilly - there are obviously at least a bunch of wonderful people on this particular form!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm confused? You didn't offend me. I was also replying to CPT Worm who also commented on this post. I wasn't calling you a CPT Worm. I'm not even sure what that is.

All is fine tien.

[tienkhoanguyen]

Jesus Christ!hehe

I am a failure at everything except MS-DOS programming using Borland Turbo C 2.01 and Borland Turbo Assembler 4.1.

Did you know I tried programming the Apple platform once? I got half way through the programming tutorial and just gave up because I couldn't understand iPod, iPad, and Mac programming.

So congratulations on producing something I tried to produce!!

[Chilly Willy]

Did you know I tried programming the Apple platform once? I got half way through the programming tutorial and just gave up because I couldn't understand iPod, iPad, and Mac programming.

No worries. Apple's Cocoa language is confusing. Most confusing language I've ever read. Apple does offer a new language called "Swift" I think. Haven't looked into it yet. Maybe it offers a better syntax?

[Quadko]

tangent: asm.js is supposed to be a tool (set of tools?) that allows you to compile C programs to javascript to run on a web page. I wonder if that would work from a DOS focused Borland Turbo C? I don't see why not; certainly command line stuff should work. Probably not the ASM stuff, though. I don't know if they've got video modes working, but since a number of games were ported using it, maybe so.

[tienkhoanguyen]

Jesus Christ!hehe

Tangent tangent hehe:

I was just checking my hidden camera video and saw the grass cutter guy doing a good job. He is professional all the way. I thought he was doing something wrong however the camera shows he was just doing his job. So I probably never get to see the poor guy again seeing how bad I treated him however he did a great job.

So be my guess the latest Manic Marbles demo I released seems nothing special however I put quite a bit of affort into doing a good job on that. You should all know when I use God's name, God's son Jesus name, or God's mother Mary's name, that I am alive serious!!!!!hehe

Along the lines of Borland Turbo C 2.01 and Borland Turbo Assembler 4.1 that I normally use - you have to be the judge how good the port is. I just do original work and the quality of the port depends on how close they enjoy the outcome. If you like playing the game then a job well done.