RPGDX > Forums > Projects / Screenshots > a small demo

syn9 · Posted: Sat Jan 01, 2005 6:22 am Post subject: a small demo

this is a very small demo i was making in QB which ive put on hold so that i can port it to freebasic

its only one room. the npcs dont talk, and there is no fighting. no menus but the chests work, heh. includes a map editor written for the game. prolly my best 2d engine ive made. atleast in a week. >D

http://syn9.thingie.net/game/notreallyhere/azoicdemo.rar

requires EMS to run. instructions on getting your ems to work (hopefully) is in the readme.txt. if that doesnt work, then unfortunately i dont think it ever will.

enjoy
_________________
http://www.thehideoutgames.com
http://syn9.thehideoutgames.com

PhyrFox · Posted: Sat Jan 01, 2005 4:30 pm Post subject:

Me like. It's nice. Small, simple, yet has that certain elegance. I only wish mine would turn out that way. Then again, I'm programming in Windows, not QBasic, and so far it's been a proven pain. DOS has some nice simplicities that I like, that Windows "won't" let you do, because it would be probably compromising the stability of Windows-- and goodness knows it has enough trouble being stable on it's own.

If you'd like some help designing it, I'd like to help out. I want to take a break from my non-working Windows programming for a while, and deal with something less annoying. Like QBasic. It's an old friend, to say the least.

~= PhyrFox =~

DanKirby · Monkey-Butler Joined: 16 Jun 2004 Posts: 54

The problem with working in DOS is that it often doesn't work right on today's computers. Programs using EMS (like this one) are sometimes impossible to run the way memory is set up today. A program with sound probably won't work with WinXP without a helper program. And lots of other issues I can't think of offhand.

When I moved Threads of Life from my Win95 computer to WinXP, the controls became so stuttered that it was a real chore to play. That's one of the reasons I stopped working on it. I'd have to port it if I ever wanted to revive the project.

Programming for DOS was fine back in the days of Win9x, but nowadays I really don't think it's worth it.

PhyrFox · Posted: Sun Jan 02, 2005 2:25 am Post subject:

That is true. I have a host of old DOS games, demoscene compos, and other stuff on my computer that runs great in 98SE, but won't even load properly on XP Pro. I absolutely hate the fact that they can't even offer simple backwards compatibility when they've done so for many years with great success. I know that the "future" is always moving forward, and the only way to make progress is to eventually limit the compatibility with older features (such as the ZIP 750 drive, which can't even write/modify ZIP 100 disks, because they're considered an old technology).

So, I have Windows 98SE, which I'll probably continue to use until somebody comes up with a new OS that can compete with Microsoft and still retain the ability to use all the old stuff that I'll probably never grow too old for. Linux is quickly maturing, although it's still not fully compatible with the hardware that I like to use, which limits the amount of time I can use Linux. I'm sure in the next four or five years, I'll probably be able to ditch Microsoft forever and stay with Linux because it'll be fully "Microsoft" compatible and still be more robust and efficent than Windows ever was.

Until then, I guess we're all stuck living with MicroSoft's rules, which I find horribly distressing at times...

Anyway, as long as Microsoft is forcing me to write newer code because not even my old DOS IDE compiler will work anymore, I've got some ideas for some awesome game ideas that I'll probably be posting here if I can ever get past some of the pesky issues I tend to have while working with Windows. The primary issue I have right now is when the GDI and my program collide horribly and usually take Kernel32.exe into a tailspin as well.

I'm sure I could avoid this if I wrote in OpenGL, but it just seems I don't have the patience right now to learn a whole new API just to do two-dimensional graphics...

In the meantime... yea, I want to write an engine. It's a desire I have. I've been meaning to for months, and I've been busy moving and whatnot, and now it seems like I'm always working. But progress shall be made... And I shall post the results of that progress perhaps in a little while.

~= PhyrFox =~

Bjorn · Posted: Sun Jan 02, 2005 9:53 am Post subject:

janus · Mage Joined: 29 Jun 2002 Posts: 464 Location: Issaquah, WA

Mandrake · Posted: Mon Jan 03, 2005 1:27 pm Post subject:

PhyFox-

Look into Allegro ( http://www.allegro.cc ). A lot of old DOS game coders (including me) find it very easy to use and similiar to what we are used to using. Probably because it was a DOS lib at first, but now can be compiled to run on windows (as well as Linux and Mac OSX 2.1 + ). It can be compiled using any number of compilers (MSVC, mingw32, cygwin, and even good old Borland).

If that doesn't work, try SDL. Also very old skool programmer friendly.

Who needs a winmain() function, anyway, when you are doing a video game? Not I.
_________________
"Well, last time I flicked on a lighter, I'm pretty sure I didn't create a black hole."-
Xmark

http://pauljessup.com