Last week, Microsoft released DOS 4.0 as open source. In this blog post, I explore why DOS 4 was the version most people avoided in the past, where to get a fork that builds without issue, and why we already have a better DOS 4 than we did in the 80s. #retrocomputing#msdos#opensourcehttps://dfarq.homeip.net/why-not-use-ms-dos-4-0/
Back in the day, game developers needed to explain and justify each and every file that came with a game. The user was respected as the local system administrator and owner of the computer.
today, some obscure sierra on-line & dynamix history that shouldn't be obscure yet is due to how gaming culture developed: Front Page Sports Baseball. this just came in the mail, and i'm so glad to finally have my own copy after playing a demo from a CD-ROM Today! magazine cover disc as a kid.
this dynamix-produced and sierra-published title is weird for a bunch of reasons.
first, it's one of the last few DOS-only games that came out in the mid-90s.
second, it runs in hi-res mode using what i suspect is a blend of software-rendered 3D and 2D sprites that were a holdover from dynamix's 3Space engine used in almost all of dynamix's titles. (pic 2) the animation is crisp, the sprites are beautifully rendered in a very compressed colour palette.
third, the Front Page Sports series were massive hits - outselling other sierra/dynamix titles of the time. but no one talks about it, because sports games often get irritated yawns from gamers.
fourth, this game is fun to play. it's not just an average EA sports-style title. the batting/pitching gameplay is addictive, and the simulation of the players and teams is deep.
and finally, there is - unbelievably - still an active FPS Baseball community still modding and developing rosters for the game. someone maintains a tool that generates websites that lets other people see the outcomes of your baseball games like a late-90s ESPN network site 🤣 https://www.silverbox.com/biorhythm/
One of the people who helped archive the MS-DOS 4.0 source code, @starfrost, started writing an extensive and interesting story about the history behind 4.0 and the archived Multitasking DOS (MT-DOS) builds: https://starfrost.net/blog/001-mdos4-part-1/index.html
(the page didn't render well on mobile for me but it can be fixed by switching to "Reader view" in Firefox)
MS-DOS sources released: Finally I can peek at what was happening below the hood when I started using a computer 30+ years ago 🤭 https://github.com/microsoft/MS-DOS
MS-DOS 4.x is... complicated. There was a 4.0 with multitasking ("MT-DOS") and a later one without. Both report themselves as "MS-DOS Version 4.00". The code on GiHub seems to be the non-multitasking version.
I highly recommend reading through the OS/2 Museum's posts on DOS history:
Breaking IT news: #Microsoft just open-sourced MS-DOS 4.0. Versions 1.25 and 2.0 had already been open-source (MIT License) since 2018. If you’ve ever used DOS in the 1990s, you most likely were using v5.0 or v6.x. Those later versions likely won’t be released as open-source due to third-party restrictions.
It's exactly a year ago that I released Barren Planet into the world. Since then I've added two expansions to it. You can download them all from the game's web page: http://dos.cyningstan.org.uk/downloads/7/barren-planet
The game is free, there's a ko-fi link there if you want to show your appreciation. #barrenplanet#ibmpc#msdos#cga
I am live on Twitch! Today I'm looking at the DOS Game Jam Demo Disc 2023, released this week. Hopefully I'll get to look at several of the 84 modern DOS games on here. Come and join the fun at https://twitch.tv/cyningstan#msdos
The stream is finished, and the VOD is now available on Twitch. Watch it at https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2125962576 and be sure to follow me on Twitch to see when I next go live with more DOS-based fun! #msdos
The DOS Jam Games Demo Disc 2023 - compiled by @thp - was released yesterday. It contains a selection of MS-DOS games submitted to game jams up to 2023. It contains 84 games and some utilities, with a menu to browse through them. Get it at https://thp.itch.io/djg-demo-disc-2023#msdos
Monorail lines built around a base allow Gun Platforms to move around as needed. Without a Monorail, a Gun Platform is a static unit that needs to be protected; with Monorail, the Gun Platform can advance and retreat to cause a real nuisance to an invading enemy. #barrenplanet#ibmpc#msdos#cga