Tag: msdos

Let’s Code MS DOS 0x24: Low Level Keyboard Programming

Getting input from the keyboard can be as easy as calling the getch() function. But for games we need a better solution. For games on MS DOS machines you need quick, unbuffered input. To simply get the state of keypresses we need to talk to the keyboard controller directly. Let’s have a look at how that’s done!

Let’s Code MS DOS 0x23: 2nd Reality Lens Effect

In 1993 the Future Crew released the seminal demo “Second Reality”. Last episode we re-implemented the tunnel effect, this time we try to understand and replicate the lens effect. A bouncing, tinted glass ball that distorts the background image. Thirty years back it was pretty jaw dropping, and even today we can learn something!

Let’s Code MS DOS 0x22: 2nd Reality Tunnel Effect

In 1993 the Future Crew released the seminal demo “Second Reality”. One of the more simple effects they showed in this demo was the “Dot Tunnel”. It is a simple, yet mesmerizing oldskool demo effect. We can build on our knowledge of fixed point maths to implement this effect and maybe even improve on the original!

Let’s Code MS DOS 0x1B: Fixed Point Arithmetics Rotozoomer

In the last episode we learned how to code the rotozoom effect using floating point arithmetics. This however is pretty slow on ancient DOS machines, like 486 and even worse on slower machines. So in this episode we will rewrite the program to use integer based fixed point arithmetics.

Let’s Code MS DOS 0x17: Come On Let’s Twist

One ubiquitous demo effect that can be seen on a wide variety of demos and intros is the twister or the twister bar. There are numerous examples in productions for the Amiga, Atari ST and 2600 that I know of (and even at least one on the Sega Master System). And probably a lot more that I don’t know. However I have never seen this effect in any of the old PC demos, except maybe in Future Crew’s PANIC, where something very similar was used for the vertical scrolling greetings. But it was not quite the same still. So today we will code a variant of the twister using Turbo C for MS DOS!

Let’s Code MS DOS 0x16: Fire Exclamation Mark!

It’s summer and it’s hot. And what better to code than another classic demo scene effect: the ubiquitous fire. But we will do it with a twist. The naive implementation is slow, very slow. Especially on older 286-486 computers. We will optimize the actual algorithm a bit and utilize a hidden VGA function that gives us scaling in the X-direction by a factor of 4 for free.

Retro Game Review: The Curse of Rabenstein

I am a big fan of interactive fiction, better known as text adventures. I am also a big fan of MS DOS games. And retro games in general. And when there is a new release of a retro game, a text adventure, which supports MS DOS and other platforms, I am all ears. Enter: The Curse of Rabenstein. A brand new release with a nice physical big box with lots of goodies. But is the game also a goodie? Let’s see…

Let’s Code MS DOS 0x15: Sine Tables

I got a question in the YouTube comments about the sine tables that we used for a few animations, like the Copper Bars, the Smooth Scrolling etc. In this episode I try to explain why and how to create sine tables. The idea is to speed up computations, since computing the sine or cosine — even with an FPU — takes an awfully long time on early MS DOS machines.

Let’s Code MS DOS 0x14: Hello World in x86 Assembly

In the last live stream we did some Turbo C inline assembly, which was pretty fun. But let’s today use an actual pure assembler: the Borland Turbo Assembler. And let’s demystify some of the things surrounding assembly language. It is actually not that hard, so let’s write a hello world program, using assembly, for MS DOS!