Tag: msdos

Let’s Code MS DOS 0x36: Sprites & Occlusion

In the last video we learned how to make 2D sprites with transparency and scaling. This time around we also make our Guybrush automatically scale with the background, limit his ability to move into nonsensical parts of the scene, and most important: Walk in front and behind objects.

Source Code: https://codeberg.org/root42/VSPRITES/src/branch/feature/mask-and-scaling

Let’s Code MS DOS 0x35: Sprites & Scaling

Adventure games like Monkey Island utilized sprites that could be moved and scaled arbitrarily on the screen. How does this work on a machine that doesn’t have support hardware sprites? We will work our way from simple sprites with no transparency, to ones that are clipped, have transparency and can be scaled down arbitrarily.

Let’s Code MS DOS: 0x32 VGA Split Screen

A couple of games back in the 1990s utilised the VGA split screen functionality to enable things that were otherwise only possible on more capable machines, like the Amiga. The VGA split screen allowed games such as Jazz Jackrabbit or Pinball Fantasies to display a static status bar at the bottom of the screen, while the rest of the screen was smoothly scrolling in two or more directions. In this video I will show how this is possible, and which VGA registers to program with the appropriate values.

New Homebrew Sound Card: Sonic Buster 8

It’s been a long time since the last homebrew sound card we had on this channel! LABS is back with another iteration of the Blaster Board called the “Sonic Buster 8”. One improvement is that it now uses a genuine OPL3 chip for the FM music. Furthermore it is all SMD components and hence very compact and will fit also in cases where space is an issue. But is it worth the money? How does it hold up against other homebrew sound cards?

Let’s Code MS DOS 0x2E: VGA Redefinable Charsets

The EGA and VGA cards support custom or redefinable character sets. Those can be used to add characters from languages not covered by the original ROMs on the card, but can also be used to aid in drawing shapes in text mode. We will use this feature to port our VGA plasma effect from graphics to text mode.

Let’s Code MS DOS 0x2C: Noisy 3D Animation

Earlier this year I saw a demo effect using a random noise background and simple wireframe 3D using XOR line drawing to create an interesting visual effect. Building on the 3D Cube program we did a while ago we can reimplement this effect. The magic happens when you pause the animation — or this video. Then the object magically disappears…