dosgaming
Emmfoolery 
💾 NEW PODCAST!💾 Who hasn't enjoyed a nice round of golf on their computer? The slowly rendered trees, the random bird chirps, it's just like being outside!
We've done multi-game episodes before, but this one is our most ambitious yet, as no fewer than 50 games were discussed on our forums.
Some are text-only, some have all the multimedia features, but all are about golf!
I just released v1.14.0 of #DOjS on https://github.com/SuperIlu/DOjS/releases/tag/v1.140
New Features:
- SMK file playback via libsmacker
- #C64 SID playback using cRSID
- #EXIF data reading
- Sound synthesis based on MicroModSynth from @benhencke
See thread below for more release details!
#MSDOS #DOSGaming #retrocomputing #JavaScript #FreeDOS #creativecoding #p5js #retrodev #retrodevelopment #3dfx #OpenGL #Processing
1/
💾 NEW PODCAST!💾 Our unintended but much appreciated streak of space-themed games continues with September's entry: Ascendancy (1995, The Logic Factory).
It's a 4X turn-based strategy game, much in the same vein as Master of Orion, which we discussed earlier in episode 024 (November 2018).
How do they compare? Let's find out!
💾 NEW PODCAST 💾 In October we looked at Halloween Harry, also known as Alien Carnage.
Zombies, jetpacks, flamethrowers, there's a lot to like here for action game fans. But how long can we talk about a game that's pretty straight-forward??
Pretty long it turns out 😅
a few years ago i mentioned that i wrote a book about the exciting, awkward and embarrassing experiences of growing up with computers and video games in the 80s and 90s.
i wanted to remember what it felt like being the only dorky computer kid at school. or what it was like to hear my first modem handshake sound. or starting the first flamewar on the school's national FirstClass BBS in the macintosh lab over the lunch-hour
it was originally something i wrote only for my family and friends who were there at the time.
and then i met all of you folks when i started my first masto instance 4 years ago. i had no idea there were so many hardcore retrocomputing and gaming nerds out there; unix and mac and ms-dos folks alike.
so i mentioned it casually. i was surprised by the interest in the book.
so i spent the better part of the past 3 years rewriting the book for *you* fellow mastodon dorkus malorkuses. the book is a celebration of all of the best (and worst) parts of a kid growing up in the digital age.
we're all busy old tired stressed folks now. so every memory and cringetacular story is short enough to read on a 5 minute bus/metro/toilet ride. they're weaved together into an arc that starts at my family's first Tandy TRS-80 and ends at my school's Mac LC II and building my first Pentium 133.
it's finally published, and i'm super proud of what it became thanks to everyone here nerding out for years.
enjoy the book. i wrote it just for you. ❤️
paperback edition: https://mybook.to/EDuUf
DRM-free ebook (EPUB format) and chapter samples here:
https://tomotama.itch.io/mages-modems
#books #indiePublisher #bookstodon #author #macintosh #vintageApple #vintageComputing #msdos #dosGaming #yeg #canada #alberta #bbs #smolWeb #indieWeb
![The rear cover of the book, showing a Carmen Sandiego-style letter from the ACME Detective agency. The letter has a picture of a spazzing out kid wearing a Just Do It sweater.
The letter reads:
ACME Detective Agency
Dear Detective #0294,
As discussed, I have enclosed a hardcopy of VGA256's journals discussed at the departmental briefing. The journal entries are chronological, and document the suspect's computing and gaming activities from the early 1980s to late 1990s - his childhood and adolescent years.
Each vignette is an introspection into the suspect's self-described obsessions, including but not limited to:
* IBM PC, Amiga, Apple ][, Macintosh, Tandy
* MS-DOS, MacOS, Windows 3.1 & 95, UNIX
* NES, GameBoy, Sega Genesis, TI-85
* Modems, BBSes, CompuServe, Prodigy, ISPs
* Warez, FTP, Usenet, IRC, Shell Accounts
* Origin Systems, LucasArts, and Sierra On-Line
... and so on. The stories are a treasure trove of immoral and illicit activities that made him the dysfunctional adult he is now. I hope these will be of value in building your dossier on this delinquent.
I expect a report on my desk by Friday.
Deputy Chief Conover
Brat & Punk Division](/proxy/post_attachment/958760/4c3f9d6273.png "The rear cover of the book, showing a Carmen Sandiego-style letter from the ACME Detective agency. The letter has a picture of a spazzing out kid wearing a Just Do It sweater.
The letter reads:
ACME Detective Agency
Dear Detective #0294,
As discussed, I have enclosed a hardcopy of VGA256's journals discussed at the departmental briefing. The journal entries are chronological, and document the suspect's computing and gaming activities from the early 1980s to late 1990s - his childhood and adolescent years.
Each vignette is an introspection into the suspect's self-described obsessions, including but not limited to:
* IBM PC, Amiga, Apple ][, Macintosh, Tandy
* MS-DOS, MacOS, Windows 3.1 & 95, UNIX
* NES, GameBoy, Sega Genesis, TI-85
* Modems, BBSes, CompuServe, Prodigy, ISPs
* Warez, FTP, Usenet, IRC, Shell Accounts
* Origin Systems, LucasArts, and Sierra On-Line
... and so on. The stories are a treasure trove of immoral and illicit activities that made him the dysfunctional adult he is now. I hope these will be of value in building your dossier on this delinquent.
I expect a report on my desk by Friday.
Deputy Chief Conover
Brat & Punk Division")
💾 NEW PODCAST💾 DOS Game Club co-host @rnlf has been trying to get us to play Sam & Max Hit the Road (LucasArts, 1993) for years, so we finally caved and put it on the roster.
Not that we were reluctant, because this comedy point & click adventure game has a great reputation as a funny game that holds up well today.
So let's check it out and see if that's warranted!
💾 NEW PODCAST 💾 In November we looked at Toonstruck, the FMV point & click adventure game from 1996 featuring none other than Christopher Lloyd (that's "Doc Brown" from Back to the Future!)
This was a huge production at the time, with apparently a budget of around 8 million dollar!
Sadly the game seems a bit forgotten now, but that's all the more reason for us to take a look at it.
💾 NEW PODCAST!💾 In December we played Betrayal at Krondor, the 1993 open world RPG by Dynamix, based on the "Riftwar Cycle" universe by Raymond E. Feist.
The game isn't based on a specific novel, but Feist was such a fan of the game he novelised it after the fact, when he published "Krondor: The Betrayal" in 1998.
There's much more to talk about, so dig in!
There are loads of videos about MS-DOS, DOS games and DOS PCs on PeerTube, here's a playlist:
https://fedi.video/w/p/uEorJj9vYsrdmihjc2otzu
- Watching on a phone: Swipe up first two videos at bottom to browse rest of playlist
- Watching on a computer: Choose video by scrolling through playlist on right of screen
- Watching embedded: Click ⏭️ or ⏮️ to see next or previous videos in playlist
cc @msdos
#FeaturedPlaylist #MSDOS #DOS #RetroComputing #ComputingHistory #DosGaming #PeerTube #PeerTubers
wake up babe, new You Have Died (And Been Reincarnated As A Fox Girl) combat mockup just dropped
with new player art by @rally
very happy with this one. might be the best GUI work i've ever done
💾 NEW PODCAST!💾 In January we played Settlers II, the 1996 sequel to the first Settlers game by German developer Blue Byte.
The Settlers was and remains a staple of PC gaming in Germany and they even have coined their own terminology to describe it.
So listen now and learn all about what the "Wuselfaktor" means!
💾 NEW PODCAST!💾 Back in February we looked at ZZT, the very first game by (what would become) Epic MegaGames, released in 1991 and developed by Tim Sweeney.
Just like Epic's Unreal Engine today, ZZT was a game creation system. It was a lot more basic, offering only text-based graphics and PC speaker beeps, but it did spawn thousands of games over the years, so there's a lot to talk about!
Eye of the Beholder III: Assault on Myth Drannor
Source: Game Players PC Entertainment 6.3 (May/June 1993)
Scan Source: RetroMags
the best pixel art portrait in Frederik Pohl's Gateway series, and almost no one ever saw it because it's one of the last scenes of Gateway II.
this is painterly lighting magic, using chiaroscuro and an imaginary low-key light source to give depth and drama to the face. the entire portrait is drawn with 24 colours.
this is the kind of masterwork that makes people want to learn how to paint.
💾 NEW PODCAST💾 Remember when back in 2015 SkyNet took over Los Angeles? What a bummer that was, huh. Luckily Bethesda has a game in which you can do something about it.
The Terminator: Future Shock (1995) is a first-person shooter that has more of a narrative-focus than was common in shooters at the time. You can also control several vehicles. A very forward-thinking game, but is it fun to play?
Let's find out!
💾 NEW PODCAST!💾 Back in May we looked at all the pool, snooker & billiards games we could find for MS-DOS.
That's right... all of them! There aren't actually that many as you might think. But some of these are pretty special indeed!
💾 NEW PODCAST!💾 Back in June we checked out Star Wars: TIE Fighter (1994) and boy what a game this turned out to be! 🤩
A follow-up to 1993's Star Wars: X-Wing, TIE Fighter changes up the formula by letting you join the dark side. Turns out this Darth Vader fellow isn't such a bad guy after all and it's really the Rebels that are being difficult. Who knew??