DOS ain't dead

Gamemaker is open source (Announce)

posted by Zyzzle, 02.08.2021, 02:10

> > > Please, be little more specific.
> > > Tell us the names of the games and where you got these.
> > >
> > There is a Game maker archive located here:
> >
> > https://aderack.com/game-maker/index.php?title=List_of_Game-Maker_games
> >
> > Over 100 games created with the engine are located there. None of the
> ones
> > I downloaded work on modern systems. I tried 10 or 12. They all just
> open
>
> So, by accident, I download and try the other 90 games, you didn't try and
> tell you "All work fine".
> Is it really that hard for you to give the names of 2-3 games you tried?
>
> > with a black screen, no display. Possible problem with the pallete and /
> or
> > VGA-detection code or driver. This is in pure DOS.
>
> "pure DOS" still might be not "pure DOS", because there could be different
> CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT settings.
>
> > > Did you make the games run anywhere?
> >
> > Yes, they only seem to run in core2 duo or before systems, in native
> DOS.
> > Anything newer and they don't run. They also run in my old Pentium 233
> > desktop.
>
> All with the same DOS system? Same version, same CONFIG.SYS and
> AUTOEXEC.BAT files?

I tried these games:
Advanced techniques demo
Air-Strike 42
Dino Hunt
Earth vs The Flying Saucers
Graphics Tools
Jet!
Moonchild
Panzer 2019
Raiden II
Santa is Back!
Ski
Space Harrier
Ulysses

And none work on any system that I've got with newer than core2 duo, MSDOS 7.1. Even booted clean with no autoexec, no config.sys and no memory management driver (Safe mode MS-DOS, by pressing F8 upon boot). Also, I have a config.sys and autoexec.bat which does load a minimal set of drivers upon boot on a USB stick (Jepeteh's XMS 3.5 standard, Ramdrive, MTRRLFBE, and keyboard rate speedup), which when booted with no changes on my core2duo system works fine with all of these games, while any laptop / CPU I have newer than 2006 with Intel onboard graphics fails. Even using "Simulate" configuration driver fails.

I did read the manual. It's possible to start all these games with "<gamename> configure" to bring up configuration screen (in DOSBOX only, for me!), select VGA driver or "Simulate" graphics driver. I then copied this config.dat file over to my other newer systems, with a clean boot, MS-DOS 7.1, and still can't get any of them to display anything, even with the new CONFIG.DAT file.

The very game engine file itself is called PLAYGAME.EXE. None of the game engine / construction files with run, either. Even typing, as instructed by the manual "PLAYGAME configure" does nothing but freeze the system. I just find it very curious, since these games do seem compatible at VGA register level, also even my "modern" systems support the standard 320x200 mode 13 at register level.

The only system that I have which refuses to support VGA mode 13 at register level is a 10th Gen i5 system, so it's useless for work in straight DOS.

I guess all the trouble isn't worth it, since others above reported the games are "boring", but I'm interested in getting them to run more as a technical exercise. How can they all contain an engine which is "broken"? The games don't rely upon XMS, EMS, or fancy tricks.

Complete thread:

• Gamemaker is open source - Laaca, 31.07.2021, 00:56 (Announce)
  • Gamemaker is open source - Zyzzle, 31.07.2021, 02:09
    • Gamemaker is open source - rr, 31.07.2021, 18:44
      • Gamemaker is open source - Zyzzle, 01.08.2021, 01:15
        • Gamemaker is open source - mceric, 01.08.2021, 09:45
        • Gamemaker is open source - rr, 01.08.2021, 19:29
          • Gamemaker is open source - Zyzzle, 02.08.2021, 02:10
            • Gamemaker is open source - Laaca, 02.08.2021, 08:37
              • Gamemaker is open source - Zyzzle, 02.08.2021, 15:31
        • Gamemaker is open source - Laaca, 01.08.2021, 22:36