Dos games?

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Dos games?

Postby Voxcon » 17 Jan 2011, 15:58

Hi Kroah i was wondering would a dos game be any harder or easier then a normal project?I guess the IBM version of mule would be first choice
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Re: Dos games?

Postby Kroah » 07 Feb 2011, 11:39

Hello,
By "a dos game be any harder or easier then a normal project", you mean developing a DOS game?
If you want to do a PC port of Mule, you have many language & library making life easier.

Can you give us more information about what you want to do?
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Re: Dos games?

Postby Voxcon » 13 Feb 2012, 15:29

Kroah wrote:Hello,
By "a dos game be any harder or easier then a normal project", you mean developing a DOS game?
If you want to do a PC port of Mule, you have many language & library making life easier.

Can you give us more information about what you want to do?


Sorry what i ment is it any harder to do a reverse engineering project in Dos format?


Well maybe interactive fiction with graphics might be interesting like one of the Legend Entertainment games like:

Eric the Unready
http://www.mobygames.com/game/eric-the-unready

Frederik Pohl's Gateway
http://www.mobygames.com/game/frederik-pohls-gateway

Gateway 2: Homeworld
http://www.mobygames.com/game/gateway-2-homeworld

Spellcasting 101: Sorcerers get all the Girls
http://www.mobygames.com/game/spellcast ... -the-girls

Spellcasting 201: The Sorcerer's Appliance
http://www.mobygames.com/game/spellcast ... -appliance

Spellcasting 301: Spring Break
http://www.mobygames.com/game/spellcast ... ring-break

Mainly because of the mapping system and characters different objects/sub mini games/game clock/spell modes/naughty mode apart from that those games are pretty colorful in terms of graphics and sound
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Re: Dos games?

Postby Kroah » 20 Feb 2012, 12:41

Voxcon wrote:Sorry what i ment is it any harder to do a reverse engineering project in Dos format?

Ho yes, it's harder because of the OS (memory allocation, dos extender, ...). It's a nightmare.
Even if DosBox helps, it's really not fun. I did it one time for Cadaver because i really needed it.
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Re: Dos games?

Postby puzzud » 15 May 2012, 16:22

I guess we'll be able to test the case of IBM MULE soon!
http://www.retroist.com/2012/05/14/m-u- ... -ibm-pcjr/

I've never really disassembled studied DOS based programs. However, when I toyed with it a little in IDA Pro, I noticed it was really helpful with labeling system calls and what not. I guess, in that regard, reverse engineering is easier when a common architecture and kernel/interrupt interface is expected.

I'll assert again, I don't really know much about early IBM machines. I don't even know if IBM MULE could be really considered MS-DOS.
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Re: Dos games?

Postby Kroah » 15 May 2012, 19:26

puzzud wrote:I guess we'll be able to test the case of IBM MULE soon!
http://www.retroist.com/2012/05/14/m-u- ... -ibm-pcjr/
Ho very nice, thanks for the link! Totally forgot this version of mule.

puzzud wrote:I've never really disassembled studied DOS based programs. However, when I toyed with it a little in IDA Pro, I noticed it was really helpful with labeling system calls and what not. I guess, in that regard, reverse engineering is easier when a common architecture and kernel/interrupt interface is expected.

In fact i by "dos games", i consider the ones with at least VGA graphics (ega games are usually existing on atari/amiga computers). And those VGA games are very boring to disassemble and analyse because of the DOS memory management.
For example, chaos engine, speed ball 2, cadaver are way more easier to analyse on Atari/Amiga than PC DOS where protected mode/high, low and conventionnal memory are terribly ugly.

puzzud wrote:I'll assert again, I don't really know much about early IBM machines. I don't even know if IBM MULE could be really considered MS-DOS.

Concerning PCjr mule, i think it runs on 64k memory without any operating system loaded (maybe pc dos 2.10). In this case, it could be comparable to any other version, difficulty wise, 8088 aside.
With some free time and a dump, i would load it in IDA and check some things :).
Now let's hope someone dumps it...
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