Nothing obsolete about DOS when it comes to playing 2D games. Thanks to DOSBox and other emulators (FreeDOS is also not bad though) it is a fantastic OS (or virtual machine). DOS as a platform for (2D) games has never been better than it is today, on modern hardware running DOSBox.
Until you want better graphics, network, touch support, etc, etc.
Some people may not want that; and there are workarounds, even in dosbox itself; still, they are just that.
The page lists similar plans in FAQ: “To add additional functionalities (features) to the game (like online gaming, scalable HQ Grahics, HQ Audio, plugins, etc.).”
https://github.com/86Box/86Box
There are also patch sets available for modern PCs to support legacy MSDOS, and Windows 3.1/95/98/ME. Attempting to install/run on modern hardware will usually blue-screen without the workarounds. =3
Of course there plenty of good features missing but on the other hand that’s the point.
Why start in 2d when in reality you want a 3d game?
DOSbox is delivering constraints.
The demo scene died when the constraints were gone and all that was left was showing a movie. On a C64 for example there are no animations per se but maxing out technical prowess combined with design. If it matches optimally it will make you marvel otherwise not so much.
So there is no right or wrong only what do you want?
The problem was in my opinion not that the constraints were gone, but the fact that the PC did not provide a very stable platform anymore on which you could do some crazy low-level optimizations.
Lots of low-level optimizations also made their way into compilers that sometimes do a better job than a human. There's not much to be gained by writing everything in assembly which means it doesn't interest people as much as in the 90s.
It's one thing to be able to emulate DOS games (something which worked 20+ years ago), it's another thing to offer reasonable ergonomics in a modern environment...
It is of course possible to launch games from outside of DOSBox the way GOG does it, using host OS (non DOS) launch scripts and config for each game, but I prefer to have more like a virtual DOS fantasy console with all games installed. It also means DOSBox is fully self-contained, with no dependencies on the host OS. Once set up there is no maintenance. There is no code rot in DOS of course, so when something has been set up it will always work.
I want the window to be open like any other window, and the mouse pointer to work transparently in and out of it - like when I hover the mouse over the dosbox window, change the pointer but keep the same mouse speed, momentum etc
I think this would be really hard to do in an emulated environment, maybe even would require patching each game executable to get the mouse speed right (not sure?), the modern environment integration, like you say, is what Im after too
It's very unlikely this sort of approach will end up with a copyright-free codebase, though it might be useful as a source for a cleanroom approach. The author shouldn't be discouraged -- lots of other recompilation efforts work this was as well, but it's a muddy place to be.
On 'It's very unlikely this sort of approach...' I will say Why not?
The process of rewriting the code is that the one side is describing the functionality in details and the other side writes the 'clean' code. That's what I'm trying to do. The 'intel opcodes' describe the functionality, and I'm writing the clean code.
I believe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean-room_design is the best practice in this situation.
If someone do in fact care, I'm sure someone else can organize an online donation for them tissues those who care can cry into.
Otherwise please accept that Civ I is effectively public domain.
https://app.zdechov.net/c-evo/ https://sourceforge.net/projects/c-evo-eh/
What was the reason for this?
- civ 2 --> FreeCiv
- civ 3 --> OpenCiv3
- civ 4 --> ???
- civ 5 --> UnCiv
Love more details on how this was done and the translation to human-readable code.
(Or am I being hopelessly naïve by asking such a question?)
If you're lucky you stumble across it in a thrift store that wasn't paying particular attention and assumed it was a puzzle or a board game.
Question then is do I need to find a floppy drive to obtain the files or can I get them elsewhere.
Of course who knows if the floppy’s still work. I remember having problems with my Star Trek 25th anniversary floppies around 1996ish, and today it’s 30 years later.
So far as I know, Take-Two Interactive is extremely lenient, especially since they don't offer any way to purchase Civ1 or 2
Played a bit of Civ 4 and 5(or 6?) but never was really as hooked on them.
2. The Settler unit was a big eared bat
You validate my feelings. I always knew that at heart.
Civ 1 had good pixel art (look at those mountains! Not to mention the intro), good colors (and more of them!) and clean iconography. For me the look was part of the magic, so I never got into Civ 2.
Nice exercise though, but I'll stick to the original.
By the way CivNet (civ1 + networking for Win 3.11) runs perfectly in Wine
A lot of people (myself included) have XP/7 machines for retro games like Civ1 and I'd personally love to use that machine instead of my modern one to play the game.
I have tested it and it works :)
But when will we get the greatest civ ever, civ 4?
Worth mentioning this one also
I wish there were one for MOO2, though. With some modern rebalancing...
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.numerics...
