Notices by CONFIG.SYS: LOADHIGH (loadhigh@bitbang.social)

On a whim I started up Highway Hunter yesterday, a top-down shooter I used to play the shareware version of.

After playing the two, honestly disappointing, commercial episodes I wonder how often it was that the best content was put in the shareware version?

There was plenty of asset reuse, the two new power-ups were pretty meaningless and some of the bosses could be defeated by only holding down the space bar. The shareware levels were far more difficult.

Great music and graphics though!

Relatively in time for the announcement of #Civilization 7, I present to you my second #cracktro for my crack and +4 trainer for Civilization 1 (v474.05) for #DOS!

Again a sine scroller with a rainbow colored text, technically this one is very different:

* VGA Mode X: 320x240! 60Hz! Page flipping! Planar hell!
* Fluid, wavy text
* Water-like reflection using VGA "latch copying"
* Text fading out nicely
* Uses a minimal number of plane switches (faster)

Works on real hardware, too!

@dosnostalgic I wanted to ask "can you hit the spectators?" but they run onto the track wanting to be run over.

Game has some great music in the menus.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfFYwIVtWZQ

I completely forgot I uploaded VistaPro 3.20 (the scenery renderer) to the Internet Archive, where you can run it from your browser. For those sudden urges of wanting to create some landscapes.

https://archive.org/details/vistapro320

Includes the MakePath tool.

Don't forget to take screenshots of your creations! Nothing can be retrieved from the disk the in-browser DOSBox keeps, as far as I know.

(Please be patient with the Archive's speed, they're dealing with persistent DDoS attacks at the moment)

One of the people who helped archive the MS-DOS 4.0 source code, @starfrost, started writing an extensive and interesting story about the history behind 4.0 and the archived Multitasking DOS (MT-DOS) builds: https://starfrost.net/blog/001-mdos4-part-1/index.html

#dos #msdos #mtdos

Some landscape renders made with Bryce 3D come by on Mastodon this week and it reminded me of the first landscape renderer I used: VistaPro.

It was was one of many #DOS programs on the "Virtual Reality Madness" compilation disc from 1993. VistaPro also came out on Amiga and Mac OS, and later Windows.

VistaPro (v1.01) didn't give you much control but the results looked stunning then, if you allowed your computer to render the highest quality image for a few hours that is.

@dosnostalgic It would be interesting to watch it again, I totally forgot what happened.

The sequel (Day Watch) stuck with me more but only because it was so weird. I remember a giant ferris wheel rolling through a city and a very important, magical chalk that turned out to be used to write down the soup of the day or something at a restaurant.

@dosnostalgic I see somebody created English subtitles for it too

@dosnostalgic A true EGA game or more glitching? :P

What a productive Saturday!

Continuing from my crack of SimCity 1.02, I did the same for 1.07 plus made a cracking program *and* a trainer for it, both written in assembly.

The trainer started out as a TSR (my first TSR!) but is now a "direct loader" instead, so it executes SIMCITY.EXE for you.

Pressing F1 gives you over $2 billion, done by hooking a keyboard interrupt vector, which is also a first for me.

Now I just need a cool cracker name (suggestions welcome) and a cracktro :D

#DOS #ASM

@dosnostalgic It's weird that it isn't enforced by some layer of management.

Because what's worse than one person being sick? Four, and then sixteen, etc.

Game 138: ALF's Thinking Skills (1988), by Vision Software.

Frustrated with your offspring's lack of thinking skills? Fret no longer as Alf, luminary of knowledge, has used his giant brain to make this software for teaching them vital wisdom.

After playing through the "four" different games (actually more like two) they will have learned... something, like identifying CGA colored shapes or how to read traffic lights so they can get to the culinary cats.

#retrogaming #msdos #alf

Just before the release of #Lemmings 2: The Tribes in 1993 the small critters got their own album with accompanying music video.

It's so quintessential early 90s that it can only be described as perfect: https://youtube.com/watch?v=4n4pk9uWfiU

One interesting tidbit: the last track of the album has a robotic voice explaining how to complete one of The Tribes levels. Which level it's talking about is reportedly different on each release format (cassette, vinyl, CD) but I only found a single rip of it so far.

@dosnostalgic I happened to play Hexxagon II a few days ago.

The sequel is almost identical (came out in the same year too), it just has some nicer animations.

Btw, *the* Robert Prince did the few sound effects for these games.

Game 116: AstroFire (1994), by ORT Software.

A modernized version of the classic Asteroids with fancy ray-traced images and UFO enemies that, unlike the helpless pieces of space rock, fire back at you.

There's also power-ups that give you extra firepower and to keep you alive a bit longer, if you can to get them in time.

Just as timeless as Asteroids is the program the graphics were made with: POV-Ray, which was last updated 2 years ago, 31 years after its first release!

#retrogaming #msdos

Game 98: Paladin (1988) by Omnitrend

A turn-based strategy RPG that forces you to finish the quest you started.

You see, the game (and its expansions) consists of individual scenarios. Starting one immediately deletes your character's data from the hard disk and the only way of getting it back is by completing that quest.

Should your Paladin survive then he will improve his stats for the next one. Can't do it? Then it's off to the included quest editor to make a new one.

#retrogaming #msdos

Game 96: Grave Yardage (1989), by Incredible Technologies.

In the Monster Football League (MFL) it's all fun and games until somebody steps on a land mine. Although that's pretty funny too.

You get to coach and control your very own team of fantasy creatures that needs to run, or fly, the flying eyeball through enemy lines while dodging axes and magic, and do some stabbing themselves.

A light version of that violent sport with plenty of humor and some nice EGA artwork.

#retrogaming #msdos

Game 27: Destruction Derby (1995), by Reflections.

Good looking car driving game where you're actually rewarded for crashing into your opponents.

Not really a racing game since it only truly shines in arena mode, where the goal is to tactically smash the other cars without damaging yours too much.

The demo gives you a whole 60 seconds to try out the game, just enough to admire the cars' damage models and hear the commentator convey his comments on the carnage.

#msdos #games #destructionderby