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Hey my friend.

Thank you!

Just a clarification - this is not 8086-compatible. It requires a 386, since I'm targeting protected mode, using DJGPP as a cross compiler.

If you want 8086 code for CGA, using ia16-gcc, please check this: https://github.com/TheFakeMontyOnTheRun/space-trashman-blues/blob/master/my_fron...
(for this game https://montyontherun.itch.io/sub-mare-imperium-derelict-8-bit)
It's my fault, as I didn't ask enough of it yesterday, as we were discussing.

Yep. Reach me at 405715828345012235

Hey - I think we need to continue our conversation over a private channel; how would you prefer to proceed?

My understanding is that people never really stopped creating DOS games - it just slowed to a crawl.

I always try to make code that's  very "boring" in the sense that I use standard DJGPP functions for almost everything. This make the keyboard handling a tad "bad", but also makes it very compatible, for example. I will give Staging a try (but I was always partial to DOSBox-X).

Since you have a 386, can I ask you to try a WIP version of the RPG I'm working on (1) ? Its much more optimized than Dungeons of Noudar (which very much prefers a 486). This evolution of the engine is much more optimized and even runs well enough on a GBA!

CGA is a funny topic for me. My first PC had a CGA and I hated the colours with a passion (and I kind of still do), but I have to agree it is the kind of limitation that makes you try hard to make something good out of it. Give me a 486 with VGA any day and I will be happy - but at the same time, it is not far from a (very slow) modern PC; some people would even say it's boringly normal.

Currently, I'm downsizing my retrolab and might finally go for one of those modern portable 386s. Is this what you have?

(1): https://montyontherun.itch.io/tragedy-of-the-uncanny

The DPMI error is because you need to download CWSDPMI (or run under Windows 95).

As for the dosbox-x, crash, that's really odd! I've tested on 486s and Pentiums, but there's always a chance a bug sneaked in. I will look into it.

Thank you for your interest...but please, bear in mind the grunt of the work done for this game was only a 2 week effort 😇

Edit: Ah yes, as for the authenticity, I think Trixter said it best: this deserved to be a Real Mode game. But given that this was one of my first DOS games, it is protected mode (386+) instead. At least I eventually did make a 8088+CGA game, but damn, it was hard work!

Unsurprisingly, the engine compiled on Windows without much of a hitch. Pictured here on a Windows ME system (which I use for building), but tested on a 486 running Windows 95.

This is a WIP, of course - still using a lot from Derelict and The Mistral Report(!); hopefully soon, I will have time to make this a more complete and distinct game.

Gonna just leave this here...

That would be great! I'm very likely to rethink the whole gameplay loop and having solid opinions on it helps a LOT. Thank you!

If you're in front of the item, you can pick it up...but there's a bug on the item rendering when you're facing south, meaning you have to be a bit farther.

If you open the actions menu, you should be able to pick objects . Did you try that? There's always the possibility of a bug, of course 

I've been working on some optimizations that might give the poor ARM fellow some relief 😅

Thank you for playing. I'm happy to see that you got reminded with exactly was some of my inspiration 

You are the chosen one. The prophecy is true!

*Bows before you*

I'm not worthy!

Sadly, I only discovered how to properly organize the distribution between IWRAM and EWRAM just a couple of days before the deadline. There's also the fact that the levels aren't really optimized for the GBA yet. I'm still working on a level editor that will allow me to design efficient stuff by default.

But knowing that the atmosphere and looks are on the right place really helps me designing the tools to better serve it. I was particularly proud of how it suggests lightning and stuff where there's nothing. I might add some dynamic (or maybe baked) lightning in the future, since it seems to really enrich the experience.

I really enjoyed the graphics! The music erm...not so much :P

I wonder if the theme end up hindering your potential more than elevating it? I see really good game trying to surface here, if you add just a tad more stuff

Depending on the machine you try (or your DOSBox settings), you might get equal or much better performance to the GBA. On my 486SX 33MHz, the game is silky smooth (or at least as much as the passive matrix LCD allows me to see). The GBA is much weaker than that, but there's also the point of the level design not being totally optimized yet. I'm working on a proper level editor to help me design efficient levels by default.

As for what to do - this demo was much more a testing of waters than really a proper game. I wanted to know if people would find the combat weird or maybe the graphics too grainy or ugly. I was also trying to flesh out the atmosphere I wanted and once I finally got to that point, I can organize my asset pipeline and tools around that.

This is just the grain of sand that will, hopefully someday, create a good RPG :)

Thank you for trying and stay tuned for new developments!

Hello Hythrain, thank you very much!
I would like to have the Youtube link, please.
As for your feedback, thank you for pointing out those things.

The map is something that's been pointed out before, but I'm unsure if that's a matter of bad level design or if I should really add a map (something I believe might take the player out of the context of the simulation...but the prequel to this game had a map).

As for the motivation for the combat, it is a very fair question and one I've been considering even before I first released this demo. The prequel didn't have combat, only puzzles, and I felt like it missed something, but I didn't stop to properly craft into the narrative for a reason for this combat to happen.

My previous games (such as Dungeons of Noudar and The Mistral Report) had combat quite woven into the level design, almost like a environmental storytelling and without a "combat screen". This time I decided to try something different, but I kind of prefer the other way - I totally understand why older games required this kind of separation, but I honestly don't need it (even with the meager 288KB of RAM on the GBA). 

On my way forward, I want to add more life into to the world and have the player interacting and conflicting with other characters.  This might even help making the places more memorable and easier to navigate without a map.

The saddest part is that this combat screen took me a long time to code :(

Regarding the sound, I'm still trying to find my way around the GBA sound hardware in way that makes it compatible with my other systems. Right now, the DOS version has *some* sound, as well as my (still unreleased) native MacOS version.

Really enjoyed the aesthetics, the gameplay and the music! I would have loved to have this on my old PC XT!

And everything in 28KB!
And this .wad file, it's not the Doom file format, is it? Or merely the same extension?

Beautiful!

Very cute ! And you went thru the trouble of writing a manual! Kudos!

But I have to say: the initial deployment of the units is a bit cumbersome. But once you get the hang of it, it's fine

You sir/madam, is an inspiration! I don't even know where to start! Which port should I try first?

Thank you very much!
And I hope the gameplay is also to your liking! :D

Please let me know of anything you believe that could be improved.

This statement has me wondering why you chose those platforms. I get that some of the chips that used the 80386 instruction set had a comparable speed to the GBA, but in all other respects I'm aware of, they're not even close. That even includes what type of processor is being used, since 80386 is x86 while the GBA's processor is ARM.

I do, in fact, consider the GBA kind of a pocket-sized 386+VGA. Since I'm writing this game in pure C, other than a few magic addresses for the VRAM and some registers that I write to (using the SDK macros), there isn't much of a difference to a 386+VGA to me. Writing some eventual ARM ASM code is not out of question, but  386 ASM is not worth the effort IMHO (ironically, I'm much more familiar with x86 ASM than ARM).

It's hard to even compare the video capabilities, since I'm pretty sure the use of 386 processors wasn't aligned with the use of any particular video standard. Just looking, I can't tell if this is using CGA, EGA, VGA, or one of the lesser known ones.

Also, in case you're not aware, both Doom and Duke Nukem 3d got GBA-ports, so that's what the graphics and UI/UX standards for comparison would be.

I'm very well aware of it (I was a big fan of Torus Games back then - even got to exchange a couple of emails with the guys).  But I guess you're comparing it to the wrong Doom game - I'm greatly inspired by Doom RPG (and it's cousin, Orcs and Elves). Don't get me wrong, I love Doom, Marathon and the likes, but I also love Wizardry, Phantasy Star and Etrian Oddisey. Doom RPG was the perfect fusion of both ideas IMHO.

Having tried both versions, I'm unsure why you allow free movement rather than something more like Myst or 7th Guest.

I like the idea of freedom to explore a world in my own terms - but I also recognize that pegging the player to a cell helps with navigation when using digital means of controlling.

You probably were unimpressed by the graphics and speed on the GBA - and that's a fair assessment. But this is hardly the final form of this game engine or this game. I was pondering if I should submit the GBA version until the last minute, but having some feedback to direct my efforts was crucial - and I'm taking a lot from your message. Thank you.

Very bubbly and quite fun! :D

Also has a je ne se quois of New Zealand Story or is it just me?

Yes, that did the trick. Thank you!
I got to play for a bit and I'm greatly impressed with what you managed to accomplish "in a week". Very cool!

(not sure I understood all the game play, but what I saw was really impressive)

I can't seem to get past the first screen on DOSBox-X (Mac). I see the hand react to clicks, but I can't seem to select any side?

Wow, this looks promising! Let me know if you need help testing on 486s and Pentiums :)

I had a good laugh with the intro :)

One thing that kind of caught me by surprise is that I expected to step the story dialogue with Z instead of X.

I also noticed that the collision between me and the enemies, sometimes, behaved in a kind of odd way, with me getting hurt in situations an Italian plumber wouldn't.

With some polish here and there, this could be a great plataformer! As it is, it's almost there, but the small issues kind of creep up quite fast.

If you ever consider a Mac version and need a tester, please ping me - I got machines from different eras.

After checking with the author and trying some things, I finally got the game to run and, friends, let me tell you, it is very well produced.

Pro-tip: it requires MacOS Catalina and x64. In order to run, you need to place the .app on the Desktop and open it with a right click > Open (if you intend to use MacOS, of course). Also works fine under Apple Silicon.

I have to be honest that it is not my usual kind of RPGs...and that's fine; if you hated my game, you will love this :P
More seriously now, it's quite engaging, very consistent graphics (no assets that look out of place).

Some cons (already shared with the author, but in a lot of places, kind of a personal opinion): sometimes, I think there's too much story - in particular, the intro is a tad too long for my taste.

I also struggled a bit with the name entry screen, as it seems to be made with mobile devices in mind. But I quickly adjusted.
Other than that, congrats on the nice work!

Not implemented yet😅

No - and I even tried running from the console, to see if any error message would be displayed.

I can help you test on Macs - I have plenty of older models, as well as a modern one (this test was done on a modern-ish laptop)

Tried running the Mac version, but it seems to never leave the "Chargement..." screen.

Macbook Air 2017 running fully updated MacOS Monterrey

Let me know if you have alternative builds for testing :)

Man, this is so much fun!
Reminds me a bit of the best parts of Chip's Challenge or Sokoban.

Simple yet addictive. Took me a while to properly understand how to play, but when I did, you totally understood what you meant in the game page. I suppose more people will go thru this "weirdness" phase, but I hope they all come thru and get to enjoy it!

Allow to add one minor nitpick: the pixel scales for the graphics don't match - so you end up with things that are super chunky and things that are very finely pixelated. Most people don't care, but when you match everything, it does look better.

Other than that, congrats - really nicely done.

Man, this is so much fun!
Reminds me a bit of the best parts of Chip's Challenge or Sokoban.

Simple yet addictive. Took me a while to properly understand how to play, but when I did, you totally understood what you meant in the game page. I suppose more people will go thru this "weirdness" phase, but I hope they all come thru and get to enjoy it!

Allow to add one minor nitpick: the pixel scales for the graphics don't match - so you end up with things that are super chunky and things that are very finely pixelated. Most people don't care, but when you match everything, it does look better.

Other than that, congrats - really nicely done.

And I see a major difference in our philosophies (which is fine, of course): here I am, trying to skip the prologue as much as possible, clicking everywhere...oh, now I found the "Continue" button (as I typed this).

Nice graphics! I really enjoyed the out-of-focus effect in the distance!
One minor nitpick: Q and E feel swapped IMHO.

I was never too much into card games, but I can totally see myself playing this for hours! Congrats!

Thanks, another nice catch!
As the map, the previous game with this engine actually had a minimap - I might add it back, now that I figured out how to free up some more memory on the GBA.

As for a tutorial...hmm, IDK - I might add some onscreen indicators, but a full blown tutorial would consume memory and time to create which I'm not sure people would appreciate that much. But one thing for sure - I need to improve the level design, to make things a bit more conducive.

Thanks for playing!

Thank you for not giving up! :)

Hmmm, did you try pressing "Z" on that screen. I regretted deeply not adding an explicit instruction about this.
As for fullscreen, I tried, but the input focus gets messed up.

Between MSX and Master System, I don't expect much of a difference. It's the same Z80 with TMS9918 VDP.

Later today, I will upload a version for the IBM PC with 8088 and CGA. That version might perform a little better. Particularly if you run on 10Mhz machines or maybe a 286. On a 486, it might be a bit too fast (but then again, you're better off running the 32-bit version).