Lmst

The Goblet is a cup made of precious metal and gemstones. Some goblets have an enchantment or a curse, which affects your character when wielded. Sometimes a particular goblet is the object of your quest. The merchant will buy other goblets that you find in the dungeon. Get The #ChambersBeneath from https://cyningstan.itch.io/the-chambers-beneath #roguelike #ibmpc #msdos #cga

Amithew, Steward of Nedrae, receives Aniere the Warrior at court. The Steward tells Aniere of the Goblet of Might, a great treasure of the city that has been stolen. Goblets may be found in the deeper levels of the dungeon. Goblets that are not the Goblet of Might can be sold to the Merchant to fund more useful equipment. A goblet is enlarged in the inset.

#Ossuary was designed around the limitations of the 16kb Sinclair #ZXSpectrum. 7kb of that memory was taken up by the screen and system, leaving just 9k for the program. The #msdos version is a straight port of the Speccy version, hence the simplicity. Currently both versions are available from the same Itch project page, but I might separate them in the future, as per Barbarians. https://cyningstan.itch.io/ossuary

The cassette inlay for the ZX Spectrum version of Ossuary. The front features one of the gargoyle faces from the game graphics, inexpertly enlarged. Seriously, on the in-game title screen, it looks more like a teddy bear. The rear of the cassette inlay has a gameplay screenshot.

#StarCadre Combat Class has a skills-based system. Each character has their own set of skills that dictate what they can do. For instance, Heavy Firearms skill allows a character to fire a laser rifle accurately. Soldiers will have this skill, but other characters might have it too. Download the game from https://cyningstan.itch.io/star-cadre-combat-class #ibmpc #msdos #cga

Soldier Atryxil's main skill is Heavy Firearms, allowing effective use of the Laser Rifle. Level 5 in a skill gives a near-certain chance of success, specifically a 35 in 36 chance.

But the development history of #Barbarians is much longer than that. #msdos is the third platform for which I've released the game. The original version goes right back to 2010, when the game was developed for the once-popular range of pocket computers from #Psion, computers which are often sold short by being referred to as "PDAs." http://damian.cyningstan.org.uk/downloads/215/barbarians #gamedev

Three of the platforms on which Barbarians has been released. Top to bottom: a screenshot from the ZX Spectrum version, a Psion Series 3 running the game, and a screenshot from the MS-DOS version.

The Gem is a treasure of great worth found in the dungeon. Some gems might have an enchantment or curse that affects the adventurer when wielded. Sometimes a particular gem is the object of your quest. The merchant will buy gems found in the dungeon. Get The #ChambersBeneath from https://cyningstan.itch.io/the-chambers-beneath #roguelike #ibmpc #msdos #cga

Phamart the Ranger meets King Chraran of Nobran, who tells Phamart of the loss of the Gem of Wisdom. Gems are one of the four items that can be the object of the main quest. A gem is shown enlarged in the inset.

The twelfth and final level from the #TeamDroid Jam Levels introduces the concept of multiple droids working together. One droid has to shoot the generator from the top chamber. Another needs to get the data card from the right chambers, and pass it through to a third droid in the bottom chamber, who must jump over the remaining teleporter to deposit the data card in the reader. Get #TeamDroid from https://cyningstan.itch.io/team-droid #ibmpc #msdos #cga

Soldier in the top chamber has shot the forcefield generator, turning what was a 2 cell thick forcefield into a 1 cell thick forcefield that can be jumped by any droid with a spring. That droid, Bouncer, is positioned next to a teleporter waiting to snatch up an item transported from elsewhere. Strider, in another chamber, is about to deposit the item next to a teleporter. When a "Take Item" action appears in the library, Strider can then push the item through the teleporter for Bouncer to pick up.

@discatte Now you've got me thinking about making some different colour screen filters for it. Pink CGA, and amber and green monochrome. I have acetate sheets somewhere, I could even print some Vectrex-style game specific overlays.

Here are the three #BarrenPlanet campaigns running on a Hewlett Packard #hp100lx. You can download the game from https://cyningstan.itch.io/barren-planet, where you will find links to the two DLC campaigns. #hp200lx #msdos #cga

A photograph of a Hewlett Packard 100LX running the default Barren Planet campaign First Landing, showing the Nuvutech briefing for the first mission.

A photograph of a Hewlett Packard 100LX running the downloadable Barren Planet campaign The Polar Expedition, showing the Nuvutech briefing for the first mission.

A photograph of a Hewlett Packard 100LX running the downloadable Barren Planet campaign Waterworld, showing the Nuvutech briefing for the first mission.

The Necromancer is the final enemy in #Ossuary. He is the cause of all the chaos you've battled through. Unlike spectres and daemons, he is a living human and is vulnerable to blades, although his spells can blast you to pieces very quickly. He will not chase you like other monsters, he'll wait for you to come to him. If you kill him, then you will keep your gold... and your life! You can download the game from https://cyningstan.itch.io/ossuary #ibmpc #msdos #cga

Keen-eyed viewers might notice that this is a different hero from the earlier posts in this series; it seems that using the wand to fight daemons was a fatal mistake. This new hero has an intelligence of 11, however, so the wand and amulet are the best combination both for daemons, and for the necromancer who is enlarged here in the inset. Note how the inventory is full of potions, many of which will be needed for the final battle with the necromancer.

Some spacecraft I designed for a possible future game in the #StarCadre series. Imagine boarding missions aboard these ships. It's going to be a long time before I get around to that game, though. #gamedev #msdos #cga

An armed merchant ship. The bridge is to the left, and the "pods" above and below the central corridor are a crew quarters pod and three cargo pods. Towards the rear is a meeting room and the engines. The bridge needs more decoration.

A lightly armed ship with some cargo space and some empty rooms awaiting a purpose. To the left is the rear of the ship, with engines and cargo bay. At the top, left of centre, is the crew quarters. The projecting sections at the sides of the ship (top and bottom of the plan) are the turrets with seats for the gunners. Ahead of this is a meeting room, and on the right is the bridge.

A heavily armed starship with four turrets. At the top is the bridge. Forward left and right are the turrets and room for the gunners. Straddling the central corridor are the crew quarters. Between the engines at the bottom are a meeting room on the left, and a cargo bay to the right.

@LanceJZ Modern tools help with the development for DOS stuff too. I don't know if I'd have the patience to build all this with Turbo C and PC Paint.

@LanceJZ It's my ninth since 2020 🙂

Recently I released #Barbarians for #msdos, a simple strategy game about repelling a barbarian invasion in ancient times. This release was for the #DOSember Game Jam, a 3-month game jam for MS-DOS preceding the month-long DOSember streaming event for 2025. The rules stated that picking up "abandoned projects" was allowed, and Barbarians for MS-DOS was a project I'd put aside at the end of 2024; the jam was the perfect time to pick it up again. https://cyningstan.itch.io/barbarians-dos #gamedev

A screenshot from the recently released Barbarians for MS-DOS. It uses a similar layout to the versions ZX Spectrum and some Psion pocket computers. A central main map is surrounded by various information panels: on the left, information about the empire as a whole, on the right, information about the last referenced map square, and underneath, the game's name and a one-line prompt and menu display.

The Dagger is a small, cheap blade weapon for stabbing enemies. The damage caused to enemies is based on the Agility of the player character. Being a basic weapon, daggers in the weapon shop are always identified for enchantments and curses, so you don't have to worry about your first weapon being cursed. But a Dagger in the dungeon might need closer inspection. Get The #ChambersBeneath from https://cyningstan.itch.io/the-chambers-beneath #roguelike #ibmpc #msdos #cga

Although Yaneve the Warrior could handle a Sword, there were none in the weapons shop. So Yaneve chose this handy dagger instead. She'll make do with the dagger till there's a decent sword in the shop. Her dagger is enlarged in the inset.

The eleventh of the Jam Levels is the only one that needs Multibot. The configuration of this forcefield needs both a gun to shoot the generator, and a spring to jump over the remaining forcefield, and Multibot is the only one that carries both. There are no handy items for other robots to pick up and use around the level. I designed it this way to make sure players got experience of using Multibot. Get #TeamDroid from https://cyningstan.itch.io/team-droid #ibmpc #msdos #cga

Multibot begins the penultimate level. Multibot has all three attachments: walker to allow lateral movement, phaser to shoot, and spring to leap. Here, Multibot is preparing to step sideways out of cover, and shoot one of the guards who should be in Multibot's line of fire. Multibot's disadvantages are the small memory, lack of inventory, and the lack of any instruction in ROM.

Once #BarrenPlanet had been tested it was time to launch it into the world, this being April 2023. I've launched three projects since, maybe four by the time you read this, and the process hasn't changed much. You can read about the launch process in a blog post at http://dos.cyningstan.org.uk/post/201/barren-planet-out-into-the-world #gamedev #ibmpc #msdos #cga

The Barren Planet title screen, the first thing a player sees when they launch the game. This is a 3D render of barren terrain bearing a few of game game's most iconic units: the Mining Base, a Gun Platform, a couple of Ground Rovers and a few Hoverbugs. This image is used in full colour for the manual cover, but is here reduced to the four-colour palette for the CGA title screen.

A lovely review in Czech of #Barbarians has just been posted by @sledge which you can read at https://www.high-voltage.cz/sortky/barbarians-nova-tahovka-pro-dos-a-bezi-na-8088-s-cga/

Cyningstan boosted:

IT'S MISSING DOS MONDAY!

This week, here's something that I know actually exists (but I'm only 99% confident it's for DOS…)

The Fire Fighter series are mid-90s, Indonesian-developed action games. They were created by the lovely (and now local!) Agustinus Nalwan, who no longer has copies of his own. :(

#dosgaming #vintagecomputing #retrogaming

Only image I can find of Fire Fighter 2!

Daemons are spirits of the underworld, the strongest monster in the game apart from the Necromancer. Blades bounce off them, so defeat them with scrolls or the magic wand. In the final levels, you might want to try avoiding them altogether if possible, to preserve your life-preserving healing potions for the final fight. You can download #Ossuary from https://cyningstan.itch.io/ossuary #ibmpc #msdos #cga

Daemons appear at level 20. Our hero's use of the wand is probably unwise here, because intelligence hasn't increased for a long time. The banish spells in our inventory would be a much better way of dealing with the daemon, who is enlarged in the inset.

Cyningstan boosted:

I made a shorter game (for DOS) with worse graphics (CGA) and I'm NOT KIDDING.

It's free, it's very silly, and you can download it here!

https://emmfoolery.itch.io/emmyfool

(Est. 20-30 minutes for a first playthrough.)

#dosgaming #adventuregame #adventuregamestudio

Client Info