6 ms·

From PS4 to 1.44 MB Floppy: Porting Retro City Rampage to MS-DOS [video]

204 points by adgasf 10y ago

endergen 10y ago
Brian Provinciano is a coding machine. Addicted to running things on constrained environments.
- rangibaby 10y ago
  Wow, there's a name I haven't seen for awhile. He made an entire suite of apps for editing or rolling your own Sierra adventure games about 15 years ago. He got quite mad at my "helpful" coding suggestions back in the day... sorry, I was 12 O_O
  - sleepychu 10y ago
    Please tell me you have the original suggestions :D
    - rangibaby 10y ago
      I just had a look and the mega-tokyo.com forum seems to be gone forever. Basically someone asked for help about a syntax error, and I said something like 'if you get a "no closing brace error" just insert right curly braces at the very end if your code until it compiles.' I think I even included a "code sample" }}}}}}}}}}. Brian did not like that at all!! Once my 12 year old hubris ran out, I gave up on trying to make "AAA" games by myself :-) /edit here is my old shame. So much cringe, but I was a kid so whatever. http://l-s-d_studios.tripod.com http://l-s-d_studios.tripod.com
      - sbjustin 10y ago
        Haha. I love it.
      - nacs 10y ago
        Wow Tripod still exists and they still have your website contents? Impressive. Also, love that "Sign my guestbook"/"View my guestbook", brings back old-internet memories.
      - elastic_church 10y ago
        haha I will never post my old internet presence.
      - Shish2k 10y ago
        It's reassuring to know that I wasn't the only 12 year old coder full of hubris and idiocy :D I tried to find some of the old coding forums to apologise, but most of them have disappeared from the internet...
- thetest3r 10y ago
  Reminds me of this comic: http://i.imgur.com/e9GZtxX.jpg http://i.imgur.com/e9GZtxX.jpg
  - teddyh 10y ago
    Stop linking to unofficial copies, here is the original: http://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2011-02-17 http://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2011-02-17
panda-panda 10y ago
Really great to see someone doing this. Games developers often fail to consider performance constraints.
- cobalt 10y ago
  um.. thats like 50% of game programming? (esp on consoles)
badsectoracula 10y ago
I love writing code for old PCs. A couple of years ago i wrote a 3D maze engine in C that i wanted to run in the original IBM PC i was building (here is a video from running on a 286 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfbQIvRYph4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfbQIvRYph4 with turbo turned off, i also managed to make it run in the IBM PC but that was some months later after i built it and didn't took a video). The renderer basically rasterizes sideways trapezoids in a column edge (top bottom) array and then draws it (the height also acts as an one dimensional depth buffer). It took me a while to make it run in interactive speeds, originally needing several seconds to draw each frame. I tried a bunch of methods and i ended up generating machine code for drawing 4 columns (CGA packs 4 pixels in one byte) for different heights in one go with a small post step to fix (clear/draw) the few individual pixels for each column in the batch and keeping the height and colors for the previous frame so that only changed columns are being drawn. I wanted to make some sort of turn-based dungeon crawler, although it would be a sci-fi one set on the moon :-P. I moved since then and my IBM PC is still in boxes since i do not have much space available (and i might move again soon so i don't want to unbox it because i had some professionals package it to avoid any damages). I also made a small "hunt the wumpus"-ish game for CGA too http://runtimeterror.com/games/cgacave/ http://runtimeterror.com/games/cgacave/ - this time the shots are from my IBM PC and not the 286. Also as a bonus a small program i wrote in Delphi 1.0 in Windows 3.1 to create the tiles :-). I've actually done a bunch of stuff in Delphi 1.0 because is a nice middle road between retro and modern (considering that i do a lot of "serious" stuff in Lazarus anyway). Last year i wrote a 3D editor for Windows 3.1 on it (http://i.imgur.com/eG34QXV.png http://i.imgur.com/eG34QXV.png and http://i.imgur.com/BZz6f9l.png http://i.imgur.com/BZz6f9l.png the second one took a 486 laptop i have here some hours to render :-P). I have a bunch of other stuff on my YouTube channel, most are random things i'm working on but i also have a few retrocoding works like another 3D maze in VB1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxhXjkogahs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxhXjkogahs (i extended that a bit later http://imgur.com/gJXwCoj http://imgur.com/gJXwCoj but got bored after a while) and an ultima-like engine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXRjdbUjZX0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXRjdbUjZX0 (this one has its own scripting language, image editor and map editor too - you can see them here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W70_G9LeByE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W70_G9LeByE) which i've managed to run in my 286 too with an IBM CGA monitor (the 286 has an EGA compatible graphic card with a CGA compatibility mode... sadly it is 16bit ISA and it doesn't work on the IBM PC because i'd like to have an IBM EGA card - and an IBM EGA monitor, but those are very rare and even more expensive). Bonus photos from my IBM PC (without the monitor, i took those before i finished building it): http://i.imgur.com/506cuFP.jpg http://i.imgur.com/506cuFP.jpg http://i.imgur.com/4tEvp24.jpg http://i.imgur.com/4tEvp24.jpg http://i.imgur.com/8bz9IdR.jpg http://i.imgur.com/8bz9IdR.jpg Also i have and collect a bunch of old development software (mainly from ebay), including Borland C++ 5, C++ Builder 1, Visual Basic 4, Visual Basic 5, Klik&Play (including the manual), Delphi 2, JBuilder and some other things i forget. I usually image those to play around in VMs and keep the disks on my shelf. Interestingly enough i found a couple of those actually useful (specifically Borland C++ 5 and C++ Builder) and i'm now using for beyond just playing around (mainly Borland C++ 5 because the IDE is lightning fast for compiling C code). Also i wrote a few patches for old games with C++ Builder which made it deal because of the small executable size and being able to design the window visually :-).
broahmed 10y ago
There's also a fascinating video of him getting the core of the game to run on NES spec constraints (think 8-bit CPU, 10KB of RAM): https://youtu.be/Hvx4xXhZMrU https://youtu.be/Hvx4xXhZMrU (~11 mins) It offers insight into how old-school game developers worked within the limitations of the hardware they designed for.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
gravypod 10y ago
I'd love to see this rewritten in C++ using that transpiler written for that talk at the last CppCon. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBkNBP00wJE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBkNBP00wJE
- mmastrac 10y ago
  I was trying to figure out which transpiler he was using, but I wasn't successful. I remember hearing about it on HN but can't remember the name!
n1tro 10y ago
Lots of knowledge on this video, amazing work! wish i had the time to pursue these kind of projects.
lcfcjs 10y ago
Honestly, I'm pretty sure a lot of these PS4 indie games could fit on a floppy... Maybe if they took out the sounds.
vlunkr 10y ago
If only the game was fun :P
glhaynes 10y ago
From PS4 to PS/2

204 points by adgasf 10y ago

endergen 10y ago

Brian Provinciano is a coding machine. Addicted to running things on constrained environments.

rangibaby 10y ago
Wow, there's a name I haven't seen for awhile. He made an entire suite of apps for editing or rolling your own Sierra adventure games about 15 years ago. He got quite mad at my "helpful" coding suggestions back in the day... sorry, I was 12 O_O
- sleepychu 10y ago
  Please tell me you have the original suggestions :D
  - rangibaby 10y ago
    I just had a look and the mega-tokyo.com forum seems to be gone forever. Basically someone asked for help about a syntax error, and I said something like 'if you get a "no closing brace error" just insert right curly braces at the very end if your code until it compiles.' I think I even included a "code sample" }}}}}}}}}}. Brian did not like that at all!! Once my 12 year old hubris ran out, I gave up on trying to make "AAA" games by myself :-) /edit here is my old shame. So much cringe, but I was a kid so whatever. http://l-s-d_studios.tripod.com http://l-s-d_studios.tripod.com
    - sbjustin 10y ago
      Haha. I love it.
    - nacs 10y ago
      Wow Tripod still exists and they still have your website contents? Impressive. Also, love that "Sign my guestbook"/"View my guestbook", brings back old-internet memories.
    - elastic_church 10y ago
      haha I will never post my old internet presence.
    - Shish2k 10y ago
      It's reassuring to know that I wasn't the only 12 year old coder full of hubris and idiocy :D I tried to find some of the old coding forums to apologise, but most of them have disappeared from the internet...
thetest3r 10y ago
Reminds me of this comic: http://i.imgur.com/e9GZtxX.jpg http://i.imgur.com/e9GZtxX.jpg
- teddyh 10y ago
  Stop linking to unofficial copies, here is the original: http://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2011-02-17 http://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2011-02-17

panda-panda 10y ago

Really great to see someone doing this. Games developers often fail to consider performance constraints.

cobalt 10y ago
um.. thats like 50% of game programming? (esp on consoles)

badsectoracula 10y ago

I love writing code for old PCs. A couple of years ago i wrote a 3D maze engine in C that i wanted to run in the original IBM PC i was building (here is a video from running on a 286 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfbQIvRYph4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfbQIvRYph4 with turbo turned off, i also managed to make it run in the IBM PC but that was some months later after i built it and didn't took a video). The renderer basically rasterizes sideways trapezoids in a column edge (top bottom) array and then draws it (the height also acts as an one dimensional depth buffer). It took me a while to make it run in interactive speeds, originally needing several seconds to draw each frame. I tried a bunch of methods and i ended up generating machine code for drawing 4 columns (CGA packs 4 pixels in one byte) for different heights in one go with a small post step to fix (clear/draw) the few individual pixels for each column in the batch and keeping the height and colors for the previous frame so that only changed columns are being drawn. I wanted to make some sort of turn-based dungeon crawler, although it would be a sci-fi one set on the moon :-P. I moved since then and my IBM PC is still in boxes since i do not have much space available (and i might move again soon so i don't want to unbox it because i had some professionals package it to avoid any damages). I also made a small "hunt the wumpus"-ish game for CGA too http://runtimeterror.com/games/cgacave/ http://runtimeterror.com/games/cgacave/ - this time the shots are from my IBM PC and not the 286. Also as a bonus a small program i wrote in Delphi 1.0 in Windows 3.1 to create the tiles :-). I've actually done a bunch of stuff in Delphi 1.0 because is a nice middle road between retro and modern (considering that i do a lot of "serious" stuff in Lazarus anyway). Last year i wrote a 3D editor for Windows 3.1 on it (http://i.imgur.com/eG34QXV.png http://i.imgur.com/eG34QXV.png and http://i.imgur.com/BZz6f9l.png http://i.imgur.com/BZz6f9l.png the second one took a 486 laptop i have here some hours to render :-P). I have a bunch of other stuff on my YouTube channel, most are random things i'm working on but i also have a few retrocoding works like another 3D maze in VB1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxhXjkogahs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxhXjkogahs (i extended that a bit later http://imgur.com/gJXwCoj http://imgur.com/gJXwCoj but got bored after a while) and an ultima-like engine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXRjdbUjZX0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXRjdbUjZX0 (this one has its own scripting language, image editor and map editor too - you can see them here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W70_G9LeByE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W70_G9LeByE) which i've managed to run in my 286 too with an IBM CGA monitor (the 286 has an EGA compatible graphic card with a CGA compatibility mode... sadly it is 16bit ISA and it doesn't work on the IBM PC because i'd like to have an IBM EGA card - and an IBM EGA monitor, but those are very rare and even more expensive). Bonus photos from my IBM PC (without the monitor, i took those before i finished building it): http://i.imgur.com/506cuFP.jpg http://i.imgur.com/506cuFP.jpg http://i.imgur.com/4tEvp24.jpg http://i.imgur.com/4tEvp24.jpg http://i.imgur.com/8bz9IdR.jpg http://i.imgur.com/8bz9IdR.jpg Also i have and collect a bunch of old development software (mainly from ebay), including Borland C++ 5, C++ Builder 1, Visual Basic 4, Visual Basic 5, Klik&Play (including the manual), Delphi 2, JBuilder and some other things i forget. I usually image those to play around in VMs and keep the disks on my shelf. Interestingly enough i found a couple of those actually useful (specifically Borland C++ 5 and C++ Builder) and i'm now using for beyond just playing around (mainly Borland C++ 5 because the IDE is lightning fast for compiling C code). Also i wrote a few patches for old games with C++ Builder which made it deal because of the small executable size and being able to design the window visually :-).

broahmed 10y ago

There's also a fascinating video of him getting the core of the game to run on NES spec constraints (think 8-bit CPU, 10KB of RAM): https://youtu.be/Hvx4xXhZMrU https://youtu.be/Hvx4xXhZMrU (~11 mins) It offers insight into how old-school game developers worked within the limitations of the hardware they designed for.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

gravypod 10y ago

I'd love to see this rewritten in C++ using that transpiler written for that talk at the last CppCon. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBkNBP00wJE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBkNBP00wJE

mmastrac 10y ago
I was trying to figure out which transpiler he was using, but I wasn't successful. I remember hearing about it on HN but can't remember the name!

n1tro 10y ago

Lots of knowledge on this video, amazing work! wish i had the time to pursue these kind of projects.

lcfcjs 10y ago

Honestly, I'm pretty sure a lot of these PS4 indie games could fit on a floppy... Maybe if they took out the sounds.

vlunkr 10y ago

If only the game was fun :P

glhaynes 10y ago

From PS4 to PS/2