{DOStodon}
Or how a C64 game turned into a MS-DOS Mastodon client.
Who am I
- Goth and metalhead
- Standard nerd
- Gamer
- Retro computer/console collector
- Creative coder (wannabe)
- IRL: Embedded software developer (medical devices)
- Lets build a game for the C64
- Damn, I neither know 6502 nor any HW specifics
- Let's code on a different retro platform
- DJGPP, Allegro are great
- Oh wait, I need a game idea
- Well, lets start with a framework
- Oh, look, an embedded Javascript runtime
- Escalation level > 9000
History (DOjS)
DOjS is a creative coding environment
for MS-DOS
2018
First research, deciding on DJGPP and Allegro
02/2019
First prototype going public
03/2019
Implementing the first version of the integrated editor at BCC demo party
2021
Added CURL and TLS support
2020
Reaching V1.0 and adding 3dfx acceleration
11/2022
Implemented first version of DOStodon
- Runs on MS-DOS/FreeDOS/Win9x
- Designed for Pentium class systems
- ES2015 (Javascript)
- Embedded editor
- p5js compatible (sort of)
- Plugins and packages
- Full JSDoc
- 32bit color space w/ alpha (VESA)
- 2D graphics, Sound, Mouse, Keyboard, LPT and COM
- File IO and ZIP support
- 3dfx Voodoo HW acceleration through GLIDE3 or OpenGL
Features
- Win 10
- VSCode
- Ubuntu on WSL2
- DJGPP cross compiler
- DOSBox-X and -staging
- AMD K6-II 500, 64MiB RAM, SB64 AWE, 3dfx Voodoo 1
- EtherDFS
Dev Stack
Demo DOjS
Simple Sketch
very simple sketch implemented in p5js running on OpenProcessing and DOjS
1.
2.
Native API
https://tixy.land/ implemented in DOjS native API
3.
HW accelerated 3D
Rotating cube with dynamic textures using GLIDE3 acceleration
First API contact
- DOStodon is implemented in Javascript targeting DOjS
- DOjS is implemented using DJGPP
- It runs on CWSDPMI DOS extender
- TCP/IP is done using builtin Watt32 + packet driver for the NIC
- Plugins:
- HTTPS is provided by CURL + mbedTLS
- Image caching is done using SQLite3
- PNG and JPEG support
Tech stack
MS-DOS
Packet driver
(TSR)
DOjS
PNG.DXE
JPG.DXE
CURL.DXE
SQLITE.DXE
DOStodon
CWSDPMI
- People run it on VMs and real HW
- Someone ported it to a 386sx w/ 9MiB RAM
- Minimal viable HW: 486/100MHz, 16MiB RAM
- Targeted for Pentium 133, 32MiB RAM
"Official" (retro) App
DOStodon
demo
Questions?
Try it
https://github.com/SuperIlu/DOStodon
https://github.com/SuperIlu/DOjS
Contact
@dec_hl@mastodon.social
DOjS Discord (see GitHub)
HOA23 DECT 4242
{DOStodon} Or how a C64 game turned into a MS-DOS Mastodon client.