Updates as of November 4th, 2019:

Changes made to make this page work on Neocities.

I just uploaded this old 1990's programmer's journal that shows you how to write MS-DOS applications to take advantage of Mode 13h graphics.  I do not plan to make additional changes and updates to these pages.  I just placed them here for your enjoyment (or not).

Updates as of September 5th, 1999:

The Game Library has been modified to work in Microsoft C

I made a copy of the Game Library code and modified it so it would work under Microsoft C.  The compiler I used is Microsoft's Visual C++ Professional Edition version 1.0.  A very old version, I must admit, but I figured that it should be somewhat compatible with later (or even earlier) versions of the compiler from Microsoft.  I sincerely doubt that it would work with anything above VC++ 4.0 since, unless I missed my guess, the DOS platform is not supported in VC++ 5.0 and greater.  If you are a Borland user, don't worry, the Game Library code written originally for Turbo C++ is still intact.

I've been doing a little bit of house cleaning here and there but no major changes to date have been made on this web page.  The Game Library itself has been updated and new code has been added.  I decided to hold off working on the Picture class until I got the Sprite class working.  I just completed that not too long ago and I must say that it works pretty well.  So now it is time to complete the Picture class and getting it working.

Click here for the Game Library.

Updates as of May 22th, 1999:

Joystick Interface Information Posted

The information pertaining to joystick interfacing has been posted on the Game Programmer's Journals.  It is not yet completed, but the complete library code is available.  There is also a draft code for loading bitmap (BMP) and PC Paintbrush files with examples in the Game Library.

I've also noticed that many people have been inquiring about some of the books that I've talked about on these pages.  I wish I could help get these books but frankly the information both in those books and on the game programmer's pages are a bit old and outdated.  Needless to say, the books are out of print.  I will continue to post information here as I find the time, also, I would suggest that you check out the news groups and other programmer's sites too.  Also, check out your local libraries and book and software shops.  They may also have what you need there.

Updates as of February 11th, 1999:

Finally, more updates...

Yes I apologize for the long wait on this one.  Actually, I have been updating the pages a little at a time, but I just now got around to uploading them.  Expect more updates to take place in the future.

Oh, and let me apologize for everyone who has signed my guestbook only to find that your entries were deleted at a later time.  That was happening because I kept a local copy of the guestbook file on disk and when I uploaded it, I copy it over the newer one on Geocities.  Please, forgive me for that, I have deleted my local copy after discovering what has happend so I will never upload over top of the Geocities copy again.  Therefore, any entries posted to my guestbook will not be deleted accidently again.

Thanks for your support.

Updates as of December 20th, 1998:

More files added to the game library and a few other updates.

The Game Library (GameLib.zip file) has been updated to include library files for both C and QuickBASIC.  The QuickBASIC library example, though, is only meant for demonstration and is not intended to be a full fledged library as the C library will be.  Files added are those that demonstrate the Line and Circle functions in programs by themselves and a few fixes and updates to the source code for the Circle function itself.  Also, the pages related to creating libraries have been changed with new updates.  What else, oh, I finally got those pictures made for the circles page (almost forgot about that one).  My apologies for the gap in the updating of these pages but as we all know, it is the Christmas season and for those of you in college (like me) you know that it is also time for book reports to be due and for final exams, whew!!!!!  Glad that's over...

I probably won't update this page before then so for everyone reading this, have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year (Happy 1999).

Updates as of November 22th, 1998:

The file VMODE.C was corrected.

After receiving an e-mail about the beginner game library, I discovered that the vmode.c file had one line in it that was not correct.  The line that read [ #include "include\vmode.h"] needs to be changed to [ #include "vmode.h"].  Sorry for the confusion, the sample file on this page has been corrected also.

Updates as of November 7th, 1998:

The Game Library Source Code was added

Of course, you can easily get the game library source code by following the pages that explain each of the functions starting right here.   However, a ZIP file was generated to streamline the downloading of the game library code.  This library can be found right here.

Updates as of November 3th, 1998:

A bug was found in the FillScreen function

If you were using the FillScreen function from this page that contained the _fmemset line in it, there is a bug in it that was causing my computer to crash.  The bug was fixed by simply rearranging the parameters to the _fmemset function.   This was how the original FillScreen function looked like:

      void FillScreen(int color)
      {
           /* Set all video memory to appropriate color */
           _fmemset(videoMem, ScreenWidth * ScreenHeight, color);
      }
      

The color parameter goes in the middle and not at the end of the parameter list.  The following code is correct:

      void FillScreen(int color)
      {
           /* Set all video memory to appropriate color */
           _fmemset(videoMem, color, ScreenWidth * ScreenHeight);
      }
      

It has been corrected in the programmer's journals also.  My apologies for any inconveniences that this may have caused.

Updates as of September 29th, 1998:

The Programmer's Page gets a face-lift

I decided to restructure my programmer's page for various reasons. Part of the reason is due to the ever increasing space that Geocities is allowing us to have and the ability to put the information in subdirectories. Another reason is because I have been painfully slow in updating the pages and I hope, now that I am keeping my own private journal of game programming information, that I can transfer them here and increase the number of updates. Also, I was getting tired of trying to fit the information in about only 80% of the web page width. Fancy tricks that I would try would work on some computers, but not on others, even when the computers all use the same browsers. I hope that this simpler format will work out better across the Internet as a whole. I plan to keep all the old information available on here, until it is ultimately replace with similar information from the entries in my personal game programmer's journal. So thanks for bearing with me here...

Getting Started | Assumed Knowledge | References | Acknowledgements

Programming related links | Most recent updates | About me