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Show HN: My from-scratch OS kernel that runs DOOM

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Show HN: My from-scratch OS kernel that runs DOOM

#1
Hi there! I've been on-and-off working on TacOS for a few months, which follows some UNIX-derived concepts (exec/fork, unix-style VFS, etc) and is now able to run a port of Doom, with a fairly small amount of modifications, using my from-scratch libc. The performance is actually decent compared to what I expected. Very interested to hear your thoughts. Thank you!

Show HN: My from-scratch OS kernel that runs DOOM
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Re: Show HN: My from-scratch OS kernel that runs DOOM

#5
Hi, congratulations! You must be feeling proud. Nice choice of proof of concept (DOOM).

Sorry to disappoint you but all I have are some noob questions.

What would be the steps to run this on a laptop? I take it that after building it there would be a process similar to, say, setting up dual-boot in a Windows PC? (Whoa I'm asking a stranger on the Internet how to run dangerous software on my computer...)

If one wanted to undertake such a project, do you have any recommendations of textbooks or other reading material? I had some OS & related courses in university (I'm EE, so computer-adjacent), but they were all very abstract / high level / conceptually-focused. I'd love something more concrete. It doesn't have to be x64.

Re: Show HN: My from-scratch OS kernel that runs DOOM

#7
post #6

Dude, getting Doom to run on your own kernel is epic - I gotta try building some wild stuff like this someday

Yeah definitely an achievement I'm happy with. I've got a bit of refactoring to do, ANSI parsing etc then I'd like to port more - perhaps even Vim (or another portable Vim-like editor called Dim)

Re: Show HN: My from-scratch OS kernel that runs DOOM

#9
Dude, I'm impressed cause I don't the energy to build my own OS kernel!

But here's a wacky idea. Just set it up so that the OS only runs DOOM as default. Boots directly into Qemu and runs DOOM, nothing to select or change. Maybe something you could fold other games into so that they can run off a USB boot loader. Might be appealing to people who don't want to install or compromise their base setup.

Re: Show HN: My from-scratch OS kernel that runs DOOM

#10
post #6

Dude, getting Doom to run on your own kernel is epic - I gotta try building some wild stuff like this someday

Yeah definitely an achievement I'm happy with. I've got a bit of refactoring to do, ANSI parsing etc then I'd like to port more - perhaps even Vim (or another portable Vim-like editor called Dim)

Could you explain more about why you'd need to port things? If you have a libc, shouldn't it "just work"? Do you have to scatter #define or #ifdef all over? What about if you wanted to support Golang? Would you have to implement a bunch of syscall?
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