SDL Now Supports DOS • Hacker News Board

Re: SDL Now Supports DOS

#31

Post by Induane » Fri, Apr 24, 2026, 6:04 PM UTC

dale_glass wrote: post #28

Xirdus wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I basically had this setup back in the day. I don't really know how I ended up with it, I was 7 at the time and none of it was intentional - but my bootloader had two entries: I could boot into Windows 98, or I could boot into Worms.

Probably your parents setting it up? As far as I know, Worms is a normal DOS game, so the only way for that to happen should be a DOS install configured to just auto-start Worms on boot. Which makes sense as a way to keep a kid away from anything that could cause trouble. I very vaguely recall that there used to be a very few PC games that worked as boot floppies and possibly didn't use DOS at all, but it was a rarit…

I bet it wasn't actually the bootloader but something with autoexec.bat - you could setup choices in it and windows was just one launch option.

Re: SDL Now Supports DOS

#32

Post by mrweasel » Fri, Apr 24, 2026, 6:08 PM UTC

jan_Sate wrote: post #5

Uhm... excuse me? Why? Is there anyone even using DOS for anything serious these days?

Perhaps not serious, but I think people gravitate towards older systems these days because they are easier to conceptualize. It's not unrealistic for a single person to have a complete grasp of e.g. the C64 and it's programming environment. DOS is similarly constraint, but also easier for you to form a more or less complete mental model around.

Some people love computers and making them do weird stuff, older computers make certain tasks feel more manageable.

Re: SDL Now Supports DOS

#33

Post by theragra » Fri, Apr 24, 2026, 6:15 PM UTC

alnwlsn wrote: post #12

This is an especially funny screenshot as DosBOX itself is built on SDL.

Hm, then we need dosbox running in dos!

Re: SDL Now Supports DOS

#34

Post by bpavuk » Fri, Apr 24, 2026, 6:17 PM UTC

jlokier wrote: post #30

Perfect! I was just doing some Turbo C development inside DOSBox-X inside Debian GNU/Linux inside VMware Fusion inside macOS this morning.

you may also enjoy watching Inception then :)

Re: SDL Now Supports DOS

#35

Post by sedatk » Fri, Apr 24, 2026, 6:22 PM UTC

raverbashing wrote: post #4

Well I guess Allegra was a bit old already /s

I loved Allegra! Saved me a lot of time when I was writing code for our musicdisk. That was 29 years ago though. :)

Re: SDL Now Supports DOS

#36

Post by BirAdam » Fri, Apr 24, 2026, 6:24 PM UTC

ronsor wrote: post #2

All that's left now is SDL for UEFI, and then all our games can run in a pre-OS environment.

Well… UEFI is kind of modern DOS.

Re: SDL Now Supports DOS

#37

Post by Xirdus » Fri, Apr 24, 2026, 6:24 PM UTC

dale_glass wrote: post #28

Xirdus wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I basically had this setup back in the day. I don't really know how I ended up with it, I was 7 at the time and none of it was intentional - but my bootloader had two entries: I could boot into Windows 98, or I could boot into Worms.

Probably your parents setting it up? As far as I know, Worms is a normal DOS game, so the only way for that to happen should be a DOS install configured to just auto-start Worms on boot. Which makes sense as a way to keep a kid away from anything that could cause trouble. I very vaguely recall that there used to be a very few PC games that worked as boot floppies and possibly didn't use DOS at all, but it was a rarit…

No, I set it up. My parents were non-technical. I had a CD-ROM re-release of Worms for DOS from one gaming magazine or another. I guess the installer set it up somewhere somehow but I remember it wasn't easy to get it installed and there were further problems trying to launch it. It's possible the installer itself was a DOS program, not a Windows program.

Re: SDL Now Supports DOS

#38

Post by Xirdus » Fri, Apr 24, 2026, 6:27 PM UTC

Induane wrote: post #31

dale_glass wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably your parents setting it up? As far as I know, Worms is a normal DOS game, so the only way for that to happen should be a DOS install configured to just auto-start Worms on boot. Which makes sense as a way to keep a kid away from anything that could cause trouble. I very vaguely recall that there used to be a very few PC games that worked as boot floppies and possibly didn't use DOS at all, but it was a rarit…

I bet it wasn't actually the bootloader but something with autoexec.bat - you could setup choices in it and windows was just one launch option.

Well, if you treat DOS as a bootloader for Windows 98 - which it was actually - then modifying autoexec.bat would count as setting up the bootloader.

Re: SDL Now Supports DOS

#39

Post by BirAdam » Fri, Apr 24, 2026, 6:28 PM UTC

queuebert wrote: post #9

jan_Sate wrote: post #5

Uhm... excuse me? Why? Is there anyone even using DOS for anything serious these days?

There used to be stock exchanges running happily on DOS. Maybe there still are.

Most use Linux now, and specifically RHEL. I did see some IBM z, but that was specifically for one old DB that handled oil pipeline stuff.

Re: SDL Now Supports DOS

#40

Post by benatkin » Fri, Apr 24, 2026, 6:34 PM UTC

jan_Sate wrote: post #5

Uhm... excuse me? Why? Is there anyone even using DOS for anything serious these days?

SDL is written in C. So it can support it without too much trouble. And some people are compiling stuff to run on DOS. So it makes sense. And your objection doesn't hold any water.