Questions tagged [gaming]
Retro games, both hardware and software-based. NOT EVERY GAMING QUESTION IS ON-TOPIC. See tag wiki for guidance.
155
questions
87
votes
1
answer
58k
views
How exactly does Sonic & Knuckles' 'Lock-On Technology' work?
The cartridge of Sonic & Knuckles is a little special. It flips open to allow you to connect another Sega Mega Drive (Genesis in US) cartridge to the top of it like so:
Click for larger images
I ...
- 1,040
85
votes
11
answers
29k
views
How were the first ZX Spectrum games written?
Being a child of the 80s I loved my ZX Spectrum, did my best to learn BASIC but I felt like the games I was playing (Jetpac, Dizzy, Renegade etc) were perhaps not written using BASIC.
I wondered: how ...
- 1,097
65
votes
10
answers
22k
views
How was copying prevented when the first CD-ROM games were introduced?
Several ways exist to protect against the copying of games but, when CD-ROM games were first introduced, were there any measures taken by video game developers to prevent the copying of games?
user11265
65
votes
5
answers
10k
views
Back in 1984 I wrote some games for Spectrum - Will they still be playable?
Back in 1984, I was commissioned to write some games for ZX-Spectrum. They were sold together. To my amazement I found that someone is selling a copy online.
I thought of buying it but it is in the ...
- 1,141
62
votes
7
answers
11k
views
Why did some old MS-DOS games lack the ability to exit them?
While playing around in DOSBox-X, I'm reminded of some DOS games which appear to entirely lack the ability to exit/quit/close them.
One prime example of that is "Paratrooper" from 1982. I've ...
- 607
60
votes
17
answers
20k
views
Simplest system to create an emulator for
Next year I'm going to teach a 2-semester microprocessors class to third-year undergraduate EE students. In order to sign up for the class, students need to have completed programming and digital ...
- 733
60
votes
3
answers
45k
views
Does this 8088 code in the Leisure Suit Larry 2 game actually do anything?
In the Sierra On-Line game "Leisure Suit Larry 2" there's a part in the game where the main character (Larry) has to write a program in 8088 assembly language as part of his tribal ...
- 1,457
59
votes
7
answers
18k
views
Why do old games use flashing as means of showing damage?
When you play old games, especially platformers, a common "special effect" is rapid blinking of your character when they are hit. Also, enemies often blinked before dying. Not all games did this, but ...
- 1,825
57
votes
7
answers
18k
views
How did old MS-DOS games utilize various graphic cards?
Nowadays each graphic card has some driver in operating system that translates some (typically) standard API such as OpenGL, so that programmers use some standardized API code to tell graphics cards ...
- 641
49
votes
9
answers
12k
views
Why weren't bootable game disks ever common on the IBM PC?
While for other platforms of that era (primarily, Amiga), putting a game on a bootable disk was quite a normal practice, this approach never taken off on IBM PC. Why not?
I do remember people having ...
- 2,222
47
votes
3
answers
7k
views
How did C64 games handle music during gameplay?
On the C64 there was no threading, so how did games handle treating at the same time music and game code? Music requires exact timings, and the SID had to be instructed to change the note at the right ...
- 689
46
votes
2
answers
5k
views
Why are paddles called paddles?
A paddle is a sort of input device, common on early video game consoles and home computers, consisting of a handheld wheel with one or more fire buttons. Unlike dial boxes, which spin freely, paddles ...
- 7,681
43
votes
3
answers
9k
views
How do DOS games like DOOM benefit from a PCI graphics card?
The original DOOM and its derivatives (DOOM II, Heretic, Hexen) were early 90s 3D games released at a time when DOS PCs usually had ISA bus Super VGA graphics cards. In the following few years, PCs ...
- 61k
42
votes
1
answer
6k
views
Looking for a PC 2D platformer game from the mid-2000s or earlier
I'm trying to find the name of a PC game I used to play as a kid in the early/mid-2000s. All I remember from it is that it was a 2D platformer and that one of the levels looked like the following ...
- 523
38
votes
4
answers
5k
views
How did "Ballblazer" pull off fast, smooth, first-person, solid-model 3D on Atari 8-bits?
I remember the first time I saw Ballblazer, the 1984 game, running on a friend's Atari 800. The split-screen 3d graphics and fast action blew my socks off.
Looking back, I get the impression there ...
- 61k