Alley Cat Remeow Edition | Hacker News Reader

Alley Cat Remeow Edition

joflof.com

44 pointsjustsomehnguy21 comments

Alley Cat was one of very few old PC games that ran at a fixed speed, making it playable on higher end later PCs without having to use tools like MOSLO.

Too bad the new version was not completed for MS-DOS. If it was it would have been possible to play it on not just on Windows, but pretty much every modern and near-future (and far-future?) system.

DOSBox is a very good virtual machine for 2D games actually. It can support games far beyond what any real DOS hardware could. I wish there was support for exporting to DOS-executables included in some modern game engines, since that would provide at least a single fixed, future-safe, target platform. The closest I know of is an old DOS port of Löve 2D, but it only supports 320x200 VGA graphics. There is nothing limiting DOSBox itself to not support virtual VESA SVGA modes up to modern graphics modes (as long as x and y sizes each fit in unsigned 16-bit integers).

The author mentions using "old Allegro".

If that means Allegro ⁴ then I maintain a fork for use with DJGPP which can compile DOS binaries:

https://github.com/superjamie/allegro-4.2.3.1-xc

I agree DOSBox is a good programming target these days.

> Too bad the new version was not completed for MS-DOS. If it was it would have been possible to play it on not just on Windows, but pretty much every modern and near-future (and far-future?) system.

Systems today can't run MS-DOS, or any other programs that use BIOS interrupts. They aren't there anymore.

That is why I mentioned DOSBox. That is just one possibility, but probably currently the best one. DOS(Box) remains a fixed, known, target. Windows, even if it has impressive backwards compatibility, breaks older games often enough that it becomes annoying.

If a DOS game is distributed, as GOG does for old DOS games, with a bundled installer and DOSBox configuration, normal users would not even have to know they are playing a non-native game. We can treat it as just a generic virtual machine for games. The fact that it happens to also be backwards compatible with DOS games made 40 years ago is just a fun bonus, even if that is currently its primary purpose.

Technically they still exist, you can buy new 8086 machines and 386s with new motherboards and recycled industrial CPUs, etc.

The IBM PC version is one of the first games I remember playing as well.

Do do do do do da do do…

The opening screen in this game is why I ended up working at IBM for 8 years.

This is wonderful. The YouTube video is perfect. I love how completely chaotic the game is. Every level having its own mini game. It's like a very creative indie game nowadays. Which I guess it was!

I hope this website and game get saved on GitHub + Internet Archive too.

I can feel that the remake is a labor of love

Wow memories of my first ever experiences playing games in the PC. The first game I ever played was Leisure suit Larry

This is one of those games that would be great to have the source code for. I’ve seen dozens of people try to do rewrites or reverse engineer the code, but this one got further than most. The author of the original Allycat died a couple decades ago, so that little DOS binary is all we’ll ever have.

The original is available and playable online on the Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/msdos_Alley_Cat_1984

So many great memories of playing Alley Cat in CGA on the old 286 Epson clone.

This is beautifully done. It's rare to see his tributes that improve on exactly the right features that made the originals loveable. This squarely falls into that category.

The hardest part of remaking a beloved classic is knowing what not to change

Indeed. One recent success in my experience was Streets of Rage 4. They captured exactly what made the game fun and did it better.

I played the IBM version as a young kid.

This works great on my Steam Deck!

This is exactly the kind of project that makes me smile

Next do Gertrude's Secrets and Robot Odyssey please.

Amazing work.

https://robotodyssey.online

I cannot express my gratitude.

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