A framework for making 2D DOS games in Lua

Thanks for sharing; I was unaware of the app this tool was modeled after: Codea (Lua on iPad)

http://twolivesleft.com/Codea/

>> It'd be a challenge working with the limited resources

It's fairly simple until you get into things like different hardware and trying to do things with networking. VGA graphics, keyboard input, that stuff is all pretty simple.

Assuming something like a SoundBlaster, even sound programming could be done with a library.

I think it's the other way around - real mode has the 640kb limit and protected mode gets you a 32-bit address space.

There are gaps in my knowledge, but my understanding is that to address 32-bits of memory requires the use of a "DOS extender". The reason being that DOS is barely an operating system at all- It never provided any 32-bit support but support was possible by monkey patching over part of the operating system in memory. This was possible because DOS had no security measures preventing such horrifying endeavours.

Anyway, I see no reference to a dos extender here so I don't know how it could be anything other than a 16-bit program.

If the author of this framework is looking for a dos extender, I think HX seems like a good choice: http://www.japheth.de/HX.html

unlike other DOS extenders, that provide idiosyncratic apis for allocating 32-bit memory, HX imitates as much as possible standard windows apis, and is able to run some windows applications in plain DOS- including, strangely enough, DOSBox.

(I have nothing to do with HX by the way.)

My assumption is that since DosBox simulates the same hardware on different platforms/OSes - it's possible to write a DOS game once and enjoy it on Linux, Windows, Mac, Android etc. Cross-platform games with retro flavor, why not?

I remember Carmack's statement on DOS from his .plan back around the Quake 2 days

We are not going to do another dos game. No amount of flaming hate mail is going to change my mind on this (PLEASE don't!). The advantages of good TCP/IP support, dynamic linking, powerfull virtual memory, device drivers, etc, are just too much to overcome. Yes, all of those can be provided under dos in various ways, but it just isn't worth it.