awesome-dos

Bruce's C compiler is a simple C compiler that produces 8086 assembler for tiny/small memory models

DJ Delorie's complete 32-bit C/C++ development environment for Intel 80386. Used for Quake

A 16-bit counterpart to DJGPP, a GCC-based toolchain for developing 16-bit (8086 to 80286, a.k.a. IA-16) DOS applications, currently maintained by TK Chia

Formerly commercial C/C++ development environment for 16- and 32-bit DOS and Windows. The current official version is 1.9. A GitHub fork is also available. Used for Doom I-II, Warcraft I-II, Duke Nukem 3D, Full Throttle, Dark Forces and Retro City Rampage

The is very valuable in order to understand working with both version 1.9 and the V2 fork

Open Watcom V2

GitHub fork which is actively maintained and is ported to 64-bit Windows and Linux

C IDE and compiler from Borland first released in 1987

C++ IDE and compiler from Borland released in 1991

C++ IDE and compiler from Borland released in 1992

IDE to develop DOS games in 2d, mode 7 and 3d. Released in 1998

A small, portable, procedural, block-structured, recursive, almost typeless, and to some degree object-oriented programming language by Nils M. Holm

Portable self-hosting C compiler capable of producing executables for a number of platforms, including real and protected mode DOS programs, by Alexei A. Frounze

A self-hosting Small-C Compiler Toolkit for DOS(8086) with: K&R C Compiler, Make, Linker, Assembler. First released in 1982 by Jim E. Hendrix

386MAX

Memory manager for DOS PCs with 386 or higher CPUs, . Source code was released in June 2022 on GitHub with GPL-3.0 license

DOjS

JavaScript programming environment for MS-DOS, FreeDOS or any DOS-based Windows (like 95, 98, ME)

Online demo of Lua 5.3.5, compiled for MS-DOS on the Intel 80486 processor

Micropython for FreeDOS

FreeDOS ad-hoc module for

Perl for DOS

Python for DOS, including multi-threading, networking and OpenGL

History of the DOS family including CP/M, Q-DOS/86-DOS, MS-DOS and PC-DOS. Article also includes a diagram of the timeline and family tree of DOS operating systems

16-bit compilation tutorial for Borland/Turbo C/C++ and Open Watcom. Goes into depth of memory addressing and memory models

32-bit compilation tutorial for Open Watcom

Build process of Chris Wellons's DOS Defender game using DJGPP. Goal was to create a 32-bit 80386 COM executable

Tutorial series to learn how to create graphics on DOS, written in 1996

Short article about getting Turbo C running on FreeDOS and moving a pixel around

Blog post about Scali's journey of doing CGA, EGA and VGA programming

DOS game programming tutorial series including a primer on C, graphics, animation, input handling and collision detection. This series contains a tutorial for making . Last chapter contains full source code of a Break Out game on DOS

Kevin Matz's almost book-length treatment of DOS system programming and VGA programming fundamentals using C/C++ and 80x86 assembly. Unfortunately it is incomplete and was abandoned since 2001

Collection of guides covering assembly, sound (Sound Blaster, Gravis UltraSound, PC Speaker, GameBlaster, Adlib), input, memory (EMS, XMS, DMA Transfers), PIT, VGA, SVGA, algorithms and file formats

Series from 1999 that introduces to graphics programming under DOS. The home site contains other late 90s/early 2000s game programming articles as well

System programming tutorials like disk handling, interrupts, inputs, sound, graphics

Source code and files for the following topics: MS-DOS, networking, C, C++, Pascal, Visual Basic, Delphi, 3D, PC speaker, Soundblaster, Gravis Ultrasound, MIDI and many more

API documentation for routines accessing BIOS operations directly (disk operations, BIOS keyboard, printer, time, memory, serial, interrupts)

dos.h header documentation by Digital Mars - API documentation of functions for interfacing with the DOS operating system itself

List of every documented and undocumented interrupt call known, accessible through search, categories and interrupt numbers

Original in downloadable .zip files from

Raymond Chen's explanation of segmented memory, including near- and far pointers

List of all known video modes including BIOS interrupt numbers, text/pixel resolution, number of colors and video memory addresses

Document describing the hardware, memory map, register I/O and hardware clones of the IBM's original CGA

Hardware guide for VGA cards that is also relevant for modern graphics cards including NVidia and ATI

A VGA programming tutorial that also shows the list of video modes (text, CGA, EGA, VGA, SVGA) in a table at the beginning

VGA programming tutorial series in Pascal and Assembly

VESA article with history at the beginning and short mention of the VESA VBE standard, but unfortunately the example codes aren't even available through Wayback Machine

Tutorial about querying VESA modes

Tutorial about querying VESA modes

Series of tutorials that include drawing pixels in VESA mode (protected or real)

Just code listing for drawing an ellipse in VESA mode

A 1995 CD-ROM containing source code for Adlib, Gravis, Pro-Audio, Roland and Sound Blaster sound cards. The description for the folders on the CD-ROM is listed

Very short tutorial on using the PIT for generating PC speaker frequency

Freqency table usable to parameterize the PC speaker

PC speaker programming chapter of the "A to Z of C" book with source code

Best starting point to learn about the OPL2 sound chip besides 8-bit guy's YouTube video

Reference of OPL2 operations and registers

Reverse-engineered reference on OPL3

Programming the Sound Blaster 16 DSP CT1341 chip for recording and playback of digitized audio

version 3.4 on

List of Sound Blaster models and registers

A table for setting the appropriate DOSBox cycle count according to CPU types (IBM XT 88, 286, 386, 486, Pentium I, Pentium II). Comes handy when you are developing a DOS game and want to simulate the environment where you intend to execute it

Fabien Sanglard's walkthrough on the game engine architecture of id Software's Wolfenstein 3D on the IBM PC's hardware. Contains forewords by John Carcmack, Tom Hall and John Romero

Fabien Sanglard's walkthrough on the game engine architecture of id Software's original Doom on Intel 486 system and game console ports. Contains forewords by John Carcmack, Dave Taylor and John Romero

Non-profit book on programming in C on DOS. DOS system programming starts from Part II

Collection of Michael Abrash's Dr. Dobb's Journal graphics programming articles and his work on the graphics subsystem of Quake ( )

Comprehensive DOS game development book about starting out. Topics include keyboard, mouse- and joystick input handling, creating 2D and 3D VGA graphics, raycaster rendering, sound and music, game algorithms, Interrupt Service Routines (ISR), timers, artificial intelligence, networked multiplayer through serial port and null-modem cable, tooling, parallax scrolling and optimization techniques

Ebook available from online libraries to borrow (required due to licensing): ,

Companion book to , continuing where the original left off. Topics include SVGA, Binary Space Partition (BSP), UI, voxel graphics, memory management in real and protected mode, advanced sound programming, debugging and optimization techniques

Ebook available from online libraries to borrow (required due to licensing): ,

Historical talk starting from Unix, going through CPM, DOS 1.x, DOS 2.x, DOS 3.x, DOS 4.x, DOS 6.x, Windows 3.1, Windows 95 and ending with FreeDOS

History and technical details about IBM's CGA system. Also describes 4-color RGBI and 16-color Composite modes

Video about PC speaker, FM synthesizers in NES and Commodore 64, Yamaha OPL chip in AdLib and Sound Blaster sound cards, PCM samples and MOD music

DOS programming tutorial series including VGA, SoundBlaster and VGA Mode X

Comparison of playing the intro theme of Secret of Monkey Island through PC speaker, IBM PCjr/Tandy, AdLib, Game Blaster, Roland LAPC-1/MT-32, Gravis Ultrasound, Roland SCC-1 MIDI, SB16 Waveblaster/AWE32 and CD quality digital audio

GDC talk. Brian Provinciano's presentation on porting Retro City Rampage from PlayStation 4 to DOS. Topics include optimization, using interrupts, timing, PC speaker sound, joystick, memory management and fixed-point math

Video about DOS executable formats including , and

Video about the 8.3 limitation of filenames under DOS, FAT partitioning scheme, NTFS, VFAT, FatGo, and

Video about how PC memory looks like, conventional memory, extender memory and reasons for the need of DOS Protected Mode Interface (DPMI) and extenders like DOS/4GW

Former Microsoft employee David Plummer tells stories about development of MS-DOS and compiles MS-DOS 4.00 source code which has been open-sourced by Microsoft

MS-DOS

GitHub repository of the original source code for MS-DOS v1.25, v2.0 and v4.0, open-sourced by Microsoft

FreeDOS is an open source DOS-compatible operating system that you can use to play classic DOS games, run legacy business software, or develop embedded systems. Any program that works on MS-DOS should also run on FreeDOS

Allegro 4.2

Game development library for DOS, Windows and Linux. 4.2 version supports DOS platform

LoveDOS

A framework for making 2D DOS games in Lua. API based on a subset of the LÖVE API

DOS-VGA-Game

Marco A. Marrero's DOS VGA/hardware library implemented in assembly and Turbo Pascal

DIGPAK sound drivers source code

Original source code for the DIGPAK sound drivers uploaded to GitHub by John W. Ratcliff

DOS Defender

Christopher Wellons's x86 real mode DOS Asteroids clone created as an entry for Lundum Dare #31

Dungeons of Noudar

First-person 2.5D dungeon-crawler on protected mode. Written in C++, includes software rendering, fixed point math, test coverage and sound (PC speaker, Adlib, OPL2LPT)

Pong clone for DOS, Windows and Linux. Uses PC speaker for sound on DOS

Floppy Bird

Flappy Bird clone written in 16 bit assembly. Not a DOS program, but a PC-Booter application instead (although it's also possible to build a COM executable for DOS)

Turbo Pascal with few games in C and C++. Games include Nibbles, Connect Four, Ms Pacman clone and two arcade/platform games. One of them (ra2) was written using Allegro. Utilities are all written in Turbo Pascal, these include game system routines, file and disk utilities and terminate-and-stay-resident programs (TSR)

Platformer written in C using DJGPP

'80s style arcade shooter written in Quickbasic. Also the very first known DOS game that supports Oculus Rift VR headset

Hangman clone written in Basic. Runs on at least 80286 processors and uses EGA graphics

3D maze game using CGA graphics with algebra as theme

Super Mario Bros clone written in Turbo Pascal

NetHack

Descendant of the original rougelike game first released in 1987 available on multiple platforms

Piskworks

Gomoku clone written in C. Works on DOS, ZX Spectrum, ZX81, ZX80, APPLE1, AS400 and Windows

Plutonium Caverns

Overhead puzzle game written in C. Web version uses to embed DOSBox into HTML5. However, the original executable is also downloadable and buildable with Open Watcom

Ptakovina

Tetris clone written in C. Runs on DOS, Unix/Linux, ZX Spectrum and Windows

Sudoku clone written in C. Runs on 8086/8088 CPU, uses CGA, MCGA or VGA graphics and uses a mouse

Tetris clone written in assembly

Towers of Hanoi

puzzle game written in Turbo Pascal. Originally released in 1996

x86 pong

Text-mode Pong clone written in C. Runs as PC-Booter game and under DOS

Text-mode Snake clone written in C. Runs on 8086 DOS

Top-down 2D shooter playing as a mercenary to earn money. Written in Turbo Pascal. Supports two player mode

Sequel to the original Cyberdogs. Ronny Wester, the original creator no longer maintains the website for the original C-Dogs, but multiple ports exists, including

Sci-fi side-scrolling platform game. Regarded as an innovative cult classic by most people. Supports SVGA mode up to 1280x1024 resolution. Written in C, the architecture includes a Lisp-scripting engine

Point-and-click adventure game set in a dystopian future. Written in assembly

Catacomb

2D top-down shooter developed by Softdisk (later becoming id Software). Supports EGA and CGA graphics. Written in Turbo Pascal and assembly

Catacomb 3D

First-person shooter in fantasy setting developed by Softdisk (later becoming id Software). Features pseudo-3D graphics with raycasting technique. Supports EGA graphics. Written in C and assembly. Compiled with Borland C++ 3.1

Commander Keen in Keen Dreams

Side-scrolling platform game developed by id Software. Keen Dreams is the Commander Keen game created between Keen 3 and Keen 4 (often considered "Keen 3.5"), but was not widely released. Written in C and assembly

Descent

First sci-fi FPS/space shooter to feature entirely true 3D graphics. Written in C and assembly

Descent II

Sequel to Descent. Written in C and assembly

Doom

Sci-fi FPS developed by id Software where you fight demons from hell on Mars. The DOS-specific code for Doom could not be published because of a dependency to the licensed DMX sound library, hence why it's cleaned up and only the Linux source is there. However, the Heretic and Hexen projects contain the original DOS code in a way where DMX-related code is removed

FPS developed by Apogee featuring the iconic character Duke Nukem. Written in C. Compiled with Watcom C/C++ 10.0

Heretic

Dark fantasy FPS running on id Software's Doom engine

Hexen: Beyond Heretic

Indirect sequel to Heretic

Original for Heretic/Hexen

Hovertank 3D

FPS developed by id Software. Features pseudo-3D graphics with raycasting technique, before Catacomb 3D and Wolfeinstein 3D. Written in C and assembly

Quake

FPS developed by id Software set in a fully 3D world. Written in C. Compiled with DJGPP for DOS

Code analysis by Fabien Sanglard

Rise of the Triad: Dark War

FPS developed by Apogee. It was developed as a follow-up to Wolfenstein 3D, but was altered and became a standalone game instead. Uses a heavily modified Wolfenstein 3D engine. Written in C

Side-scrolling shoot 'em up created by David L. Clark in 1984. The game involves piloting a Sopwith biplane, attempting to bomb enemy buildings while avoiding fire from enemy planes and various other obstacles

Code analysis by MaiZure

Wolfenstein 3D

FPS developed by id Software set in the Nazi German prison Castle Wolfenstein. Features pseudo-3D graphics with raycasting technique. Written in C and assembly

SBEMU

A TSR that emulates Sound Blaster and OPL3 in pure DOS using modern PCI-based (onboard and add-in card) sound cards. Supports both real mode and protected mode games!

VSB

A fork of SBEMU (see above), which also aims to offer Sound Blaster emulation for modern PC hardware, in both real mode and protected mode games