anybody know how to make the borders and special graphics when making COM Files. I'm trying to make a MS-DOS game but i have no talent when it comes to COM Files.

Plz reply. A COM file is just a binary image of an exectutable - what language / compiler are you using ?You can use QuickBasic to compile COM files. However, creating a game requires a LOT of knowledge, so it's better to start with a simple "Hello World!" application.Easiest games are ascii based text games. If you are more advanced than regular ascii, you can declare chr$(x) and unlock shapes and characters etc like☺↨♥♠♣♦•◘○|░▒▓│┤╡╢╖╕╣║

Back in the day when i programmed in GW-Basic and QBasic these were the easiest methods of making a game. Otherwise declaring sprites on x and y coordinates was fun if you knew how to get that working correctly.

I use to animate ascii by following the character position movement by CLS ( Clear Screen), sometime the refresh was too fast, so you had to show the character in a position for 5 or 10 times before the CLS so that it didnt flicker too much or add loops to eat up CPU cycles to slow the execution down. The CLS is best used for characters changing in a specific location such as -\|/-\.... pattern used for a cartwheel affect.

Static games without motion like Lottery, Poker, or Blackjack are the easiest. Trying to get animaton of ascii to work and the logic to get the game working is a nightmare if you dont know what you are doing. Easiest animation to make being decision making user input and then animation for a cinematic like PROCESS until the next prompt from the user. Such as tell a character in the game to shoot the arrow. Next process you see and arrow like so
<-----<<< move across the screen to a target and a random hit location, OR more COMPLICATED, have the user enter an arc degree and power value for an archery game. Sort of like the game bundled with DOS 5.0 called Gorilla.bas where you threw banana bombs

There is also a color command in basic that is like Color x,y,z where z is the border color a value 0-15 and x and y is the forground and background color designators.

I'd suggest writing it in Basic if you know basic, or if you want colors in any other language like C++ you can use the SYSTEM command with (color 4D) to change colors of text in a DOS environment, by pasing a simple command prompt command through the system command. For more info on the color command simply enter Color/? at command prompt. Basically you give it a hex value for text color and background color,,,,But you cant hide text by declaring same value for both, so Color 00 or Color BB is invalid, and Color 43 and Color 5D are VALID. ( some combinations are painful on the eyes!!! )

Good luck and POST back in the Programming Forum if you need assistance programmingQuote from: gpl on January 17, 2008, 07:22:00 PM

A COM file is just a binary image of an exectutable - what language / compiler are you using ?

Easiest games are ascii based text games. If you are more advanced than regular ascii, you can declare chr$(x) and unlock shapes and characters etc like☺↨♥♠♣♦•◘○|░▒▓│┤╡╢╖╕╣║

Back in the day when i programmed in GW-Basic and QBasic these were the easiest methods of making a game. Otherwise declaring sprites on x and y coordinates was fun if you knew how to get that working correctly.

I use to animate ascii by following the character position movement by CLS ( Clear Screen), sometime the refresh was too fast, so you had to show the character in a position for 5 or 10 times before the CLS so that it didnt flicker too much or add loops to eat up CPU cycles to slow the execution down. The CLS is best used for characters changing in a specific location such as -\|/-\.... pattern used for a cartwheel affect.

Static games without motion like Lottery, Poker, or Blackjack are the easiest. Trying to get animaton of ascii to work and the logic to get the game working is a nightmare if you dont know what you are doing. Easiest animation to make being decision making user input and then animation for a cinematic like process until the next prompt from the user. Such as tell a character in the game to shoot the arrow. Next process you see and arrow like so
<-----<<< move across the screen to a target and a random hit location, OR more complicated, have the user enter an arc degree and power value for an archery game. Sort of like the game bundled with DOS 5.0 called Gorilla.bas where you threw banana bombs

There is also a color command in basic that is like Color x,y,z where z is the border color a value 0-15 and x and y is the forground and background color designators.

I'd suggest writing it in Basic if you know basic, or if you want colors in any other language like C++ you can use the SYSTEM command with (color 4D) to change colors of text in a DOS environment, by pasing a simple command prompt command through the system command. For more info on the color command simply enter Color/? at command prompt. Basically you give it a hex value for text color and background color,,,,But you cant hide text by declaring same value for both, so Color 00 or Color BB is invalid, and Color 43 and Color 5D are valid. ( some combinations are painful on the eyes!!! )

Good luck and post back in the Programming Forum if you need assistance programming

Easiest games are ascii based text games. If you are more advanced than regular ascii, you can declare chr$(x) and unlock shapes and characters etc like☺↨♥♠♣♦•◘○|░▒▓│┤╡╢╖╕╣║

Back in the day when i programmed in GW-Basic and QBasic these were the easiest methods of making a game. Otherwise declaring sprites on x and y coordinates was fun if you knew how to get that working correctly.

I use to animate ascii by following the character position movement by CLS ( Clear Screen), sometime the refresh was too fast, so you had to show the character in a position for 5 or 10 times before the CLS so that it didnt flicker too much or add loops to eat up CPU cycles to slow the execution down. The CLS is best used for characters changing in a specific location such as -\|/-\.... pattern used for a cartwheel affect.

Static games without motion like Lottery, Poker, or Blackjack are the easiest. Trying to get animaton of ascii to work and the logic to get the game working is a nightmare if you dont know what you are doing. Easiest animation to make being decision making user input and then animation for a cinematic like process until the next prompt from the user. Such as tell a character in the game to shoot the arrow. Next process you see and arrow like so
<-----<<< move across the screen to a target and a random hit location, OR more complicated, have the user enter an arc degree and power value for an archery game. Sort of like the game bundled with DOS 5.0 called Gorilla.bas where you threw banana bombs

There is also a color command in basic that is like Color x,y,z where z is the border color a value 0-15 and x and y is the forground and background color designators.

I'd suggest writing it in Basic if you know basic, or if you want colors in any other language like C++ you can use the SYSTEM command with (color 4D) to change colors of text in a DOS environment, by pasing a simple command prompt command through the system command. For more info on the color command simply enter Color/? at command prompt. Basically you give it a hex value for text color and background color,,,,But you cant hide text by declaring same value for both, so Color 00 or Color BB is invalid, and Color 43 and Color 5D are valid. ( some combinations are painful on the eyes!!! )

Good luck and post back in the Programming Forum if you need assistance programming

um... is echo a QBASIC command??