I made a game for DOS. I can not seem to get DOSBox to cooperate with the TCP/IP based demos that WATTCP has, meaning that I can not figure out how to get DOSBox to work with TCP/IP applications. I did some reading on the internet, and I have seen that some people had said that TCP/IP is difficult to get working when using DOSBox. However, I did get nullmodem-based multiplayer to work almost perfectly, with minimal connection issues. Is nullmodem accessible enough that people who play the game would be interested in playing it still, or should I just scrap nullmodem all together?

What would this look like? An emulated connection between two instances of DOSBox running on different computers (connected over LAN or internet)? An emulated connection between two instances of DOSBox running on the same computer? Or an actual physical cable connection - and if so, which physical port would it use? (Even my oldest computer doesn't have a RS-232 serial port anymore.)

Regardless, the answer is a hard no from me. The only multiplayer games I am willing to play are local multiplayer games with all players on the same device, and even that is rare.

I am not sure why you write a game for DOS and expect people to even consider playing it, since the OS has been very dead since the previous century or so.

I mean, for educational value, sure that's fine. Getting exposed to bare metal is a fun experience where you learn a lot about computers. But if your goal is to attract players for your game, any modern OS would be better, imho.

Thus the question, why DOS? (what is the goal of writing the program?)

Alberth said:

I am not sure why you write a game for DOS and expect people to even consider playing it, since the OS has been very dead since the previous century or so.

People will consider playing it if they know about it and are into that sort of thing.

Of course, it's not likely to become mainstream, but that won't mean that nobody will play it.
See 8-bit guy (David Murray)'s games, for instance. They're for Commodore 64.

chao51 said:
Or a internet server, where you can play against random opponents.

That's where you need a TCP/IP network connection eh, the one that's not available in DOS that the OP cannot make it work. Networks at the time were in offices only if they existed at all, using various non-standard protocols. Internet mostly existed only between universities, and was unknown to the general public as well as companies.

[New post as I couldn't insert this above the quoted text of the previous post]

SuperVGA said:
See 8-bit guy (David Murray)'s games, for instance. They're for Commodore 64.

Ha, I ran into him at YT, fun to look at what he is doing. Didn't know new games were made too, but was to be expected of course with retro-computing.

fleabay said:
“I want to learn old programming because I have to overcome more hurdles.”

I guess he wants us to help him jump hurdles now.

I seem to be doing fine in finding enough hurdles on modern computers! ?

fleabay said:
“I want to learn old programming because I have to overcome more hurdles.” I guess he wants us to help him jump hurdles now.

I mean, that is what a forum is for, isn't it?

For me, it adds more of a spice to the development process. It almost feels more rewarding, in a way.

@a light breeze it is connected over LAN. I can't get internet or modem connections to work with DOSBox because connections over the internet is annoying to deal with. I might just keep nullmodem multiplayer as an easter egg that I might just have in the earlier versions of the game, and after I do whatever with this one, I might convert the DOS engine to OpenGL, and then I will do Internet multiplayer.

I might end up scrapping the thing all together.