Thank you very much for sharing, liqmat! 😁
There are some really excellent contributions among them..

Thx! ...but MiamiVice Logo is missing....it's originally CGA-Art 😀

This would be awesome if said games ran on 8088/8086 DOS hardware.

I think that could even be possible, kinda. Some sort of VNC software could help with that.
I recall that certain programs like PC Tools' Commute or DESQView/X had such abilities.
Maybe its possible to run them in VMs or use the VM's remote desktop functionality.
Then all it needs is an 8088-compatible client program.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PC_Tools_(software)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DESQview

carlostex wrote:

This would be awesome if said games ran on 8088/8086 DOS hardware.

That's why I find this sort of thing more depressing than awesome. Other vintage platforms (C64, Speccy, Apple, ...) still have new homebrew games coming out in droves. In the meanwhile, the oldskool PC gets a trickle in comparison... and now a heap of modern games that only focus on the visual aspect, with silly rules like "only this and that palette allowed" (presumably because they're more "vaporwave" and "aesthetic" than the others, or something).

VileRancour wrote:

That's why I find this sort of thing more depressing than awesome. Other vintage platforms (C64, Speccy, Apple, ...) still have new homebrew games coming out in droves. In the meanwhile, the oldskool PC gets a trickle in comparison... and now a heap of modern games that only focus on the visual aspect, with silly rules like "only this and that palette allowed" (presumably because they're more "vaporwave" and "aesthetic" than the others, or something).

That's more or less what i wanted to say. I was looking through the site wondering at screenshots and feeling quite impressed only to realize this stuff is Windows, Mac and Linux only. "This is lame" i thought to myself.

I can understand the challenge, to try and code something that has certain limits and rules, but for me it is indeed disappointing. I really like to see programmers to get their hands "dirty" and mess with hand optimized 8086/8088 assembly code, and try to make stuff run as best as possible in period correct hardware for CGA. I had to force myself to learn some 8088 asm basics, because i wanted to patch games for the Tandy Sound card project. The result? Time well spent, nor only i learned by forcing myself and with the help of very kind gurus, but some games can now play 3 voice sound on a non Tandy machine.

IBM PC retro gaming hardly gets the respect it deserves, maybe because the platform itself is not dead, but i share with the frustration that there's not enough homebrew for the IBM PC and compatibles on the software side. Fortunately for hardware, there has been a lot of effort and i'm proud to be part of it, whatever how it may be.

I'm still hoping that i will see the day of a wonderful modern CGA DOS game with the pixel art responsibility in your hands. 😀

I can sorta understand the reasoning behind it: creating CGA graphics is probably only easier today than it was back in the 80s, because you can use modern PhotoShop and other tools (at least some graphics appear to just be specifically dithered graphics, not hand-pixeled).
Writing 8088 code however... well, firstly, you can't really use 'modern' tools, because they don't support 16-bit code and DOS. The most modern option is probably OpenWatcom, if you want to go C/C++.
Secondly, modern tools don't quite cut it anyway. 8088 and CGA are very slow, so for action games, you can't really escape using assembly.

And that's just something that entire generations of programmers can't even do anymore.
What I do find a shame is that this solution completely bypasses the performance and storage limits of these old machines.
I mean, even with fully optimized assembly, some games may not be physically possible in realtime on a CGA card, because it's just not fast enough.
Have you ever played Commander Keen in CGA on a real IBM PC? This is what happens: https://youtu.be/RETIWWKfVqg
It's not fast, and Keen is quite well-optimized. Full-screen scrolling and sprites just aren't things that 8088+CGA can do very well.

To each his own I suppose, but I find this sort of thing great. A bunch of coders getting together making some fun games with a cool retro theme for basically nothing. I do agree it would be nice if the PC got more retro treatment and attention like the consoles do. We did get a 486 DOS version of Retro City Rampage on floppy from VBlank Entertainment within recent memory. So it's not completely a barren wasteland.

Drama writers nolonger use papyrus or parchment, either..

It's just natural that artists use tools they can handle and have at hand.

As for me, I'd probably also favor a RAD environment over C++ or assembly.
At least for prototyping (a programmers equivalent of sketching).

The 8bit people realized this, by the way. They created a VB/Delphi style IDE for SymbOS many years ago.
https://web.archive.org/web/20070714205101/ht … symstudio.info/
(Archive copy. Home page currently down..)

Edit: liqmat said it very well (better than me. 🤣) Some people have different types of talents and focus more on finishing their "creation", rather than code.
That's okay I think, since not everyone is gifted with both talents (coding and making art).
I'm optimistic, though, that most of the contestants would be willing to "port" their games to the real thing if they get a helping hand.