VOGONS


Tetragon v1.1 and More!

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First post, by BinaryDemon

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Quick Links to All Programs:

Games:
Tetragon - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QauCMuVE_cu2 … ew?usp=drivesdk
Video Poker - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZeHRrl2Zdd1N … ew?usp=drivesdk
Madhouse - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rSnTE6QD9RsO … ?usp=drive_link
TopTuna - https://itch.io/jam/dosember-game-jam/rate/4075726
RatHunt - http://eah-triscuit.com/programs/rathunt.zip

Utilities:
DrawText - http://eah-triscuit.com/programs/DRAWTEXT.zip

Original Post:
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Tetragon - a Casual Basic Game for old computers. Game concept derived from ZNAX.

Requirements: (Some of these are guesses which is why I'm hoping for some feedback)
8088/8086
CGA
640kb ram
Dos 5.0

Fresh Game:

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Selecting a Rectangle:

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Success its scoring and replacing those boxes.

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I've only tested in DOSBox and on my Pocket386, both of which work well. If someone could test on a 8088 and let me know if redrawing the boxes is a painful experience or see if the program launches with 512kb, that would be appreciated.

This game was never my original plan, when I hit some design constraints on the original project and had switch tactics, I thought well I put some decent work into this approach, how can I make something from it.

Some notes:
- Although its called Tetragon, the only shapes it will recognize is squares or rectangles.
- Mouse only. I suppose you could use something like MouseKeys, but I did not add keyboard support at this time.
- If you make a mistake on selecting corners 1-3, you can click on them again to undo. Clicking the 4th corner will "Send it" so if you make a mistake then it costs you a turn.
- High Score is lost when you exit. Game does not attempt to do any writes to filesystem.
- It might be possible that no rectangles/squares exist? This was common when I was using 14 colors on the board, but after reducing it to 5 colors on the board- I have never seen it happen. Even tho its not a time based game, I didnt want to make searching for squares/rectangles a tedious process.

Improvement Ideas:
- Add support for parallelgram / rhomus?
- Keyboard support? done.
- Save High Score?
Realistically I wont implement any of these, and probably wont add others but I'd like to hear suggestions.

Download Link -
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QauCMuVE_cu2 … ew?usp=drivesdk

Last edited by BinaryDemon on 2026-05-22, 23:28. Edited 11 times in total.

Reply 1 of 18, by zyzzle

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Is this like SameGame? It seems an "improved" version of that game.

Reply 2 of 18, by BinaryDemon

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I wasn’t aware of SameGame but it looks similar.
SameGame the goal seems to be to clear the board, and in Tetragon it replaces the blocks and you are just going for High Score.

Reply 3 of 18, by BinaryDemon

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I’ve decided that my amateur coding projects don’t each deserve their own thread so I’ll just keep adding here:

Meet Video Poker - Jacks or Better, a recreation of the classic casino game.

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I’d guess same requirements as before - something like 8088, DOS 5.0+, 640kb, CGA or better, and Mouse.

Edit: Minor update, added ESC key quit, incase you run program without a mouse driver loaded. Still needs mouse to play, I’ll probably added keyboard support in future.

Download link:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZeHRrl2Zdd1N … ew?usp=drivesdk

Last edited by BinaryDemon on 2025-07-29, 11:57. Edited 2 times in total.

Reply 4 of 18, by zyzzle

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I enjoyed both your projects. Thanks for making them.

Will you ever consider adding keyboard support to Tetragon? It would be very nice indeed. This game is great, very similar to SameGame, but even better.

Reply 5 of 18, by BinaryDemon

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Thanks for the feedback. I’ll try adding keyboard support to Tetragon but it might take a few weeks. I’ve just started my vacation.

Reply 6 of 18, by BinaryDemon

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I updated Tetragon to v1.1 with keyboard support. Let me know if you notice extra overhead, I had to filter the keypresses due to typematic rate simply trying to redraw too much too fast. It will ignore keypresses faster than 100 ms.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QauCMuVE_cu2 … ew?usp=drivesdk

Should work with keys or mouse:

Escape = Quit
R = Reset
Arrow keys = move around squares
Space = select square

Reply 7 of 18, by zyzzle

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Thanks for the update. Works well with both keyboard and mouse. Appreciated.

Reply 8 of 18, by BinaryDemon

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MADHOUSE - a simple text adventure.

Requirements:
8088/8086
CGA
640kb ram
Dos 5.0

Download: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rSnTE6QD9RsO … ?usp=drive_link

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If you find any bugs, let me know.

I learned some important but painful programming lessons about strict vs dynamic string arrays , 255 char limit on strings, and just because it works in IDE doesn't mean it will compile. On to the next project.

Reply 9 of 18, by BinaryDemon

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So I recently discovered that I had accidently selected 'Compile with optimizations for 286', when I had intended for all these to work on XT class machine. I'll recompile and upload shortly. Also, There's going to be a delay in game releases, because I'm planning on submitting for the Dosember Game Jam.

Reply 10 of 18, by ffaff

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Played Madhouse, solid little text adventure that delivers a scary experience in a small package, well done!

Slight typo: Captiol → Capitol.

Reply 11 of 18, by BinaryDemon

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ffaff wrote on 2025-11-20, 18:31:

Played Madhouse, solid little text adventure that delivers a scary experience in a small package, well done!

Slight typo: Captiol → Capitol.

Thanks for the feedback!

Reply 12 of 18, by zyzzle

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Madhouse is wonderful! Great descriptions of dread and foreboding. I like the randomized game, so there's no pattern and every game is a new game. When I played back in August, I noticed a few spelling errors / incorrect grammar constructs. I was able to patch them in the textstrings of the .exe

The game is just short enough for a single session. Great oldschool action. Congratulations.

Reply 13 of 18, by BinaryDemon

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zyzzle wrote on 2025-11-22, 22:26:

Madhouse is wonderful! Great descriptions of dread and foreboding. I like the randomized game, so there's no pattern and every game is a new game. When I played back in August, I noticed a few spelling errors / incorrect grammar constructs. I was able to patch them in the textstrings of the .exe

The game is just short enough for a single session. Great oldschool action. Congratulations.

Thanks! I'll be sure to give spelling and grammar a 2nd look next time I open it.

Reply 14 of 18, by BinaryDemon

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So I uploaded a game to the Dosember 2025 Game Jam... TOPTUNA

Link: https://itch.io/jam/dosember-game-jam/rate/4075726

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I was really hoping to make a 2nd submission but I'm only about 85% done another project, so I'll just release it when its done. Now that I look at the other submissions, I'm hopelessly outclassed. Oh well, its fun for me.

Reply 15 of 18, by BinaryDemon

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RATHUNT - point and click shooter, inspired by the Win3.x Game - Prairie dog Hunt.

Requirements:
8088/8086 or better
CGA or better
640kb ram
Dos 5.0 or better
Mouse

Download: http://eah-triscuit.com/programs/rathunt.zip

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If you find any bugs, let me know.

Reply 16 of 18, by BinaryDemon

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DrawText - A dos utility designed to aid in the creation of ascii art work to be shown in batch files or on the dos prompt.

Requirements:
8088/8086 or better
CGA or better
640kb ram
Dos 5.0 or better
Mouse

Download: http://eah-triscuit.com/programs/DRAWTEXT.zip

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I'm not the best artist... 😀

Reply 17 of 18, by zyzzle

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BinaryDemon wrote on 2026-05-10, 19:52:

RATHUNT - point and click shooter, inspired by the Win3.x Game - Prairie dog Hunt.

If you find any bugs, let me know.

Tested, and it plays very well. No bugs found. It's very challenging, fast and frenetic. Thanks for releasing it. Using both keyboard and mouse at same time is frustrating. Unless it is your intention to increase challenge of the game, perhaps left mouse click could be used for firing, while right mouse click could be used for reload instead of, or alternatively to "R" key.

Reply 18 of 18, by BinaryDemon

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I think I was just trying to provide options, generally I just frantically left and right click but I think the old lightgun games generally forced you to shoot reload or lower the gun.

Thanks for the feedback!