🚀 go-pugleaf

sl8nl@cc.usu.edu () writes:
>
>> Enough!!!  This is rec.games.programmer, if you want to get into technical
>> discusions about VGA cards, DMA or IRQs for IBM PC's then take it to
>> comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware or comp.os.msdos.programmer.  99% of the babble
>> here lately has nothing to do with game programming anymore, it's just
>> stupid questions and stupid answers about PC hardware.
>
>OK, buddy, you tell us what you want in here.  Lessee, if we eliminate
>VGA cards...eliminated...IRQs...eliminated...DMA...eliminiated...
>there would be no games as they exist today!!
>
>The point is, while some discussions _have_ gone overboard, they have taught
>a great deal.  I may be tired of reading IRQ messages right now, but that's
>the breaks, and the people involved are learning more and more about how
>the computer really works so they can create the best games.
>
>Josh

Sorry Josh, but I have to agree with Ross. The majority of questions
being asked are things that any decent VGA programmer's guide has
the answers to.  They really have nothing to do with games.  Sure,
you have to understand the hardware, but that's the easy stuff.
I don't know if you've ever seen programming manuals for video
game consoles, but you usually only get a very terse descriptions
of registers, memory addresses, etc.  In all honesty, you don't
need any more than that.

The real (and more interesting) work is in developing data
structures and algorithms and _gameplay_.  These recent discussions
give the impression that a game should be based around some
hot new graphics algorithm or hardware programming technique
(and that's the same impression I get from Wolfenstein 3-D).
Difficult as it may be to accept, there are still thousands and
thousands of really entertaining games which could be written
for CGA cards (or even 80x50 text mode).  All the techie
stuff just doesn't matter (and from a game design perspective,
it isn't all that interesting).

And let's try to remember that not everybody owns an MS-DOS
based computer...

--
James Hague   
exuhag@exu.ericsson.se