C Program to Generate a Blank MS-DOS Floppy Image in Linux

How do you do, fellow old-timers? Today's post is going to be a bit of a crossover, because I'm going to get into some programming stuff, some Linux stuff, and some DOS stuff all at the same time. I'm going to show you a program that I wrote a while back that uses POSIX API …

Computer Graphics in DOS

We know DOS primarily as a text-mode operating system. You turn on your DOS VM and it logs you into a command prompt. But DOS also allows for some pretty neat 8-bit graphics, which can add flavor to the sometimes dry and boring CLI. In this article I will be exploring the many aspects of …

Data Analysis: Retro Edition with Microsoft Works 3.0

So recently I've started getting into some more data-oriented stuff - statistics, regression analysis, etc. It started with some spreadsheets and graphs that I was making in Microsoft Works and gradually transitioned into data analysis using R and eventually into actual AI programming. To chronicle this recent evolution properly, I think it best to start …

A Review of MS-DOS, Version 6.22

So it has recently occurred to me that I never actually did a proper review of MS-DOS 6.22, either in this blog or in my old one. This bothers me, because in a previous post I did claim that I had "already talked extensively" about that version of DOS, when in fact I hadn't. So …

Exploring Borland dBase IV for DOS

Last week I took a dive into the office life of yesteryear with Microsoft Works 3.0 for DOS. Now I'm exploring some more retro business software, this time delving into the ancient database management system known as Borland dBase. dBase was THE first commercially successful DBMS for microcomputers, and in fact it is still active …

Exploring Microsoft Works for DOS

I have a recurring fantasy. My fantasy is of working at some office job during the 90's, sitting at a desk with a computer running MS-DOS, doing business stuff with business software. Maybe I'm one of those guys who works at those cubicles you see at the car dealership, crunching numbers and tabulating data into …

Tactical DOS: A Cyberpunk DOS VM That’s Totally 1337

So I thought I'd start some reconnaissance files on various people I know IRL. Why? Because I'm an autistic psychopath and that's what autistic psychopaths do - they analyze other people's psychology in order to find holes in their defenses that they can exploit. Yes, I am an evil genius. Mwahahahahahahahahah! But no, seriously, I …

More QBASIC: Color Tables, Font Files, and Sprite Animation

Just another update on my continuing progress with QBASIC. I've moved past trivial programs now and am now doing some more practical graphics programming, getting closer to something that I could turn into a neat MS-DOS game. I learned several new programming constructs, including the RESTORE function, which allows you to reuse data declared by …

Learning QBASIC, Day 2

Hello again, and welcome to my wonderful world of tech tinkerings. I'm going to be documenting my continuing progress in learning QBASIC here. If you want to read about my past progress and see the code I've written so far, you can visit my first post here. I was up all night teaching myself QBASIC …

Learning QBASIC for DOS and Windows

After seeing some QBASIC videos on YouTube, I've been inspired to start learning the language myself. I started reading some tutorials on the web to gain a grasp of all the essentials. I already have some experience programming in BASIC with my Commodore 64, so learning the basic syntax was more or less a refresher …