Games and classic computers

From: Chuck McManis <cmcmanis_at_mcmanis.com>
Date: Mon Feb 15 20:48:23 1999

At 06:22 PM 2/15/99 -0800, Derek Peschel wrote:
>Are you saying that Descent doesn't take over the machine? (I'm not being
>sarcastic -- I don't know either way, mainly because I use a Mac most of the
>time.) I've seen some vey badly-behaved Windows programs, and tons of DOS
>ones. I don't think Windows 95 or NT are very efficient, so I'd say that
>when performance counts, the truth is sometimes closer to the
>game-programmers' side than the users'.

What I'm saying is that Descent asks the OS for the machine and the OS
gives it to the game in a controlled way that does not disturb other
applications that are running. (I had an explorer up and a web browser).
During the game I can "alt-tab" to a different application and then click
on the program bar to resume it. While the game is running I can download
software from the network, while the game is running other machines can
print on the printer attached to this machine and shared over the network.

Its not a "DOS" mode game, it uses DirectX and Win32 calls.

It is pretty interesting.

--Chuck
Received on Mon Feb 15 1999 - 20:48:23 GMT