/vbdos

Collection of programs for Visual BASIC for DOS

Primary LanguageVisual Basic

Herein contains numerous Visual BASIC for DOS programs that I've been able to dig up from over the years. I figured I'd try to make a page of these, mainly for nostalgic reasons, and perhaps to help new programmers who are coming along in the world (though most of this stuff is so old it probably won't be of much use).

Please do not email me concerning obtaining a copy of Visual BASIC for DOS. Yes, I own a copy, but my disks are corrupted, and are no longer installable. You may still be able to get a copy from [1]Microsoft, or get PowerBASIC and a windowing library and you can still have just as much fun.

Except as noted in the documentation, all of the programs here that I wrote are now being released into public domain. Please note that there may be some programs here which are not fully mine; though I am not sure who the original authors are in all cases, I have tried to make that clear wherever I can.

PBPL

Paul Brannan's Programming language. Similar to logo. This one is from my middle school days.

Colors

I think this displays all 256 colors in the default palette?

MDI

An MDI program for Visual BASIC for DOS. I wrote this when I was learning Visual BASIC. Includes a piano, a control panel, and other utilities. Much of this is from the VBDOS books.

Snooper

A program that reads ASCII strings from binary files. Based on a program found in Compute magazine.

Mempeek

A program to "peek" into memory.

Port

Outputs values to hardware ports.

Piles

A game I wrote back in late 1992.

Misc. Games

Miscellaneous games that I have written over the years. I couldn't find source code. Many were based on code out of books. Includes Bricks, Chomper, some slow flight simulators (from a book), Megaroid (not finished) and Target.

Bricks - A breakout clone.

  • bricks.bas (ASCII QuickBASIC source file, earlier version)
  • bbricks2.bas (ASCII QuickBASIC source file)
  • bricks.bas (ASCII QuickBASIC source file, newest version) Chomper - This is a weird one.
  • chomper.bas (Visual BASIC for DOS source file)
  • chomperm.bas (Visual BASIC for DOS source file, this one has music)
  • chompers.bas (Visual BASIC for DOS source file, earlier version) Jackpot - My very first game, dates all the way back to 1989.
  • jackpot.bas (corrupted GWBASIC source file)
  • jackpot.exe (MS-DOS executable) License - Another early game, from 1990.
  • license.bas (GWBASIC source file) Pingpong - This is a pong clone, based on a version I found in a book from the library.
  • pingpong.bas (ASCII QuickBASIC source file)
  • pingpong.bas (ASCII QuickBASIC source file, newer version) Starfire - A game with a neat 3D-like effect.
  • starfire.bas (ASCII QuickBASIC source file) Target - This is a moving-target game. Straight from a book.
  • target.bas (GWBASIC source file)
  • target.bas (Visual BASIC for DOS source file)
  • target2.bas (GWBASIC source file, modified a bit)
  • target2.bas (Visual BASIC fo DOS source file) Target2 - Based on Target, this one is a little more difficult, since the characters don't always move straight across.
  • target2.bas (GWBASIC source file)