62 lines
2.9 KiB
Markdown
62 lines
2.9 KiB
Markdown
# ACK-3D for DOS/Watcom
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This repository contains fixed up code and demo projects/assets for the ACK-3D engine that
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was included in the book, "Amazing 3-D Games Adventure Set" by Lary Myers, published in 1995.
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The CD included with that book contained multiple versions of the ACK-3D engine, two of which were
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for DOS (one for Watcom C++ 9.5 and the other Borland C++ 4.0/4.5) and another copy for Windows
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which was also the latest version of the ACK-3D engine at that time. The two DOS versions do not
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build out of the box without issues (crash bugs, etc). Additionally, the code for the DOS version
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of the map editor does not build as-is.
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In this repository, I have taken the Windows version included on the book's CD and back-ported it
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to DOS using Watcom C++ 10.0a. I have also fixed build issues with the DOS map editor and cleaned
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up the makefiles and build scripts for all included tools and projects. Lary used his own custom
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`MK.EXE` tool which kind of did stuff similar to a makefile, but it was his own custom tool that
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was limited. I have not really left Windows compatibility as that was not a goal of mine. Having
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said that, I don't think it would be super difficult to add that back if someone desired it.
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Some minor bugs and other improvements have been made, but nothing major. Many of the existing bugs
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that were present in ACK-3D remain (e.g. secret doors render strangely or not at all in many cases,
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and multi-height walls still can be seen through ceilings, etc.). I may try to fix some of these
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things in the future.
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Finally, I have included a somewhat simpler example project that has been thoroughly commented.
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This project I hope serves to demonstrate what Lary covered in chapter's 11 and 14 of the book,
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but instead focused on DOS only and without going overboard with extra things like the FDEMO
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and MALL projects both did.
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Also, I wrote two posts about this whole adventure [here](http://blarg.ca/amazing-3-d-games-adventure-set/)
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and [here](http://blarg.ca/rebuilding-ack-3d-for-dos/) if anyone is interested.
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## Repository Layout
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### `/ack_lib`
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The core ACK-3D library, based on the Windows version included on the book's CD.
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### `/bpic`
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Source for the `BPIC` utility discussed in the book in Appendix A, used for constructing
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resource files.
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### `/map_edit`
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Source and data files for the DOS version of the map editor. Unlike the Windows version
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"ACKEDIT" (not included in this repository), this does not work with resource files directly and
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so is not _quite_ as convenient to work with.
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### `/fdemo`
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Source and assets for the "FDEMO" project discussed briefly in the book in Appendix C.
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### `/mall`
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Source and assets for the "MALL" project also discussed briefly in the book in Appendix C. This
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project is very, very similar to the "FDEMO" project and really only differs by assets used.
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### `/example`
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An example project I created from scratch (but using assets from the Station Escape, FDEMO and
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MALL projects from the book's CD).
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