libsixteen (aka lib16)

Small helper library for MS-DOS

Libsixteen provides helper functions for VGA mode 0x13 graphics, BMP loading/saving, mouse pointers, OPL2 music, raw disk access and IPX networking. It was written just for fun using OpenWatcom.

VGA code is based on the 256-Color VGA Programming in C tutorial by David Brackeen

IPX code was developed with the help of the Cylindrix source.

OPL2 code was ported from ArduinoOPL2.

Be warned: the raw disk access code ist mostly untested, use at you own risk!

files/directories

|
+- fonts/		example fonts and a Python script to convert TTF to BMP.
+- lib/			lib16 library source files
+- lua-5.4.7/	lua 5.4.7 source
+- prj01/		showcase for all the implemented functions
+- prj02/		multi player drawing canvas using IPX
+- prj03/		lib16 port of demotune.cpp
+- prj04/		example code using lua-5.4.7
+- LICENSE		license description for all parts provided

I have included the OpenWatcom project files as a reference. You need to change these if you want to compile the examples yourself because OpenWatcom includes absolute paths in these files.

The EXE were compiled for i386 w/ i387.

Tunables/defines

VGA_DYNAMIC_TABLE

if defined the SIN/ACOS table for drawing circles is created dynamically when vga_init() is called. If undefined a pre-compiled table is used. Using the pre-compiled table can reduce EXE size when sin()/acos() is not used elsewhere.

NO_ERRORS

If defined the errno functionality in error.h/error.c clone is disabled. This reduces EXE size.

Fonts

Converter

font_converter.py can be used to create BMP fonts for bitmap_render_char() and bitmap_render_string(). It needs at least Python 3.6 and PyGame.

"Computer" and "Magic 5"

These font are kindly included with permission of DamienG https://damieng.com/typography/zx-origins/ Make sure to check his site for more awesome fonts.

Contact

You can find me on Mastodon if you want...