I began modding Tornado flight simulator, 26 years after failing ASM in college!

[frankiekam]

Hiya

I have been programming in 16 bit x86 ASM since August last year (2017). Using MASM. I am the modder of Digital Integration's Tornado simulator since August 2017. Now with 50 mods and counting for this venerable combat flight simulator. See http://dogsofwarvu.com/forum/index.php/topic,5046.0.html

The backstory behind this is this:
1. In 1991 I flunked assembly language and vowed to have nothing to do with this vile programming language;
2. In 2002 I received Digital Integration's 1993 DOS flight simulator Tornado, complete with box, manual, maps and diskettes;
3. In 2003 I started my tribute website to this beautifully crafted flight simulator at http://www.moodurian.com/tornado
4. In 2016 I received the 16-bit x86 ASM source code of Tornado of the ex-programmer, but only after first obtaining the blessing of Herve Caen of Interplay;
5. In 2016 I began to look for a development team to bring this game back to life and to get it re-published on GOG or Steam;
6. In 2017 Sept, having no takers, I compiled and linked my first "Hello World"-type FLIGHT.EXE, the 3D simulation engine of Tornao
7. In 2018 April, I have now done over 50 modifications to this flight simulator. Majority were small hacks. A few were major additions to the game.

Since no one went with the source code, I went with the source code. 26 years after I flunked assembly language (urh!) in college. The past 7 months have been a sugar rush for me. Assembly language is all together mysterious, fascinating, horrible and deeply satisfying to me.

Cheers and best regards
Frankie Kam
Malaysia

[jj2007]

Hi Frankie, welcome to the forum :icon14:

What are your intentions? Port the Tornado fs to 32- or 64-bit assembly?

[Lonewolff]

Hey Frankie!

Firstly welcome  8)

Well done with the flight sim work you have done. The screenshots remind of of the good old days of playing Gunship and Project Stealth Fighter on the C64. Some of the best games ever!

I have recently just gotten back in to ASM myself (less than a week ago). I agree, it's a love hate relationship. 

Having great fun though. Coding right this minute in fact.

[felipe]

Looks good. Welcome!

[frankiekam]

Hi jj2007. Porting the code over to 32bit will be a major overhaul of the code, so that will be unlikely to happen. Unless someone with the technical know-how is willing to put in the time. But who will do that for free? Even if he/she were to be paid, where will the funds come from. The biggest hurdle right now is that even Interplay admits that it is unclear who owns the rights to the source code. All I know is that I was offered a work-for-hire agreement by Interplay provided I could cobble together a programming team. So how now brown cow? So NOW my intentions are to just enjoy the game more than what the stock game can give me. It is a joy to play a favorite game, an even greater joy to see my efforts result in real-time changes and enhancements to the game. Who knows, perhaps one day someone from GOG or Night Dive Studios will take notice and shift into second gear to acquire the rights to the original source code.

BTW, why do I have to enter 7(!!) verification answers, with perfect spelling, in order to post this message?

[LordAdef]

Welcome Franckie, I hope you will stick around and do nice things.


Don't worry about those questions, they will go away shortly.

[zedd151]

Don't worry about those questions, they will go away shortly.

goes away after 20 posts, iirc.

welcome to the forum, frankie.

[daydreamer]

Welcome to forum Frankie :t

[jj2007]

Hi jj2007. Porting the code over to 32bit will be a major overhaul of the code, so that will be unlikely to happen.

OK, I see. Just had a look at your sticky thread, and it's impressing :t
So you rely on DosBox on 64-bit systems, right?

[frankiekam]

> So you rely on DosBox on 64-bit systems, right?
>
Yes, that's right. I use Notepad++ and MASM running in DosBox to do the editing, compiling and linking. Works for me, LOL.