Reconstructed assembly sources for Pango (1980s DOS game)

NY00123

#1 Posted 27 May 2024 - 11:58 AM

https://gitlab.com/NY00123/pango-re

Pango is a clone of the arcade game Pengo (note the differing 2nd letter). As in the original game, you play the role of a penguin, named Pango in this clone. Your goal is clearing the field of bees. You can do so by squashing them with blocks. Additionally, you may capture bees after shocking them by kicking nearby walls. For more details, including bonus points, check "How to Play ?" in the game's menu.

The original arcade game was released in 1982, from what I can see. The covered DOS version was (probably) released in 1983.

The linked repository includes reconstructed assembly sources. It is my assumption that the sources were originally written in assembly, given the lack of an equivalent of C library initialization routines or standard calling conventions. Also, outside of using a call stack for function calls and pushed register values, stack memory does not appear to be used for local variables at all.

With the right tools, I could recreate the original executable, byte-by-byte. Namely, these would be The Microsoft MACRO Assembler (MASM) Version 1.10 (5.10 is another option) and the IBM Personal Computer Link Version 1.10. As usual, your mileage may vary. While optional, the Microsoft Program Maintenance Utility (NMAKE) Version 1.00.05 should be useful.

This post has been edited by NY00123: 27 May 2024 - 01:36 PM

jkas789

#2 Posted 27 May 2024 - 11:11 PM

Cool. Pengo was a fun game. Thanks for the hardwork mate.

MrFlibble

#3 Posted 28 May 2024 - 03:54 AM

Pango like in this one?

Will you make a proper source port? (the game is freeware, it is my understanding) Playing it in DOSBox is a bit wonky even with a CPU cycle approximation of period hardware.

NY00123

#4 Posted 29 May 2024 - 10:18 AM

MrFlibble, on 28 May 2024 - 03:54 AM, said:

Pango like in this one?

That's the one, indeed. The title screen as currently shown there and in this thread should be a good hint.

Quote

Will you make a proper source port? (the game is freeware, it is my understanding) Playing it in DOSBox is a bit wonky even with a CPU cycle approximation of period hardware.

While the reconstructed sources are still x86 assembly code, people should have the option of porting them. That's expected to require the right kind of experience/knowledge, along with time and interest, but it's not impossible. Then again, people probably prefer the original Pengo game, unless they got past familiarity with its early DOS clone.

The game's speed is knowingly CPU-dependent. I assume it was made with the Intel 8088 as present on early IBM PCs, with the clock rate of 4.77Mhz. Other limitations might be either specific to the program, or hardware-related again. A good example is how may sound effects appear to temporarily halt the music, given that they both share the PC Speaker, essentially using a single channel of square waves.

MrFlibble

#5 Posted 30 May 2024 - 04:42 AM

NY00123, on 29 May 2024 - 10:18 AM, said:

The game's speed is knowingly CPU-dependent. I assume it was made with the Intel 8088 as present on early IBM PCs, with the clock rate of 4.77Mhz. Other limitations might be either specific to the program, or hardware-related again. A good example is how may sound effects appear to temporarily halt the music, given that they both share the PC Speaker, essentially using a single channel of square waves.

Someone should definitely make a cross-platform port then!

NY00123

#6 Posted 10 June 2024 - 11:44 PM

So, the following recent discovery of mine is less about the aforementioned clone for DOS itself, but is still Pengo-related, so I guess I can still use this thread for now (rather than creating a new one).

People around here might be familiar with the 1993 Apogee-published game titled "Halloween Harry", or alternatively, "Alien Carnage". In fact, it was not the first game in the franchise. One of the people behind this 1993 game, John Passfield, was previously working on a 1985 game similarly titled "Halloween Harry" for the Australian Microbee computer system. The game was released via Honeysoft Publishing Company at the time.

I wrote about it beforehand: https://forums.duke4...778#entry379778

Now, after a recent search leading to a page about the person's works, I accidentally found out that Passfield previously published another Microbee game in this manner. It is the 1984 game "Chilly Willy". Indeed, it is a clone of Pengo. There's another clone of the same name for the Commodore 64, btw.

Actually, chances are I already saw a mention of the Microbee-compatible clone, at least in the file "harry25th.txt" as available from an August 1993 beta of the Apogee-published Halloween Harry game (if not also the freeware release's readme.txt).

In the aforementioned thread about Halloween Harry, I brought up the Microbee Software Preservation Project, i.e., MSPP. As in the case of Halloween Harry, I could find a disk image including Chilly Willy and get it to work, using the uBee512 emulator:

Spoiler