4am Programming

Tech Distractions - My youtube channel featuring retro PC and game content including documentaries and hardware reviews.

xyWords - A cross-word anagrams puzzle game and editor for MS-DOS based computers with CGA Graphics (4 Colours) and 384KB+ RAM

xyWords Text-Mode Edition - A rewrite of xyWords for MS-DOS based computers with MDA/Text-mode (no graphics capability) and 256KB+ RAM

99Things - A small find-a-thing game for MS-DOS based computers with CGA Graphics and 256KB+ of RAM.
Includes mouse, adlib sound card and EGA+ 4-Color support.

Windows 3.0 Real Mode Collection - A large collection of applications and games that seem to run under Windows 3.0 real mode.
I created a list of the test results for CGA and VGA (using a hacky driver for 8088 CPUs)
This is handy for those who want to run Windows 3.0 on PC's that cannot run "Standard Mode" (286+ 1MB RAM+).
Check out the vogons thread here.

What is 4am.org?

Thesedays it's just a small site for publishing projects.
Between 1997 and 2001 I wrote many MS-DOS, Windows 3x and 9x applications and utilities.
But as I programmed more and more for work rather than play these projects dwindled away.

Enter 2023 and a random burst of retro-spiration got me picking up Quickbasic 4.5 after 25ish years and wanting to write some small puzzle games for my collection of really old computers like this Sharp PC-7100!