No, really, I never played it all the way through. I thought it was also a good test of SarienPM, on Microsoft OS/2 2.0 Pre-Release 2, and much to my surprise despite having screwed up the sound code so that it’s always on, and not using an input queue for the keyboard, making it difficult to type fast, but despite all of the challenges, I was able to complete the game.

I did record it, although I need to test levels properly, the audio is a bit muddled. I don’t know if it’s worth watching it all the way through, I die.. A LOT. And stupidly. And don’t save anywhere near enough and have to repeat some parts over and over and over.. The stupid alien vine maze took me over half an hour as it was impossible many times to clearly see.

Also, it has my terrible DosBeep code, which of course sounds terrible. There ought to be some way to tell sound effects from ‘music’ as it seems they are coded for different durations and tones. But I don’t know what I’m doing, I’m just a monkey banging keys.

Another Pre-release of OS/2

In other exciting OS/2 news, I came across this previously un-dumped IBM Pre-Release of 1.10! It’s tagged for 08/08/88! No doubt very lucky for someone. The only mention I can find of this comes from Excel 2.2 for OS/2

B. Supported Releases of OS/2
-----------------------------
Microsoft Excel for OS/2 is compatible with OS/2 Versions 1.1 and 1.2.
If you are running an early release of IBM OS/2 Version 1.1, you should
verify that your copy of OS/2 supports Microsoft Excel for OS/2:

    1. Open an OS/2 full-screen command session.
    2. At the OS/2 command prompt, type SYSLEVEL and press ENTER.
    3. Check the number listed on the line "Current CSD Level."

Microsoft Excel for OS/2 requires a CSD Level of:
    *  WR2030 or higher for IBM OS/2 Standard Edition Version 1.1
    *  XR2030 or higher for IBM OS/2 Extended Edition Version 1.1

If your release does not support Microsoft Excel for OS/2, use the coupon
included with IBM OS/2 1.1 to order your Device Support Supplement, or
contact your IBM dealer to obtain the appropriate Corrective Service Disks.

Of course, good luck finding any updates for this OS from 1988.

It does look and feel pretty complete for a such an advanced beta. But was there any actual software for it? I have to wonder that given the note in Excel 2.2 was there a pre-release version Excel that was for this? Excel is dated 23/09/89, so maybe there was some fancy ‘executive demo’, with protected mode massive memory models? You have to think in that window prior to Windows 3.0 the spreadsheet pros would have demanded Excel on OS/2 (When did Lotus finally do 1-2-3?)

Of course, I had to try to run Excel on the pre-release. And not too surprising, it doesn’t run. From the command line it just reports a SYS0008: Not enough storage is available process this command.

There must have been something that had to have been distributed with this Pre-release and I suspect it was more geared towards end users. But I’m just speculating.

Hobbes saved!

There has been so much noise about the OS/2 Hobbes archives being removed, that the community has not only mirrored it all over the place (It’s a tiny 18GB), but the search database has been transferred, and it’s now usable over at:

Welcome to Hobbes (hobbesarchive.com)

Too bad physical releases are so out of the question, at least there was some outrage to get this saved before it died. Nice.

Closing

Otherwise, it’s been a busy week, and I know I owe the mainframe video, which I’ll work on finishing up tomorrow. Fun!