I would like to announce that I am now currently working on a retro-themed virtual machine that takes in elements from older computers/video game consoles and mix it with HD Resolution support!

This virtual machine will not be competing against BYOND in any form due to a more specialized focus and that is developing retro-themed games. That's right, you will be able to use higher resolution to create even more detailed retro-themed games. There will be different color modes ranging from 1-bit to 4-bit. As a programmer, you will be able to decide what colors to use using a 24-bit RGB system. You will be able to use resolutions from 320x240 (no support for 320x200 at this time) to 1920x1080.

This virtual machine will come with it's own DOS just to get ready to load up some incredible games that anyone would make. As of right now, it looks almost akin to MS-DOS, Commodore 64, and anything else from the 80s. I have plans for two programming languages for this virtual machine. One being it's very own assembly that allows anybody here to program at a low level as possible (bytecode styled of course). Another will be a high-leveled programming language to make it more programmer friendly (which may come in the near future).

One key feature that will come some time is a virtualized audio chip where you can program your own chiptunes or any sound effects. To simplify that effort, I may even build a chiptune/audio editor to creating audio and music for games. It may even be possible to use a tracker (no plans yet).

Here are the current specifications for this virtual machine:
CPU: 32-bit
Color Modes: 1-bit, 2-bit, 3-bit, 4-bit
Resolution: 320x240 - 1920x1080
Video RAM: 2MB
RAM: 16MB
Hard Drive: 256MB


The hard drive portion is currently being worked on. I mainly labeled the CPU as 32-bit due to the fact it is virtualized and it can easily access 16MB of RAM. More on this virtual machine will come soon. For the curious, there are no plans for networking support at the moment to keep the feel of nostalgia. However, I may add it due to demand to make it a more advanced retro virtual machine.

And for anyone who has at least Windows 7 (though it might work on Windows XP), I have a test release (which will be updated each time) for the budding public to play with: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/24250760/ Test%20Releases/ClassicVCom%20HD.zip

Due to no documentation yet, here are the commands to play around with:
Cd - Doesn't change directory yet, but shows a message.

Dir - Doesn't view directories yet, but shows a message.

Mem - Allows you to view available RAM. Might not be needed, but just added it for kicks.

Run - Doesn't run anything yet, but does display a message for testing.

Shutdown - Allows you to shutdown your system.


And of course, you can experiment with partition/drive switching that has no restriction yet (such as 'HD1:' or 'D:'). At present, this project is being programmed in C++ using the SDL 2.0 library. However, I plan to compile a working HTML5 build using Emscripten at some point.

Feel free to provide feedback for anyone interested. There is no final release date yet, though I might eventually make it open source for anyone who wants to build their own forks (technically newer virtual machines).

P.S.: I have not retired from BYOND. I have just been working on other projects outside on BYOND for the time being.

Edit: There are some things that may appear glitchy on the test release (such as backspaces at other cursor positions). That is because I'm still working on implementing several features to it's own DOS. Also, you can use ALT+ENTER to enter into Desktop-styled Full Screen.

There are still some characters being implemented as well.