DOS ain't dead - WordUp Graphics Toolkit Open Source

fissuras

08.02.2016, 16:25

WordUp Graphics Toolkit Open Source (Miscellaneous)

WGT - WordUp Graphics Toolkit by Egerter Software

A long time ago, in a galaxy not really far away, a developer decided to release the source code of all his graphics libraries. He then announced it to the world, with these very words.

He also posted a note on his company's site that can be viewed here.

September 14th, 1999.

That was the release day.

Files were available and ready to download, as can be seen in this archived page, if you don't believe my words.

But all things shall pass... as the company passed and the source code vanished away from the net, not to be heard, seen or compiled again, as not even the mighty Archiver got a hold on those files, and they were lost, as not even the author had a backup, or so it seems. Nor even Google was able to find any clue of those sources wherabouts.

Until the day came and I found those files in an old, unused hard drive.

To make it short, I am uploading those sources here to preserve them so that they do not get lost forever, under GPL as decided by Chris Egerter himself:

This archive contains the final registered version of WGT 5.1 for Watcom C and the complete source code. This product is no longer for sale and this archive may be distributed freely.

Please disregard any order forms and licenses contained within this archive. The GNU Library General Public License is the only license in affect now and it is contained in license.txt.

This source code and product is no longer supported, however in case you need to contact the author (Chris Egerter) you can reach me at powerrender@home.com, or visit my website at http://www.egerter.com.[/i]

That's all folks

Rugxulo Usono, 09.02.2016, 00:56 @ fissuras	WordUp Graphics Toolkit Open Source Post reply
	> WGT - WordUp Graphics Toolkit by Egerter Software > > > That's all folks I've tried to run the Dragon demo under both DOSEMU and DOSBox. Both times it gets roughly half (?? dunno) finished before crashing. Still very cool though.

Rugxulo

Usono,
10.02.2016, 04:44

@ Rugxulo

WordUp Graphics Toolkit Open Source

Post reply

> I've tried to run the Dragon demo under both DOSEMU and DOSBox. Both times
> it gets roughly half (?? dunno) finished before crashing. Still very cool
> though.

The Flight demo seems to run fine (under DOSBox), no crashes, although it does seem to endlessly loop the seagull part (until you press the Esc key).

BTW, I assume you were aware that a lot of older stuff is available here (x2ftp mirror):

http://ftp.lanet.lv/ftp/mirror/x2ftp/msdos/programming/wgt/00index.html

fissuras 11.02.2016, 15:43 @ Rugxulo	WordUp Graphics Toolkit Open Source Post reply
	> > BTW, I assume you were aware that a lot of older stuff is available here > (x2ftp mirror): > > http://ftp.lanet.lv/ftp/mirror/x2ftp/msdos/programming/wgt/00index.html Sure, x2ftp was the best programming site one could ask for. There I've found WGT for the first time. (but only the shareware versions)

Rugxulo

Usono,
09.02.2016, 02:20

@ fissuras

WordUp Graphics Toolkit Open Source

Post reply

> This source code and product is no longer supported, however in case you
> need to contact the author (Chris Egerter) you can reach me at
> powerrender@home.com, or visit my website at http://www.egerter.com .

egerter.com seems defunct. WayBack seems to suggest it (at one time) redirected to powerrender.com , which is also defunct (since 2007?) in lieu of http://www.rockingpocketgames.com , whose 3D games apparently use their Power Render 3D engine. The Twitter account @RockingPocket seems active, e.g. Jan. 16 announcement of Heavy Blade 2.0 for iOS and AppleTV.

fissuras

09.02.2016, 11:42

@ Rugxulo

WordUp Graphics Toolkit Open Source

Post reply

>
> egerter.com seems defunct. WayBack seems to suggest it (at one time)
> redirected to
> powerrender.com
> , which is also defunct (since 2007?) in lieu of
> http://www.rockingpocketgames.com , whose 3D games apparently use their
> Power Render 3D engine. The Twitter account
> @RockingPocket seems active,
> e.g. Jan. 16 announcement of Heavy Blade 2.0 for iOS and AppleTV.

I've tried to contact Chris, sending e-mails to rockingpocketgames, but I've got no news from him. I do remember that at some point he had written somewhere that he did not have the sources anymore, but I can't find it again, no matter how much I tried.

I wanted to be sure that the source was not available anywhere and that was OK to uploaded it somewhere.

I remember being amazed using WGT (shareware). I even decompiled 4.5 shareware library to understand what was going on. It is a fine piece of code :-D

glennmcc

North Jackson, Ohio (USA),
09.02.2016, 02:28

@ fissuras

WordUp Graphics Toolkit Open Source

Post reply

Thank you very much fissuras.

Now, to make doubly sure that they are saved for posterity....

http://glennmcc.org/download/WordUp_Graphics_Toolkit_Open_Source/

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http://glennmcc.org/

fissuras 09.02.2016, 12:03 @ glennmcc	WordUp Graphics Toolkit Open Source Post reply
	> Thank you very much fissuras. > > Now, to make doubly sure that they are saved for posterity.... > > http://glennmcc.org/download/WordUp_Graphics_Toolkit_Open_Source/ > Those WGT-opensource.zip and tar files are not needed, they are probably empty. I don't how to use Github properly (I stopped coding in the 90's).

glennmcc

North Jackson, Ohio (USA),
09.02.2016, 23:22

@ fissuras

WordUp Graphics Toolkit Open Source

Post reply

> > Thank you very much fissuras.
> >
> > Now, to make doubly sure that they are saved for posterity....
> >
> > http://glennmcc.org/download/WordUp_Graphics_Toolkit_Open_Source/
> >
>
> Those WGT-opensource.zip and tar files are not needed, they are probably
> empty. I don't how to use Github properly (I stopped coding in the 90's).

Thanks for the heads-up.

Both contained just your original post to here
so have deleted 'em to remove any confusion.

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http://glennmcc.org/