I tried to hype myself up to announce new features in an in-universe update, but I’m exhausted, the past few months have been exhausting, and updating this was a nice break from that but I’m still exhausted. I intended this update for 4 days ago, but really wanted to fix a particular issue.

Here goes the changes:

• Additional man page items, and you can man fixtext to get instructions.
• EXE files no longer require the exe extension to run. Writing to make a gamejam deadline meant that piece needed a bit of upheaval to fix, hence, delay.
• Fixtext.exe no longer presents puzzles with “Bad command or file name”
• Additional items in the system directory to provide hints on additional commands you can use.
• Larger click target for the command line input, to more easily get back to typing after loosing focus.
• Fixtext.exe lets you use \documents\help.txt from any directory. Originally a feature, lost due to a bug, bug has been fixed.
• Added net-purchase / net-upgrade commands to match the Visual DOS Concise User’s Guide

Current delays:

• The linux machine that built the linux executables does not exist anymore. Recreating the build environment to generate this again.
• I took poor notes (There was a deadline!)

Game Difficulty

I did have the game playtested, believe it or not. Because it’s a crypto puzzle game of puzzles I made, I did not trust my ability to solve the puzzles so I contacted a few people to try it out and provide feedback.

And I contacted puzzle enthusiasts, who all rapidly finished the game. I am so sorry. 🤣

Learning from this, the prequel, Integer Overflow, contains hints and easier puzzles. This game at least has fixtext’s interface to help with the puzzles. It’s been a plan to add hints to make it easier, but that’s not happening this week.

One Hint Though

The final ultimately is not a crypto puzzle. Using News.exe, and real world knowledge of DOS, you can save your friend on the other side. Again, everyone I actively tested with got it pretty quickly. That statement is giving me anxiety. If you get stuck, ping me for spoilers? 😬

And Finally, as I download Rust for the X * 1,000th time

I got so many messages about this game this past week, and it was an unexpected surprise. Thanks to everyone that sent suggestions and reported bugs that I missed or forgot.

All This and More

in the Visual DOS 2024 Concise User’s Guide. It’s a paperback user’s guide, half in-universe, half out of universe guide to both Visual DOS games, matching the size and dimensions of other real world OS user guides. It contains a walkthrough, cheats, and spoilers. My kid wanted a physical one, Apple wanted a digital one, and I opted to make the kid happy instead.