mattiasgustavsson/dos-like

Health v2 · maintenance only

Flags: no_license

Adoption not part of the score

1185 stars · 54 forks observed · 2026-08-28

What it is AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, 2026-08-30, confidence not recorded

A small C framework, like a tiny game engine, for writing games and programs that recreate the look, feel, and sound of early-90s MS-DOS software on modern platforms. It ships with examples of classic DOS effects and builds with a simple compiler call on Windows, Mac, Linux, and WebAssembly.

Use cases

• make a retro DOS-style game in C
• recreate the look and feel of early 90s DOS programs
• build a VGA-style demoscene effect
• write a retro-styled app that runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux
• compile a DOS-feel program to WebAssembly
• learn classic DOS graphics and sound techniques

When to choose

• you want an authentic DOS-era aesthetic without targeting real DOS hardware
• you prefer a minimal C library with no complicated build system
• you want to target desktop platforms and WebAssembly from one codebase

When to avoid

• you need a full-featured modern game engine with asset pipelines and editors
• you want to run software on actual DOS or retro hardware
• you need 3D rendering or modern GPU features beyond the DOS-style effects

Facets

framework · maturity active

game-engine graphics audio-processing gui graphics cross-platform windows wasm cpp c ms-dos retro dos-style sdl2 single-header tiny-c-compiler nostalgia vga-graphics game-development retro-computing macos linux

Member repositories

For agents

markdown · JSON · MCP: product_card(name="mattiasgustavsson/dos-like")