[HN Gopher] I wrote a Pong game in a 512-byte boot sector
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I wrote a Pong game in a 512-byte boot sector
Author : akshat666
Score : 99 points
Date : 2025-11-15 00:36 UTC (4 days ago)
(HTM) web link (akshatjoshi.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (akshatjoshi.com)
| akshat666 wrote:
| Built this as a personal challenge. No OS, no drivers -- just x86
| assembly and BIOS. 512 bytes exactly. Boots in QEMU.
|
| Run it: nasm -f bin pong.asm -o boot.bin qemu-system-x86_64
| boot.bin
|
| GitHub: https://github.com/akshat666/-bootponggame
| Tepix wrote:
| Nice! So you wrote this three years ago according to the git
| timestamps?
|
| You can add it to the list at
| https://gist.github.com/XlogicX/8204cf17c432cc2b968d138eb639...
| I think there are already at least two Pong game there.
| matsz wrote:
| It's probably one of the best introductory projects to x86
| assembly on bare metal.
|
| More advanced than my attempt: https://github.com/mat-
| sz/pongloader
|
| BTW: You could provide a live online demo using v86 -
| https://github.com/copy/v86
| anthk wrote:
| Now that I see this, I'd curious if something like Nethack 3.4.3
| or Slashem could be rewritten in T3X0 and be playable under 286
| machines:
|
| https://t3x.org/t3x/0/
|
| There's a working Rogue port for Minix2 under a 16 bit CPU (and
| for the Z Machine too, and GBA, and several others...), but I
| think even Hack 1.0.3 would be too big to fit under a 286 with
| 640k.
|
| It would be a good start if Nethack 1.3d got working under CP/M
| for instance, rewritten with T3X0 and some ASM hacks for
| speeds...
| fl7305 wrote:
| You could easily write a RISC-V CPU emulator for your
| older/smaller machines, and run the original Nethack code
| compiled to RISC-V.
| anthk wrote:
| Under a 286? At time-freezing speeds. Minix 2 under a
| homebrew 16 bit CPU already was so-so in usability:
|
| https://homebrewcpu.com/
| fl7305 wrote:
| I think it would be well enough for Nethack.
|
| Would be interesting if even a Z80 could run Nethack in a
| CPU emulator.
| anthk wrote:
| Nethack 1.3c, maybe. The first release, I mean, the
| inmediate one after Hack 1.0.3 under BSD's. That with a
| lot of patience. Nethack 3.4.3... I doub't it even DOS
| could handle it with 640k and a 286.
| joenot443 wrote:
| This is cool!
|
| BTW I checked out your Github and tried the link to your personal
| site - looks like the www prefix isn't working.
|
| www.akshatjoshi.com fails but akshatjoshi.com works. Gotta fix
| those A records!
| kragen wrote:
| Possibly relevant is hugi-compo round 3, the "Pong" compo:
| https://www.hugi.scene.org/compo/compoold.htm#compo3
|
| I spent three days disassembling Guillermo Sais's 142-byte
| winner, which was challenging to understand. My notes may be of
| interest; they are in gsais-pong.md in
| http://canonical.org/~kragen/sw/pavnotes2.git/
|
| I hope this is not interpreted as any kind of criticism. I would
| much rather be responsible for maintaining Joshi's code than
| Sais's. But I suspect that most people who are interested in
| either work will be interested in the other.
| 110111011110 wrote:
| always facinated by these.
|
| some ideas: - could try to add another player. just need to map 4
| more keys. IO should be fine doing it the same way (dont think
| itd need thread or whatever) the io is super fast in the qemu
| scenario.
|
| - rather than have this in the MBR. make an MBR where you can
| select this sector to load as next sector and jump, maybe even
| with ability to return. *you can then expose other games too if
| ud ever be bothered for snake or minesweeper :D
|
| just some tinkering ideas. cool project and hats off. its always
| more tricky than it looks these things!
| amiga386 wrote:
| "No operating system. [...] Just [...] BIOS". Hmm.
|
| Out of interest, is there a difference in environment between
| running a COM executable for MS-DOS versus running a bootblock? I
| know there's the whole of MS-DOS, but a typical size-coded demo
| (http://www.sizecoding.org/wiki/DOS) will only use int 10h to
| switch mode, and that's it. Everything else is IO mapped (e.g.
| the keyboard) or memory mapped (e.g. screen memory). Could these
| equally run as a bootblock, and vice-versa?
|
| One difference I know of is that DOS maintains an ever-increasing
| timer that it writes to 0:046C... is that available at bootblock
| execution time?
| CrociDB wrote:
| As far as I know yes, but with some minor changes, like the the
| position to be loaded in memory (`org 0x7c00` for bootloaders
| and I think `org 0x100` for DOS) and the fact that it needs to
| be exactly 512bytes to boot.
| mg794613 wrote:
| Tomorrow it's my turn to pretend to have written this!
| Barry-Perkins wrote:
| Pong in 512 bytes -- boot, play, amaze
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