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cyningstan.bsky.social
Cyningstan
@cyningstan.bsky.social
340 followers 270 following 780 posts
Hobbyist retro-game developer. Writing for the ancient IBM PC of 1981: fun in all four colours. I appreciate the Sinclair ZX Spectrum and Psion pocket computers too. Also an ancient board game nerd.

Website: http://dos.cyningstan.org.uk/
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cyningstan.bsky.social
Cyningstan @cyningstan.bsky.social · 2d
Now that 2026 is underway, it's a good time to post an updated collage of my DOS games. Since I have nine out now, that fits into a nice neat rectangle. So here are all 9 #msdos games I released from 2020 to 2025. All #cga, all running on an #ibmpc, all available from cyningstan.itch.io
A 3x3 collage of all 9 games I've released for MSDOS from 2020 to 2025. Top left to bottom right: Barbarians, The Chambers Beneath, Pym's Daily Word Square Puzzle, Star Cadre: Combat Class, Barren Planet, Team Droid, The Anarchic Kingdom, Ossuary, and the CGALIB demo game CGA Robots.
Reposted by Cyningstan
dosnostalgic.bsky.social
These DOS games turn 30 in 2026:

Quake
Duke Nukem 3D
Red Alert
Tomb Raider
Chex Quest
Broken Sword
Daggerfall
Death Rally
HOMM 2
Phantasmagoria 2
Settlers 2
Harvester
Leisure Suit Larry 7
Big Red Racing
Lighthouse
Normality
Powerslave
Strife
Pandora Directive
Time Commando
Zork Nemesis
Toonstruck
Z
January 1, 2026 at 3:18 PM
cyningstan.bsky.social
Now that 2026 is underway, it's a good time to post an updated collage of my DOS games. Since I have nine out now, that fits into a nice neat rectangle. So here are all 9 #msdos games I released from 2020 to 2025. All #cga, all running on an #ibmpc, all available from cyningstan.itch.io
A 3x3 collage of all 9 games I've released for MSDOS from 2020 to 2025. Top left to bottom right: Barbarians, The Chambers Beneath, Pym's Daily Word Square Puzzle, Star Cadre: Combat Class, Barren Planet, Team Droid, The Anarchic Kingdom, Ossuary, and the CGALIB demo game CGA Robots.
January 1, 2026 at 2:55 PM
cyningstan.bsky.social
A whole year of Pym's Daily Word Square puzzle fun has just passed. I admit I missed some days and had to go back to them, but this daily play makes #Pym my most-played #msdos game of the year. You can also have a whole year's fun by visiting cyningstan.itch.io/pyms-daily-w... #ibmpc #cga
The 2025 calendar in Pym's Daily Word Square Puzzle, with every day crossed off.
January 1, 2026 at 11:01 AM
Reposted by Cyningstan
shaneir.bsky.social
"Dragonfell" from @cyningstan.bsky.social for the #Psion Series 3 - old-school turn based strategy warring on a fabulous 1990s retro handheld computer platform - what's not to love? :-)
Dragonfell on a Psion Series 3mx
December 30, 2025 at 11:03 AM
Reposted by Cyningstan
thelastpsion.com
How about a little #Psion gaming for the holiday season! @cyningstan.bsky.social has written a brand new game for the original Series 3 entirely in OPL. I've got it running on my 3mx. The added EL backlight adds an ethereal feeling to the play.

Get your copy here: cyningstan.itch.io/dragonfell-p...
Psion Series 3mx running Dragonfell. The 3mx is sitting on top of a ThinkPad X13 gen4 AMD, lid closed, which in turn is on a varnished wooden table.
December 25, 2025 at 10:18 AM
Reposted by Cyningstan
cyningstan.bsky.social
As a little Christmas gift for #Psion fans, Dragonfell is released for the #PsionSeries3! This is a #HOMM inspired strategy war game, featuring ogres, dark elves, dragons and wizards. Finish off your enemy by conquering their citadel. Get it from cyningstan.itch.io/dragonfell-p...
The Dragonfell cover image features an ominous red sunrise or sunset, with a landscape of mountains, forests and a large citadel shown in silhouette form. Emerging from the citadel are a wizard, some dark elves, and a dragon flying above them. A larger dragon, the game's logo, flies high in the sky above the scene.
December 24, 2025 at 10:34 AM
cyningstan.bsky.social
In some places it's Christmas already, so the time is right to wish you all a Merry Christmas, or a Happy Whatever else you celebrate, or failing all else a nice end to the week.
"Season's Greetings" against a backdrop of festive flowers and foliage, all in a CGA palette of green, red, and yellow on a brown background.
December 24, 2025 at 1:51 PM
cyningstan.bsky.social
As a little Christmas gift for #Psion fans, Dragonfell is released for the #PsionSeries3! This is a #HOMM inspired strategy war game, featuring ogres, dark elves, dragons and wizards. Finish off your enemy by conquering their citadel. Get it from cyningstan.itch.io/dragonfell-p...
The Dragonfell cover image features an ominous red sunrise or sunset, with a landscape of mountains, forests and a large citadel shown in silhouette form. Emerging from the citadel are a wizard, some dark elves, and a dragon flying above them. A larger dragon, the game's logo, flies high in the sky above the scene.
December 24, 2025 at 10:34 AM
cyningstan.bsky.social
The second expansion for #BarrenPlanet is #Waterworld. Dapra's neighbouring planet Dalen is over 95% covered with water. And at the bottom of these oceans: crystal nodes! Let battle commence! Get it at cyningstan.itch.io/waterworld. #ibmpc #msdos #cga #Waterworld
Waterworld, showing its vast expanses of ocean.
December 23, 2025 at 5:53 PM
cyningstan.bsky.social
In the coming weeks I'll detail the treasures that you will find in the #Ossuary, and how they can help you. First, gold is what you're there for. Collect as much as you can in your descent. You can download and play Ossuary at cyningstan.itch.io/ossuary #ibmpc #msdos #cga #zxspectrum
Our hero is on level 6, where they can find pouches containing 20 gold, and caskets containing 50 gold. Both are enlarged in the insets at the bottom.
December 22, 2025 at 2:21 PM
Reposted by Cyningstan
masswerk.at
X-Mas Quest:
Can I do a 6502 X-mas themed game for the Commodore PET in a single day?

Progress so far…
December 21, 2025 at 10:00 AM
Reposted by Cyningstan
michaelklamerus.bsky.social
Consider making 2026 the Year of the Personal Website. Even a little thing on Neocities works. It’s just nice to have a home base on the internet that you don’t have to deal with bsky mods are random popping into every post and if something goes wrong with your host, you just move it elsewhere
Neocities
Create and surf awesome websites for free.
neocities.org
December 20, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Reposted by Cyningstan
rabihalameddine.bsky.social
December 21, 2025 at 2:14 PM
Reposted by Cyningstan
shaneir.bsky.social
I'm wiping the floor with the Hard Psion #AI in #Dragonfell - still @cyningstan.bsky.social 's Beta release - watch out for the full release soon, and maybe get a last-minute Psion for that special retro person in your life :-) #ReadTheALT
Dragonfell is a strategy war game for the Psion range of handheld computers. It's close to full release, and very very addictive! Pit your wizards, ogres, dragons and dark elves against the enemy as you vie for supremacy over the shattered landscape. You'll need a Psion 3, 3a, 3c or 3mx - also works on Siena, I believe. You can pick these up for <£40 on ebay, and then a link cable to port it across. Better yet, join a Psion group and share resources! The Psion is the perfect distraction-free writing device, and so much more. They deserve to be freed from their back-of-the-drawer prisons, where they've been since the late 1990s. Retro can be productive and mobile!
December 21, 2025 at 1:04 PM
Reposted by Cyningstan
ignacioprigar.bsky.social
Con un ZX Spectrum 128K y su BASIC para hacer música en 3 canales usando el comando PLAY, se pueden hacer maravillas sabiendo uno crear/adaptar música. Y aquí un ejemplo, influenciado por J.S. Bach y también por Wendy Carlos y su Switched-On Bach de 1968:

neilparsons1.bandcamp.com/track/prelud...
Prelude and Fugue nº 2 in C minor BWV 847, by Neil Parsons
from the album 8-Bit Bach Reloaded
neilparsons1.bandcamp.com
December 18, 2025 at 2:24 PM
Reposted by Cyningstan
oldskool.org
This is an interesting project to port a simple overhead shooter to seemingly every platform under the sun. I booted the 320KB disk image on my real IBM PC/XT + CGA and it fired right up and it played very well, considering the hardware platform. Smart screen updates too (no tearing or flickering).
December 16, 2025 at 3:54 AM
cyningstan.bsky.social
#Pym Daily Word Square Puzzle 2026 is now available. This is the game for #msdos, with the puzzle data for 2025/6. Or you can download the 2026 puzzle data and add it to your existing installation. These files are available at cyningstan.itch.io/pyms-daily-w... #ibmpc #cga
The 2026 calendar for Pym's Daily Word Square Puzzle. At the time of posting, all the puzzles are marked as unavailable because it's still 2025.
December 15, 2025 at 2:40 PM
Reposted by Cyningstan
inufuto.bsky.social
IBM PC(EGA)版 IMPETUS+ #ibmpc
inufuto.web.fc2.com/8bit/impetus...
November 30, 2025 at 7:03 AM
Reposted by Cyningstan
inufuto.bsky.social
IBM PC(CGA)版 IMPETUS+ #ibmpc
inufuto.web.fc2.com/8bit/impetus...
November 30, 2025 at 12:42 AM
Reposted by Cyningstan
retrocomps.bsky.social
Antikythera mechanism (2nd century BC; reconstruction 2012, Tony Freeth)
A simple mechanism for predicting the Callipic cycle, a technique for estimating the time, solstice, and lunar state, used by Greek navigators. The dial on the left shows the state of six heavenly bodies, a crank, and the instructions for use inscribed on the front; the middle shows the mechanism itself, with various step gears used to multiply or divide the main gear into smaller or larger periods; the spring spirals on the back act as a kind of 'checksum', alerting the operator to the end of a calendar month or year.
December 12, 2025 at 12:05 PM
Reposted by Cyningstan
shaneir.bsky.social
The beautiful old Psion handheld computers remain a classic - retro, yet properly useful in daily life and work. I wouldn't be without mine, and my Discord buddy is writing *new games* for them. There's a hugely supportive community of us nutters - join us! psion.community
Gorgeous Psion Series 3mx handheld computer on a chessboard
December 7, 2025 at 10:38 PM
Reposted by Cyningstan
retrotechdreams.bsky.social
The perfect form factor existed back in 1997. Psion Series 5 Palm-top computer.
December 3, 2025 at 5:09 PM
cyningstan.bsky.social
Taking a break from MS-DOS, I've been working on a game for the #PsionSeries3 pocket computer. Dragonfell is a #HOMM inspired game where two sides raise armies of creatures and send them against one another across a decaying land, trying to seize the other's citadel. It goes into beta test today.
Dragonfell running on four Psion Series 3 machines, showing off various different aspects of the game. Having too many Psions does have its advantages after all. From left to right: the new game menu where a player chooses what level of computer opponent to play against, or alternatively to play against a human opponent; the strategic map where the player gives armies to move around the land; the production map where the player decides what units to produce and where; and the tactical map where battles are fought when opposing armies try to occupy the same region on the strategic map.
November 30, 2025 at 12:38 PM
Reposted by Cyningstan
decafjedi.com
Happy Broomcloset Day! My Space Quest fan site, Roger Wilco's Virtual Broomcloset, launched 30 years ago today. I've spent the past month adding a ton of new content to the site for the first time in years. Drop by and check it out! wiw.org/~jess/roger.html
Roger Wilco's Virtual Broomcloset: The Original Space Quest Fan Site
The web's first and most comprehensive Space Quest fan site, packed with Easter eggs, trivia, downloads, and retrospectives on Sierra's classic adventure series.
wiw.org
November 29, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Reposted by Cyningstan
hiddenasbestos.bsky.social
Camel, CGA edition.
A low poly camel rendered in CGA colours.
November 25, 2025 at 1:48 PM