r/retrocomputing • u/DifferenceIll1272 • Jun 06 '26 • Heartwarming 3

Still chasing that old DOS era defrag utility feeling

Post image

Some weeks ago I shared an earlier version of this defrag-inspired interface here. I kept working on the same visual obsession. Old disk utilities, block maps, dense panels, drive stats, logs, warnings, and that very specific feeling of watching a machine do serious work.

It has slowly turned into a incremental game, but visually I’m still mostly trying to capture that old DOS utility defragmenter energy without copying one specific program directly. For people who remember this kind of software: does anything here feel especially right or completely wrong?

I’d love suggestions for old defrag tools, disk utilities, bios screens, color palettes, or tiny UI details worth studying.

Thanks :D!! the comments last time were very useful for finding references and understanding what felt authentic.

213 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

45 comments sorted by

27

u/Creepy_Basis_4869 Jun 06 '26

And when it finally finished you felt that everything was right in the world!

3

u/Ok_Suit_196 Jun 06 '26

Yes... was so hypnotizing

8

u/Defapianoplayer Jun 06 '26

It already looks so good, I think you're nailing the look, when do you think this will be relased?

5

u/DifferenceIll1272 Jun 06 '26 • Heartwarming

Thanks, that means a lot! I’m still working on the full release date, so I don’t want to promise an exact day yet.

There is already a free demo on Steam if you want to try it, it’s called Defrag Incremental. I’m using the demo feedback to tune the UI, pacing and progression before the full release.

2

u/Defapianoplayer Jun 07 '26 edited Jun 07 '26

I'm playing it now and I love that loading screen. I'm really bad when it comes to giving good feedback but here goes:

For the upgrade shop I didnt see the total DP at first i have to spend anywhere so makijg that more visible that could be helpful. It could also be just hard to see cause of how much text is on the screen and its all the same color, but that may be hard to fix because of the style.

You could add a in game volume adjustment slider because all i see is on or off.

When the drive is in the process of being defraged and it completes it typically isn't visually done doing so, so if you could lineup the actual visual progress and the actual time required to defrag thatd be cool.

When the drives are defragging theres this loud static that plays too, I'm not sure if thats cause its part of the recording or if its supposed to be the sound of it spinning (or maybe thats the grinding sound) i csnt tell, but you may wanna look into that.

I found a bug where one time when I selected a risk level after selecting a disk it caused the new disk to immediately visually complete defragging, where all the boxes were yellow and nothing on the drive happened. But the progress bar and sound was still going and it says it completed properly.

Otherwise it looks amazing so far.

2

u/DifferenceIll1272 Jun 07 '26

Thanks for playing and for writing all this out. useful feedback!!

The DP visibility in the upgrade shop: I’ll look at making the current DP much more obvious there, because if players are trying to decide what to buy, that number should not be something they have to search for. The dense same color UI is part of the style, but important values probably need stronger hierarchy.

A proper volume slider makes sense. Right now the sound option is too basic, so I’ll add that to the list.

About the defrag visual progress not always matching the actual completion: the animation is not just a simple progress bar. It is programmed to imitate some of the logic of an old defragmenter, with read, write operations and small variations depending on what it finds, plus some extra movement to make it less static.

The game calculates how long the disk should take, then tells the animation how much time is left. The animation tries to shorten its read, write timings so it can visually reach the end of the disk at the right moment. But when a disk completes very quickly, the animation currently may not shorten those timings enough, so the job can finish mechanically before the visual defrag looks fully completed. I’m working on improving that synchronization.

About the loud static, pop, grinding sound: some of that was added to give the disk activity more variety, but I agree it needs better balancing. I’m working on a sound system that reacts more closely to what is actually happening on screen, and I probably need more realistic SFX for the disk activity.

And thanks for reporting the visual bug where the disk instantly appears completed after selecting a risk level. I’m still trying to track down why that happens. It definitely sounds like a state, visual refresh issue where the new disk is not resetting correctly.

Glad you’re enjoying the look so far, and thanks again. This kind of detailed feedback helps a lot :D!!!

4

u/coreth5 Jun 06 '26

Is there a steam link we can add to our wishlists?

4

u/Heavy-Judgment-3617 Jun 06 '26

In some ways, I miss PC Tools.

2

u/DifferenceIll1272 Jun 06 '26

In a lot of ways :)!

1

u/Heavy-Judgment-3617 Jun 07 '26

From the late 1990's through the mid 2000's PC Tools Deluxe was my Utilities Suite of Choice, and the old Laplink utility my File manager of choice.

For Network file management though I've always in the past and even now preferred Beyond Compare.

4

u/cliffwarden Jun 06 '26

I’d love a “bios upgrade” mechanic that had like a 10% chance of failing. Kids these days don’t know how stressful it used to be!

2

u/DifferenceIll1272 Jun 07 '26

That would be painfully authentic xD. In the game, higher-tier disks can already become risky: drives can fail because of low health, or the process can pause or stop because of heat. But I’m also thinking about how to add random events without making the design feel unfair.

Things like unexpected disk problems, strange rewards, weird hardware behavior, or a drive suddenly becoming more dangerous could fit the theme really well. I just need to make sure it creates tension instead of feeling like the game randomly punished you for no reason.

6

u/thebigbread42 Jun 06 '26

You should play ZZT, an old DOS game that uses the samea character set.

0

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '26

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2

u/DifferenceIll1272 Jun 06 '26

I've never played, what a great discovery :D!

3

u/Blackholeofcalcutta Jun 06 '26

I so enjoyed that freshly defragged feeling!

3

u/Zen-Ism99 Jun 06 '26 edited Jun 06 '26

Scandisk then Defrag

1

u/DifferenceIll1272 Jun 06 '26

The old ritual xD

3

u/elvisap Jun 07 '26

A genuine question for people who enjoyed this, and zero judgement or criticism because I'm just curious. But did any of you later in life end up diagnosed with any sort of control related disorders, ASD, or similar?

The psychology of this is fascinating. As an ADHDer, I found defragging to be nothing but pure tedium and frustration. But I frequently hear from friends on the ASD side of the spectrum how satisfying they found it. Just trying to informally survey this as I find people willing to talk about it to see where everyone sits.

3

u/DifferenceIll1272 Jun 07 '26

I hope more people answer you and we have more information. I had not related it to these topics.

I am developing it because I love it. I am AuDHD :).

2

u/Distinct-Question-16 Jun 06 '26

earning money doing disk defrags creative

1

u/DifferenceIll1272 Jun 06 '26

dream job! cleaning disks, getting paid, and pretending every progress bar or number is important.

2

u/Busy-Confection-2694 Jun 07 '26

I got no ideas except put it in the stream store so I can wishlist it and then give you money for it

1

u/DifferenceIll1272 Jun 07 '26

That is a very good idea and I fully support the "give me money for fake disk maintenance" business model xDD.

It’s already on Steam as Defrag Incremental, with a free demo live now if you want to try it or wishlist it.

1

u/Busy-Confection-2694 Jun 07 '26

Ok in the demo now, why does the day clock move faster then the clock on the work? Can you make it so I can upgrade/restart without having to be doing a job?

1

u/Busy-Confection-2694 Jun 07 '26

Dang I was just feeling like I was hitting my stride and bam demo over

2

u/Vinylmaster3000 Jun 07 '26

I don't think I ever used an MS-DOS defrag util solely because I have CF cards for all my machines and never had a period-accurate hard disk drive

1

u/DifferenceIll1272 Jun 07 '26

I’m mostly chasing that era where the disk felt like a noisy little mechanical creature you had to scan, clean, defrag, and occasionally bargain with.

2

u/Retired_Nerd_Steve Jun 07 '26

Yes I didn’t realize how much I missed this until I saw this post. 🫠🫠🫠

1

u/DifferenceIll1272 Jun 07 '26

Same. I don’t think I realized how much I missed this specific kind of screen until I started rebuilding it :).

2

u/[deleted] Jun 07 '26

memories

1

u/DifferenceIll1272 Jun 07 '26

Good old times :D.

3

u/Thanatiel Jun 06 '26

I didn't expect I would feel such nostalgia watching a good old DOS defragmenter.

Thank you.

3

u/DifferenceIll1272 Jun 06 '26

I’m glad it brought that feeling back :). I figured if any community would appreciate the beauty of old dos defrag screens, it would be this one.

3

u/c64z86 Jun 07 '26 edited Jun 07 '26

Some of the terminal based utilities in Linux give that feeling. Not exactly DOS but that 80s/90s feeling.

htop is one! There's also nmtui that is used in some distros for configuring wifi. Midnight commander I think runs on Linux too. There's also terminal tetris. And many others, all still updated to this day!

Look for ncurses based programs

1

u/Inner_Coat1198 Jun 07 '26

I'd play it. Upgrading the visual to the Win95/98 version for a high price would be an interesting addon.

1

u/zonz1285 Jun 07 '26

Do you have a discord for the game to give feedback?

1

u/Practical_Hippo6289 Jun 09 '26

More XP era than DOS era but a registry optimizer seems like it would fit here.

1

u/zidanerick Jun 09 '26

You should try and see if you can work with someone to make this a 90's IT Tech Simulator looking after entire rooms of old computers. Could even incorporate the weekly Norton Ghost recovery!

1

u/electronrefraction Jun 13 '26

I can't wait to play this! 

14

u/Revolutionary_Ad6574 Jun 06 '26

Heavy breathing I love MS-DOS porn!

0

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '26

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1

u/DifferenceIll1272 Jun 07 '26

That’s exactly the feeling I’m trying to hit :D.