I am making a game like warcraft. I am using DJGPP as the dos compiler and MINGW32 as the windows one. Now should I make it a dos based or windows based program??
Windows would save me space, time, and I will be able to hear to the midi playing!! But the original warcraft was a dos based, so....

Definately sway more towards windows.
DOS apps are becoming less and less compatible with newer systems (since most computers come with XP now). If you use DOS-only, it will decrease the number of possible users.

The original WarCraft works on my system, but DOS allegro apps do not... (Well, they do, but I gotta restart my system afterwards).

I say definitely get a Windows version working, and if you have time and energy left, also make a DOS version.

As you say there are some problems under DOS. Especially if you run Windows XP / NT / 2000. So for the people who have that on their computer, a windows version is a must.

I myself always start with making a DOS version, but that is just because I'm used to RHIDE and I happen to like it. After it is more or less finished, I try to make it work with dev-c++/mingw as well (usually not a big problem).

You could try Allegro's digital midi driver (DIGMID). It can produce awsome MIDI playback, but it uses some processor power (ie, your game runs more slowly).
What kind of soundcard do you have?

As for the DOS/Windows issue, read the Differences between platforms and ABI sections of the Allegro docs. They tell you what to do and what not to do if you want your code to be portable to different platforms.

I also prefer DOS as the development platform, and then port to Windows and Linux. I love Rhide, and MSVC++ or DevC++'s IDE's just don't cut it in my opinion.

Actually, DOS programs usually can write to stderr and stdout in graphics mode without problems; it even appears properly so you can read it. (I think this depends on whether the BIOS has graphics-mode text output routines.) My guess is his card isn't fully VGA-or-whatever-compliant. It seems to be unable to revert to text mode properly. It's using the same video memory to display text, so it appears garbled at the top of the screen.

When talking about doing DOS and Windows ports, don't forget Linux. Especially with all the recent controversy over Windows XP, more and more people are migrating to Linux, and they aren't generally gonna bother running your program if a reboot is required

DanielH: you might wanna check UPX out. It'll get your DLL down to 400-odd KB and your DOS exes down to 300-odd. (Then there'll be a difference ) Seriously, you won't notice any delay as it decompresses on loading. UPX rawks

Looking through your profile, you haven't made all that much in the way in games (at least, ones you've uploaded). If this is only your third project, it may be a better idea to make a few more simple programs/games first. But hey maybe I'm just completely wrong!

P.S - Also noticed your birthday... mines one day after it!

Hmm. I will make a windows thing and then I will also mail it to DanielH, so he does it into Linux....
But I will also make a dos port..
Ahem... I LOVE DOS for many of its reasons...

I have noticed that... heh.

My first allegro proj was a circle moving across the screen. Bwee...

PS: Or do you mean his first completed game? Mine would probably be quite good if that's what you mean, as I'll drop anything rubbish before completion.

My first game is below, but like most I made a few demos first (shooter, Tetris, etc.)

Sirocco did a few demos that earned him a job, I believe. Wouldn't mind seeing them

I personnaly think that DOS is the best platform for developping base Allegro games. Because of:
- DOS is 100% stable
- Many Non-buggy video card-BIOSes are 100% VESA compliant, so 100% stable, which prevent bug to happen, what doesn't do graphic drivers like DirectX or X ones.
- The little utility called symify.exe that come with DJGPP, retracing failure signal on the command line with no effort.
- Rhide (also avaible for linux thought, but you need the source of GDB 5).
- Anything is linked staticaly, so no risk of depency failure at the running time.
- Compiling is a bit faster under DOS than Windows.
- DOS is standard; there is no extension like WinAPI, POSIX, pThread or any other thing which reduce portability. (I included POSIX because Win32 platform dosen't support it except CYGWIN, which is far to be the predilection platform for an normal end-user)
- When developing from DOS, it's almost sure you'll be able to port your software to any platform (excepted if you use the Mode-X, but who's working in 320x200!?!)
- Using DJGPP is easier for a beginner (if he know a little bit of DOS through...)

For all these reason, DOS is the best developing platform. But I'm not doing so... I usualy work with MinGW or under Linux because I like to listen to MP3 while programming and multi-tasking is realy usefull to check in documentation and for editing multiple file project. So, do as you wish...

I have solve this problem by making a dos program first, and then porting it to windows into a console application.

When my prog was only for Dos, I have receive feedback of users where either they couldn't use it at all (VESA problems under W2K for command-line progs), or the mouse was very buggy/slow...
Then I compiled it with VC6, in a console-mode application (using the allegro dll version), it finally worked for everyone, W2K, XP, W98... (except the very few who was still using the 1st version under pure dos).

I'll say develop it under the environment you prefer, and port it to windows, even if it's only a console prog with no windows API menu and such. Allegro.dll will use the keyboard/mouse/sound... windows drivers for you, so you'll be sure it'll works fine for all windows OS.