Jonathan de Boyne Pollard wrote in a message to Bruce Simpson:

 JdBP> The reason that so many PC games are compiled with Watcom
 JdBP> C++, by the   way, is that until very recently Watcom C++
 JdBP> was the only DOS compiler   with a royalty-free DOS
 JdBP> extender.  I doubt *very* much that the   efficiency of the
 JdBP> code generator was the primary deciding factor. 

Although I agree that the popularity of Watcom for game programming is
mostly a consequence of the royalty-free DOS extender, it is not true that
Watcom pioneered that idea.  I think Zortech actually initiated bundling
the royalty-free DOS extender in the box with the compiler.  There was also
something from Intel directly called the "C/C++ Code Builder"
that pushed the market in that direction, and it may even still be
available despite its total obscurity.

In fact, Watcom for a long while maintained a neutral position, supporting
both the Ergo and Phar Lap DOS extenders, bundling neither.  I think it was
only as of Watcom 8.5 or so that a specially restricted version of the Ergo
extender was supplied, and it was eventually replaced with the Rational
Systems extender that was also used by Zortech C++ (now Symantec C++).

In terms of trying to write code that moves easily from the 32-bit DOS
extender world to the 32-bit native OS/2 world, the Rational Systems DOS
extender will probably make things easiest.
 
-- Mike


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