CGA Modes (Wuz: Win 3.0)

From: Captain Napalm <spc_at_armigeron.com>
Date: Mon Feb 2 21:23:46 1998

It was thus said that the Great Scott Walde once stated:
>
> On Mon, 2 Feb 1998 Philip.Belben_at_powertech.co.uk wrote:
>
> > >>Is it some kind of "Super CGA" that wasn't really supported by anyone?
> > >
> > > I know some game companies "tweaked" certain memory registers or something
> > > so that standard CGA could do 320x200x16 colors, but as far as I'm aware,
> >
> > I never heard of 320 x 200 x 16 for the CGA - I seem to remember 160 x
> > 200 x 16 - surely it would not have had the memory for the other?
>
> Both the IBM PCjr and the Tandy 1000 line had 320x200x16. If you look at
> the system requirements of late 80s, early 90s Sierra games you'll find
> many of them support 'Tandy Graphics'.

  When IBM was developing the IBM PCjr, they specifically went to Sierra to
have them do a game for the upcoming PCjr. That game was "King's Quest" (of
which I do have an original copy of) and that started that particular genre
(sp? I don't even know where to begin) of games.

  It was interesting play that game on a PCjr, in that you could actually
watch the scenes being drawn, with objects that could be manipulated
suddenly appearing when the scene was finished painting. In fact, there was
a keystroke (Alt-P? Alt-Q? Alt-E? It's been awhile) you could hit that
would cause the scene drawing routine to slow down enough to see individual
pixels being drawn. Quite cool.

  -spc (Also remembers playing Space Quest on the PCjr)
Received on Mon Feb 02 1998 - 21:23:46 GMT