First post, by fronzel
Most of the CGA fans around here probably know most of the appz and tools here, but still i just wanted to share my collection. I ONLY upload freeware/Shareware/demos, so no copyright problems.
I mostly collect old monochrome CGA based palmtops like HP 100LX, Tidalwave clones, Sharp PC-3000 and so on. But i think some stuff might also be interesting for users of similar machines using CGA (Not necessarily only monochrome) and PC speakers.
So let's get started with some basic CGA/PC Speaker Technical demonstrations:
XP CGA
- Yay my first demo for CGA/PC Speaker. Actually simulates loading of windows XP. Of course totally 1337 as its made by me. Well not really. But it still looks cute. Optimized for monochrome CGA in 640x200. Runs on any 8086.
http://www.tankraider.com/userup/1327496053.zip
ATOM
- A pretty simple CGA demo that does not have any real graphics, more of text effects. On color screens the "animation" is pretty nice though. Noteworthy - one of the few early demos that used the PC speaker to play back digitized sound. The demo is from Fox of "Sorcerers" (probably around 1989-1990)
http://www.tankraider.com/userup/1327257724.zip
SHOLIDAY
- Actually rather like "summer holiday" i think. Small and short demo with a nice handdrawn CGA screen and some digitized sound on your PC speaker. Also by Sorcerers.
http://www.tankraider.com/userup/1327338946.zip
NOPE
- Again a demo by Sorcerers. Graphics wise not really impressive but a nice smooth scrolling CGA marquee. Also awesome digitized music for your PC speaker with realtime equalizer (Well maybe not so impressive).
http://www.tankraider.com/userup/1327347549.zip
MUSHROOM
- The legendary mushroom demo. If you ever heard digitized sound demos on a PC speaker chances are good you already know it. At least around 1990 or so it was very popular and impressive to anyone who thought a PC speaker could only beep. On Non-piezo speakers this actually sounds amazingly nice
http://www.tankraider.com/userup/1327336168.zip
VGREET
- Probably like Virtual greeting or so? Anyways, this plays back some digitized sound greeting depending on your PC clock. SO if its in the morning this says "Good morning" via your PC speaker. pretty nifty to have in your autoexec.bat. Back in like 1988 this would have been a killer bragging app.
http://www.tankraider.com/userup/1327319753.zip
NUSOUND
- Plays back digitized sound in WAVE format through the PC speaker. Contains loads of nice demo sounds, simply easy to use and fun to play with for the PC speaker enthusiast. However on pretty large and long samples it might choke, so not really the pro choice to convert your MP3 collection to wav.
http://www.tankraider.com/userup/1327306052.zip
CVOICE
- The computer voice clock. A talking clock in your PC speaker. Well rather through your PC speaker. You get what i mean. Brag ware!
http://www.tankraider.com/userup/1327339324.zip
EVA Video player
- Full Screen video and sound seemed to be impossible on an 8 MHz monochrome CGA and PC speaker setup, but amazingly this doesn't look as bad as you might think it should. I have included a sample movie that is the trailer for "The 5th element".
http://www.tankraider.com/userup/1327339577.zip
GLCGA
- Actually rather the GRASP RUn TIME PLAYER. Grasp is some weird old animation format. Anaimations are usually just a few frames, so dont expect to ever find one going longer than a few seconds. Still nice to look at, some animations are really looking damn good on CGA (Errrr monochrome CGA i mean).
http://www.tankraider.com/userup/1327290529.zip
CGAView by Kiyote
- Kiyote is actually THE god of programming video players in basic. His CGA format just looks damn nice. Unfortunately it is a bit too slow on a machine under 10 MHz, but still among the best i ever witnessed on mono CGA. Contains a sample video.
http://www.tankraider.com/userup/1327295227.zip
LXMIDI
- Actually made especially for the HP LX series palmtops this is however BY FAR the single best midi player you will EVER see. True polyphonic experience simply gives you everything that is possible on a PC speaker. If you never heard it before then you can barely imagine how cool this is. And works fine even on the slowest processor. The mid.bat is optimized for my 8 MHz HP, but you can finetune it to work with slower machines as well. Impressive! Comes with loads of mdis from games. Includes midi1tomidi0 converter (You need to run this on most modern midis you find on the net in order to play them). Try it!
http://www.tankraider.com/userup/1327254319.zip
Mimpi 3.7
- Another midi player. Not as nice regarding sound quality as lxmidi but it comes with a nifty GUI and loads of brag features.
http://www.tankraider.com/userup/1327436712.zip
MU18F
- SHell for mimpi, allows easy loading of files and such. Nice if you use mimpi a lot.
http://www.tankraider.com/userup/1327492480.zip
3D Demos
- SImply some very basic 3D animations, pretty much elite style. But looks quite nice on the 640x200 res, so best eye candy 3D-wise i could find.
http://www.tankraider.com/userup/1327293079.zip
SLEEPON
- Actually a TSR to activate some special keys on the 100LX/200LX that are suppressed in WIn 3.0 and other appz, like the "ON" key to send the device to sleep. Interesting feature is the /I switch which reverses the monochrome display (Reverse Video)
http://www.tankraider.com/userup/1327325171.zip
MONOTONE
- Pretty simple Tracker for CGA/PC Speaker. Doesn't sound very good, but fun to toy around with.
http://www.tankraider.com/userup/1327412763.zip
...more to come soon...