the3dfxdude wrote on 2024-05-03, 21:27:
Jo22 wrote on 2024-05-03, 21:17:
Here's Digger, a DOS game that uses 640x480 16c and runs smoothly on a 286.
Played it many times way back in the 90s on my 286-12. Originates from KC85 platform?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37BA-uh31ro
I had to look up what you meant by this, because that is not classic digger for sure. This is a VGA game, which is more contemporary with the late 286 era than SVGA. So I would say, it is plausible there are a fair more number of games on VGA that are relatively simple like this one that run fine on the 286. I can believe some people still did this in the 90s. But it was quickly superseded by SVGA on better machines.
Hi, yes, it's not the the Windmill Digger, but rather a Boulder Dash like game.
This Digger originated on the KC85/2 home computer platform from GDR, in 1988, behind the iron curtain.
I didn't know that at the time, though. I've played the DOS port in the mid-90s. The jewels are nicely animated in both versions, though.
Reminds me a bit of The Great Giana Sisters on C64 (a bit before my time, as well).
Other 640x480 VGA games, commercial titles, that come to mind are Zeppelin - Giants of the Sky and Princess Maker 2, I think.
Those games had been featured in those Bestseller Games magazines way back in the 90s in my place.
These games could also run on a 286, I think. But they're not SVGA, strictly speaking, of course.
Then there are those Visual Novel games also. Many should be 16-Bit. Or other J-games like Marble Cooking, Rusty and so on..
But I don't like to, um, go too much into detail here. People must be thinking I'm a bit weird already. 😅
Long story short, it's just that those genres are high-res/low-colour often.
Something I can relate to. Because of Windows 3.1 games, high quality text-adventures and simulations (SimCity type, flight sims, Star Trek sims etc).
These lesser popular games were a bit of a parallel world back then, an opposition to the commercial MCGA (VGA) games using mode 13h.
Speaking of mode 13h games, in my place back then advertising games were a thing, too. Nothing for serious gamers, but us casual gamers, maybe.
These games were special in sofar, because they often broke conventional rules in some way, which made them entertaining.
They also borrowed ideas from popular games such as Desert Strike (Helicopter Mission comes to mind) or Lucas Arts games,
while simultaneously using an, um, a more local scene for the events. Not sure how to explain. It's weird a bit.
Normally, commercial point&click games take place in the states, the amazon, china, space (the dig) or
some popular or distant place and not in an average village/city of your own little country.
Being a product of advertising companies, third-party developers and being backed by major companies
or federal agencies (like environmental agency etc), they had done some whacky things, at times.
The dialoges that could be selected were funny, if not straight away impudent and silly.
On the other hand, the quality was there, too. Graphics, music and game engines weren't bad.
It's as if the game artists had a huge fun being allowed to go wild at the time. ^^
Still, a lot of planning must have been involved, too, I assume.
The second important platform besides PC was Amiga, interestingly.
These ad games continued to support the Amiga when it was essentially gone already (on paper).
I didn't know that by the time, unfortunately. Most PC shareware CD-ROMs apparently didn't contain Amiga software or mentioned emulators,
such as Fellow, at least. No idea why. Enough storage space was available for sure on those CD-ROMs.
But that's another story, I guess.
I still wonder if other countries had similar ad games of their own..
Edit:
Marco wrote on 2024-05-05, 19:22:
I think the / my Links386 thoughts have been somehow been approved:
There is a link386.bat stating „if exists links386.swp delete…“
So indeed it is using the rarely known dos extender swap functionality. Haha it’s the only game I know (maybe exists) that uses this feature just to say running with 2mb of Ram while using an extender
That's interesting. I didn't know about this.
I only know that some games (or applications, rather) had supported 16-Bit Protected Mode Extenders (16-Bit DPMI).
Edit: Formatting fixed (on PC). Also sorry for the long posting, just realized how long it is.
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