I don't know what has been uploaded but to check the composite color mixing high resolution captures are required rather than small jpegs.

Is 2592x1944 high enough? 😀

800x600 should be fine.

🤣 too hard to unpack a file 😀

Looks good. The pixels are roundish rather than square. And it has that typical CRT look! I like it...

Have you tried these output filters that DOSBox offers? It might simulate a similar image:

scaler: Scaler used to enlarge/enhance low resolution modes.
# If 'forced' is appended, then the scaler will be used even if the result might not be desired.
# Possible values: none, normal2x, normal3x, advmame2x, advmame3x, advinterp2x, advinterp3x, hq2x, hq3x, 2xsai, super2xsai, supereagle, tv2x, tv3x, rgb2x, rgb3x, scan2x, scan3x.

Yeah I've tried RGB2x and RGB3x and neither look the same (though, I can't try 3x because I don't have an older, smaller monitor hooked up that can do at least 1024x768 yet--the 15 inch that is hooked up only really does up to 640x480--it is _really_ old). You really need RGB3x to get close I theorize but I'll have to try it with one of my older monitors.

Here are some screenshots (the side by side didn't turn out well) comparing the Tandy RGB monitor vs. the VGA in Dosbox RGB2x mode.

http://rapidshare.com/files/437133570/thexder … bysidergb2x.zip

Please use a less shitty file sharing website.

Multiupload.com is good because they spread your file around to multiple sharing sites (including rapidshare) so that people have a choice of which to use.

Per your requests 😀

http://www.multiupload.com/MEKNVWZLBH for the RGB/RGB2x comparison

and

http://www.multiupload.com/CENZJ5G02H for the raw RGB footage on a real RGB monitor (and a real Tandy too).

I LOVE Tandys. I can't believe that I waited over 20 years after they first came out, before I discovered how much "FUN" they are!

Tandy mode. Same with Firehawk. Also, for Thexder 1, Tandy is the only way to best experience the soundtrack.

MusicallyInspired wrote:

Same with Firehawk.

😕 The EGA version of Fire Hawk is much better.

Right. I guess I meant the EGA as opposed to MCGA.

MusicallyInspired wrote:

Right. I guess I meant the EGA as opposed to MCGA.

Fire Hawk's "256 colour" MCGA mode is just its 16-colour Tandy mode rehashed to work on IBM computers with MCGA chipsets since they were NOT backwards compatable with EGA standards. :P

Yeah, I know that. But it's lo-res 320x200 compared to EGA's 640x200 dithered resolution.

Gemini000 wrote:

MusicallyInspired wrote:

Right. I guess I meant the EGA as opposed to MCGA.

Fire Hawk's "256 colour" MCGA mode is just its 16-colour Tandy mode rehashed to work on IBM computers with MCGA chipsets since they were NOT backwards compatable with EGA standards. 😜

I don't think MCGA mode is backwards compatible with Tandy mode either. MCGA use mode 13 but only 16 colours are used.

nikiniki wrote:

I don't think MCGA mode is backwards compatible with Tandy mode either. MCGA use mode 13 but only 16 colours are used.

MCGA is one of the least compatible standards ever made. It's no wonder that there were never any MCGA graphics cards you could install (it was a chipset built into certain IBM systems) nor did it take long for VGA to push it out of existence.

Tandy's a special standard. Most old Tandy systems not only lacked EGA support, but installing an EGA card into a Tandy system was an interesting (and sometimes impossible) ordeal itself.

Fire Hawk supports Tandy, MCGA, and EGA modes specifically because those were the three predominant standards at the time and not a single one of them were compatible with each other. :P

MCGA did at least make enough of an impact that VGA seems to be backwards compatible with it. Having had an ISA Paradise SVGA card when I bought Fire Hawk, I was disappointed that the MCGA mode was worse than the EGA mode.

As far as I know, Zeliard is the only Japanese game port that Sierra produced which uses more than 16 colors.

Bah, this poll is flawed. Where's the MCGA option?

🤣

Is the MCGA version any different from the Tandy version? How do you run it in DOSBox?

I think Cloudschatze is confused because this poll's about the first Thexder game while I started going off about Fire Hawk's graphics modes and their incompatibilities with each other. :P

Thexder came out the same year as the MCGA standard came to exist, I don't know which came first. There is no MCGA mode in the original Thexder, and in Fire Hawk it looks IDENTICAL to the Tandy mode.