Yes, I mentioned it in one of the posts on the first page:
Found out that many Silmarils games support Hercules natively: Boston Bomb Club, Wind Surf Willy, Crystals of Arborea. If you have problems with them, try versions from Silmarils Collection by DotEmu. There is plenty of versions on the internet that don't work on CGA and Hercules.
Adding a new one to the mix! Planet X3 😀. It runs in various modes including Hercules and CGA. I enjoyed playing the game for a while and it runs really smooth on an XT. Excellent piece of programming (in assembly!). Also nice to have a game that can utilize the Adlib soundcard which really improves the game.
Planet X3 running on my ARC 8088 8MHz, CGA + Adlib.
Screenshots by David Murray himself; CGA:
And Hercules:
thandor.net - hardware
And the rest of us would be carousing the aisles, stuffing baloney.
It also supports composite CGA and since recently Plantronics CGA 16 color modes.
Sounds cool! I hope the the author will also to add support for Olivetti/AT&T/Toshiba 640x400 mode at some point if he hasn't already! 😀
(Since we're at obscure modes, there's also that 800x600 mode of the Sirius 1/Victor 9000. And the 16c mode of the popular PC 1512. And Hercules InColor..)
"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel
Will not happen soon. But eventually Dave is planning to release the source, so people can contribute such mods. The Plantronics mode was also implemented by a Kickstarter contributor. So if you really want it, you can make it yourself. 😀
YouTube and Bonus
80486DX@33 MHz, 16 MiB RAM, Tseng ET4000 1 MiB, SnarkBarker & GUSar Lite, PC MIDI Card+X2+SC55+MT32, OSSC
I was actually one of the Kickstarter backers for this. Didn't have the time to take the game for a ride on my Hercules hardware, though. Hopefully, some time later this year.
PopCorn is awesome. The colour is wrong, though. It's supposed to be red, not pink, I believe.
I found out by checking several emulators and on an old OAK card in CGA emulation mode. https://youtu.be/cu88uKmqlEU?t=164
Unfortunately, even its own game designers got it wrong.
They simply forgot, I suppose. 🙁
"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel
I don't think anyone mentioned Korean Dungeon Boy yet. Some of the cleanest, well drawn Hercules gfx you'll see this side of the Milky Way. Fun too! (kind of important I guess)
What effects in particular are you thinking of? I didn't notice anything particularly technically interesting about the game, but I'm always on the lookout for new CGA tricks so wanted to make sure I hadn't missed anything!
I don't think anyone mentioned Korean Dungeon Boy yet. Some of the cleanest, well drawn Hercules gfx you'll see this side of the Milky Way. Fun too! (kind of important I guess)
Thank you for mentioning this one. It looks interesting and well drawn, indeed. That's how things should have been more often.
Kinda makes me sad that Hercules was missused as a second-choice among CGA. It really should have been the reverse.
By doing proper programming, the HGC was able to run in 640x400 pels also. Same as the hi-res CGA did in the Olivetti M24 and similar computers.
And by doing a integer divide through factor 2, someone would end up at the usual 320x200 CGA resolution.
I'm speaking under correction, but I think this wouldn't have been necessary even.
The memory dump of a 640x400 bitmap in M24 format would have been compatible with CGA's hi-res mode, albeit with only ~ half the data/lines being displayed.
Oh well, if only the 8088 wasn't such a lame duck, down-scaling from 720x348 on-the-fly by the game's engine would have been more feasible on XTs also.
Edit: Edited. Sorry for the bad wording. What I tried to express, was, that drawing high resolution artwork for 640x400 -as once common in the east- wouldn't have been a waste.
A drawing for the semi-popular Olivetti/AT&T mode of 640x400 pels could also have been displayed on tweaked Hercules and normal CGA, even.
The latter could have been supported with little to no effort (skipping lines, cross-loading etc).
"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel
What effects in particular are you thinking of? I didn't notice anything particularly technically interesting about the game, but I'm always on the lookout for new CGA tricks so wanted to make sure I hadn't missed anything!
to bad that he does his reviews only in emulation so it's not stutterfree-scrolling
the "rollover effects" that you did while changing the screen in 8088mph.
Yes, Popcorn is very fun to play, in terms of gameplay it's one of the best Arkanoid variants ever.
However, technically, there's nothing impressive about it - quite contrary, it pretty much requires 8088@4.77 and true CGA, which would be perfectly OK in 1983 - but this game is from 1988!
Nie tylko, jak widzicie, w tym trudność, że nie zdołacie wejść na moją górę, lecz i w tym, że ja do was cały zejść nie mogę, gdyż schodząc, gubię po drodze to, co miałem donieść.
He is one of my all time favourite games and it works a treat on Hercules and it's officially been released for free by the original makers also, double bonus! https://streetrodonline.com/downloads/
Get the Street Rod SE version as the hercules files seem to be missing from the original, anyhow no reason to go for the non SE as you only lose content but don't gain anything.
My slowest PC is a 286/12 with 1MB RAM and a clone Herc card, it runs perfectly on this machine, give it a go and tear up the streets in your vintage American hot rod!
286 20MHz,1MB RAM,Trident 8900B 1MB, Conner CFA-170A.SB 1350B
386SX 33MHz,ULSI 387,4MB Ram,OAK OTI077 1MB. Seagate ST1144A, MS WSS audio
Amstrad PC 9486i, DX/2 66, 16 MB RAM, Cirrus SVGA,Win 95,SB 16
Cyrix MII 333,128MB,SiS 6326 H0 rev,ESS 1869,Win ME
I don't think anyone mentioned Korean Dungeon Boy yet. Some of the cleanest, well drawn Hercules gfx you'll see this side of the Milky Way. Fun too! (kind of important I guess)
That screenshot is 640x400 - so it must be using the undocumented 640x400 interlaced mode.
Fascinating, I didn't know there was some software actually using that mode...
Nie tylko, jak widzicie, w tym trudność, że nie zdołacie wejść na moją górę, lecz i w tym, że ja do was cały zejść nie mogę, gdyż schodząc, gubię po drodze to, co miałem donieść.
Oh. 🙁 I liked the way it was, personally. Hercules&CGA are like brothers/sisters. They are essentially based on the same CRTC, the HD46505. And most cards can be jumpered to either mode.
Edit: I hope it wasn't my fault that causes that wish. My sister alswasy complains that I'm too chatty and do drift away from a topic quite soon. If so, I'd lilke to apologize. 😅
"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel