kolano wrote:

Can someone explain how the "auto" mode works, is it that it only sets up composite mode for 640x200x2 modes? It doesn't seem to be setting composite mode for "Rad Warrior" which needs it to read the UI details (i.e. score, etc.). Is there any way to set the composite mode via config entries?

Rad Warrior is using a 320x200x4 mode, so you must use the F12 key to get composite video. There is no line in DOSBox's configuration file for it.

It's too bad there is no configuration option. This makes it impossible for places like GOG.com and Stream to pre-configure 320x200 games to use composite mode.

I think this was already discussed, though, and decided to be a deficiency of the currently overloaded "machine=" setting.

If Qbix and Harekiet actually decide to start over someday (as they hinted at in an IRC interview with Sourceforge), I hope they will consider making things more modular so that emulated hardware can be configured at a finer level of granularity. It would be fun to build a virtual DOS computer from virtual parts 😀

kolano wrote:

Can someone explain how the "auto" mode works, is it that it only sets up composite mode for 640x200x2 modes? It doesn't seem to be setting composite mode for "Rad Warrior" which needs it to read the UI details (i.e. score, etc.). Is there any way to set the composite mode via config entries?

Correct... there's no real way to auto-detect composite for 320x200 modes (blame CGA register behavior for that).
For what it's worth, Rad Warrior probably wasn't designed for composite: the status panel at the bottom is supposed to be "greyed out" when you begin - it only becomes active when you find that robotic suit thing, and then it changes colors to cyan/magenta/white (see screenshot).

I did implement config settings in another version of the patch, but it was not to be. 😀
As Qbix has mentioned (a bunch of pages ago), the future plan is to have a separate setting for monitor type - that would probably be the most 'correct' way to go about it, and would open up a lot of interesting new possibilities besides.

Is it possible to get Super Zaxxon to work correctly? When I tried on DOSBox it looks okay, but the scenery sits behind the left-hand menu partly, and sprites seem to be missing. I'd like to eventually compare all the Sega PC games with the arcade originals, but Super Zaxxon isn't playing ball.

core dynamic
cycles 262-282

Cool thanks, that works, I guess I was over-cycling it! Although on my older DOSbox 0.73 it has more flickery line issues than in newest 0.74 versions.

with above settings there should be no flickering with latest svns.
i think optimal cycles may differ on versions and settings but i think you should eventually find good ones.
somehow dynamic core helps too.

Interestingly, it looks like the 320x200 CGA RGB mode of Starflight 1 looks halfway reasonable with forced late model composite emulation (screenshots attached, taken with latest Ykhwong SVN build).

This is especially interesting considering that the 640x200 CGA composite game mode looks best with early model emulation (mainly because it makes the browns look brown instead of greenish).

On a general note, 640x200 composite is arguably Starflight 1's best mode, as it looks as good as EGA (well, except for the color skew) but has more animations.

Hello and thanks for such thread, it's very interesting !

How did you get Tapper to display in CGA composite with the right colors ?
(on page 9 and 21)

This is what I got :
(I used Ykhwong 20130205 release of DosBox and D-Fend Reloaded)

I've tried with 3 different versions of TAPPER.COM (below their MD5)
638b3ebb72a5c35cfcaaf6a6c334638d
77779ea081322a596d718ab1df6b1949
b2f1959800ab352353b18fa36031c98b

By looking at them with an hex editor, there are strings about choosing RGB or composite
but it never appears in the game. I've tested with Burger Time and it is perfectly working, dunno what to do ...

Is there a special version you used ?

Thanks in advance 😁 😁 😁

Check the post at the top of page 28 of this thread for keys to force composite mode.

the keys are described in the blue welcome box after starting dosbox 😀

The RGB or composite choice you mention only works in the original Tapper booter. I can tell from the program name in the title bar and your screenshots that you're running a RGB DOS conversion, and what you're looking for is the composite DOS conversion (which works in 0.74 or SVN).

Thanks everyone, it's working now !!! 😀 😀 😀

Give us a screenshot!

Here we go !

I remember playing this game back in '86 when I was 5 on a green monochrome screen, it was a lot of fun !
This one and a few others such as Buck Rogers, Q-Bert, Burger Time, Ancient art of war, Boulder Dash, Karateka ...
It's really great to have these revived through DosBox 😀 😀 😀

Thank you !

Never noticed the doors busting off their hinges before. Nice. Though odd that everyone seems to be on the other side of the bar from the door.

Interesting coincidence? the 16 composite colors of the Apple II in "low-res" mode are almost identical to "old" CGA in mode 6 with the white palette... despite the underlying differences in hardware logic.

You could even get a big ol' poster to remember them all! (no, I'm not making this up).

That's mode 6? I wonder because you get 80-column text (hard to read in composite) unless you use some tweak (e.g. set mode 4 and switch to hi-res by writing to the CGA mode register, so you're in mode 4 as far as the video BIOS knows when drawing text).

'Tis indeed interesting that it's the same colors, but did you notice the pattern of the "swapped" colors?

10  1  2  3
2  /     /
34  5  6  7
4
58  9  A  B
6  /     /
7C  D  E  F

swaps due to rgb vs bgr perhaps?

swaps due to rgb vs bgr perhaps?

Kind of: the samples are arranged most-significant-bit-left on the CGA and least-significant-bit-left on the Apple II. If you look at colours 1, 2, 4, 8 they are red, blue, green, yellow on the Apple II and green, blue, red, yellow on the CGA. If you change the phase of the CGA by 90 degrees it would e yellow, green, blue, red which makes the reversal more obvious.