VOGONS


First post, by GabrielKnight123

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Im using an AGP video card for a dos and windows 98se gaming PC and I was wondering what is the default resolution for dos games, Im going to be hooking up my old dos PC to my normal PC's monitor that is a 30 inch screen at 2560 x 1600, I know there is no way my AGP card can do 2560 x 1600 so what is the default resolution dos uses and I suppose it depends on the dos game its self as to what resolution it uses (eg: Gabriel Knight 1 @ roughly 800 x 600) is this true?

Reply 1 of 14, by Jo22

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It depends on the type of game also. A common resolution is 320x200,
but graphics adventures with text parsers often use 640x480 also.
Text mode games often run in 80x25 (720x400).

Well, at least as far as VGA/MCGA is concerned.
Older games also use 640x350 (EGA)
and 720x348 (Hercules).

Edit; SVGA games often support 800x600 (6AH).
Games with VESA VBE go even higher sometimes.
640x400@256c (100H) was also a popular VBE mode, too.

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In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

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Reply 2 of 14, by GabrielKnight123

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If I hook up my retro pc with an AGP graphics card to my 2560 x 1600 res monitor will it in any way be detrimental to either my monitor or retro pc? Is there also a dos program that I could use to make the screen not go into full wide screen mode 10:9 and just be like as if I was using a 4:3 ratio

Reply 3 of 14, by WildW

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The resolution of games on a real DOS machine is just controlled by the games themselves - at the time CRT monitors were the norm and they can display a variety of resolutions without the ugly scaling you can get on an LCD, so games were developed to run on any reasonably standard resolution and nobody minded.

When you use an LCD monitor instead you have to rely on the electronics in the monitor to do something useful with the signal. Some monitors are better than others and may offer controls to tweak the aspect ratio, while others may just stretch whatever resolution you give it to fit the screen. Stretching not only means that the image can be the wrong shape, but if your monitor isn't an integer multiple of the original resolution then each pixel's colour gets smushed across more than one real monitor pixel, and everything looks awful. Some LCD monitors will do this better than others, it all depends on how good the electronics in the monitor is. For these reasons a lot of us keep a real CRT monitor for running older systems.

If you must use an LCD but don't like the way it looks you can get better results using DosBox on modern Windows. Graphics cards now can do a really good job of scaling low resolution screen modes to the native resolution of your monitor, and keep the aspect ratio right.

In any case, you're not going to cause any damage to your PC or monitor - worst case is that some resolutions may not display and you get stuck on a blank screen. There's really not anything you can do on the PC to make it output as 4:3, because it IS outputting 4:3. To make it display in 4:3 on your 16:10 monitor the computer would have to output a 16:10 image with the 4:3 image in the middle - this is the graphics card scaling I mentioned, but you'll only get it in modern Windows.

Reply 4 of 14, by zerker

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Many newer monitors also have menu options to force aspect ratio correction on the monitor itself. Check your menus to see if you have that or not.

Reply 5 of 14, by Azarien

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Are there any DOS games that support 1600x1200?

Reply 6 of 14, by r.cade

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I don't know how you can even hook it up, but maybe other 2560 monitors are different than mine. Mine only has HDMI or DVI-D and you can't attach an old VGA connection to it...

I guess you could get a VGA->HDMI converter, but I suspect it would look awful. I would get a nice 17-21" VGA CRT for your retro-gaming. You will be a lot happier. Otherwise you may as well just use emulation and DOSBox.

Reply 7 of 14, by Jo22

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Azarien wrote:

Are there any DOS games that support 1600x1200?

I can't think of one right now, but I believe these exist.
Some of the later VESA VBE games should be able to run in that resolution (ST:TNG A Final Unity, maybe ?)
Whether forcing them to do so makes any sense or not, is another question.
Perhaps it does, if the game is based on 3D elements or vector graphics.

Speaking of vector graphics, some of the very first adventure games were based on those. ^^
Patching their code to run in display modes of higher-resolution would provide a nicer gameplay,
even though no additional level of detail is gained, small parts could be seen much easier.

In either, case running games at classic SVGA in 800x600 should be okay.
That's a 4:3 square pixel resolution and half (or quarter) the resolution of 1600x1200 UXGA (1/4th the pixels).

"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

//My video channel//

Reply 8 of 14, by GabrielKnight123

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Thanks everyone, I dont really want to go with dosbox as I have done this in the past and I like it but I built a retro pc to go retro and to use an SC55 sound module and r.cade you are right as I havnt got a VGA port only a DVI port so Im looking in to finding a DVI to VGA adapter, hay Zerker I looked in my monitor menu and I can set it to 4:3 ratio and it looks S W E E T ! so no extra dos TSR's needed.

Reply 9 of 14, by WildW

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There are DOS/Win98 compatible graphics cards with DVI outputs too, which might give you a better image than converting back from VGA. Might be cheaper too.

Reply 10 of 14, by Dani-01

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GabrielKnight123 wrote:

Thanks everyone, I dont really want to go with dosbox as I have done this in the past and I like it but I built a retro pc to go retro and to use an SC55 sound module and r.cade you are right as I havnt got a VGA port only a DVI port so Im looking in to finding a DVI to VGA adapter, hay Zerker I looked in my monitor menu and I can set it to 4:3 ratio and it looks S W E E T ! so no extra dos TSR's needed.

If you've only got DVI on the monitor, you'll need an active adapter to have it working with a regular VGA port from the card.

Reply 11 of 14, by Aideka

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Azarien wrote:

Are there any DOS games that support 1600x1200?

Blood, Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior come to mind. I think some flight simulators allowed that resolution too, but cannot remember for sure now.

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Reply 12 of 14, by clueless1

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Azarien wrote:

Are there any DOS games that support 1600x1200?

Yes, Links LS 1997 for sure (if your VGA has enough RAM). I also think US Navy Fighters supports that res, though it's unplayable on the fastest period correct PCs. In addition to what Aideka posted.

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Reply 13 of 14, by Jade Falcon

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Aideka wrote:
Azarien wrote:

Are there any DOS games that support 1600x1200?

Blood, Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior come to mind. I think some flight simulators allowed that resolution too, but cannot remember for sure now.

I can confirm duke3d. I think there was away to get mw2 to run at 1600x1200. But ether way it supports 1024x762

Reply 14 of 14, by zerker

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Dani-01 wrote:

If you've only got DVI on the monitor, you'll need an active adapter to have it working with a regular VGA port from the card.

Depends on the monitor. Check your specs to see if it's labelled as DVI-I (which WILL work with passive adaptor) or DVI-D (which requires active). If you can't find it in your manual/specs/port label, you can identify it from the wikipedia diagrams). My old LCD TV had a single DVI-I connector, so I was able to hook up a VGA signal to that no problem.

I'm surprised you don't already have a DVI to VGA adapter sitting around. Those things were bundled with just about anything that used a DVI port for a while (video cards, small form factor PCs, etc).