Just for reference, what version(s) of DOSBox are you testing with?

The latest (8/26) CVS binary from http://ykhwong.x-y.net/page.htm

Thats odd....King's Quest work fine for me in Tandy mode... 😒

The game will work just fine, until you press TAB to bring up the inventory screen or talk to King Edward. Also, I forgot to mention but the title screen does not seem to display correctly in the Tandy mode (using the Tandy KQ1 disk image.) All the text seems to only display every other pixel column when it should be solid. The titles are barely legible and the names use two colors rather than one. Compare the title screen to the Tandy 1000 MESS driver and you will see the difference. I also note, however, that there are noticeable differences (n, t, b, d) in MESS's font compared to the true IBM 8x8 text font.

While I'm on the subject of font differences, the MESS option that allows you to use the thin, single dot 8x8 font stored on the CGA card differs considerably from the true IBM font. Someone should tell the MESS designers. I wish we could have an option for it in DOSBox though.

It would probably be helpful to post screenshots, as some of the developers may not want to bother with setting up MESS to generate reference images.

Here is what Tandy 1000 King's Quest I booter looks like in DOSBox:

And here is what it looks like in MESS, font notwithstanding this must be the truer version:

Ah, you're right. I had to magnify it to see what you were talking about. You're not using a scaler in DOSBox are you? (i.e. anything other than scaler=none)

well I've been looking into the font thing myself fot the KQ1 booter in composite cga mode.
It gets some weird artifacts on the screen with text (red spots) I figured this is caused by our smooth fonts. So either I need to code a filter or add a different font for cga mode. Not sure yet which one to use.

Personally I'd go for accuracy. If you want to do fancy stuff, have it as a user-controllable option. Just my opinion.

I strongly advise using the font on the following page, which describes IBM's Color Graphics Adapter in more detail than just about anyone would want to know:
http://www.seasip.info/VintagePC/cga.html

The page implies that the font is from a dump of the CGA's character ROM and looks like it (using thin and thick font styles.) Also, please look at:
http://www.seasip.info/VintagePC/mda.html

which has info and the font from IBM's Monochrome and Printer Adapter, which font was probably used on the Hercules Graphics cards.

If the user is selecting the CGA, Tandy or Hercules modes, user selectable fonts have little value as these adapters could not support them (for the most part.)

Also, as far as color composite mode goes, take a look at the results of the algorithm mentioned on this page:

http://www.queststudios.com/forum/viewtopic.p … t=1448&start=25

Comparison to MobyGames screenshots show something quite close to true the color composite mode.

screenshot looks nice.
but the algorithm itself isn't documented there.
maybe a few pointers.

I used no scaler. However, the Tandy font does seem to be different from the CGA's font, but I doubt that to be the cause. The algorithim is probably based on the sort used for the double high resolution color mode on Apple II emulators, the which is the closest analogous method to the CGA. I will ask the guy on the Quest Studios forum for more information because his algorithim seems particularly true.

Comparing the screenshots of NewRisingSun's algorithm to the MobyGames screenshot linked from that thread, it seems he has red artifacts where the MobyGames shot has blue, and vice-versa.

Still, that's pretty need. I don't think I've never seen CGA on an actual composite monitor before.

I've been in contact with the author.
I've implemented a similar algorithm although less advanged, because of restrictions in dosbox

This is a screenshot of the titlescreen. (cga composite mode)
The text is readable I would say.

This isn't in the cvs yet

That looks just fine to me, much more accurate. I thought the original algorithim, if anything underestimated the text artifacts.

well it's not just text artifacts.
it's just anything that blends. We just interpreted the mode wrong

Must have been weird to code for it though.

Some more screenies

Is it supposed to be that much darker?

Edit: looked at some KQ1 composite CGA shots on Mobygames and it does look a lot darker than the EGA shots, but is that due to the way they took the pictures?