Least tampered/pure archive I could find of it

(I can also second that this is definitely shareware)

Thank you very very much, leileilol! (^_^)
Your copy is really interesting! It is version 1.01A, (c) 1986,87.

I am not sure what is new in this release, but file sizes are different for sure.
My copy of hires is 127538bytes, while yours is 126546bytes in size.
The other program files are pretty much the same. Perhaps it is a bug fix release ?

I also noted that the time stamps are mixed up, just like in my copy.
It would make sense that this is because of the lack of a real-time clock in
someones PC back then- In '86, an RTC was not always a matter of course.

I also wonder, if version 2.0 was ever made..
If it was, perhaps the BLOAD/BSAVE would work in that release ?

Does this program create 16 colours colours at 640x200 using composite output?

Hi, DOSBox captured them in 320x200. I magnified them for better readability, though.

Edit: I think it does support composite CGA. On VGA, all the colours are gone.
Edit: I forgot to mention - the splash screen also has a nice colour-cycling effect (see picture below).

Anonymous Coward wrote:

Does this program create 16 colours colours at 640x200 using composite output?

It doesn't do anything at 640x200 mode - everything is at 320x200, it just briefly sets mode 6 at launch to 'trick' the BIOS into outputting 80-column text in that mode, so it kinda-sorta looks like a color 640x200 mode on first glance. On EGA/VGA (which aren't regsiter-compatible with CGA), you do get 640x200, but in mono.

So that readme is either blatantly lying, or they were testing on some very odd cards, because it doesn't give you "640 by 200 hi-resolution color" on anything standard, nor is it a "software alternative to the EGA card". (:lol:)

Hmm.., I searched the web for the PCs mentioned in the read me file but couldn't find something unusual.
The first one, the Eagle PC, seems to be the only "special" one. The rest seems to be having normal CGAs installed.

Eagle PC
"It worked without any fan and was thus quite silent, which was rare for an PC compatible system...
The graphic resolution was far better than the IBM standard : 720 x 352 instead of 320 x 200."
http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=529

Sanyo PC (Turbo 775)
"The built-in 9" RGB color monitor shows up to 16 colors and provides a fine display. Text resolution is 25 lines of 80 characters,
and graphics resolution is 320 X 200 pixels in four colors and 640 X 200 pixesl in two colors (black and white).
Sanyo uses the standard 256-character IBM character set."
http://www.atarimagazines.com/creative/v11n8/ … _transporta.php

IBS PC
?

Tava PC
"The Tava-PC now has 64K memory (versus 128K in earlier edition), two 360K floppies, controllerm
monochrome or color adapter, and green or amber screen monitor."
Link 1
Link 2

By sheer coincidence, I came across an old program in PC Magazine that claims to do just what Hi-Res Rainbow claims to do - that is, multiple colors in hi-res CGA on RGB monitors... and with exactly the same results: https://books.google.com/books?id=h9RnfyXzV6s … epage&q&f=false

That sets 640x200 through the BIOS and then immediately goes to 320x200 by writing directly to the CGA, so you get the pseudo-"hi-res" half-width characters, but no other difference from plain old 320x200 CGA. Wouldn't surprise me if the authors of this software got their idea from there. 😁

Wow, thanks for sharing! ^^ I guess the old saying you learn every day something new is true and fits well here.
Ironically, when I was just a kid and toyed with Hi-Res, I got the advertised 640x200 mode.
But not in colour, just monochrome, as my 286 had an on-board ATI VGA Wonder. ;)
Without mode utility and the chance for real composite video, of course.

Jo22 wrote:

Ironically, when I was just a kid and toyed with Hi-Res, I got the advertised 640x200 mode.
But not in colour, just monochrome, as my 286 had an on-board ATI VGA Wonder. 😉

Yep, back then whenever some game or program pulled this sort of stunt, it used to win my special hatred (ha) - because our (clone) CGA was paired with a mono monitor, and by the time we got a color one, it came with an EGA card. So any CGA-specific register tricks meant that I couldn't play those games in color after all (or they'd be b0rked in some other fresh and exciting way!)

I know of only one way to get 16 colors in 'hi-res' RGB CGA, and that's faking it with a text mode on steroids (aka "ANSI from Hell")... with some luck there shall be a fuller demonstration of this some time soon 😉