This proyect is so good!!!!!

Some screenshots from wolfcga in my Hercules small 286 12mhz computer, that have cga emulation in hardware. Works really good!!!

Gmlb256 wrote on 2023-01-22, 21:03:

jmarsh wrote on 2023-01-22, 20:50:

It already has a 16 color tandy mode so I'm sure adding full blown EGA wouldn't take much more work.

EGA uses planar memory layout, so it does take some work to optimize for performance.

You could hack the EGA 80 x 25 text mode to get a 160 x 50 16 color chunky mode.

Calvero wrote on 2023-01-23, 15:59:

Gmlb256 wrote on 2023-01-22, 21:03:

jmarsh wrote on 2023-01-22, 20:50:

It already has a 16 color tandy mode so I'm sure adding full blown EGA wouldn't take much more work.

EGA uses planar memory layout, so it does take some work to optimize for performance.

You could hack the EGA 80 x 25 text mode to get a 160 x 50 16 color chunky mode.

It would look different than the intended EGA version that was in the alpha though. Furthermore, with chunky mode there isn't support for page flipping nor a way to latch several VGAGRAPH chunks which is done to speed up data transfers.

After seeing how well it ran on the PortfolioHP 200LX (above) I started thinking that maybe I should try it on the Sharp PC-4641, which has a V40, specs say 10mhz, but all the diag stuff I run says 8 so IDK, benchmarks like a 6mhz 286. Has mono LCD with CGA grayscale emulation, which never seems to bench very fast, 2000 characters per second, what did they hook it up with, a serial cable? Anyway after taking all afternoon trying to figure out the easiest way to get it on there, with stuff like null modem crossovers running for cover and hiding, and disks with all the useful stuff like DOS zip or rar etc doing likewise, I finally used 7zip to carve it into chunks and piecemealed it onto the HDD with 720k disks, copying it all back together. Google was giving me crap for guaranteed XT capable unzip utils so had to trot over to texfiles, pull up the oldest simtel CD and snarf that one and cross my fingers. Thankfully that all worked out, though I didn't realise it was gonna spread to a bit over 5MB so had to try extracting the last file again after I filled the partition, derp. Little unnerved as 35 year old HDD starts making funny squeaky noises with all the copying, put up with it or go unicorn hunting I guess. Holding my breath as I type in the launch command and...

WOW... it is much faster/smoother than I expected, feels like middling 286 fast, thanks a LOT for this awesome effort.

Tried LCD mode first as I was in inverse, which it defaults to, but can be flipped. Looked a bit on the stripey/dotty side, like my hardware dither and software dither were interfering. So quit, flipped my inverse switch in setup, tried normal, very nice, can see more in the menus, dithering finer. In all modes I'm getting a pale brown artifact color on moving objects, (weirdness peculiar to this particular LCD I expect) so enemies show up clearer when they move. You can almost imagine old BJ Blazkowicz here is lugging around some pre alpha, revision 0.0.1, WWII night vision gear, based on the amazing new televisualiser or some crap. Classic was a touch worse for me, composite tried for the lulz, looked about the same as LCD really, stripy and dotty. Not really played at all yet, just tested, should be in bed.

So, this is working on Sharp PC-4641 NEC V40, 640KB installed RAM, MSDOS 3.30 according to ver (Supposedly this machine needs special sauce Sharp issued DOS so I've left it be, but don't see branding or special utils anywhere) Pics tomorrow maybe.

Dumb question time, can I get rid of the graphics files I'm not using, like for VGA and Tandy? Every kilobyte counts on this thing.

edit: Had a train of thought switched down the wrong branch line there, thanks mkarcher for catching it.

BitWrangler wrote on 2023-01-29, 06:45:

After seeing how well it ran on the Portfolio (above)

Did I miss a post? Did someone really run a Wolfenstein edition on the Atari Portfolio, or are you referring to the HP 200LX?

Derp, yah late at night, brain scrambling "what's that tiny palmtop thingy, portfolio that sounds right" yes the HP 200LX

Hmmm, so on PC-4641 when I hit the "bosskey" F1 it shows the fake C> prompt, but when I hit Esc to return the graphics are scrambled, double screen of text characters. I've seen this kind of graphics corruption on other things before that it didn't quite agree with, game is still running, hit esc ... Q .. Enter ... Y ... blind with pauses for machine to catch up gets you out to real prompt and relaunch everything is right again. BTW not super sure because maybe my keystrokes were out of sync with doing it blind, but hitting F1 again didn't do back to fake C> or it did and was corrupted, but Esc to menu worked though that was corrupted but you could tell screen changed.

I am not super concerned about this, just wondering if it's a pecularity of this system or happening to anyone else. Also noting in case it flags a "something" that's causing a mystery issue elsewhere. First time it did it I was in normal mode, then I reloaded in LCD mode in case there was a more LCD friendly screen/mode switching in place in that and it did the same thing.

BitWrangler wrote on 2023-01-29, 06:45:

Dumb question time, can I get rid of the graphics files I'm not using, like for VGA and Tandy? Every kilobyte counts on this thing.

yes, probably

BitWrangler wrote on 2023-01-30, 00:18:

Hmmm, so on PC-4641 when I hit the "bosskey" F1 it shows the fake C> prompt, but when I hit Esc to return the graphics are scrambled, double screen of text characters. I've seen this kind of graphics corruption on other things before that it didn't quite agree with, game is still running, hit esc ... Q .. Enter ... Y ... blind with pauses for machine to catch up gets you out to real prompt and relaunch everything is right again. BTW not super sure because maybe my keystrokes were out of sync with doing it blind, but hitting F1 again didn't do back to fake C> or it did and was corrupted, but Esc to menu worked though that was corrupted but you could tell screen changed.

I am not super concerned about this, just wondering if it's a pecularity of this system or happening to anyone else. Also noting in case it flags a "something" that's causing a mystery issue elsewhere. First time it did it I was in normal mode, then I reloaded in LCD mode in case there was a more LCD friendly screen/mode switching in place in that and it did the same thing.

It's a known issue.

Thanks.

And yes, my system is doing it almost exactly the same as on the video.

jhhoward wrote on 2023-01-22, 10:25:

Hi author of the project here! Someone pointed me to this thread so thought I'd chime in.

Hi, great to see you here !
First of all, thank you for this project, it's amazing to run Wolfenstein on XT with different graphic cards from the era.

In my case I'm using rather unusual hardware, that is Commodore Amiga 500+ with hardware NEC V30@10 MHz PC-XT emulator under its trapdoor 😀

The most funny part is, it's configurable to emulate Hercules CGA/EGA/VGA and also Tandy. The latter one is the most interesting, because it provides best cabapilities&speed combination if the game supports it (VGA emulation is slow).
In case of WolfensteinCGA, I managed to successfully run both standard and red CGA colour schemes:

Unfortunately I have an issue with the 160x200x16 Tandy mode, it seems that KCS doesn't support it correctly, so there are missing lines horizontally, and the screen is doubled vertically.

On the other hand, Tandy mode 320x200x16 is working correctly for e.g. Prince of Persia and looks great.

So I'd like to kindly ask for addition of standard Tandy 320x200 in 16 colors if possible, that would be great to see in action! I'd report back, of course 😀
And thanks again for the excellent work on it.

Jacques wrote on 2023-01-31, 18:04:

Unfortunately I have an issue with the 160x200x16 Tandy mode, it seems that KCS doesn't support it correctly, so there are missing lines horizontally, and the screen is doubled vertically.
20230131_183518.jpg

Hi Jacques, just having a thought here, if it's convenient, could you hit the F1 bosskey in a normal CGA mode and see if it is identical to how the Tandy mode appears for you when you press Esc to return. It might give us the clue that the bosskey bug is trying to return into tandy mode instead of whatever mode it was in.

Hi BitWrangler,
that's what I've got after hitting F1 bosskey while in CGA mode:

Thanks, it's not trying to go back to a Tandy mode then I guess.

It must be KCS not handling well Tandy's 160x320 mode. Unfortunately its accompanying software is 30+ y/o and can't be updated 😁
The only hope would be the full 320x200 mode of Tandy graphics in WolfensteinCGA. I think it would work OK.

I've actually be experimenting with the Tandy 320x200 mode. Here is a sneak peek from a capture I did in DOSBox:
https://youtu.be/2OjxCX75tJ0

Looks great, thanks for sharing ! I'd be very happy to assist and do any testing that is needed on my hardware, provided you decide do spend some time on it. That would be great to have this mode working.

jhhoward wrote on 2023-02-02, 08:17:

I've actually be experimenting with the Tandy 320x200 mode. Here is a sneak peek from a capture I did in DOSBox:
https://youtu.be/2OjxCX75tJ0

Glorious! I have a modded Tandy 1000 SL with a 16MHz NEC V30. It touches 286-10 levels of performance, so i’m wondering how well this will run on it.

jhhoward wrote on 2023-02-02, 08:17:

I've actually be experimenting with the Tandy 320x200 mode. Here is a sneak peek from a capture I did in DOSBox:
https://youtu.be/2OjxCX75tJ0

It would be awesome if you could share it one day, please 😀

Jacques wrote on 2023-02-13, 08:47:

jhhoward wrote on 2023-02-02, 08:17:

I've actually be experimenting with the Tandy 320x200 mode. Here is a sneak peek from a capture I did in DOSBox:
https://youtu.be/2OjxCX75tJ0

It would be awesome if you could share it one day, please 😀

I hope there's still a hope 😉

Jacques wrote on 2023-01-31, 18:04:

In my case I'm using rather unusual hardware, that is Commodore Amiga 500+ with hardware NEC V30@10 MHz PC-XT emulator under its trapdoor 😀

I would like to hijack this thread for a moment to kindly ask which expansion card it is exactly in that trapdoor because I need it in my life..