Does psycho pinball have one of those video screens that slides up and down as the ball moves around the table? Like, then screen is drawn internally as two windows high, and the whole viewable area slides up and down to actually fit inside the screen depending and what part of the table the ball is in?

simonecuttlefish wrote:

Does psycho pinball have one of those video screens that slides up and down as the ball moves around the table? Like, then screen is drawn internally as two windows high, and the whole viewable area slides up and down to actually fit inside the screen depending and what part of the table the ball is in?

Yep. Like most pinball games from that era, actually. Is this a known quirk? Is there a way around it? I notice that Pinball Fantasies has no problem in-game, so it must be a particular method of drawing the game screen that Psycho Pinball uses that's causing this.

I just downloaded it and checked it out - I'm "guessing" that this is part of the game (but it might be a BDOX quirk.

When I tell the game to play in high res in the game options screen the game plays as 2 screen high (a bit squishy)

When I tell it to use low res, it is 3(ish) screens high (fast tall and fun)

I dont know if this is a bug or a feature : ) Maybe it's actually part of the game, and 3Xhigh res screens at once may have been a problem? Would be nice to have some real "old" hardware to check this on.

OK - just had another look and I'd bet money. not much. just a little but I'd STILL gamble on it, that this is normal.

As long as it looks really tall (like about three screens) when you select Low Resolution, I'd say it's correct.

They appear to be using the same table graphic for both modes, so "HIGH res is probably just the same table graphic vertically crushed to look sharper - the horizontal resolution looks about the same

I just took a look at Pinball Fantasies and yes - that is a weird effect - but I get it as well. I'd say the game programmers got "clever" - I've not see this weirdness before in DOSBox, but it self corrects. Playing in fullscreen you never see this - I assume setting output=overlay and windowsize=BLAH you would miss this as well.

I wouldn't worry about it - DOS programmers switched a lot between video modes, and DOSBox pauses for a moment between each one. This is especially annoying when running DOS Scene Demos, as the demo writers jump about resolutions/screen modes all the time and it causes pauses in the music/presentation. Setting output=overlay and windowsize=BLAH helps, but even on a fast machine DOSBox seems to "stop" for a tiny moment between modes.

I hope any of this helped.

You know, I'd forgotten I'd even set high resolution mode. I guess I just assumed that it would switch to a high res mode (i.e. 640x480) -- though I'm wondering if it's using that old DOS 50-line method. (Y'know, when you'd use SET CON LINES=50 at the prompt to see more on-screen at once). I'm sort of wondering if it's meant to look normal, but that it's using a graphics mode not supported by the chipsets DOSbox emulates (i.e. 320x480) so that it would look normal on a real PC with a graphics card that supports the mode it's using. It would explain why it looks squished into half-height. I can't bring myself to believe that this is intentional, because it throws the gameplay completely out of whack. You have to mentally compensate for everything visually in order to aim the ball properly, which isn't the sort of thing the average person can do.

It looks fine in low resolution mode though.

Try aspect=true in dosbox.conf.

Miki Maus wrote:

Try aspect=true in dosbox.conf.

Ah, THAT worked! Thanks!

Miki Maus Try aspect=true in dosbox.conf.

Thanks - that's cool - now to get the bloody Yackaty Sax Benny Hill theme out of my mind after playing the Wild West table : ) It's not the same, just the same enough to destroy your life when you remember the Benny Hill theme : )

Here - I'll destroy YOUR life as well : )

http://rosemck1.tripod.com/yakety-sax.mid