Games that show 16 colors ONLY in Tandy / PCjr mode?

[Neville]

I'm trying to build a list of games that show 16 colors, but only in Tandy / PCjr machines.

So far I've got:

Arcticfox (Tandy only)
Boulder Dash I & II
Crossfire (PCjr cart)
Darwin's Arena (Tandy only)
Demon Attack (PCjr cart)
Falcon (Tandy version exists but is rare)
Ghostbusters
Jumpman (PCjr)
King's Quest I: Quest for the Crown (Had separate CGA, PCjr and Tandy releases)
King's Quest II: Romancing the Throne (v1.1H has PCjr and Tandy support)
Marble Madness
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2.0+ (PCjr)
Microsurgeon (PCjr cart)
Mine Shaft
Montezuma's Revenge (PCjr only)
Mouser (PCjr cart)
Murder on the Zinderneuf (PCjr)
Ninja
Oil's Well (PCjr)
Pitfall II (PCjr cart)
River Raid (PCjr cart)
ScubaVenture (PCjr cart)
Shanghai
Star Rank Boxing II
Super Boulder Dash
Superbowl Sunday (PCjr)
Touchdown Football (Separate PCjr and Tandy versions)
Transylvania I - II (PCjr only)
Troll's Tale (PCjr)
World's Greatest Baseball Game (PCjr)

Are there any others?

[VileRancour]

You can find quite a few if you browse MobyGames, but it depends - does composite CGA 'count' as 16-color?
Marble Madness shows 4 colors, it just messes with the palette. Not a rare trick with Tandy/PCjr games, less common with EGA.

[Neville]

I've taken a look at MobyGames... it does and it does not help. Its list of games that support Tandy is probably the most complete I've seen yet, but they don't have a separate list of games where Tandy / PCjr is the best resolution available, which is what I'm really after. As for CGA Composite... I think I'll include it for now. Later I can always trim the list even more.

[coolhaken]

I know some games :

Shanghai
Montezuma's Revenge
Boulder Dash I & II

[Neville]

I know some games :

Shanghai
Montezuma's Revenge
Boulder Dash I & II

Couldn't confirm these... either my copies are different or DOSBox doesn't run the Tandy modes yet. I think this is the case with both Boulder Dash games.

EDIT: Confirmed "Shanghai" and "Boulder Dash I-II" through MobyGames. Thanks for your help.

[VileRancour]

Montezuma's Revenge

Hmm? I was aware that this game checks for PCjr (at least some versions do), but IIRC only for keyboard handling, not for doing anything special with the colors. That'd be quite a curious find if it were true.

[Neville]

Added these others:

Super Boulder Dash (Compilation of Boulder Dash I-II, needs disc image and patch)
Transylvania I - II (PCjr only)

[coolhaken]

Hmm? I was aware that this game checks for PCjr (at least some versions do), but IIRC only for keyboard handling, not for doing anything special with the colors. That'd be quite a curious find if it were true.

The screen shot :

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Hex view of track 0 :

shot02.png

(3.68 KiB) Not downloaded yet

[VileRancour]

Neat - learn something new every day

[dr.zeissler]

F-16 Falcon (Tandy Disk-Version) Never found it yet, but it exists.

[Neville]

True, I've been looking for that one for ages. There are scans at MobyGames, so it's existence is proven.

[Neville]

I'm a bit confused about the "Boulder Dash" games... I know for sure "Super Boulder dash", which is a compilation, supports Tandy / PCjr. But what about the original games?

[liqmat]

Very rare game carts for the PCjr that are 16 color:

River Raid from Activision
Pitfall II from Activision (one of the best versions of this game)
Demon Attack from Imagic (outstanding version of this game)
Microsurgeon from Imagic

All are almost impossible to find physically and I only know of one obscure FTP site that has these PCjr images that work in DOSBox.

[liqmat]

This is a good online resource on the game cartridges and other info for the PCjr which were all 16 color graphics:

http://www.brutman.com/PCjr/pcjr_option ... _and_Demon

[Anonymous Freak]

In addition to the PCjr game cartridges, many of Sierra's early AGI games were. King's Quest I, for example, was created at the behest of IBM specifically to show off the PCjr's sound and graphics. The original release is literally only usable on the PCjr. King's Quest II was similarly a "show off" game for the Tandy computers! It will run on other (CGA) systems, though. Personally, I think King's Quest II looks better on CGA-composite than on PCjr graphics. (I have the original IBM-branded King's Quest in original box; and the original Tandy-branded King's Quest II. Although the Tandy branding is only a sticker on top of an otherwise-Sierra branded box. Which is funny, because the Tandy sticker says "Custom manufactured in U.S.A. for Radio Shack." Yet that sticker is the only thing about the packaging that is custom...)

[dr.zeissler]

Is there a "Tandy-Shrine" were I can DL some of the old stuff?
The Tandy-Archives do not have these rare titles.

[Neville]

In addition of the titles liqmat and Anonymous Freak mention, I've just learned of "Darwin's Arena", a shareware title with built-in Tandy 1000 support:





EDIT: Also added more PCjr titles, took the information from Nerdy Pleasures.

[Anonymous Freak]

And if you were curious, I took photos of my PC/CGA and PCjr showing how King's Quest compares:

http://imgur.com/a/YvBpO

What's funny is that back in the day (mid '80s) when I first had a CGA computer, I didn't know that composite mode existed. I knew my computer had a composite port, and that my monitor had a composite port, but I never knew that CGA had a more-colors composite mode. I never plugged the computer in to the composite input on the display, I always used the digital DE-9 port. I used the composite input on the display for my NES.

[Neville]

That's very cool! Didn't thought CGA Composite modes could be better than PCjr / Tandy in some games. I always assumed the PCjr / Tandy versions to be better because of the superior hardware.

[liqmat]

What's funny is that back in the day (mid '80s) when I first had a CGA computer, I didn't know that composite mode existed.

Nor did I until I got this ICON demo on a BBS way back in the day on my shiny new ITT XTRA PC. Luckily this guy posted it on Youtube as I had forgotten about it completely.

https://youtu.be/EABHIv0K56M