Castle adventure, alley cat and double dragon

In 1990 I still had an XT-class machine like this one. Translation from Google:

Another well-known and good computer brand that overwhelmed the Greek market was ACER. This particular machine with NEC V20 processor with operating frequencies at 4.77MHz and 8MHz, 640Kb memory, CGA graphics card and composite out and two Disk Drives of 5 ¼ 360Kb.

However mine had Hercules graphics instead.

I played Prince of Persia which has already been mentioned, but I found that on level 3 I couldn't run from right to left across the top of the map from the pressure plate to the gate before the gate closed, even though that was easy on a friend's PC and I had no trouble with it once I upgraded to a 386SX, so I assume the game just ran too slow on that machine or something. I'm not sure if I was running CGA emulation for that game as I believe it supported Hercules natively. I mention that because I imagine CGA emulation could have slowed things down.

Some titles I played on it which I don't think have been mentioned (some of these I only remembered from going through my floppies, hopefully I haven't mentioned any that I didn't actually play on that old machine):

Balance of Power, which included a runtime version of Windows 1 or 2 (I found Windows more interesting than the game!)
DONKEY.BAS
Destroyer
Falcon
Flight Simulator 4
Microprose F-19 Stealth Fighter
Moria
Operation Wolf
Q*bert
Race!
Sim Earth
Snipes
Sublogic Jet v2
The Ancient Art of War
The Ancient Art of War at Sea
Wheel of Fortune
Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego
Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego

Still? I wasn't born back then 😁

I'd probably play SimCity and Arcade Volleyball... the only games I've played from that era..

doshea wrote on 2023-04-30, 09:55:

However mine had Hercules graphics instead.

Hi, that's well possible, yes. 🙂
CGA and Hercules used the same video chip/character generator.
That's why many clone cards had the whole 64KB of video memory installed and could be configured for either mode (COLOR/MONO).

That way, graphics could be configured for either home/games use (CGA) or serious business use (Hercules+MDA).

That was handy, because PC/XT platform in itself knew merely COLOR (CGA) and MONO (MDA; Hercules was a compatible superset) settings:
There used to be a jumper on the PC/XT motherboard to select between them, to determine primary video.

Some rare Hercules/CGA combo cards apparently even supported Hercules mode over analogue RCA/Cinch connector, I heard.
Not sure about the details, though. Technically, 720x348 as such would still within PAL resolution, though.
Those 18 KHz of Hercules were a minor problem, at least, though. Not sure how this was implemented.

Edit: I was just thinking out loud, I didn't mean to annoy or to educate anyone here.
What also comes to mind is the Graphics Gremlin, though.
https://github.com/schlae/graphics-gremlin

It's a modern Hercules/CGA/Tandy compatible graphics board with Composite/TTL/VGA output.

Maybe that is good to know for those who want to re-build an 1990 era XT PC as mentioned in this thread.
Because, TTL monitors are getting rare and it can handle three different monitor types.

(I'm not affiliated with the project in any way.
Just saw it at hackaday.com once and remembered it).

Edit:

Ahrle wrote on 2023-04-30, 11:21:

Still? I wasn't born back then 😁

I'd probably play SimCity and Arcade Volleyball... the only games I've played from that era..

Sim City was/is a classic. 😄

The less know Sim games are worth a try, too, though.
Sim Ant, for example. It has Covox Speech Thing support.

Jo22 wrote on 2023-05-01, 06:15:

Some rare Hercules/CGA combo cards apparently even supported Hercules mode over analogue RCA/Cinch connector, I heard.

Not rare, the rather common ATi Graphics Solution/Small Wonder can do that.
It supports both Hercules and CGA modes, and it can output CGA on MDA/Hercules monitors (without needing any kind of SIMCGA software) or MDA/Hercules on CGA monitors (including composite output, on cards that have the connector).
Manual can be found here: https://minuszerodegrees.net/manuals/ATI%20Gr … er%20manual.pdf

Jo22 wrote on 2023-05-01, 06:15:

Not sure about the details, though. Technically, 720x348 as such would still within PAL resolution, though.

It outputs the screen as a standard interlaced NTSC screen, so you get 480 scanlines in total.
The horizontal resolution is 'squished' into NTSC timings (720 pixels on NTSC/PAL is full overscan, so it won't fit 1:1 in the active area, needs to be scaled down a bit, so effectively the screen appears more or less like a 640-pixel CGA screen would).
So it's not exactly the sharpest screen ever, but it does the job.

Jo22 wrote on 2023-05-01, 06:15:

doshea wrote on 2023-04-30, 09:55:

However mine had Hercules graphics instead.

Hi, that's well possible, yes. 🙂

It's not just possible, but a fact. Perhaps I had a clone rather than a genuine Hercules card, but it was almost certainly not secretly Hercules plus CGA, as I spent so much time wishing I had colour that I'm sure I would have noticed if there was a mysterious switch on it, and I tried using other video modes on it plenty of times out of wishful thinking.

Scali wrote on 2023-05-01, 08:33:

Not rare, the rather common ATi Graphics Solution/Small Wonder can do that. It supports both Hercules and CGA modes, and it can […]
Show full quote

Jo22 wrote on 2023-05-01, 06:15:

Some rare Hercules/CGA combo cards apparently even supported Hercules mode over analogue RCA/Cinch connector, I heard.

Not rare, the rather common ATi Graphics Solution/Small Wonder can do that.
It supports both Hercules and CGA modes, and it can output CGA on MDA/Hercules monitors (without needing any kind of SIMCGA software)
or MDA/Hercules on CGA monitors (including composite output, on cards that have the connector).
Manual can be found here: https://minuszerodegrees.net/manuals/ATI%20Gr … er%20manual.pdf

Um, the ATI Small Wonder was exactly that one card I had in mind (as a notable exception, I mean).
Personally, I know of no other vintage card which can do that.
And I've seen plenty of HGC/CGA clones in the wild, but never a single Small Wonder.

Scali wrote on 2023-05-01, 08:33:

It outputs the screen as a standard interlaced NTSC screen, so you get 480 scanlines in total. The horizontal resolution is 'squ […]
Show full quote

Jo22 wrote on 2023-05-01, 06:15:

Not sure about the details, though. Technically, 720x348 as such would still within PAL resolution, though.

It outputs the screen as a standard interlaced NTSC screen, so you get 480 scanlines in total.
The horizontal resolution is 'squished' into NTSC timings (720 pixels on NTSC/PAL is full overscan, so it won't fit 1:1 in the active area,
needs to be scaled down a bit, so effectively the screen appears more or less like a 640-pixel CGA screen would).
So it's not exactly the sharpest screen ever, but it does the job.

I didn't know that, thanks for the information ! 😀

doshea wrote on 2023-05-01, 11:24:

Jo22 wrote on 2023-05-01, 06:15:

doshea wrote on 2023-04-30, 09:55:

However mine had Hercules graphics instead.

Hi, that's well possible, yes. 🙂

It's not just possible, but a fact. [..]

Um, okay ? 🤷

I didn't mean to question your statement, I'm sorry if it did sound that way. "That's well possible, yes" simply was a direct translation of "Ja, gut möglich".
Which more or less means that someone nods the head and acknowledges/believes the statement.

doshea wrote on 2023-05-01, 11:24:

Perhaps I had a clone rather than a genuine Hercules card, but it was almost certainly not secretly Hercules plus CGA,
as I spent so much time wishing I had colour that I'm sure I would have noticed if there was a mysterious switch on it,
and I tried using other video modes on it plenty of times out of wishful thinking.

Um, combo CGA / Hercules cards were quite common. Lots of no-name models, too.. And not seldomly they had a jumper on the component side to select MONO/COL.
These combo cards were among the first to be sold as single-chip solutions, with about two or four separate RAM chips, and a ROM socket (character ROM).
Sometimes, they also had an integrated LPT port. Because, the original Hercules Monochrome added a printer port (available at i/o port 3BCh, the first LPT address).
This made sense back in the days, because video and printer were the only optional devices an XT owner had to install himself to get the up and PC running.
With that setup, he/she could enter ROM BASIC, at least. A floppy controller/drive was recommend, though.

doshea wrote on 2023-05-01, 11:24:

[..]
as I spent so much time wishing I had colour that I'm sure I would have noticed if there was a mysterious switch on it,
and I tried using other video modes on it plenty of times out of wishful thinking.

Trust me, you you weren't. After a while, once the novelty fades, the CGA would simply hurt your eyes. 🙁
Composite CGA excluded, since it looked more like Apple II graphics.
Monochrome CGA (TV out) also was kind of okay, albeit being.. Well, monochrome. 😉

Unfortunately, CGA over RCA/Cinch output was often monochrome only, so no Composite CGA. At least here in Europe/PAL countries.
The color-burst circuit was missing, I believe. We had no NTSC, after all, so it made sense and Luma+Sync signal alone was cleaner (VBS).

To get colour on CGA in Europe, an RGB/RGBI connection was needed (that DE-9 connector).
Back in the late 80s, some people here made themselves SCART cables with a sync-combiner inside, to use RGB input on SCART.
Some also used the later Commodore monitors with their RGB inputs (1084S), or so I heard.

Or alternatively, someone could use an american CGA card that's wired to an external device with a transcoder chip (NTSC to PAL) connected to a 60 Hz capable PAL TV.
- Some later Apple II / IIe models had such a chip or circuit built-in, I vaguely remember.

Jo22 wrote on 2023-05-01, 14:56:

And I've seen plenty of HGC/CGA clones in the wild, but never a single Small Wonder.

My Philips P3105 came with one as standard.

Jo22 wrote on 2023-05-01, 14:56:

Unfortunately, CGA over RCA/Cinch output was often monochrome only, so no Composite CGA. At least here in Europe/PAL countries.
The color-burst circuit was missing, I believe. We had no NTSC, after all, so it made sense and Luma+Sync signal alone was cleaner (VBS).

On my Commodore PC10-III, there was a jumper to enable/disable color composite, on the onboard Paradise PVC4 circuit.
On my Small Wonder, the whole circuit for the composite output was missing (a number of resistors and a transistor, funny enough the RCA connector was soldered on), so it didn't output anything, not even monochrome. I soldered them on myself, and it worked.

Aside from the obvious advantage of CGA having colour over Hercules is that you also had larger screens available (MDA/Hercules monitors were always 12", where colour screens were 14" standard, and there were larger ones available, especially if you went the TV-route), and you didn't have the extreme ghosting of a monochrome screen, which made playing action games nearly impossible.
Games generally also ran faster in CGA than in Hercules, because of the lower resolution, and not requiring any kind of emulation.

We didn't get our first PC (a 486) till '95 yet I know quite a few of these games, either as we had them on the Apple IIe that we had before upgrading or even in '95 games like POP and Simcity were still must have.
Games lasted alot longer back then!

Anyway missing from the list is Street Rod. It's now officially freeware AND an alternate version with different cars was discovered few years ago.
https://www.streetrodonline.com/2013/01/14/st … er-abandonware/