dr.zeissler wrote on 2020-01-05, 14:51:

Does anyone have a good source for 320x200 256color flics that can be played on a small 286/8 ?

I just tried to upload one example in order to see what you mean but the FLI format is not allowed for uploading.

edit
Tried to combine a couple in a zip file - see attached. The AAP.EXE stands for AAPLAYER.EXE, it opens in a dosbox in XP when you click on it.

Thx, aap did not work on 286, so I choose another one. btw. chubby is NICE!

Nice ! I like machine.fli. You can play them with VLC or at least I can in 3.0.5 Vetinari in Win7. Just launch VLC, go Media > Open File then use the drop box and choose "all files" and you know the rest....

added: there are a bunch here: http://cd.textfiles.com/animfestival/ANIMATE/
MediaInfo will tell you the resolutions if you have it installed...

Thanks for the link - I must still have a bunch on diskettes but the two above are by far the nicest I had I think which is why they eventually survived on harddisk up to the XP period.

The fli files were popular, so I hink there should be plenty of them, but we have not found them yet.

My favorite back in the day was the TNG Enterprise going to warp. I used to order FLI animations at Shareware vendors, because we didn't have a modem / downloading was too expensive.

Also, the Internet Archive has CD ROM collections, like this:

https://archive.org/details/walkthroughs-and-flybys-cd-media

Just checked out some diskettes and found interesting background info on the [ RRHOOD.FLI ]:
(quote)
July 11, 1989


RRHOOD.FLI -- Autodesk Animator enhancement of Amiga animation


Red Riding Hood was originally downloaded as a .RIF file from the
CIS Amigaforum and converted to an Autodesk Animator .FLI file
with the Animator's import/export file converter.

The original Amiga animation used 16 colors, with no
antialiasing, backgrounds, or effects. It was a copy of a
sequence of cels from a book about Preson Blair's animation.
Blair was one of Tex Avery's chief animators in the '40s. The
copy was digitzed into the computer by Amiga artist
J.H.H. Lowengard.

Jack Powell took the 16-color Amiga file and used the image
processing effects of Autodesk Animator to create a
curtained background, soft-edged spotlight/shadow, stage
floor, and transparent reflection off the floor.
It's a clear example of why the IBM is now a better
animation platform than the Amiga. 256 colors. This also
explains why there are three sets of initials on the bottom of
the screen. (JP/JHH/PB)

The following is J.H.H. Lowengard's original doc file that
came with RRH.RIF in the Amigaforum.

-----------------

Dec 11 88

"RRH.rif" Zoetrope animation file

Here is the famous Red Riding Hood dancing girl animated by
Preston Blair back in the '40s. This character served as the
original inspiration for the pneumatic Jessica Rabbit (sharing
the credit with Veronica Lake and several dozen Varga Girls).
This character appeared in at least 6 MGM cartoons:

"Red Hot Riding Hood(1943)"
"The Shooting of Dan McGoo(1946)"
"Swing Shift Cinderella(1945)"
"Wild and Wolfy(1945)"
"Uncle Tom's Cabana(1947)"
and the unbelievable "Little Rural Riding Hood(1949)"

(I believe there were a few cameos as well..) All of these were
directed by Tex Avery in his glory years. For more on Avery (and
you'll want more...) get a hold of "Tex Avery - King of
Cartoons" by Joe Adamson, Da Capo Press, which I've used here to
refresh my memory.

Anyway, for the Zoetrope version, I acted the part of the Ink and
Paint (and Photography) departments. The actual sequence for this
dance is available in the book, "How to Animate Film Cartoons" by
Preston Blair, published by Warren T. Foster and available in
many art stores which may carry the whole line of Foster How-to
books. For this reason, this sequence may be one of the most
ripped-off pieces of animation in history. This particular one
is full of information you may want to have when you try out
animation with Zoetrope, or anything else for that matter. There
is another book in the series, "Animated Cartoons" which may also
be helpful. The original animation given shows just one kick and
then the "Betty Hutton" pose, but it's designed so that the kick
may be reversed and spliced into the sequence, thus reusing the
cels and saving a lot of labor. In my case, I used the "APM"
feature of Zoetrope to reverse the kick section. Obviously,
various colors can be changed in the costumes, and new girls
over- and under- laid (bad choice of words there?) to make a
chorus line which is very effective. You may want to "Edge In" a
black border around the finished action to help it read better in
front of a (Cabaret) background, especially if you Anti-alias the
show later.

" Remember - here in the city we do not shout and whistle at
the ladies." - the City Wolf, "Little Rural Riding Hood"

Animation fan J H H Lowengard
CIS 76625,2425

http://cd.textfiles.com/10000soundssongs/FLI/
http://cd.textfiles.com/vgaspectrum/animate/fli/

dr.zeissler wrote on 2020-01-05, 18:44:

Thx, aap did not work on 286, so I choose another one. btw. chubby is NICE!

AFAIK, the DOS version was optimized for 386+. Just try the Win 3.x version (AAWIN aka AAPlay for Windows). 😀
I can confirm it works on a 286 - see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFB2M9l9g8c and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydEdC_QiV-U.

For a 286/8 1MB you are by far better off with Dos.
But thanks for the info.

dr.zeissler wrote on 2020-01-06, 12:21:

For a 286/8 1MB you are by far better off with Dos.
But thanks for the info.

You're welcome. The PC in the videos was/is a 286-16 with decent 4MiB of RAM (it can use SIMMs for Extended Memory or EMS).
However: It was running AAPlay for Windows. On a monochrome Hercules card, which is very CPU intensive by comparison (that's why it is "slow").
If you've got EGA/VGA graphics and an EMS card with ~2MiB, AAWIN on Windows 3.0 in Real-Mode might be quicker than that.
Or, if you like, also try the the 16c palettized VGA driver of Win 3.0 MME on Win 3.x, which supports palette cycling (Winfract also uses it).
Using something exotic like an Hercules InColor, XGA, 8514/A or a TIGA board might be also possible on Win 3.1x, of couse.

The original AAPLAY is pretty much VGA-only. If you really need a DOS version, please try PV. It can display FLI animations among other formarts (MPEG-1, MOV ?).
Here's a backup copy (the program is shareware) : Re: Software for my 286/8 1MB ET4000 SBpro

PS: Your 286 deserves more than one lousy MiB of RAM. 😉
Some sort of UMB card or EMS board is highly recommend, even if it only has as little as 256kiB,
so you can run things like Windows or PC GEOS more smoothly (there's a FLIC player for that, too). 😀

Edit: I forgot, your A2286 (?) can't be upgraded easily.
Hm. Maybe an EMS 4 LIMulator that uses swap files *could* be used on a physical RAM disk attached to an IDE port, though.
Not sure if PC GEOS or Windows 3.0 in Real-Mode -or any DOS FLI player- can make use of that, though. 😐

I am using QV103 from the same author. By FAR the best and fastest image-viewer for a lowendmachine.
It can display 1024x768@256colors TGA files on a 286/8 1MB ET4000 in under 3! seconds.

dr.zeissler wrote on 2020-01-06, 15:44:

I am using QV103 from the same author. By FAR the best and fastest image-viewer for a lowendmachine.
It can display 1024x768@256colors TGA files on a 286/8 1MB ET4000 in under 3! seconds.

Cool, thanks for the tip! Did you load a VBE TSR BIOS, by the way ?
There used to be a bunch of loadable VBE 1.2 BIOSes (-scrap UniVBE which doesn't work properly on ancient cards-)
for Realtek, OAK (OTI 37c, 67, 87), Trident (8800-8900A/B/C/D,9000) and Tseng (ET3000/4000) and others.
Re: OAK OTI-037c - 800x600 mode ?

Using VBE might give higher performance. Or less. So it's worth trying just for fun. 😉
(VBE 1.x uses Real-Mode BIOS interface, while VBE 2.x+ uses Protected-Mode BIOS interface.)

No I do not load a vesa-driver, qv103 detects the card directly. if you have a 1.2 compatible card with a high/truecolor dac
you can display 16/24bit images, but for a 286 that is inside an amiga 2000, having hires 256colors is quite nice.

side by side comparison: (left Amiga 2000, right Amiga Bridgeboard)

dr.zeissler wrote on 2020-01-06, 16:58:

No I do not load a vesa-driver, qv103 detects the card directly. if you have a 1.2 compatible card with a high/truecolor dac
you can display 16/24bit images, but for a 286 that is inside an amiga 2000, having hires 256colors is quite nice.

In the past, I lived in a 286 world with 640 by 480 pels (16c) for a while, so I can't disagree. 😁
256c modes have got the benefit of supporting colour cycling (as mentioned earlier) which is nice for DOS and 16-Bit Windows.
Applications of that time made quite some use of that (I wished I had got that paletized 16c Win driver when I got my 286 originally).

PS: If memory serves, the ET4000 was special because it had got a FiFo buffer, just as Triedent 8900D (?) had got, which led to better ISA performance.

dr.zeissler wrote on 2020-01-06, 16:58:

side by side comparison: (left Amiga 2000, right Amiga Bridgeboard)

Thanks for the pictures! 😀