It's a known issue affecting hi-color modes on Macs: NBA Live 97 on Mac

ripsaw8080 wrote on 2021-09-12, 17:47:

It's a known issue affecting hi-color modes on Macs: NBA Live 97 on Mac

Is setting output to OpenGL a possible workaround, as alluded to in the bug report ?

All right, I did some research and found out that MKT DOS has a command line parameter where you force the game to run under a certain video mode.

So here's what I put in:
"mktril /video=8" to try and get it to run without high color.

This is what came up:
"startup_MGL.......
320 x 400 VGAX 256 color USER FORCED MODE will be used.
FATAL ERROR: Graphics error: Invalid mode for selected driver."

And here's what happened when I set it to "/video=16"
"startup_MGL.......
512 x 384 SVGA 256 color USER FORCED MODE will be used.
FATAL ERROR: Graphics error: Invalid mode for selected driver."

You think there's any way to fix the error?

It looks like the numbers select a mode index rather than the bitdepth.

Just found this post, if somebody wants to select the correct mode for the game, here is the list of MGL Vide Mode Codes:

VGA 4Bit:
0) 320x200x16 1) 640x200x16 2) 640x350x16 3) 640x400x16 4) 640x480x16
VGA 8Bit:
5) 320x200x256

VGAX 8Bit:
6) 320x200x256 7) 320x240x256 8 ) 320x400x256 9) 320x480x256

SVGA 4Bit:
10) 800x600x16
SVGA 8Bit:
11) 320x200x256 12) 320x240x256 13) 320x400x256 14) 320x480x256 15) 400x300x256 16) 512x384x256
17) 640x350x256 18) 640x400x256 19) 640x480x256 20) 800x600x256 21) 1024x768x256 22) 1152x864x256
23) 1280x960x256 24) 1280x1024x256 25) 1600x1200x256
SVGA 15Bit:
26) 320x200x32k 27) 320x240x32k 28) 320x400x32k 29) 320x480x32k 30) 400x300x32k 31) 512x384x32k,
32) 640x350x32k 33) 640x400x32k 34) 640x480x32k 35) 800x600x32k 36) 1024x768x32k 37) 1152x864x32k
38) 1280x960x32k 39) 1280x1024x32k 40) 1600x1200x32k
SVGA 16Bit:
41) 320x200x64k 42) 320x240x64k 43) 320x400x64k 44) 320x480x64k 45) 400x300x64k 46) 512x384x64k
47) 640x350x64k 48) 640x400x64k 49) 640x480x64k 50) 800x600x64k 51) 1024x768x64k 52) grSVGA_1152x864x64k
53) 1280x960x64k 54) 1280x1024x64k 55) 1600x1200x64k
SVGA 24Bit:
56) 320x200x16m 57) 320x240x16m 58) 320x400x16m 59) 320x480x16m 60) 400x300x16m 61) 512x384x16m
62) 640x350x16m 63) 640x400x16m 64) 640x480x16m 65) 800x600x16m 66) 1024x768x16m 67) 1152x864x16m,
68) 1280x960x16m 69) 1280x1024x16m 70) 1600x1200x16m
SVGA 32Bit:
71) 320x200x4G 72) 320x240x4G 73) 320x400x4G 74) 320x480x4G 75) 400x300x4G 76) 512x384x4G,
77) 640x350x4G 78) 640x400x4G 79) 640x480x4G 80) 800x600x4G 81) 1024x768x4G 82) 1152x864x4G
83) 1280x960x4G 84) 1280x1024x4G 85) 1600x1200x4G

These modes come from the MGL 4.0 Reference Manual (1998) so it is possible that not every mode is implemented (e.g. VBE 2.0 Mode - 1600x1200).
Also it depends on your graphics card and the active driver (VGA, SVGA, VESA VBE etc.) which mode is supported.
The developer of the game decided which drivers are loaded at runtime.
Possible Scenarios: All Drivers active
VGA and SVGA
SVGA and VESA VBE compliant SVGA
etc.

I hope this helps anyone out there.