zyga64 wrote on 2026-01-16, 18:50:

I checked with the Phoenix ROM 2.27 BIOS that was originally on this motherboard (the pictures were taken with GlaBIOS 0.4.1) and the status bar is now white all the time (previously it sometimes turned brown) and the residual command characters are now white (previously it sometimes turned blue).

FYI, the developer of GlaBIOS is aware of the issue and committed a fix some time ago, but it's not yet in a release build.

ripsaw8080 wrote on 2026-01-19, 05:18:

zyga64 wrote on 2026-01-16, 18:50:

I checked with the Phoenix ROM 2.27 BIOS that was originally on this motherboard (the pictures were taken with GlaBIOS 0.4.1) and the status bar is now white all the time (previously it sometimes turned brown) and the residual command characters are now white (previously it sometimes turned blue).

FYI, the developer of GlaBIOS is aware of the issue and committed a fix some time ago, but it's not yet in a release build.

Thanks for the info, so I can build GLaBIOS with the patch myself !
I checked new build of your AGI plantronics driver and text in inventory (with Turbo XT BIOS 3.1) is no longer blinking ! Good job !

Horizontal display positioning (Ctrl+Alt+Left/Right) also works just fine !

ripsaw8080 wrote on 2026-01-16, 01:22:

The new AGI video drivers are coded by myself, and installation is easy: make sure you have a backup of the original CGA_GRAF.OVL file and then extract a replacement from either of the attached archives.

I wrote a SCi0 driver for the Olivetti PC1 160x200x16. https://github.com/RetroErik/Sierra-SCI0-Driv … or-Olivetti-PC1
I want to do one for AGI games since they are already made for 160x200 they should look great on the Olivetti PC1.

I don't have any info for writing a driver for AGI, could you maybe help?
On my github would will extensive documentation of the Olivetti PCI hidden mode. https://github.com/RetroErik/Olivetti-PC1-Hid … n-graphics-mode

Jinxter wrote on 2026-02-07, 16:09:

ripsaw8080 wrote on 2026-01-16, 01:22:

The new AGI video drivers are coded by myself, and installation is easy: make sure you have a backup of the original CGA_GRAF.OVL file and then extract a replacement from either of the attached archives.

I wrote a SCi0 driver for the Olivetti PC1 160x200x16. https://github.com/RetroErik/Sierra-SCI0-Driv … or-Olivetti-PC1
I want to do one for AGI games since they are already made for 160x200 they should look great on the Olivetti PC1.

Well, you must already be aware from SCI0 that the 40-column text drawn in graphics will be illegible, so do you view it as just an academic exercise?

Just switch to text mode whenever a text window is displayed. Just like how those old silent movies would show the lines of the actors in text on a black background spliced between the scenes. And then switch back to graphics mode when the user presses ENTER when they’re done reading.

AGI games would already freeze/pause the game whenever a text window was shown anyway. And also they would already switch to text mode whenever you checked your inventory.

It's not only about text windows. Consider a couple of examples where AGI combines graphics and text:

Also, the "LOOK <object>" command shows graphics representing the object and a text window description at the same time.

However, the main problems with "just switch to text mode" are the status bar, dropdown menus, and command input that use text drawn in graphics; and you're talking about a change in interpreter behavior, not driver behavior.

Depending on how the interpreter implements keyboard input, the video driver could intercept the keyboard interrupt for user-triggered horizontal zoom and pan functionality.
It would still be a kludge, but could be workable.

I imagine that would be easier to do for SCI0 where text is internally rendered as graphics, unlike AGI that relies on BIOS functions to render text. Are you planning to implement it?

It would be easier to do for SCI0, and it would be the most feasible thing to do for SCI0 in a genuine 160x200 pixel mode, precisely because it renders text as graphics.
For AGI, BIOS replacement routines that use a 4x8 font would make more sense. Granted, some letters are a bit tricky, but most of them work quite well.