I recently got a Reelmagic CD Lite card setup on my 486 for a single game - Return to Zork. This is a game I spent a lot of time as a kid playing, but originally more the Macintosh version than the PC version. My mother worked at a local school that had a bank of Macintosh PCs and about a dozen copies of this game. I'd play it after school sometimes, and we'd regularly take home one of the Macs during the school holidays. A few years later on I got the PC version, and was incredibly disappointed with it in comparison. The lack of almost any video content, and very low resolution screens by comparison, felt like a pale imitation. Today, I have the mac version (regular, not MPEG) running on a Quadra 650, and I've been comparing side by side with the regular DOS and Reelmagic PC versions running on my 486, and I've got to say, I think the standard Mac version is still the superior version. The Reelmagic PC version is basically the same game as the Macintosh version (the differences people usually note are normal on the Mac version), but with a few extra bugs (IE, blacksmith thinking you always have the rotten meat, some glitches on scene transitions). The PC version does make it possible to use MT-32 music, but the soundtrack for this game isn't exactly standout, and the Mac version uses sampled sound for everything which sounds pretty good, with a few extra sound effects not heard on any of the PC versions. The one variant I can't compare with is the Macintosh MPEG version (don't have the card), but I can't see how it could be any better. The game already had good looking full motion video all the way through it on the Mac without MPEG. The MPEG decoder hardware it was designed for only supports up to 320x240, and the video assets basically match the PC MPEG version, so I think there'd be a loss of quality.

I took some pictures on the same physical monitor running three versions of the game - Mac CD, PC CD, PC ReelMagic for comparisons. I haven't seen many pictures shared online of the Mac version, and it's not as easy to find and get running these days, so this might be a bit of an eye-opener for some people:

The Mac version wasn't a lazy port or secondary thought, they actually have some screens done differently to show off the area better than they could on the PC version, like this angle of the school, where you can read the sign on the Mac version. On the PC it would have just been a blur, so they decided to change it to show the door only:

I think it'd be great to see an "Ultimate" version of RTZ one day, which combines the best elements from all the versions. I think the MPEG backgrounds to each scene should be dropped in favour of the high resolution images from the Mac version. The MPEG scene backgrounds don't add anything useful. They really don't make use of motion in a meaningful way (the game clearly didn't plan for it when it was done), they degrade the image quality, and lead to some transition problems. Ideally the entire thing could run under the MADE engine on a 486DX2 under dos, but with a 640x480 resolution. It'd be quite an undertaking, and probably one I'll never actually attempt, but the idea is nice. Until then, if anyone else is interested in Return to Zork, I'd personally recommend the Mac version (either on hardware or emulated) for the best experience, however on an actual 486 in DOS today, the ReelMagic version is without a doubt a major improvement to the regular CD version, even if it is imperfect. I may do a patch for the ReelMagic version at some point to fix the blacksmith bug, for my own amusement if nothing else, but I do think the Mac version is the best cut of this game as it stands.

Thanks for the insight! Personally i wasn't really impressed by the ReelMagic version either (maybe due not really perfect emulation in dosbox?), most of backgrounds are now in video form which are heavily compressed and blurry compared to the still images of standard floppy/pc version.

DivByZero wrote on 2025-06-30, 05:16:

I think it'd be great to see an "Ultimate" version of RTZ one day, which combines the best elements from all the versions.

Maybe through SCUMMVM? If anybody could take this task, of course 😁
PS - is it me, or your comparison screenshots doesn't show up?!
PPS - what is the best Mac emulator now? For Return of Zork era Macs, i mean 😁

KainXVIII wrote on 2025-06-30, 08:35:

Thanks for the insight! Personally i wasn't really impressed by the ReelMagic version either (maybe due not really perfect emula […]
Show full quote

Thanks for the insight! Personally i wasn't really impressed by the ReelMagic version either (maybe due not really perfect emulation in dosbox?), most of backgrounds are now in video form which are heavily compressed and blurry compared to the still images of standard floppy/pc version.

DivByZero wrote on 2025-06-30, 05:16:

I think it'd be great to see an "Ultimate" version of RTZ one day, which combines the best elements from all the versions.

Maybe through SCUMMVM? If anybody could take this task, of course 😁
PS - is it me, or your comparison screenshots doesn't show up?!
PPS - what is the best Mac emulator now? For Return of Zork era Macs, i mean 😁

I wrapped the screenshots in spoiler tags, because they're pretty big. I didn't want to shrink them because it'd defeat the purpose of giving a good comparison. If you click the spoiler section they should expand out.

I'm not sure what's current in terms of mac emulation. It was a long time ago when I last tried, and I remember it being pretty poor and awkward when I did, but maybe it's up to the task today?

DivByZero wrote on 2025-06-30, 09:20:

KainXVIII wrote on 2025-06-30, 08:35:

Thanks for the insight! Personally i wasn't really impressed by the ReelMagic version either (maybe due not really perfect emula […]
Show full quote

Thanks for the insight! Personally i wasn't really impressed by the ReelMagic version either (maybe due not really perfect emulation in dosbox?), most of backgrounds are now in video form which are heavily compressed and blurry compared to the still images of standard floppy/pc version.

DivByZero wrote on 2025-06-30, 05:16:

I think it'd be great to see an "Ultimate" version of RTZ one day, which combines the best elements from all the versions.

Maybe through SCUMMVM? If anybody could take this task, of course 😁
PS - is it me, or your comparison screenshots doesn't show up?!
PPS - what is the best Mac emulator now? For Return of Zork era Macs, i mean 😁

I wrapped the screenshots in spoiler tags, because they're pretty big. I didn't want to shrink them because it'd defeat the purpose of giving a good comparison. If you click the spoiler section they should expand out.

I'm not sure what's current in terms of mac emulation. It was a long time ago when I last tried, and I remember it being pretty poor and awkward when I did, but maybe it's up to the task today?

No, i know about spoiler tags attachments 🤣, there was something wrong with your (?) site access where you upload those images (maybe its blocked here). Everything is fine now, though (after tinkering with DPI bypass 👀)

Six years ago, when I first played the PC-MPEG version of "Return to Zork", I used to compare these three versions as well 😀

The problem is that such a comparison is incomplete without the Mac-MPEG version! There should be someone who is able to run it?

Uka wrote on 2025-06-30, 13:34:

Six years ago, when I first played the PC-MPEG version of "Return to Zork", I used to compare these three versions as well 😀

The attachment Безымянный 2.jpg is no longer available

The problem is that such a comparison is incomplete without the Mac-MPEG version! There should be someone who is able to run it?

The card is available to buy, I just don't want to pay what's being charged. One day if the MPEG card comes along for a good price I'll probably buy it and try it out. Could take awhile though, it's not a common piece of hardware.

By the way, your image comparison there with the Macintosh version looks like it has gamma correction set incorrectly. By default MacOS is setup with a gamma curve appropriate for Macintosh displays, which were dimmer it seems, so they boost brightness and it looks washed out in comparison to the PC edition. I noticed the same thing when I ran it on a PC monitor for the first time. If you remove the gamma adjustment at the OS level, it'll get the colours more accurate. It's an item under the control panel somewhere.

DivByZero wrote on 2025-06-30, 14:59:

By the way, your image comparison there with the Macintosh version looks like it has gamma correction set incorrectly. By default MacOS is setup with a gamma curve appropriate for Macintosh displays, which were dimmer it seems, so they boost brightness and it looks washed out in comparison to the PC edition. I noticed the same thing when I ran it on a PC monitor for the first time. If you remove the gamma adjustment at the OS level, it'll get the colours more accurate. It's an item under the control panel somewhere.

You are right! I am not exactly familiar with Macintosh computers.
Here is the correct comparison.

I have got "Mad Dog McCree II MPEG"!

And what do you know - it is actually a ReelMagic game! Despite what the cover says, as probably IBM did not want to show it is a game for cards by Sigma. But it does call the usual FMPDRV, not an OM1 driver.

Everything is fine on my old PC with the REALmagic card, but DOSBox Staging does not support it yet.

Does it mean that "Mad Dog McCree" (the first game) had a ReelMagic version as well? It is advertised on the back cover, but that could be a usual DOS version, not MPEG. Like this: https://www.ebay.com/itm/326077055900

I have updated the list: Re: Reelmagic/Realmagic MPEG games

Impressive, another one for the list! We'll have to test it on real hardware, maybe upload it to archive.org? Thanks!

ps : https://www.mobygames.com/game/193304/mad-dog … ost-gold/specs/

I think we'll have to update MobyGames, which is a ReelMagic game.

Good news, Return to Cyber City is in my hands. I've also shared a copy with @Uka. Once we get screenshots and such over to the person who imaged it, he will post on his site and share it more widely. 😀

synacktic wrote on 2026-01-18, 21:40:

Good news, Return to Cyber City is in my hands. I've also shared a copy with @Uka. Once we get screenshots and such over to the person who imaged it, he will post on his site and share it more widely. 😀

Impressive, from what I saw it's a beta version that has never been tested for RealMagic.

There are already two titles to try, hopefully soon

Indeed, that is a great find! And there is an interesting story behind it: the beta-version was found by Justin Escobedo in a thrift store in 2023. It made its way to The World of CD-i and then to Hidden Palace.
https://www.theworldofcdi.com/return-to-cyber … y-beta-version/

The truth is that it is a game for Windows 3.1, not DOS. So it won't work in DOSBox that does not support DMA yet.

I have recorded a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwaBuUzMdhE
I am bad at such QTE games though 😀 I could never finish "Escape from CyberCity" either. So it is just a "Tour" and a couple of attempts at the very beginning...
The list of RM games is updated as well!

I'm shocked and amazed that the burned CD hasn't decayed and become unreadable. Most of my burned discs from the 90s have all rotted.

Kahenraz wrote on 2026-01-27, 20:14:

I'm shocked and amazed that the burned CD hasn't decayed and become unreadable. Most of my burned discs from the 90s have all rotted.

I'd love to try and figure out the variables that degrade burnt cds and other media. I have burned discs. As far back as the 90s too and none of them have any problems. Same with my floppy media.

I've lived in California that whole time, I store discs in cases or binders. From the time when I lived in Florida, there were not burned cds, but out of all the pressed cds I owned I did have several suffer laser rot.

People here who have problems with cds were you in a more humid environment?

I haven't had any of my retail (pressed) CDs fall due to rot, but I have lost many of them over the years and to label damage that affected the reflective coating on the back.

As I understand it laser rot was caused by a defect in the manufacturing. I could be mistaken.

The rot I'm referring to is the burnable layer decaying; sometimes changing color it growing spots. I'm not certain, but I think it has to do with the temperature sensitive dyes that are used. It's all manufacturer-specific, so you can never truly predict the long term quality between brands, manufacturers, or even batches.

Without reading the whole thread I guess I can't play those MPEG games if my machine has no Realmagic but a Matrox-Mystique with rainbow runner MPEG module?

Btw, as a followup... It turns out it is not so much a sequel as a full copy of the Freedom Fighter arcade game. All the things that were removed to make Escape from Cybercity fit / work on the CD-i are restored. It's basically the best home port of the arcade ever "released".

That said, it does require Windows, so as was mentioned above it won't work in Dosbox. You need real (pun not intended) hardware for now and Windows 3.1 does not really, from what I can tell, have a way to remove the titlebar, so the menu and titlebar are always on the screen. I find that mildly annoying, but I'm sure something can be worked out (like adjusting the overscan at the bare min).