Thanks to exofreeze for finding one more REALmagic game - 'Entity' by Loriciel!
Unfortunately I am not able to reply with private messages...
wrote:Thanks to exofreeze for finding one more REALmagic game - 'Entity' by Loriciel!
Unfortunately I am not able to reply with private messages...
Hang tight... I have acquired an extensive "Reelmagic" library and own several models of the elusive mpeg board. Out of town but once I get back I'll look and see what titles I can confirm.
In the mean time here is a write-up I did a while back on the Reelmagic card.
https://www.retrofused.com/single-post/2016/09/12/Untitled
I was 17 when it came out and saved every penny to get it back in 94. I still have it in my 486dx 66 today!
-Nick
wrote:wrote:Thanks to exofreeze for finding one more REALmagic game - 'Entity' by Loriciel!
Unfortunately I am not able to reply with private messages...Hang tight... I have acquired an extensive "Reelmagic" library and own several models of the elusive mpeg board. Out of town but once I get back I'll look and see what titles I can confirm.
Interesting... looking forward to seeing what you have. 😀
If you are squeamish, don't prod the beach rubble.
Thanks, Nick, that's great!
I can't wait to hear about your library 😀
It would also be very nice if you could comment on the bugs I experience in many ReelMagic games (Issues with ReelMagic EM7011 ISA card) by testing them with different models of the board.
Unfortunately, 'Entity' does not work for me in MPEG version. The game does recognize the card but freezes on loading the intro.
Some real(magic) gameplay capture uploaded on youtube also will be welcomed (if this possible, of course!)
If it is possible, I would also ask for manual scans 😀
You can easily buy a ReelMagic card today, but I have never seen a manual for it (not counting PCI cards that are irrelevant for MPEG games).
OK, I have studied all the manuals and catalogs - and composed a list of 61 title advertised for RealMagic.
Officially Sigma Designs talked about 'thousands' of titles - but those were mostly VideoCD and CD-i movies.
So, here is a short version of my table with those 61:
I. The games that certainly exist.
1. Dragon's Lair.
2. Space Ace.
3. Return to Zork.
4. The Horde.
5. The Psychotron.
6. Entity.
7. Conspiracy.
8. Flash Traffic.
9. Silent Steel.
10. Prince Interactive.
Numbers 1 to 6 are available as images on Archive.org or elsewhere; 7 and 8 are present in collections of some known persons.
Number 9 is an interesting case: it is MPEG-game (available on Archive.org), but it is NOT an exclusive ReelMagic-game. I.e., it can be run with any MPEG decoder, including software-based and those in emulators. Even the demo version of 'Silent Steel' that came bundled with some REALmagic cards does not call its FMP drivers, only generic MCI function!
Number 10 (it is officially called not with 'Prince' but with some unreadable symbol) is currently sold on eBay, but I won't buy it - because it is expensive and I am not a fan of pop-rock 😀
II. The games that probably or possibly exist (there are pictures and trailers), but it is not proven by disk images or testimonies of the owners.
11. 11th Hour.
12. Brain Dead at 13.
13. Cowboy Casino.
14. Crime Patrol.
15. Dragon's Lair II.
16. Dune.
17. Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers.
18. King's Quest VI.
19. Lord of the Rings.
20. Man Enough.
21. Police Quest 4.
22. Return to Cyber City.
23. Space Pirates.
24. Under a Killing Moon.
25. Video Cube - Space.
I am almost certain that numbers 13, 20, 25 were actually published - they are just not found yet.
III. Not games.
Well, the rest 36 are not actually games! They are interactive encyclopedias, multimedia titles for little children, collections of movie clips etc. I have actually bought several of them - and yes, just like 'Silent Steel' they are NOT ReelMagic exclusives and could be run on any PC with software MPEG decoder. So I won't even list them here 😀
wrote:I have found that 'The Horde' used to have a patch fixing the freezes.
Unfortunately, there are only two versions of that patch available - for the diskette version and for the (regular) CD version. The RM-version was available on Sigma Design's FTP site - does anybody still have it per any chance?
Do you know the filename?
wrote:Do you know the filename?
Unfortunately, not.
It is just mentioned in README for drivers:
"Crystal Dynamics has provided a fix for this in the form of a new HORDE.EXE. It is available on the Sigma Designs BBS for download."
I hope they have transferred it to their FTP as well...
Still, I suppose it could be called hord11rm.zip or something, as there are hord11dk.zip and hord11cd.zip patches available for (non-MPEG) floppy and CD versions.
According to info I found in Google Groups it looks like the patch fixed issues with PAS 16 soundcards:
Some info here:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!search/reel … lw/3UEdCkGahhcJ
You must have ReelMagic software release 1.10 or later to run the MPEG version of The Horde. If you have the ReelMagic Lite, […]
You must have ReelMagic software release 1.10 or later to run the
MPEG version of The Horde. If you have the ReelMagic Lite, make
sure your sound card is 100% SoundBlaster(TM) compatible. Some
sound cards, such as the Media Vision ProAudio Spectrum 16(TM) and
boards that use the Media Vision PAS 16(TM) chip set, will not work
with The Horde (no sound). Crystal Dynamics and Media Vision are
working to resolve this issue and a solution will be available
shortly[10].If you use disk caching programs, such as Microsoft SMARTDRV, you
MAY experience hanging problems. If you do, try turning off the
"write-caching" to the hard drive where The Horde has been in-
stalled. For example, if you use SMARTDRV and The Horde is in-
stalled on drive C:, use the command SMARTDRV C to turn off
"write-caching" on drive C:.
wrote:info I found in Google Groups it looks like the patch fixed issues with PAS 16 soundcards
That is just a quote from earlier versions of Readme, before the patch was actually made.
And those are not just ProAudio Spectrum 16 - that's an example of "Some sound cards", and there are more bugs fixed there:
1.1 * Supports Media Vision(tm) Pro Audio Spectrum 16(tm) sound cards […]
1.1
* Supports Media Vision(tm) Pro Audio Spectrum 16(tm) sound cards* Fixes problem where some Sony CD-ROM drives would not play the CD audio
(music) properly and the game would freeze* Fixes problem where some systems would freeze when the first build stage
would appear in the Shimto Plains* Fixes problem where scrolling of the End Credits was too fast
* Fixes problem where archers and knights would not disappear after having
died from being hit by large snowballs in the Frozen Wastes of Vesh
Will the Creative DXR cards work on these special MPEG games?
wrote:Will the Creative DXR cards work on these special MPEG games?
I don't think they would. Creative DXR are MPEG2 (DVD) decoder cards - there were some games made just for them (like 'Wing Commander IV - DVD').
But I highly doubt they support the proprietary ReelMagic API for MPEG (1).
I have just found that there was an MPEG decoder card called MPEGstar by California Graphics based on S3 chip that had ReelMagic-compatible drivers. Even PCI boards seem to have worked in DOS (in difference from the real REALmagic by Sigma Designs).
The supported DOS titles included not only 'Dragon's Lair', 'Space Ace', 'The Horde' and 'Return to Zork', but 'Flash Traffic', 'Man Enough' and 'Lords of the Rings' as well, so those games certainly exist in MPEG versions.
Does anybody have anything like that MPEGstar board?
The ReelMagic card worked in DOS too. I don't know if you thought they didn't or I misread that but I used to own one back in the day with my 386 =).
wrote:The ReelMagic card worked in DOS too. I don't know if you thought they didn't or I misread that but I used to own one back in the day with my 386 =).
Were you running a PCI ReelMagic card in your 386?
@Uka - do you mean something like this - shamelessly stole pics from an old eBay listing:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VideoLogic-GrafixS … =p2047675.l2557
wrote:The ReelMagic card worked in DOS too. I don't know if you thought they didn't or I misread that but I used to own one back in the day with my 386 =).
I was talking about PCI.
I have three ISA REALmagic cards - of course they work in DOS!
But my PCI cards do not - they do not have DOS drivers.
wrote:@Uka - do you mean something like this - shamelessly stole pics from an old eBay listing:
Yes, it could be it!
And it is not an old listing - somebody from the UK has bought it just yesterday.
It would be interesting to check if it could run the ReelMagic games. Of course, for that VideoLogic had to make DOS drivers, and to make them RM-compatible...
Ok.. the page I was looking at looked like the listing had expired and the seller didn't repost it.
wrote:wrote:The ReelMagic card worked in DOS too. I don't know if you thought they didn't or I misread that but I used to own one back in the day with my 386 =).
Were you running a PCI ReelMagic card in your 386?
Oh I would tell you that it was of course ISA but I don't think that you were actually asking.
