16 colors driver for Sierra Adventures

[1ST1]

Hello, there is a github project to proviode 16 color drivers for Sierra Adventures. It was made for the Hercules/CGA combo graohics cards like Plantronics ColorPlus and those which are used in several Commodore PCs (PC 20-III and others) which can support a 320x200 16 color modes.

• Codename: ICEMAN
• Conquests of Camelot
• Hoyle's Book of Games 1
• Hoyle's Book of Games 2
• Hoyle's Book of Games 3
• King's Quest I (SCI)
• King's Quest IV
• Leisure Suit Larry 1 (SCI)
• Leisure Suit Larry 3
• Mixed-Up Mother Goose
• Police Quest II
• Police Quest III
• Quest for Glory I
• Quest for Glory II
• Space Quest I (SCI)
• Space Quest III
• The Colonel's Bequest

See here: https://github.com/roybaer/foss_sci_drivers

There is the driver and well documented source code. Maybe someone has fun to add more special video modes, like the Olivetti M24 modes?

 

[Trixter]

There is the driver and well documented source code. Maybe someone has fun to add more special video modes, like the Olivetti M24 modes?

The M24 has only two "extra" modes: Regular 320x200x4 but with two video pages, and 640x400x2 (black and white). Multiple video pages aren't used in Sierra games IIRC, so that leaves 640x400x2. I can't see the advantage of doing that -- the text would be higher-res, but the pattern dithering would look worse than 320x200x4 (even on a monochrome monitor, as the M24 shows CGA colors as 16 shades of green on the mono monitor). So I'm afraid I don't think it offers anything over regular CGA in this application.

Now, the M24 DEB (Display Enhancement Board) *can* display 16 colors, also at a resolution of 640x400. So, such a driver would not only be in 16 colors but the text would be higher resolution like it is on Hercules. However, the total audience of such a driver would be literally myself: Last I checked, I have the only known working DEB in the world. So I'm not going to spend weeks writing a driver just for myself that I don't need

Does a Dec Rainbow or Tandy 2000 driver exist? Those can do 640x400 in 8 colors, and there are more of those (at least 5-10) working in the world.

 

[SomeGuy]

Interesting I've got an Amdek MAI enhanced CGA card that can do 320x200 16 but it isn't compatible with anything. I wonder how hard it would be to modify this driver for that? I don't know of any programming specs, other than the fact that Dr Halo II supports that card.

 

[dhau]

Fantastic job! Finally something fun to try with ColorPlus compatible boards.

and those which are used in several Commodore PCs (PC 20-III and others) which can support a 320x200 16 color modes.

Does this mean ATI Small Wonder cards? If so, I think they are also used in Amstrad/Schneider PC1512.

Extensions of files are *.s, but syntax is nasm. I thought nasm uses *.asm usually and gcc/binutils with their unusual AT&T style syntax use *.s.

 

[Trixter]

Interesting I've got an Amdek MAI enhanced CGA card that can do 320x200 16 but it isn't compatible with anything. I wonder how hard it would be to modify this driver for that? I don't know of any programming specs, other than the fact that Dr Halo II supports that card.

Without specs, someone will have to own the card, trace through Dr. Halo II running on it, and reverse-engineer the driver.

 

[eeguru]

Does a Dec Rainbow or Tandy 2000 driver exist? Those can do 640x400 in 8 colors, and there are more of those (at least 5-10) working in the world.

AFAIK there is no support in any Sierra titles for T2K. Also Tandy shipped the STB-400 card for the 1200 and even 1000 series that could also do 640x400x8 on a CM-1 color monitor (same monitor used with the T2K). They called it the Tandy Deluxe Color Graphics Adapter - but it still had STB badging.

 

[dhau]

Will it support Zelliard?

 

[Trixter]

Zeliard, Silpheed, Firehawk, and Sorcerian don't use the SCI engine, so no.

 

[Benedikt]

Where have I seen that driver and screenshot before? A Plantronics 16 color driver! Color me surprised!

(They're mine.)

I'd like to add a couple of things:

• It is an SCI0/SCI01 driver and therefore not usable with 256 color games, AGI games or anything else.
• The list of supported titles is not exhaustive, though. It merely lists what has been tested.
• There is a Sigma Designs Color 400 driver, as well, because the programming models are very similar.

Does this mean ATI Small Wonder cards? If so, I think they are also used in Amstrad/Schneider PC1512.

Yes, it does run on an ATI Small Wonder (see screenshot), but no, the PC1512's VDU is incompatible. There is an official driver (PC1512.DRV) for it, though.

Interesting I've got an Amdek MAI enhanced CGA card that can do 320x200 16 but it isn't compatible with anything. I wonder how hard it would be to modify this driver for that?

Well, if you find out how that card works and then tell me and it happens to use the same memory model as the ColorPlus or the Color 400, then I might be willing to adapt the driver for it.

 

[Benedikt]

Addendum:

I have successfully tested the driver with KQ5EGA, yesterday, which means that it works with the dedicated 16-color versions of SCI1 games, as well.
Those games had separate 256-color and 16-color versions that were commonly known as "VGA" and "EGA" versions despite their driver model.
This should push the number of supported titles to approximately 30.

Also, since it had not been linked, yet, this is a list of SCI games: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Sierra's_Creative_Interpreter_games