#svga

[swarmik]

The original SimCity 2000 had a strict requirement for an SVGA video card that supported 640x480 resolution with 256 colors. I used to believe that this was an inflexible requirement, but it turns out that the hardware requirements were eased in the Windows version. Not only did it allow the game to run in 16-color modes, but it was also bundled with a special VGA driver developed by Microsoft. This driver enabled modifications to the color palette, just like in the 256-color modes. I was completely unaware of the existence of such a feature until recently.

I wrote an article about this fascinating discovery on retro.swarm.cz.

[dimalink]

Sarah Brightman and world of spiders

Drawing at the music theme. Miss Sarah Brightman. From the front cover to the record Symphony. It was, I can say, my favorite album. For some time. It is such pop, rock, musicals, and, of course, a little gothic. So, it has lots of things. And here Sarah Brightman in red. It is a standalone theme. Lots of photos in the internet from tour symphony, where she is in a red dress.

And, this is my drawing about arts to the front cover from album Symphony. Sarah Brightman and world of spiders. It is a world of grey sky, and big constructions. In a view of like gothic cathedrals. They are rising to the sky. And all the world – it is big buildings. From stone. Or big forest. With big trees. And spiders. Different spiders. Not required them to be evil and like hunters. It is just a world of big stones, big buildings, grey sky, and big forest with big trees. Spiders are big and small. Kind and not so kind.

Album from Sarah Brightman, it is in someway gothic, but not evil. So, it is a such a fantasy.

So, I remember I had some point of interest into fantasy literature. A long time ago. And I still do not read world of spiders and chronicles of sink world. So, now, I make my own tale. And, also, I remember in a movie Mortal Kombat, it was a scene when Johnny Cage from the forest appears into world of scorpion. And it has lots of grey buildings from wood, dust. Web.

If to fantasy more. So, it can be a quest about such world. Gothic. A little grey. But not evil. Pixel quest from first part of 90s. Or arcade like afterburner, where Sarah Brightman runs at the big spider. And someway control other some spiders. Fight with other spiders. Spiders in this world – instead of horses and machines, cars. So, I can imagine like this.

[bigfootstraphouse247]

#Component #Coaxial #Coax #CoaxialCable #SVGA #VGA #DVI #HDMI #DisplayPort #Future #DogeDope https://www.instagram.com/p/Cn1egEOODQ_/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[svgaanimation]

svga animation

[commodorez]

Got a "new" laptop: Toshiba T4900CT!

Presumably this is the highest end machine they made in this color scheme before moving onto the gray plastic computers, like what @aperture-in-the-multiverse has. This machine is technically not a Satellite, but it's Satellite-adjacent.

Pentium I at 75MHz 40MB of RAM 8GB CF card for a hard drive VLB video chipset driving an SVGA 640x480, 64K color 10.4" active matrix TFT-LCD Analog Devices AD1848KP & Yamaha OPL3 audio Windows 95B (originally shipped with 3.11)

And a broken floppy drive!

Seriously, you have to disassemble the entire computer to get at the floppy drive itself, and I'm pretty sure the belt is busted. So far I've worked around it, but it's getting to be annoying. The good news is that the hard drive is accessible from a separate bay, unlike other contemporary Toshiba laptops that bury it just like the floppy drive.

Oh, and Toshiba was really intent on protecting their highly proprietary Toshiba Card Manager 3.0 software (which I'm sure this post will poison that search term for all others, it always happens when I talk about technical things here -- sorry). I'm betting that they only had it installed on machines from the factory, but if you needed to reinstall it, things got complicated. Turns out you had to get a passphrase from some convoluted bullshit on their website back in the mid 90s, and this only applied to a select handful of machines that were even compatible with it in the first place. I don't imagine I will be able to use that for PCMCIA hotswap management, which sucks.

Another fun bit is that despite being released in 1995, this machine is clearly intended to run Windows 3.1. None of the drivers I was able to locate for the hardware are the expected VXD or INF files.

For the moment, I've got a Backpack external floppy drive connected via the parallel port, but all other file transfers involve me removing the CF card from the hard drive bay. It's faster that way. Hopefully I can get this thing configured well enough to use it.

[maverickuk]

SimCity 2000 from Maxis way back in 1993, when that 2000 moniker sounded very futuristic!

To be fair it did feel like a massive leap forward over the original, introducing high resolution SVGA graphics, deformable terrain, water systems management and quite a few more power generation options.

Like many of my childhood gaming memories, I first encountered this round a friends house who had a Dad that owned a PC and enjoyed playing games. Since then I've bought my own copy from GOG.com and other sources, but I'd never owned a physical copy.

I happened to stumble across a few versions available on eBay in either floppy disk or CD versions which both seem reasonably priced. However I wasn't buying a copy for me, but my eldest son who enjoys playing city builder games.

He's going to be 14 years old this year, so I thought this would be a nice memento for him to remember the times we've played SimCity 2000 together and enjoyed listening to the music through my Roland SC-55.

The physical box I bought was in very good condition. However it did have some sticker residue left on the box and generally felt a little grubby. So I reached for my trusty bottle of isopropanol alcohol and some paper towel to give the whole box a gentle rub down,

Yuck, that's years worth of handling and human grime finding a new home on my paper towel.

Much better, looks almost as good as new. Ready to be wrapped up as a birthday present.

[snarp]

I wrote this "How To Pick Out A Cheap Laptop In Early 2023" tutorial for my parents' law office; there's some task-specific stuff in there, but it may be useful for other people.

DON'T SPEND MORE THAN $500 - You can generally meet all of the guidelines below for under $400.

YOU NEED WINDOWS 10, NOT WINDOWS 11 - Avoid buying Windows 11 PCs or upgrading existing PCs to Windows 11. If a PC uses Windows 11, turn it off whenever it is not in use. As of right now (early 2023), Windows 11 is still only really intended for use in places with 100%-consistent high-speed internet access. The office's internet connection (like most places in Appalachia) can't handle this, so Windows 11 computers are likely to slow the whole network to a crawl. (There are a few things you can do to make this less of a problem, but they're not practical for the office (time-consuming, have to be re-done regularly, will stress everyone out).)

YOU NEED AN ETHERNET PORT - Since spotty wifi is a problem in a lot of places, buying a laptop with no ethernet port is a bad idea. (Also, laptops WITHOUT ethernet adapters aren't generally designed for heavy daily use - they can break easily.)

YOU NEED BOTH AN HDMI PORT AND AN SVGA PORT - The vast majority of TVs/projectors use either HDMI or SVGA ports; some recent laptops are missing one or both. This makes it very hard to, for example, give PowerPoint presentations in old courthouses.

YOU NEED A (SMALL) SSD DRIVE - Computers with SSDs (solid-state drives) can turn on and open files MUCH faster than those with HDDs (hard disc drives). SSDs have less storage space than HDDs, but that doesn't matter for the office's purposes - 256 GB is more than enough.

YOU NEED AT LEAST 8GB OF RAM - Preferably 16GB.

YOU DON'T WANT A "BUILT-IN BATTERY" - This just means "battery that can't be replaced." Laptops like this are designed to be disposable, so they always have a lot of other problems.

YOU NEED AT LEAST TWO USB-3 PORTS - Some recent laptops only have USB-C ports (the tiny ones), not the normal, rectangular ones (USB-3 and -2). USB-C-only laptops are intended as fashion accessories - they're not meant to be used for daily work, and (as above) always have a lot of other problems.

YOU WANT AN INTEL CORE i5-EQUIVALENT-OR-BETTER PROCESSOR - This isn't as big a deal as the RAM or SSD, but i3 processors slow down a lot of stuff.

YOU PROBABLY NEED A CD DRIVE - Many recent laptops don't have CD drives, but there are going to be times when you need them. (If necessary, you can buy a USB CD drive.)

BLUETOOTH ISN'T ACTUALLY VERY IMPORTANT - You can get a USB plugin if you need it, but you probably won't.

YOU DO NOT WANT A MACBOOK OR ANY OTHER APPLE PRODUCT - For too many reasons to list.

YOU DO NOT WANT A CHROMEBOOK - Even worse than MacBooks.

LINUX LAPTOPS ARE USUALLY FINE BUT YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO USE THEM - You'll end up needing to install Windows 10.

[polyesterpeacock-arch]

Y'know! It occurs to me that a couple (a lot?) of you might not be familiar with the actual Larry games beyond just kinda generally knowing of/about the character, and maybe haven't seen any game footage, so I wanted to post a couple clips!! I love writing dialogue and it helps immensely to have a clear idea of what your character sounds like, and it helps to see them in action as well!

Larry was voiced by the incomparable Jan Rabson in every voiced appearance of him from the SVGA version of 6 all the way up to the recent reboot game and its sequel by CrazyBunch! (This doesn't include Box Office Bust, but we Do Not Talk About That Game, I refuse to acknowledge its presence).

Jan has quite a long list of roles, including a lot of older anime dubs!! He was Tetsuo Shima in the Streamline Pictures dub of Akira

He sadly passed away last year, October 14th, 2022, at 68. It really shook me up (Still does), but it gave me a chance to revisit my love for his work, and Larry, and eventually reboot this blog!

Okay, clippy time! (Obvious blanket content warning for... its Leisure Suit Larry)

Ok that's it bye bye i love you :O)

[realnews20]

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[dimalinkrus]

Май-Лето Гоночные Состязания МЛГС

Пиксель арт на сегодня по мотивам видеоигры Network Q Rally для игровой приставки Super Nintendo. Это 16 битная гоночка. Я сам играл в эту игру на системе PC MS DOS. На своем 486Dx2 компьютере, SVGA графика.

Там игрушка похоже смотрится. Но, там все-таки она чуть другая, что ли. Но, помню с братом играли там. Нам обоим очень понравилась эта гоночка. Красивая трёхмерная графика. Разный вид. Из машины, трёхмерный вид. И такие трассы, по обычным дорогам. Как бы с братом думали. Лес, поле. Не экзотика, с супер видами. А обычные такие виды. Река. Мост. Очень этим понравилась. И трассы там такие помню зеленые все были. Много леса и травы. Такое впечатление от игрушки. Очень неплохая гонка. Думаю, что версия для Супер Нинтендо тоже отличная! 16 битный вариант!

А это мой рисунок на подобную тему. Гонки начинаются в мае и пройдут все лето. Это цикл гоночных состязаний. Трассы составлены специально для заездов. Но проходят по обычным дорогам. Через лес. Поле. Мост. Реку. Разве что не через города. А больше по открытой териитории. Как лес, или дорога через лес. Именно много травы всегда вокруг такой дороги. И может быть мост, через реку.  Конечно, ты можешь остановиться и полюбоваться видами. Сделать пару фотографий. Своей машины. Себя самого. И поехать дальше. Гонки идут по принципу ралли. Все стартуют по очереди. Через некоторые паузы между друг другом.  Есть контрольные точки.

И так идет серия заездов. В хорошо знакомых лесах и полях. Езда идет на среднего уровня автомобилях. Не подготовленных к гонкам. А самых обычных, которые бывают на дрогах города. Так, что любой желающий может принять участие в таком заезде.

Между заездами предполагается отдых. И некоторое время, чтобы восстановить силы. А потом – новый заезд. Это свой класс гоночных состязаний. Подходят автомобили и из 80ых и из 90ых и так далее. Но надо быть готовым к разному дорожному покрытию. В том числе и плохо асфальтированной дороге, и даже песочной дороге, земляной дороге. Но асфальт, конечно, будет и его тоже будет много.

Так, что гонка будет напряженной. И спортивная форма крайне желательна. Перчатки водителя. Шлем. Чтобы избежать трудностей. И гонка, все-таки, местами будет комфортной и расслабленной. А местами и идёт и напряженной с поворотами. И попыткой кого-нибудь догнать и обогнать. А местами будут участки прямой дороги или редкие повороты. Но, дистанция побольше, зато. Такой смешанный тип гонок получается.

Дима Линк делает ретро видеоигры, приложения, немного музыку, пишет истории, и еще некоторое ретро.

ВЕБСАЙТ: http://www.dimalink.tv-games.ru/home_rus.html ИТЧИО: https://dimalink.itch.io/ ГЕЙМДЖОЛТ: https://gamejolt.com/@DimaLink/games

БЛОГЕР: https://dimalinkrus.blogspot.com/

[swarmik]

“SuperCGA” and ATI Graphics Solution and GEM Desktop

8bit guy published a video about SuperCGA cards, which reminded me that this was a topic a recently dug into. I’ve never really worked with CGA/EGA monitors. When we had a computer at home for the first time in 1989, it was an IBM PS/2 Model 20 borrowed from dad’s office. That computer already had an on-board graphics chip that worked with VGA monitors. One year later, my family decided to buy our own computer. It was a 286 clone with an SVGA graphics card and an SVGA monitor able to show 1024×768 (interlaced though).

During the Bytefest (a vintage computer show in Czech Republic), one of the computers I brought there was an early Vienna 286. A friend of mine promised that he would have brought an EGA monitor, so I could try a card I bought just for this purpose – a Trident 8800CS (512KB). This Trident has both VGA and RGBI/TTL (CGA/EGA) outputs and can be switched to act like different IBM graphics chips. Sadly, the Trident card was ignoring the switches and always used VGA timing. It sent the signal always to both outputs but my EGA monitor was not able to sync 640×480 with 31kHz h-sync (as expected). We brought an oscilloscope, even made some modifications to the card, but nothing helped. When I asked in some groups, the only answer I got was that somebody tried the same thing on his Trident 8800CS with the same result.

Anyway, I also had the original ATI Graphics Solution card that was sold with the computer somewhere in 1987, so at least I had something else to play with. This is a very neat card. It has 64KB of video RAM and supports both CGA and Hercules modes. As I shown in the past, it even supports CGA modes on Hercules/MDA monitors using clever timing tricks. The card was used in the Hercules mode for the whole its life as the machine served in an electrical engineering lab for designing electric circuits. This was finally the time for me to switch it into the native CGA mode.

Seeing the CGA modes was not so interesting for me. However, the card supports also non-standard modes that can utilize the whole memory which is four times of what the IBM CGA has. The obvious choice was something that supports Plantronics ColorPlus which ATI supported like many other CGA-clone vendors. Yes, I tried Planet-X3 and Space Quest 3 in 320×200 with 16 colors. However, Planet-X3 is a modern game, and the Space Quest 3 uses a modern video driver to support this card (the original game did not have it). I was more interested in productivity apps. After seeing that GEM Desktop (sort of a Windows competitor) provides support for ColorPlus, I installed the whole bundle.

At the beginning, everything looked just like with CGA – black & white only. This was because the desktop environment does not use more colors there. On the other side, if I moved the mouse fast enough, it was visible that sometimes the cursor was ping instead of black for a moment. Thus, I knew that we were actually in the 4-color mode. After installing office programs, I was finally able to see all four colors in 640×200. Quickly after that I realized that among desktop accessories, there is a calculator that uses magenta as a background color. Anyway, I am happy that I also tried these office/productivity apps. From my point of view, they are gimmick. They look like they support everything but when you try to do something, you get the feeling that they were designed more to present the functionality of the desktop environment.

The ColorPlus had just 32KB of video RAM and my ATI Graphics Solution has 64KB, so it should be able to drive 640×200 in full 16 colors. I’ve checked the user guide for the card and indeed this mode was mentioned there. ATI manual says that there is support for it in AutoCAD, PC Paintbrush+, Lotus 1-2-3, Symphony and Framework II. I installed the PC Paintbrush+ as a bitmap editor can benefit the most from such a mode. The support for this card was built in the software so no extra drivers were needed. After selecting the mode, I was able to get the best out of a CGA 200-line monitor. What I really like, the bundled ATI driver disk contains a small example program to enable this mode (including its source code), so programmers could modify their own programs to get more than what a standard CGA offered.

Original article with hi-res photos: here

[dimalink]

State 89

Three-dimensional scene based on videogame Interstate 76. It is excellent game about car theme. With shooting. In genre of combat racing. Open space. Story style of action movie 70s-80s. Excellent 3d graphics, which easy to start with 486 Dx2 computer. Later it was a versions 3DFX of this game. Ride a car about free space. And shoot.

And this is my three-dimensional scene based on this game. Style of retro action movie. I remember a square based graphics of Interstate 76.  It is such a firm style. I have done it much more simple way. But something like the way – characters of this game. It was a Groove Champion, character in game. I dedicate it to Groove Champion. As I can say. And car Lincoln or Jefferson. As I remember, it is Jefferson. I like a lot this car. So, you can select a game mode – ride a desert. At any car, if I am right.

Let’s move to 1989. Very end of 80s. Style of retro action movie. Retro graphics. Retro characters.

Somewhere in desert. It is going a stylish car. Yacht on wheels. Desert. It is hot in day. And cold at night. Though all the desert it is going one single car.

Racer Disco is going to a secret point. Point of meeting. Disco with nickname at the road track – master. Disco Master, also, a policeman, which investigation a strange car modifications. Strange car transporting. Someone here is moving cars, take a race, makes wrong modifications. Dark story.

Early at the morning. Sun is only starting. It is yet cold. He takes his pistol. And he has reached the house. Amongst the desert. Somewhere, computer master is waiting for him. He will show him with newest computer Ibm pc xt new variations of the car. And help to modify car for a race. With building into it a computer. But it is good to be careful. Opponents can to know about this. It is very dangerous!

In a little house. Computer master is waiting for a long time. Hesitation. And paranoid. It is better to finish it faster. Nothing to do. Program is already written. Loaded to a diskette. It is good to make a debug and install into Disco`s car. And that’s all. Disco can win the race. And to get to know what is wrong with other`s modifications. It is good to press Enter and go into State 89. Secret car modification. Computer and machine -  no one see this before.

It helps to know what is going on. And catch intruders.

Dima Link is making retro videogames, apps, a little of music, write stories, and some retro more.

WEBSITE: http://www.dimalink.tv-games.ru/home_eng.html ITCHIO: https://dimalink.itch.io/ GAMEJOLT: https://gamejolt.com/@DimaLink/games

BLOGGER: https://dimalinkeng.blogspot.com/

[nzdepot]

$21.00 $ Dynamix C-VABK-MM2 2M VGA Male/Male Cable with 3.5mm Male/Male Audio Lead BLACK Colour Coaxial Shielded https://nzdepot.co.nz/product/dynamix-c-vabk-mm2-2m-vga-male-male-cable-with-3-5mm-male-male-audio-lead-black-colour-coaxial-shielded-2/?feed_id=145324&_unique_id=65fbf757229af Features: DYNAMIX Audio Lead HD DB15 SVGA/XVGA coaxial shielded male/ male cable with 3.5mm audio male/male cable (incorporates ferrite core) VESA DDC compliant (all 15 pins connected) Specifications: Manufacturer Part No: C-VABK-MM2 Brand: Dynamix Product Type: – UPC – Product Family: – Shipping Weight: 0.3767 kg PB Part No: CABDNX1543 Product Model: C-VABK-MM2 Warranty: 60 months * * Warranty period is as stated above unless the manufacturer has chosen to specify a longer period. All warranties are return to base unless otherwise specified. Why is there a reasonable price displayed? Discover the reason behind our incredibly reasonable prices! At our […] #

[technationgr]

Καλώδιο MediaRange SVGA monitor connection cable, VGA/VGA, 1.8m., Black (MRCS105)

Καλώδιο MediaRange SVGA monitor connection cable, VGA/VGA, 1.8m., Black (MRCS105)

[maverickuk]

Lucasarts Games created a series of timeless classics that are still as enjoyable to play today as they were at launch.

I can easily recall how impressive the playful cartoony Chuck Jones style visuals of Day of the Tentacle looked on my Dad's Compaq Presario 486 SVGA monitor when I first fired it up.

Even today I can't help but watch the damn impressive intro sequence in full if I let myself watch more than 10 seconds of it.

For some reason in my mind I find it hard to imagine that any of those SCUMM classics could ever be played away from the PC. They just seem like artifacts tied to the 90's age of beige computing.

I happened to be relaxing at a cafe recently and found my old DSi was in my bag. It wasn't long before I discovered that I'd previously installed ScummVM with Day of the Tentacle on it and was immediately sucked into the experience and smiling to myself at the great dialogue and humour of it.

The resistive screen and stylus interface works perfectly for the originally designed mouse input. The only real issue is that the bottom of the screen is slightly cut off, making it tricker to select from the bottom row of commands.

Thank you my old DSi for breathing life into even older SCUMM games!

[techtimechronicles24]

🇺🇲 Explore the intriguing story of the Motorola StarMax, a line of licensed Macintosh clones from the mid-1990s. Produced by Motorola Information Systems Group between 1996 and 1997, the StarMax series sought to offer users an interesting alternative to traditional Macintosh computers.

💻 The StarMax computers were built upon versions of Apple's Tanzania motherboard, designed to incorporate both standard IBM PC compatible components and Apple-proprietary components used in the Power Macintosh family. This innovative approach allowed for increased flexibility and compatibility in hardware configurations.

💾 Setting themselves apart from Apple's offerings, StarMax computers featured SVGA video ports and PS/2 mouse and keyboard ports, alongside Apple's ADB ports. Despite the motherboard's capability for manual-eject floppy drives, Motorola opted for software-eject drives, a decision that would shape the user experience of these machines.

💔 Unfortunately, the StarMax line met an untimely end in September 1997 when Apple terminated the Macintosh clone license program. This decision strained relations between Motorola and Apple, ultimately leading to Motorola's expulsion from the AIM alliance—a significant setback for the company.