1 Mar
2016
1 Mar
'16
7:30 p.m.
Awhile back a "pre-alpha" version of the PC classic "DOOM" was
unearthed
(dated Feb 28, 1993), and it claims to support a "high color" VGA mode.
From the README.TXT:
"Use High-color DAC (160 x200, but great color!)
(Only newer VGA cards have this-if it looks OK, ya got it)
(This may--okay, will--REALLY screw up the playscreen's
graphics. Just look at the neat colors and don't worry.)"
I've tried it on a number of machines (from the 386 era to a modern PC)
and they all just end up showing garbage when this mode is enabled. I
cannot for the life of me find a reference to this mode existing
anywhere, but I assume it must have worked on *some* SVGA chipset of the
era since ID programmed in support for it. I'm guessing it was cut
because nothing else supported it (and because 160x200 must have looked
awful, even with lots of colors...)
Does this odd video mode ring any bells with anyone out there? Any idea
what hardware to look for that might support it? At this point I'm more
curious about the actual hardware than getting this pre-alpha to run
with it...
- Josh
2 Mar
2 Mar
12:05 a.m.
Have you tried on a Tseng ET4000, Video 7, or SpeedStar 24X? No idea if those will run it
though I have a 24X at my disposal so I can check in a bit. I believe they all have high
color or true color RAMDACs though.
On another note? a while back I read an article that said John Carmack (one of the Doom
developers) is wrote Quake on a 28-inch 16:9 CRT made by Silicon Graphics/Intergraph that
was capable of running at 2042x1152. See:
<http://www.geek.com/games/john-carmack-coded-quake-on-a-28-inch-169-1080p-monitor-in-1995-1422971/>
The workstation next to the pictured monitor appears to be also by SGI/Intergraph, and
looks similar to the Interserve 80, though the Pentium II was not out yet in 1995 so it is
likely an older model: <http://www.ceu-inc.com/intergr_1d.html>
I?ve often wondered about computational power might be in that unit in mid/early 1995. The
Pentium Pro had not been released yet, and I know Intergraph shipped multiprocessor
Pentium Pro workstations, but prior to that if it is an x86-based machine, I don?t think
it could have been faster than the 200 MHz P54CS.
Regards,
Ryan
On Mar 1, 2016, at 9:30 PM, Josh Dersch <derschjo
at gmail.com> wrote:
Awhile back a "pre-alpha" version of the PC classic "DOOM" was
unearthed (dated Feb 28, 1993), and it claims to support a "high color" VGA
mode. From the README.TXT:
"Use High-color DAC (160 x200, but great color!)
(Only newer VGA cards have this-if it looks OK, ya got it)
(This may--okay, will--REALLY screw up the playscreen's
graphics. Just look at the neat colors and don't worry.)"
I've tried it on a number of machines (from the 386 era to a modern PC) and they all
just end up showing garbage when this mode is enabled. I cannot for the life of me find a
reference to this mode existing anywhere, but I assume it must have worked on *some* SVGA
chipset of the era since ID programmed in support for it. I'm guessing it was cut
because nothing else supported it (and because 160x200 must have looked awful, even with
lots of colors...)
Does this odd video mode ring any bells with anyone out there? Any idea what hardware to
look for that might support it? At this point I'm more curious about the actual
hardware than getting this pre-alpha to run with it...
- Josh
30 Mar
30 Mar
1:49 p.m.
On Wed, 2 Mar 2016 02:05:56 -0600, Ryan Eisworth <ryan at diskfutility.com>
wrote:
[...]
On another note? a while back I read an article that
said John Carmack (one
of the Doom developers) is wrote Quake on a 28-inch 16:9 CRT made by
Silicon Graphics/Intergraph that was capable of running at 2042x1152. See:
<http://www.geek.com/games/john-carmack-coded-quake-on-a-28-inch-169-1080p-monitor-in-1995-1422971/>
The workstation next to the pictured monitor appears to be also by
SGI/Intergraph, and looks similar to the Interserve 80, though the Pentium
II was not out yet in 1995 so it is likely an older model:
<http://www.ceu-inc.com/intergr_1d.html>
I?ve often wondered about computational power might be in that unit in
mid/early 1995. The Pentium Pro had not been released yet, and I know
Intergraph shipped multiprocessor Pentium Pro workstations, but prior to
that if it is an x86-based machine, I don?t think it could have been faster
than the 200 MHz P54CS.
Intergraph shipped multi-processor Pentium workstations in 1994 and 1995
(the TD-4 at least); the fastest Pentium available in 1995 was the 133MHz
P54CS. The March 1995 issue of Byte has a review of the Intergraph TD-4, and
http://www.ceu-inc.com/intergr_6d.html mentions that the 28" monitor was
intended to be used with the TD or TDZ workstations.
Back then of course the fastest workstations used Alphas...
Regards,
Stephen
2 Mar
2 Mar
9 a.m.
On 03/02/16 04:30, Josh Dersch wrote:
Awhile back a "pre-alpha" version of the PC
classic "DOOM" was
unearthed (dated Feb 28, 1993), and it claims to support a "high
color" VGA mode. From the README.TXT:
"Use High-color DAC (160 x200, but great color!)
(Only newer VGA cards have this-if it looks OK, ya got it)
(This may--okay, will--REALLY screw up the playscreen's
graphics. Just look at the neat colors and don't worry.)"
Do you have a link to this version?
regards,
chris
9:01 a.m.
On 3/2/16 11:00 AM, Christian Groessler wrote:
On 03/02/16 04:30, Josh Dersch wrote:
> Awhile back a "pre-alpha" version of the PC classic "DOOM" was
> unearthed (dated Feb 28, 1993), and it claims to support a "high
> color" VGA mode. From the README.TXT:
>
> "Use High-color DAC (160 x200, but great color!)
> (Only newer VGA cards have this-if it looks OK, ya got it)
> (This may--okay, will--REALLY screw up the playscreen's
> graphics. Just look at the neat colors and don't worry.)"
How about asking Carmack on twitter?
9:37 p.m.
On 3/2/16 9:00 AM, Christian Groessler wrote:
On 03/02/16 04:30, Josh Dersch wrote:
It can be found here:
http://doomwiki.org/wiki/Doom_v0.3
Interestingly, the Wiki has a link to an article discussing the "Sierra
Hi-Color DAC" I didn't notice last time I visited. It's from the early
90s, and references the ET4000 specifically, I'll have to track one down
and see if it works. I used to have scads of these things but I've
parted with a lot of my old PC gear...
- Josh
Awhile back a "pre-alpha" version of
the PC classic "DOOM" was
unearthed (dated Feb 28, 1993), and it claims to support a "high
color" VGA mode. From the README.TXT:
"Use High-color DAC (160 x200, but great color!)
(Only newer VGA cards have this-if it looks OK, ya got it)
(This may--okay, will--REALLY screw up the playscreen's
graphics. Just look at the neat colors and don't worry.)"
Do you have a link to this version?
regards,
chris
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