@hugh said:
The VGA resolution of 640x480 was considered really high. Before VGA there was EGA and CGA.
Interestingly, Hercules also released a color version of their display graphics card, but it never caught on. Also at 720x348 resolution and capable of displaying 16 colors out of a palette of 64.
By today's superVGA high resolution, 640x480x16 resolution appear primitive. Imagine trying to work with win10 on such a display!
An idea for future versions: in addition to the 16 bit pictures and their enhanced versions, also offer the pictures of the C64 version. I first played Pawn and Guild on the C64 and I have a special nostalgic love for those pictures, despite their lower technical quality. They are extraordinary achievements of pixel art.
Several people have been asking for the C64 pictures to be added.
I have been wondering how this might work. IIRC, the c64 images were also used in the 16 bit versions as "cameos". Since loading the full pictures took some time and also displaced memory from the VM cache, the 16 bit versions of the games would use the C64 images a bit like icons, they would show in the corner of the screen as an indication of the image. Then if the player wanted to see the 16 bit version, it could be requested.
Obviously, we don't have the memory issue today, but perhaps the C64 versions cold be used a bit like that. However, i don't have a good idea of how this would work in the current UI.
Right now in the settings you can switch image pixel scaling on and off. I understand that this switches between the unprocessed 16 bit pictures and an enhanced version. Could you not make this a three-valued selection, unprocessed C64, unprocessed 16 bit and enhanced 16 bit pictures? You could even offer a 4th choice, the C64 images enhanced with the same scaling algorithm.
@Dsinclair said:
Right now in the settings you can switch image pixel scaling on and off. I understand that this switches between the unprocessed 16 bit pictures and an enhanced version. Could you not make this a three-valued selection, unprocessed C64, unprocessed 16 bit and enhanced 16 bit pictures? You could even offer a 4th choice, the C64 images enhanced with the same scaling algorithm.
Sounds good. Luckily for you modern devices have more RAM and storage than old devices, so the few Mb's of extra data won't make a huge impact.
Comments
Excellent! Thanks!
Hard to believe that back then we used low-resolution monitors, but thought it was the best!
The VGA resolution of 640x480 was considered really high. Before VGA there was EGA and CGA.
Interestingly, Hercules also released a color version of their display graphics card, but it never caught on. Also at 720x348 resolution and capable of displaying 16 colors out of a palette of 64.
By today's superVGA high resolution, 640x480x16 resolution appear primitive. Imagine trying to work with win10 on such a display!
An idea for future versions: in addition to the 16 bit pictures and their enhanced versions, also offer the pictures of the C64 version. I first played Pawn and Guild on the C64 and I have a special nostalgic love for those pictures, despite their lower technical quality. They are extraordinary achievements of pixel art.
A few of my favourites:
Hi,
Several people have been asking for the C64 pictures to be added.
I have been wondering how this might work. IIRC, the c64 images were also used in the 16 bit versions as "cameos". Since loading the full pictures took some time and also displaced memory from the VM cache, the 16 bit versions of the games would use the C64 images a bit like icons, they would show in the corner of the screen as an indication of the image. Then if the player wanted to see the 16 bit version, it could be requested.
Obviously, we don't have the memory issue today, but perhaps the C64 versions cold be used a bit like that. However, i don't have a good idea of how this would work in the current UI.
If you have any ideas, please do suggest them.
Thanks.
Right now in the settings you can switch image pixel scaling on and off. I understand that this switches between the unprocessed 16 bit pictures and an enhanced version. Could you not make this a three-valued selection, unprocessed C64, unprocessed 16 bit and enhanced 16 bit pictures? You could even offer a 4th choice, the C64 images enhanced with the same scaling algorithm.
Sounds good. Luckily for you modern devices have more RAM and storage than old devices, so the few Mb's of extra data won't make a huge impact.