Remembre when EGA was the rage pf gaming
- Thread starter TEH BABA
- Start date
TA RA BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM GA
I remember when most games coming out were still CGA. Two four-color palettes to choose from! Now that's how gaming should be!
<Yorkshire accent>
Lucky! When I were a lad...
</Yorkshire accent>
I started with Pong, which had one colour- two if you count the black background...
Lucky! When I were a lad...
</Yorkshire accent>
I started with Pong, which had one colour- two if you count the black background...
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Hooray for monochrome!
I still remember when VESA or whatever it was called was a big deal.
I remember when I told a friend of mine that you could change the settings of Stunts (4D Sports Driving) to MCGA. He had played that game for an entire year with 4 colors.
I remember when I told a friend of mine that you could change the settings of Stunts (4D Sports Driving) to MCGA. He had played that game for an entire year with 4 colors.
It was kind of an interesting tradeoff on same games, where you had to choose between MCGA and VGA. MCGA gave you 256 colors but at 320x200 resolution. VGA, you got 640x480, but only 16 colors. Decisions, decisions.
Stunts was awesome, though!
I remember when adlib sound cards were new technology and your monitor sat on top of your PC.
Ah, the *original* PS2, how I'm nostalgic for them...
When I was 12, I got my own computer: a 386SX with 4MB of RAM running at 40MHz. It had a multimedia kit installed that included a 2x CD-ROM drive with a SCSI interface, and a Pro Audio Spectrum sound card (SB-compatible knockoff.) It was amazing to play games with sound and music in 256 colors!!
I remember thinking it was awesome that I could run Windows 3.1 in 386 Enhanced mode. The video card was good enough that I could run at 800x600 and 32K colors. It was glorious.
I think I still have that computer somewhere.
When I was 12, I got my own computer: a 386SX with 4MB of RAM running at 40MHz. It had a multimedia kit installed that included a 2x CD-ROM drive with a SCSI interface, and a Pro Audio Spectrum sound card (SB-compatible knockoff.) It was amazing to play games with sound and music in 256 colors!!
I remember thinking it was awesome that I could run Windows 3.1 in 386 Enhanced mode. The video card was good enough that I could run at 800x600 and 32K colors. It was glorious.
I think I still have that computer somewhere.
I remember getting my 1541 floppy drive for my Commodore64 and discovering my new game, The Hunt For Red October, had graphics! It was so cool-there were cut scenes of actual ships in water and one where a (crude) F15 lifted off from a carrier. They were only cut scenes but, hey, it was a new one on me!
Ahh nostalgia. The first computer we had, I don't even remember what it was... something we bought from Sears. And then my parents got a 'monitor' from RadioShack I think. In reality it was just a TV with RCA style inputs, video and mono audio. The video from the PC (IBM XT of some sort maybe? I remember it had 512k RAM).... anyway the video I think came from 2 RCA style connectors... I guess they separated chrominance and luminance or something since I remember I could get clear black and white out of one, and really blurry color out of the other. I was like 8 so forgive me for not realizing I probably didn't have the right cable or something
From those days I think my favorite game was Airborne Ranger from Microprose. Looking at the screenshots maybe I should dig up the Amiga version on an emulator, looks much better than the DOS version I played. But it was a really cool game, it had lots of elements to the gameplay, it wasn't just a stupid shooter. You had to be stealthy, had to plan where to go, figure out your supply loadout, etc...
Then in '93 I think, I got my monstrous 486 DX2 66MHz... no sound card or CD-ROM though... I'd get those in later years. Almost got a 25MHz 486 SX of some sort with sound and CD-ROM, but there was a problem getting the financing plan for my parents or something. I don't recall, it was supposed to be a birthday present and I ended up getting the DX2 a couple of months later!
Along with it I got three games. Alone in the Dark, Links 386 Pro, and X-Wing. I think my many months of pouring over computer game magazines were well placed because those were three of the best games of all time! I don't think I could effectively play X-Wing until I got a joystick though... and it was like a year before I got Links 386 Pro to run, because the idiot Packard Bell people didn't include the VESA drivers like the documentation said. In those days getting 'online' was no small task, and of course you couldn't just google VESA drivers for Packard Bell. I think in the end I had to connect to some Packard Bell support BBS and dig through the files till I found the right one. Kind of a stressful search since it required long distance telephone charges that my parents would be none to pleased about.
Since those were VGA and beyond type games... I kind of skipped EGA. But I did get various Lucasarts, King's Quest, and Space Quest collections, so I got to experience some good stuff in 16 colors. Space Quest III was probably the best of my brief time with EGA. Oh, and that freeware EGATrek game... it seemed like there were a lot of them that were essentially the same thing, but EGATrek was my favorite. Making stars go nova out of desperation as the Klingons pounded me into oblivion.....
From those days I think my favorite game was Airborne Ranger from Microprose. Looking at the screenshots maybe I should dig up the Amiga version on an emulator, looks much better than the DOS version I played. But it was a really cool game, it had lots of elements to the gameplay, it wasn't just a stupid shooter. You had to be stealthy, had to plan where to go, figure out your supply loadout, etc...
Then in '93 I think, I got my monstrous 486 DX2 66MHz... no sound card or CD-ROM though... I'd get those in later years. Almost got a 25MHz 486 SX of some sort with sound and CD-ROM, but there was a problem getting the financing plan for my parents or something. I don't recall, it was supposed to be a birthday present and I ended up getting the DX2 a couple of months later!
Along with it I got three games. Alone in the Dark, Links 386 Pro, and X-Wing. I think my many months of pouring over computer game magazines were well placed because those were three of the best games of all time! I don't think I could effectively play X-Wing until I got a joystick though... and it was like a year before I got Links 386 Pro to run, because the idiot Packard Bell people didn't include the VESA drivers like the documentation said. In those days getting 'online' was no small task, and of course you couldn't just google VESA drivers for Packard Bell. I think in the end I had to connect to some Packard Bell support BBS and dig through the files till I found the right one. Kind of a stressful search since it required long distance telephone charges that my parents would be none to pleased about.
Since those were VGA and beyond type games... I kind of skipped EGA. But I did get various Lucasarts, King's Quest, and Space Quest collections, so I got to experience some good stuff in 16 colors. Space Quest III was probably the best of my brief time with EGA. Oh, and that freeware EGATrek game... it seemed like there were a lot of them that were essentially the same thing, but EGATrek was my favorite. Making stars go nova out of desperation as the Klingons pounded me into oblivion.....
The first computer I ever actually used was a Trash-80 my dad had hooked up to a black-and-white TV. I remember there was some space simulator game you could play on it. I don't recall it too well, I was about 2 or 3 at the time.
Next computer we got was an Amstrad with an 80286 clone, 12MHz, 640KB of RAM. I watched my father tweak the CONFIG.SYS file with edlin and I got cocky and tried to squeeze more RAM out of it. Screwed it up enough he had to reload the system and I was warned never to touch edlin again. I took the GWBASIC manual that came with the computer and started writing all kinds of silly programs.
It was a great day when I got my 386, though. I got straight A's all year to earn it. I think that was the only time I got straight A's, too, at least until college.
Next computer we got was an Amstrad with an 80286 clone, 12MHz, 640KB of RAM. I watched my father tweak the CONFIG.SYS file with edlin and I got cocky and tried to squeeze more RAM out of it. Screwed it up enough he had to reload the system and I was warned never to touch edlin again.
I took the GWBASIC manual that came with the computer and started writing all kinds of silly programs.It was a great day when I got my 386, though. I got straight A's all year to earn it. I think that was the only time I got straight A's, too, at least until college.
^^Ah the old 386s, i had a ..wait for it....massive power house in the size of a 25MHZ 386SX, with i might add, a maths coprocessor....yeah that's right......that's the good stuff right their. 
...cost me a extra £50 to have that little addon sit there and do nothing.
One thing i wont ever forget is the satisfying thud the massive DOS manual made as it hit the wall after 5 days of trying to get a game to work that need something ludicrous like 639k to run, and trying to fit everything into himem.
Yeah thats right Mr Gates, who would need more than 640k.
...cost me a extra £50 to have that little addon sit there and do nothing.One thing i wont ever forget is the satisfying thud the massive DOS manual made as it hit the wall after 5 days of trying to get a game to work that need something ludicrous like 639k to run, and trying to fit everything into himem.
Yeah thats right Mr Gates, who would need more than 640k.
Meh. If you need more than 640k than you are coding wrong 
My first computer was a Commodore Vic 20 back in the early 80's. A glorious 5k of Ram of which 3 was usable after the OS loaded. My first "Internet" connection was from a Sega Dreamcast. That's when I first stumbled upon TrekBBS but I was just a lurker. My first "real" computer was a Vintage 1995 Pentium 75 with 8 megs of Ram, 540 Meg HD and a 33k modem that I inherited from my brother when he upgraded to a AMD 450 K2 in 2000. I pimped that sucker out. By the time I upgraded to a newer computer (AMD 450 K2...guess where I got that from.) I had that old P75 overclocked to 100mhz, 96 Megs of Ram, 40GB Hard Drive and a cable modem. I could actually surf the web and play mp3's at the same time by setting Winamp to load the entire mp3 file into Ram. Otherwise it would stutter when I scrolled up or down on a page. Ah...Good times.
My first computer was a Commodore Vic 20 back in the early 80's. A glorious 5k of Ram of which 3 was usable after the OS loaded. My first "Internet" connection was from a Sega Dreamcast. That's when I first stumbled upon TrekBBS but I was just a lurker. My first "real" computer was a Vintage 1995 Pentium 75 with 8 megs of Ram, 540 Meg HD and a 33k modem that I inherited from my brother when he upgraded to a AMD 450 K2 in 2000. I pimped that sucker out. By the time I upgraded to a newer computer (AMD 450 K2...guess where I got that from.) I had that old P75 overclocked to 100mhz, 96 Megs of Ram, 40GB Hard Drive and a cable modem. I could actually surf the web and play mp3's at the same time by setting Winamp to load the entire mp3 file into Ram. Otherwise it would stutter when I scrolled up or down on a page. Ah...Good times.
^^Ah the old 386s, i had a ..wait for it....massive power house in the size of a 25MHZ 386SX, with i might add, a maths coprocessor....yeah that's right......that's the good stuff right their.
One thing i wont ever forget is the satisfying thud the massive DOS manual made as it hit the wall after 5 days of trying to get a game to work that need something ludicrous like 639k to run, and trying to fit everything into himem.
Yeah thats right Mr Gates, who would need more than 640k.
Isn't it a 386DX if you have a coprocessor?
And, as I recall, all the Intel 386 (or was it just 486?) chips actually came with the coprocessor built-in, but it would be deactivated and sold as an SX rather than DX. It was usually deactivated because it failed QA, but I think there were some tricks to get it turned on if you really wanted to save yourself the cost of buying one.
The coprocessor came in a box and i had to open the PC up and plug it in, just like adding a new CPU.....Mr Dixons must have been laughing his ass off when he saw his sales staff had just sold one to some daft gullible new PC buyer such as myself.
