Classic DOS Pinball Games, Mode X and What they can Teach Us about Aspect Ratios

During the early to mid 1990s, several highly regarded pinball games were released for PC compatible computers running DOS.  Three prominent series of Pinball games were released during the years 1992-1995.  The first, developed by Digital Illusions, includes Pinball Dreams (1992), Pinball Fantasies (1992) and Pinball Illusions (1995).  All these were developed on the Commodore Amiga and ported to the PC by Frontline Designs.  The second series was developed by Epic Megagames, and consists of Epic Pinball (1993), Silverball (1993) and Extreme Pinball (1995).  A third series was developed by Spidersoft, and includes Pinball Dreams II (1994), Pinball Mania (1995) and Pinball World (1995).  There are also a few other notable pinball games that are not distinguished by coming from a single developer or publisher around this time.  These include Psycho Pinball (1995) and Absolute Pinball, which share the same style of gameplay as the other titles.

These games always supported non-standard VGA modes, sample-based music and were often heavily influenced by the demo-scene and European programmers who were still focused on the Commodore Amiga.  They all used an in-game display that used the full width of the screen and most of its height, with a portion of the height reserved for a display.  The tables were much taller than one screen could display.  They did not use a pseudo 3-D perspective, but all supported a high frame rate for fast, exciting action.  Most supported the Gravis Ultrasound as the ideal sound output device.

There has been debate over the proper aspect ratio for DOS games using the standard 320x200 resolution.  That resolution, as I outlined in a previous post, was a BIOS standard resolution for no less than the five (out of seven) major DOS game graphics display adapters, CGA, TGA, EGA, MCGA and VGA.  Using square pixels, the aspect ratio is 1.6:1, and this gives a letterbox effect on standard 4:3 ratio CRT monitors at the time.  If you stretch the monitor vertically, you can fill the screen but the pixels become 1.2 times as tall as they are wide.

VGA BIOS Display Mode 13h, which most VGA DOS games used, used the 320x200 resolution with an ability to display 256 colors from a palette of 262,144 colors.  The pixel information for the graphics is stored sequentially, with one pixel = one byte.  However, in addition to the aspect ratio issue, Mode 13h had its limitations, namely the fact that it could only support one full page of graphics in RAM.

A VGA card has 256KB of RAM, so the card could support four graphics pages at this resolution.  However, to do this, the card's registers had to be programmed directly.  Also, the registers that made up the display resolution could also be changed, but the values had to be reasonable lest the programmer destroy his or his user's monitors.  VGA, in its various official modes, supported 320, 360, 640 or 720 horizontal pixels and 200, 350 or 480 vertical pixels.  240 and 400 vertical pixels could be easily obtained by writing to a few registers.

Mode X, a custom VGA mode obtained by programming the registers, canonically has a 320x240 resolution at 256 colors.  The term eventually became to be appropriated for any non-standard resolution VGA mode.  320x240 was very popular for the pinball games identified above.  It is especially useful to obtain a reference for what the graphics should look like with square pixels.  Other modes like 320x350, 320x400, 320x480 and 360x480 were also popular, especially with shareware games.

360x480 at 256 colors was the maximum resolution a programmer could hope to achieve with 256KB VGA and keep to some degree of compatibility.  While it may have the RAM to display a 640x350 or 640x400 resolution at 256 colors, other technical limitations on the VGA prevent it from doing so.  Any graphics displaying in 640x350x256, 640x400x256 or 640x480x256 is always using some kind of SVGA or VESA mode.

DOSBox will stretch certain modes horizontally and this functionality cannot be totally disabled.  If no scalers in DOSBox are used, 320x200, 320x240, 360x200 and 360x240 resolutions are not scaled.  Other resolutions are stretched as follows :

320x350 to 640x350
320x400 to 640x400
320x480 to 640x480
360x350 to 720x350
360x400 to 720x400
360x480 to 720x480

If a screenshot is taken of any of the horizontally-stretched modes, the stretch effect can be removed by reducing the horizontal resolution by half using nearest neighbor interpolation.  This will eliminate every second column of pixels.  Resizing by doubling the horizontal resolution using nearest neighbore interpolation will restore those pixels.  In the screenshots below, I have eliminated any stretching by this method.

Digital Illusions' Pinball Series

Pinball Dreams and Pinball Fantasies offer two resolutions, 320x200 and 320x350.  Take a look at these screens from each game :

Pinball Dreams 320x200

Pinball Dreams 320x350

Pinball Fantasies 320x200

Pinball Fantasies 320x350

Both modes give the same amount of screen area to the status display, only the text is off-center (in relation to the status display area), in the 320x350 mode.

The great advantages of pinball games is that they almost always have a ready supply of circles which you can judge whether the aspect ratio is correct.  If a circular object looks like its diameter is the same regardless of the points of the circle measured, you are on sure ground to assume that the aspect ratio is correct.  If the object looks like the diameter is shorter between certain points compared other points, looking more like an oval, then the aspect ratio is probably incorrect.

For Pinball Dreams and Fantasies, the only difference between the 320x200 and 320x350 graphics is that the 320x350 graphics show 1.75x more of the pinball table.  Pinball tables, by their very nature, tend to be much taller than they are wide.  This will be an important point when I go on to discuss the final game in this series, Pinball Illusions.  However, this is what DOSBox displays in the 320x350 mode :

Pinball Fantasies Stretched

The game does not give the pixel dimensions of its high resolution mode in numbers.  However, comparing the two screenshots, it is apparent that no extra detail is given in the stretched screenshot.  Instead, the pixels are much more prominent and the circular objects have become ovals.  It should be clear that stretching is not correct for this mode.

If any further confirmation is required, look to the original games for the Commodore Amiga.  Pinball Fantasies (OCS/ECS PAL version) for that system uses an effective 320x262 resolution.

Pinball Fantasies Amiga OCS/ECS

Pinball Fantasies Amiga OCS/ECS

Pinball Illusions is by far the most demo-scene inspired of these three pinball games, using numerous odd-ball resolutions in its pre-game sequences.  However, for VGA cards, the pattern is almost the same.

Pinball Illusions 320x240

Pinball Illusions "360"x350 (only 336 horizontal pixels used)

If you look carefully, you can see that the right side of the screen is slightly cropped in the 320x240 mode compared to the "360"x350 mode.  The SVGA/VESA Modes follow the 360x350 mode, but only the vertical resolution is increased :

Pinball Illusions "640"x480 (only 336 horizontal pixels used)

Pinball Illusions "800"x600 (only 336 horizontal pixels used)

By the time you get to 800x600 pixels, the screen barely needs to scroll, you can see almost the whole table. On a real CRT monitor, these tables will appear centered in a narrow portion of the middle of the screen with large black borders on either side.  For all these pinball games, no stretching should be done.  If necessary, you should decrease the horizontal size on your CRT monitor until the circular objects look like circles.

Epic Megagames Pinball Series

For the first two games in Epic's series, Epic Pinball and Silverball, they are easy to deal with because they each only use a 320x240 resolution for their tables.  

Epic Pinball 320x240

Silverball 320x240

For the final game, Extreme Pinball, it only uses a 320x400 resolution, and the situation is quite different.  

Extreme Pinball 320x400

As you may have noticed, the ball and the chutes do not look like spheres.  If we stretch this resolution, we get the following : 

Extreme Pinball "640"x400

Now the ball and chutes look like spheres.  Therefore, for one set of games, stretching is not desirable, but for this game, it is.

Spidersoft Pinball Series

Pinball Dreams II was intended as the sequel for Pinball Dreams even though Spidersoft had no connection to Digital Illusions.  Since it was built using the same engine, the same graphical issues appear in it.  Pinball Mania uses the same graphics modes as Pinball Fantasies, and the same comments apply.  In short, they all look correct at their native aspect ratios, no adjustments or stretching required :

Pinball Dreams II 320x200

Pinball Dreams II 320x350

Pinball Mania 320x240

Pinball Mania 320x350

Pinball World uses a standard 320x200 mode or a 320x240 mode.  However, the ball is perfectly "circular" in the 320x200 and 320x240 modes (15x15 pixels) without any aspect ratio correction.  Unlike the earlier pinball games, Pinball World uses huge tables that are wider and taller than the screen resolution.  The ball is the same size in both modes, so the higher resolution just shows more of the table :

Pinball World 320x200

Pinball World 320x240

Other Pinball Games

Although Psycho Pinball uses a 320x240 or an odd 320x368 resolution, it follows the same pattern as Pinball Dreams.  The extra resolution merely shows more of the table, although this time more of the status bar is displayed.  No stretching should be done to its graphics.

For the final game to be detailed in this blog post, Absolute Pinball, the comments made for Psycho Pinball apply.  It offers three modes, 320x240, an odd 360x270 mode and a 320x400 mode.  First, the usual modes :

Absolute Pinball 320x240

Absolute Pinball 320x"400" (only 384 vertical pixels are used)

Like Psycho Pinball, the 320x400 resolution merely adds more visibility to the table and a larger dstatus display.  The circular objects are circular without any stretching.  For the 320x400 resolution, this is in marked contrast to Extreme Pinball, which uses the same resolution.  Last, let's consider the oddball 360x270 resolution.

Absolute Pinball "360"x270 (only 320 horizontal pixels are used)

First, despite the larger number of horizontal pixels offered by the mode, only the middle 320 pixels are used.  The status display uses a 320x62 pixel box.  This is essentially the size of the status display in the 320x400 mode.  The purpose of this mode was to allow for the same status display as enjoyed by users of the highest display resolution with more modest system requirements instead of the smaller status display.  Again, no particular stretching is required for this mode.  

Nintendo Power - When they Got it Right and When they Got it Wrong

When the NES was released, video game journalism did not exist.  Nintendo Power became a hugely popular magazine and practically required reading for NES players.  One did not use it like a movie review column, which would tell you which films were worth seeing and which were worth skipping.  Instead, you subscribed to the magazine to find out about the hottest new games that were to be released.  Nintendo Power began to assign ratings to games with Issue 5, but the ratings were a joke.

I remember salivating over all the great games revealed in its pages every other month.  Most of the time, Nintendo Power gave proper coverage to those games that deserved it.  A game with a cover or a feature indicated, usually, a certain level of quality.  Some games were overlooked, and in this blog I will offer a tip of my hat when the classics are given their due and a wag of my finger when they are not.  I will start by briefly going through the Nintendo Fun Club News and then proceeding to the issues of Nintendo Power published in 1988 and 1989.  During this period, all games with a cover were genuine classics (with one exception), and the coverage gravitated toward good to great games far more often than not.

Nintendo Fun Club News, Issue 1, Winter 1987

Game(s) on Cover : None

Game(s) on Cover : None

Featured Games : Super Mario Bros., Excitebike, Hogan's Alley

Previews : Pro Wrestling, Slalom

Comments : The NES was released in October, 1985 in test markets and nationwide in 1986.  By the end of 1986, the console had been sufficiently successful that Nintendo could put out a newsletter





Nintendo Fun Club News, Issue 2, Summer 1987

Game(s) on Cover : None

Featured Games : The Legend of Zelda, Volleyball, Slalom, Pro Wrestling, Super Mario Bros.

Previews : Metroid, Kid Icarus

Product Feature: NES Advantage

Comments : There is not much to say about issues 1 and 2, they function more as advertisements for games rather than detailing strategy, displaying maps and giving hints and tips.  Nintendo released "Hot to Win at Super Mario Bros." and "The Legend of Zelda - Tips & Tactics" booklets around this time.



Nintendo Fun Club News, Issue 3, Fall 1987

Game(s) on Cover : The Legend of Zelda

Featured Games : Metroid, Kid Icarus

Previews : Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!, Rad Racer, R.C. Pro-Am, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

Product Feature: NES Advantage

Comments : Issue 3 is the first issue with a full-page artwork cover.  There will be many repetitions of featured games.  Nintendo was featuring games it was publishing at the time.  Nintendo published games developed by third party developers like Rare (R.C. Pro-Am), Square (Rad Racer) and Irem (Kung Fu).  Advertisements for third party games begin to appear in Issue 3

Nintendo Fun Club News, Issue 4, Winter 1987

Game(s) on Cover : Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!

Featured Games : Rad Racer, The Legend of Zelda

Previews : Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, Dragon Warrior

Product Feature : Hands-Free Controller

Comments : Issue 4 would begin Nintendo's magazines' long love affair with Zelda II, but Dragon Warrior would not arrive on U.S. shores for almost two years.  The Nintendo Hands-Free Controller was eventually released, but in a more streamlined design.




The Official Nintendo Player's Guide, 1987

Featured Games : The Legend of Zelda, Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!, Commando, Super Mario Bros., Ghosts 'N Goblins, Top Gun, Double Dribble, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, Metroid, Rad Racer, Ring King, Gradius, Kid Icarus, Pro Wrestling, Castlevania, Excitebike, Arkanoid, Rush 'N Attack, Donkey Kong, Rygar, Spy Hunter, The Goonies II, Ikari Warriors, Kung Fu

Capsule Reviews : Deadly Towers, Baseball, Golf, Soccer, Slalom, Tennis, 10 Yard Fight, Volleyball, Winter Games, M.U.S.C.L.E., Family Fun Fitness, Stadium Events, Tag Team Wrestling, Karate Champ, Side Pocket, Lunar Pool, Track & Field, Pinball, Balloon Fight, Ice Climber, Urban Champion, Clu-Clu Land, Star Voyager, 3-D Worldrunner, Tiger-Heli, Super Pitfall, Chubby Cherub, Ninja Kid, Spelunker, Stinger, Raid on Bungeling Bay, 1942, Trojan, Section Z, Mega Man, Kid Niki, Breakthru, Karnov, Zanac, Sqoon, Jaws, The Karate Kid, Athena, Alpha Mission, Sky Kid, The Legend of Kage, Renegade, Mighty Bomb Jack, Solomon's Key, Hogan's Alley, Duck Hunt, Gumshoe, Wild Hunman, Gotcha!, Mach Rider, Wrecking Crew, Lode Runner, Mario Bros., Donkey Kong Jr., Popeye, Donkey Kong 3, Burgertime, Elevator Action, Gyromite, Stack-Up, Donkey Kong Jr. Math

Comments :  This publication was much thicker than the Fun Club News issues, and had the ambitious task of "reviewing" every game available for purchase for the NES as released from October 1985 through December, 1987.  When I say "reviewing", I do not mean giving a critical review of the game title but a description of the game in an advertising friendly format.

Games that should have been relegated to the Capsule Reviews sections, in my opinion, include Commando, Top Gun, Ring King, Donkey Kong, Spy Hunter, Ikari Warriors and Kung Fu.  Commando is too repetitive and buggy, Top Gun and Ring King aren't great, and Ikari Warriors and Spy Hunter are poor arcade game conversions.  While classics, Donkey Kong and Kung Fu are too simple for the pages they take up.  I would have instead have given the following games full reviews : 3-D Worldrunner, Ice Climber, Trojan, Mega Man, Wrecking Crew, Zanac and maybe Renegade or Kid Niki.  Mega Man and Zanac are classics that were Criminally Overlooked (Nintendo eventually righted this wrong with Mega Man), Trojan is pretty good for an early Capcom game, and Ice Climber and Wrecking Crew are two pre-SMB Nintendo Classics.

Even in 1987, the number of crap games is fairly disturbing, and many games from the early period simply haven't aged well (most of Nintendo's early sports titles).  The NES would have been better served if garbage like Deadly Towers, Star Voyager, Urban Champion, M.U.S.C.L.E., Super Pitfall and Athena were never released.  Arcade ports were in many cases, Karnov, Spy Hunter, Ikari Warriors, Karate Champ, 1942 rather uninspired.

Nintendo Fun Club News, Issue 5, Feb/March 1988

Game(s) on Cover : R.C. Pro-Am

Featured Games : Ice Hockey, Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!, The Legend of Zelda, The Goonies II

Previews : Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, Super Mario Bros. 2, Return of Donkey Kong (never released), U.S. Golf (eventually released as NES Open Tournament Golf)

Product Feature : NES Max

Comments : First issue to feature a game published by a third-party developer, Konami's Goonies II.  One of the greatest NES games ever, Contra, was released in February, but you would hardly know about that by reading this magazine.  Criminally overlooked during the transition from the Fun Club News to Nintendo Power.  I like Metroid-style games like The Goonies II alot.

Nintendo Fun Club News, Issue 6, April/May 1988

Game(s) on Cover : Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

Featured Games : Double Dragon, Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!, The Legend of Zelda

Previews : Super Mario Bros. 2, U.S. Golf

Comments :  Technos' Double Dragon NES port first rears its infamous head in this magazine, there were many better games that could have been featured.







Nintendo Fun Club News, Issue 7, June/July 1988

Game(s) on Cover : Sports Wrap-up 1988 -  Ice Hockey, Rad Racer, R.C. Pro-Am, Pro Wrestling, Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!

Featured Games : Metroid, Wizards & Warriors

Previews : Super Mario Bros. 2

Comments :  Five of the best sports games for the NES are on the cover.  Wizards and Warriors was a bit too easy because it had infinite continues, but is still a fun game.  This was the end of the Nintendo Fun Club News magazine, its successor, Nintendo Power, would be much larger and better.  More and more third party games were being released, so Nintendo's first party and published titles need not have to carry so much of the slack.

All the covers for and most of the featured games in the Nintendo Fun Club News were classics.

Nintendo Power, Issue 1 - July/August 1988

Game(s) on Cover : Super Mario Bros. 2

Featured Games : Legend of Zelda, Double Dragon

Now Playing : Gauntlet, Contra, Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy, R.B.I Baseball, Bases Loaded & Major League Baseball

Video Shorts : Legendary Wings, Iron Tank, Gun.Smoke, Rambo, Dragon Power, Metal Gear, Bionic Commando, City Connection, Ikari Warriors II: Victory Road, Star Force, Freedom Force

Poster : R.B.I Baseball, Bases Loaded & Major League Baseball

Howard & Nester : The Legend of Zelda

Comments : Super Mario Bros. 2 was huge at the time, and Double Dragon was a something of a classic even if it wasn't especially true to the arcade.  The arcade game was especially difficult for home console and computer ports to capture.  While classics like Metal Gear and Bionic Commando are relegated to the shorts section, they would get their due in later issues (and Metal Gear came with a map in the box). Contra's relegation to four pages in the Now Playing section utterly failed to do that game justice.  Its a much better arcade port than Double Dragon, in fact, it may be one of those rare games where the home console version is better than the arcade original.

Nintendo Power, Issue 2 - September/October 1988

Game(s) on Cover : Castlevania II: Simon's Quest

Featured Games : Bionic Commando, Life Force, Super Mario Bros. 2, Renegade, R.C. Pro-Am

Now Playing : Golgo 13, Blaster Master

Video Shorts : Xenophobe, Seicross, Superman, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Lee Trevino's Fighting Golf, 1943, Jackal, Hudson's Adventure Island, Magmax, Donkey Kong Classics, Pac-Man, Defender, Millipede, Joust, Xevious, Galaga

Poster : Bionic Commando

Howard & Nester : Super Mario Bros. 2

Product Feature : Power Pad

Comments : The featured games are all classics (Bionic Commando, Life Force, SMB2) or at least very good (Renegade, R.C. Pro-Am) for their time.  While the AVGN (back when he was the Angry Nintendo Nerd) began his Internet career with a roast of Castlevania II, I still believe it is a very good game despite its flaws.  The graphics and sound are first rate, the open world is vast and the item collection and multiple endings by game time completed are obviously inspired by Metroid.  The stiff controls, enemy hit bounce back, easy bosses and losing all your hearts when you lose your third life.

Like many games to come, Nintendo spread out its coverage of SMB2 into two magazines.  There is alot of crap in the shorts this month, but a classic like Jackal or a very good game like 1943 should have been in the Now Playing section over the middling Golgo 13.  Most of the classic arcade ports are pretty decent, or very good (Donkey Kong, Galaga).

Nintendo Power, Issue 3 - November/Decembet 1988

Game(s) on Cover : Track & Field II

Featured Games : Mickey Mousecapade, Blaster Master

Now Playing : Ultima: Exodus, Legacy of the Wizard, Anticipation, Blades of Steel, Cobra Command, Racket Attack

Video Shorts : Bubble Bobble, Paperboy, Ghostbusters, Tecmo Baseball, Challenge Pebble Beach, Dr. Chaos, Tecmo Bowl, Platoon, Milon's Secret Castle

Poster : Blaster Master

Howard & Nester : Castlevania II: Simon's Quest

Product Feature : NES Advantage & NES Max

Comments : I am no expert on sports games, but if one had to be featured, it is best that it is a Konami title.  I like Mickey Mousecapade more than its reputation would suggest.  Its fairly difficult for a child-oriented game.  Cobra Command should have sent to the shorts section and Bubble Bobble put in its place.  

I have used both the NES Advantage and the NES Max, and I am not particularly found of either.  While I appreciated the trubo fire for Contra, the Advantage's joystick was too imprecise for many games and the buttons could stick.  The circle thing on the Max was not nearly as useful as the features made it out to be.

Nintendo Power, Issue 4 -  January/February 1989

Game(s) on Cover : Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

Featured Games : Wrestlemania, Sesame Street 1-2-3, Skate or Die

Now Playing : Marble Madness, Operation Wolf, John Elway's Quarterback, N.F.L. Football, Tecmo Bowl, Metal Gear

Video Shorts : Friday the 13th, World Games, Star Soldier, Dr, Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Bump'n Jump, Rampage, Othello, RoboWarrior, Spy vs. Spy, Gyruss, Q-Bert

Poster : Skate or Die

Howard & Nester : Track & Field II

Product Feature : Hands Free Controller, Playchoice-10

Comments : In case Nintendo hadn't covered it enough, this is the first of two features for Zelda II. In my opinion, there are exactly two good wrestling games on the NES, one had been released early in the console's life, and Wrestlemania is not the other one.  I know the WWF was big at the time, but the game sucks.  In addition, two out of three of the football games also suck, but Tecmo Bowl more than makes up for them.  Skate or Die, World Games and Spy vs. Spy were better on the C64.  All-in-all a slow pair of months, which is probably why Zelda II got the cover.  

The Hands Free Controller got a redesign, and its actually fairly usable in practice.  Its certainly no harder to use than the Power Glove or the U-Force.  You can watch a video of it being used here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKzKp3QGg6M

Nintendo Power, Issue 5 -  March/April 1989

Game(s) on Cover : Ninja Gaiden

Featured Games : Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, Hudson's Adventure Island

Previews : Strider, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Cobra Triangle, The Adventures of Bayou Billy

Video Shorts : World Class Track Meet, Dance Aerobics, Super Team Games, California Games, Taboo : The Six Sense, Nobunaga's Ambition, Desert Commander, Mappyland, Airwolf, Predator, Flying Dragon

Poster : Strider

Howard & Nester : Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

Product Feature : None

Comments : A classic game in Ninja Gaiden, another two part feature.  Hudson's Adventure Island seemed a bit dated by the time it was featured.  The shorts were mostly deserved, but Desert Commander is a decent wargame for the time.  The Koei strategy titles were intimidating and boring back then and have aged very poorly.  

Nintendo Power, Issue 6 -  May/June 1989

Game(s) on Cover : Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Featured Games : Ninja Gaiden, The Adventures of Bayou Billy, Cobra Triangle, Life Force

Previews : Mega Man II, Faxanadu, Fester's Quest, Clash at Demonhead, Dragon Warrior

Video Shorts : Super Dodge Ball, Bugs Bunny's Crazy Castle, Fist of the North Star, Kung Fu Heroes, Street Cop, Athletic World, Amagon, Monster Party, Adventures of Lolo, Hydlide

Poster : Mega Man II

Howard & Nester : Ninja Gaiden

Product Feature : None

Comments : TMNT is one game that did not deserve its vaunted status as one of the top ten bestselling NES games.  The game is a flawed effort from Konami, but not without its redeeming features. Unfortunately, its merciless difficulty earned it a reputation as black as its box.  Its biggest sin, in my opinion, is that it didn't have the same feel and tone as the ultra-popular cartoon series of the time.  Fortunately, Konami would improve its TMNT licensed games for the next two games in the series.  

Another Konami game crippled by the difficulty was The Adventures of Bayou Billy.  Unlike Golgo 13, this game did two out of three of its gameplay types well.  Unfortunately, the main gameplay type, the side-scrolling beat-em up, is plagued by stiff controls, too few moves and too many palette swapped enemies.  Life Force is the best Konami game in this issue, and it was already featured back in Issue 2.

Super Dodge Ball, despite slowdown and flicker, deserved better than the video shorts section, as did Adventures of Lolo, Kung Fu Heroes and Monster Party.  Interestingly, there is a "HOT" label next to the listing for Mega Man II in the table of contents, indicating that the editors knew something good was coming. The poster included would also tend to suggest this.

Nintendo Power, Issue 7 -  July/August 1989

Game(s) on Cover : Mega Man II

Featured Games : Faxanadu, Dragon Warrior, Strider

Previews : Robocop, Duck Tales, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Ironsword: Wizards and Warriors II

Video Shorts : Bad Dudes, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Guerrilla War, Defender of the Crown, King's Knight, To The Earth, Shooting Range, Sesame Street ABC, The Adventures of Dino-Riki

Poster : Robocop

Howard & Nester : Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Product Feature : Nintendo Game Boy

Comments : Few better games were ever released for the NES than Mega Man II.  Dragon Warrior was a classic and extremely important for JRPGs, but the first game plays like a cross between Wizardry and Ultima II.  The extremely stingy awards of experience and gold made the game far, far longer than it had any right to be, which was essentially the norm of 1980s RPGs, console and computer alike.  Strider is kind of buggy and no patch on the arcade game, but it is interesting in its own right.  Guerrilla War, which like Ikari Warriors was released by SNK, is a great game that deserved a Feature.  Criminally overlooked, and better than all three Ikari Warriors games for the NES combined!  Interestingly, To The Earth was a Nintendo published game, but still relegated to the shorts section.

This issue is the first issue to feature a new Nintendo console, the hand-held Nintendo Game Boy.  In its own way, the Game Boy would be at least as important as the NES for video gaming history.  

Nintendo Power, Issue 8 -  September/October 1989

Game(s) on Cover : Duck Tales

Featured Games : Dragon Warrior, Hoops, Fester's Quest, Who Framed Roger Rabbit

Previews : Willow, River City Ransom, Batman, NES Play Action Football, Tetris (Game Boy)

Video Shorts : Air Fortress, Bad Street Brawler, Casino Kid, Castlequest, One on One, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Sky Shark

Poster : Batman

Howard & Nester : Mega Man II

Product Feature : Nintendo Game Boy, NES Satellite, NES Cleaning Kit

Comments : Although perhaps not universally acknowledged as such, Duck Tales is a great game made by the team responsible for the Mega Man series.  The game captures the spirit of the cartoon perfectly, the graphics are colorful and cartoon-like, the music is brilliant and the levels are well-designed.  The only knocks against it are the too liberal hit detection and the awkward pogo control scheme.  Its easily better than any of the other featured games.  Fester's Quest and Roger Rabbit are both deeply flawed, but far from worthless, games.  Roger Rabbit does much better than Fester's Quest at capturing the spirit of the licensed material. 

For all those gamers who blew on their consoles to get their games working, advertised here was the NES cleaning kit.  Foolishly, the kit tells the user to use water instead of alcohol to clean the contacts.  Water corrodes contacts, isoprophyl alcohol does not.  

The NES Satellite saw its first mention, and its first supported game was NES Play Action Football. Relatively few good four player games were ever released.  M.U.L.E. may be the best of the bunch, even if it has some gameplay differences from its home computer originals.  Bomberman II is a good game and supports three players and Nintendo World Cup may be the best soccer game for the NES.

Nintendo Power, Issue 9 -  November/December 1989

Game(s) on Cover : Tetris (Game Boy)

Featured Games : Willow, Tetris (NES), Ivan Stewart's Super Off-Road, Ironsword: Wizard & Warriors II, Robocop, N.E.S. Play Action Football

NES Previews : Wheel of Fortune Jr., Jeopardy Jr., The Three Stooges, Stealth Eagle, Godzilla, Shadowgate, Silent Service, A Boy and His Blob, 720°, The Guardian Legend

Game Boy Previews : Super Mario Land, Revenge of the Gator, Castlevania - The Adventure, Motocross Maniacs, Tennis, Baseball, Alleyway

Video Shorts : Goal!, Thundercade, P.O.W., Twin Eagles, Back to the Future, 

Product Feature : Power Glove, U-Force

Comments : For the last issue of the 1980s, a Game Boy game gets the cover art for the first time.  However, the NES version was also featured in the same issue.  Willow is an excellent Zelda-inspired game, another Capcom game that used a license well.  Unlike its predecessor, Ironsword is too unforgiving.  Rare would strike the best balance in the third game.  Robocop was given far too much attention as it is not a very good game.  In fact, none of the Robocop games for the NES are very good, but the sequels are better.  

Unfortunately, although the glorious Game Boy had been released, so too had the infamous Power(less) Glove and U(seless)-Force.  Both are typically fodder for "Worst Video Game Controllers of All-Time" lists. 

Future Issues

If I receive positive feedback, I believe I can continue this series to encompass the remainder of the NES's lifespan.  

Game Versions : What was Lost with a Patch or Upgrade

A Brief History of PC DOS Game Patching

New versions of a game can add new features, add support for new hardware and fix bugs.  Eventually, these versions would be released as patches for existing games.  DOS game patches were generally not something really available until 1989.

In the 1980s, if a user had a problem with a game, he could take it back to the store for a refund, call tech support, ask around in his local user's group or try the company's BBS.  Typically, updated versions of games would be released to stores in the same boxes and unless some significant new feature was added to the game like VGA support, it would be impossible to tell the boxes with the old version from the boxes with the new version.

One type of "patch" that existed during this time was a disk replacement.  If a user had an issue with a game and tech support couldn't solve it, they may instruct the user to ship his game disks back to the company for a replacement.  The increased complexity of computer systems and their hardware eventually persuaded companies to provide fixes and features in the form of patches, small files that could be easily downloaded over a modem or be shipped on a single floppy disk.

A second type of patch was an upgrade disk.  Mindscape issued a Tandy DAC upgrade disk for owners of Gauntlet II for a small fee.  LucasFilm/LucasArts did the same for certain of its SCUMM adventures, Loom, Secret of Monkey Island and Day of the Tentacle, to add MT-32 support to the floppy disk versions of these games.  Eventually, expansion packs were released at retail to add more content to existing games.  Flight Simulators like Microsoft Flight Simulator, racing simulators like Test Drive II and III and golf simulators like Links would have add-ons that added new vehicles, scenery and courses.

A third type of patch was intended to fix games that were shipped prematurely.  The "get it out before Christmas" mentality was firmly in place in the early 1990s.  Ultima VII: The Black Gate, one of the most complex computer role playing games of its day, was shipped in a nearly-unplayable state due to bugs.  The game was shipped in April, 1992 as version 3.0.  A patch was released in October, 1992, alongside the expansion Forge of Virtue, updated the game to version 3.4 and fixed the problems that made the game a chore to play.  A subtype of this patch is an issue patch, where the patch is intended to fix only a particular issue that may not affect all players.

A fourth type of patch was the serial patch, where many patches were released incrementally over the lifecycle of a game.  Any good multiplayer game would have this kind of patch cycle.  This type of patching was popularized by DOOM, and while today is universally accepted, back then it was not widely used.

A fifth type of patch for DOS games became popular by the mid-1990s.  This was the speed patch, intended to allow games developed on slower systems to work with fast 486 and Pentium CPUs.  Many, many games had issues running when the CPU speed was so fast.  The joysticks would no longer function, animations would be too fast to play, and/or the sound wouldn't work at all.  In certain extreme cases, the program would crash at the command prompt with the dreaded "divide by zero" or "runtime 200 error" messages.

Usually, the patched or upgraded version of a game would be the only version anyone would want to play.  Sometimes, however, features get lost in the process.  Let's take a look at some games in which something was lost during the upgrade :

King's Quest IV

When KQ4 was first released, it came on nine 5.25" or four 3.5" disks.  Sierra's policy at the time was to include both sets of media so that a user who only had one type of floppy drive would be assured that he could play the game.  Many people bought software and found out that they had to send the disks back to the company for replacements that would work on his system.  At thirteen disks, this cost Sierra a pretty penny.  The new versions were released on eight 5.25" floppy disks (but still came with four 3.5" disks).

In order to fit the game onto eight disks, Sierra simplified some of the background artwork and sprites. Trees that were detailed were rendered in silhouette.  Unnecessary background objects were removed.  Dithering was used to give the Mansion an aged look.  Certain objects became smaller.  Instead of using two separate background images for day and night scenes, an updated version of the SCI interpreter would change the palette colors for the sky.  Every change would shave off a kilobyte here and there, but the core game would remain in tact.  Most people probably would not notice the changes in the graphics unless shown an A to B comparison.  For such a comparison, see here :

http://queststudios.com/smf/index.php/topic,2802.0.html

Although detail was lost, one improvement in the newer versions is that the animation speeds showed a marked improvement over the old versions on slower hardware.  Animation on the screen in an AGI or SCI engine game invariably slows down the player's movement speed with contemporary hardware.  The newer versions are faster both with and without animation on the screen.  Another benefit to the newer versions is that you can hear the IBM Music Feature Adapter music from the Yamaha FB-01.  The Yamaha FB-01 is supported if you copy a driver over from another game.  The old versions use slightly different sound drivers and all Yamaha FB-01 drivers are too new to work with the old versions.

One downside for the new versions is the need for a patch to correct two speed-related issues with the game.  The old versions did not have speed related issues, but running the new versions on a 386 will lead to crashes if you try to enter the waterfall or fail to deliver the hen to Lolotte before night fall.  A second downside is that the common copy protection removal method generally known for this game only works on the old versions.

Old versions :
Game Version 0.000.253, Interpreter Version 1.000.106, Date 09-19-1988
Game Version 0.000.274, Interpreter Version 1.000.111, Date 09-23-1988

New versions :
Game Version 0.000.409, Interpreter Version 1.003.006, Date 12-07-1988
Game Version 0.000.502, Interpreter Version 1.006.003, Date 06-12-1989
Game Version 0.000.502, Interpreter Version 1.006.004, Date 08-07-1989

Space Quest I : The Sarien Encounter SCI

In the first releases of this game, the player could see several bands playing in the Ulence Flats bar.  One of these bands was directly inspired by ZZ Top.  ZZ Top did not appreciate the inclusion of their likenesses in the game, and Sierra removed them in later releases, replacing them with two midgets and an alien drummer.  However, Sierra used a script patch to prevent them from appearing, it did not remove the data from the resource files.  To restore Billy, Dusty and Frank, simply remove all *.v56 files in the game folder.

DOOM

DOOM has several patches released for it from its initial release on December 10, 1993.  At that point, only the shareware version with the first episode was available.  The registered version, containing the full game, was released with version 1.1 on December 16, 1993.  Here are just the patches for both the registered and shareware releases.

Version to Upgrade	Release Date
1.2	02/17/94
1.666	09/05/94
1.8	01/23/95
1.9	02/10/95

In addition to patches, there existed a patch to bring shareware 1.0 to 1.1 and shareware versions 1.25, 1.3 (unauthorized), 1.4 beta, 1.5 beta and 1.6 beta which were only available as internet downloads.  The Ultimate DOOM was released on February 25, 1995 and reported a 1.9 version.  For owners with a registered copy of DOOM, a patch to upgrade v1.9 DOOM to v1.9 of The Ultimate DOOM was released on October 13, 1996.  

DOOM versions 1.0 and 1.1 has support for multiple monitors.  You could use three monitors to give a panoramic view.  The multi-monitor feature used DOOM's networking driver to drive two other computers and their monitors.  Dual and triple-head graphics cards were almost a decade away.  DOOM 1.2 rewrote the networking driver, removing this feature.  The rewrite allowed the use of Direct Serial/Null-Modem connections and Dial-Up Modem connections for network games.  The original code relied on broadcast packets, which were delivered to every PC in the network, seriously degrading the network's performannce.  Also removed was the ability to use custom levels with the shareware version.

To use the multi-monitor feature, start DOOM v1.0 or v1.1 on three machines on the same IPX network using the following command lines :

"doom -devparm -net 3 -left"
"doom -devparm -net 3"
"doom -devparm -net 3 -right"

Among the improvements over this patch lifecycle were the support for modems and Nightmare mode difficulty in 1.2, improved deathmatch modes in v1.666.  DOOM II was first released as v1.666, and thereafter the two games had nearly-tandem version releases to v1.9.

SimCity

This game was originally released for DOS as v1.02.  A Godzilla vinyl based off the 1985 Imperial Toys or 1986 Dor Mei figures was featured on the box.  The monster disaster summoned what was clearly Godzilla to bring destruction to the city.  If that was not proof positive, then the roar used (which can be heard only on with a Tandy DAC or Covox Sound Master) was clearly Godzilla's.  Like ZZ Top and Space Quest I, Toho Studios did not approve, and the monster was replaced in v1.07 with a red, more quadrupedal monster.  The monster's roar was also changed and the box changed the disaster picture to the tornado.

SimCity v1.02 Monster

SimCity v1.07 Monster

CGA 16 Color RGB Graphics Modes

CGA RGB 16-Color Graphics Modes Introduction

The IBM Color/Graphics Display Adapter could output 16 colors via a digital color monitor connector. Because the monitor connection was digital and not encoded into an NTSC video connection like composite video, separate chroma and luma (essentially S-video) or through an RF modulator, the colors would be displayed without any demodulation.  The result was the best video quality a 13" CRT monitor could produce.

The CGA supports 40 and 80 column text, 320x200 resolution and 640x200 resolution graphics.  Even though the adapter had 16KB, the maximum number of RGB colors it could display in a graphics mode was 4 colors from the available 16 color palette.  In addition, those colors were not freely selectable because IBM used off-the-shelf TTL logic chips in its board design, which limited the board's capabilities.

That being said, CGA could show all 16 colors with the text modes.  Each text cell has a character byte and an attribute byte.  The character byte determine the pattern to show on the screen, like an A or a &.  The attribute byte determines the foreground and background color of each character.  Each text cell can show any of the two colors available (you need to turn off the blink attribute to show 16 background colors).  The new banner for this blog demonstrates the available text colors other than black (using VGA text characters).

The CGA has a ROM chip that contains the pattern data for 256 characters, originally called IBM Extended ASCII and later known as DOS Codepage 437. (Actually, it has two sets of patterns, a thin font and the default, thick font, which can be selected via jumper.)  These are the patterns contained in ROM :

These patterns get fetched and displayed by the Motorola 6845 CRTC. The BIOS programs the CRTC to display either 40 columns by 25 lines or 80 columns by 25 lines.  Each cell is 8x8 pixels, giving effective 320x200 and 640x200 resolutions.  However,  the 6845 can be programmed to show any number of columns and rows and cell size.  Even at 80x25, with 8x8 text cells, the graphics potential is very limited.

However, if you were to reduce the cell size to 8x2 pixels, you can obtain a lot more detail.  At this point, you have a 40 or 80 column screen by 100 rows.  Fortunately the CGA card and monitors of the day can handle this without breaking.  Using the ASCII characters 221 or 222, which have a pattern that is half on, half off, you can designate each cell to have to two independent colors by use of its attribute byte.  Thus ASCII character 221 or 222:



Becomes colored :

And reduced to this :

Each cell becomes the equivalent of two pixels, and with the 40 column mode, you obtain an effective 80x100 screen resolution.  However, such a mode lacks detail, so more often the 80 column mode would be used to give an effective 160x100 resolution.

One of the advantages of these modes is the ability to use multiple graphics pages.  Each 40 column screen requires 2K of video memory and each 80 column screen requires 4K of video memory. As the CGA has 16K of video memory, 8 pages are available in 40 column mode and 4 pages are available in 80 column mode.  This can eliminate screen tearing when the screen scrolls.  Unfortunately, few games actually used a scrolling screen.

The disadvantage with the 80-column mode on a true IBM CGA card and many clones is the visibility of CGA snow.  CGA snow is the random flickering lines shown on the screen.  It happens when the CPU and the CGA try to access the video RAM at the same time.  In the 40 column and graphics modes, the CGA properly interleaves CRTC and CPU accesses, but in the 80 column mode it lacks the bandwidth to seamlessly separate the two types of accesses.  The result is the IBM CGA does not read the byte correctly and some garbage is shown.

Although it doesn't require the whole amount of RAM like a graphics mode, 80-column mode requires the most bandwidth of all the modes because it is similar to a 640x200x16 color mode.  CGA snow can be avoided by only writing to RAM during the vertical retrace period (the time where the raster beam goes from the bottom to the top of the screen), but that is painfully slow with a 4.77MHz 8088 CPU.  No other video adapter generally suffers from snow.

IBM made a vague mention of a 160x100x16 mode in its PC Technical References, but did not introduce it as a BIOS mode and did not document how to use it.

All Known Games using the 16-Color CGA RGB Graphics Modes with Screenshots

Windmill Software

Windmill Software was one of the first game developers that focused on the IBM PC platform, and while their games are clones of popular arcade games, they were always done well and pushed the CGA card to its limits.  It released three games that used the 160x100 resolution mode, The Exterminator, Moon Bugs and Styx.  The Exterminator is Centipede, Styx is Klax and Moon Bugs is Phoenix with a little Defender mixed in.  While not made by Windmill, Bricks and Round 42 evoke the same spirit.  Bricks (a.k.a. Wrecking Ball) is a Breakout clone, and Round 42 is highly reminiscent of Gorf, but it is not quite as varied.

All these games were intended to be run on an IBM PC or PC/XT running at 4.77MHz with an IBM CGA card and PC Speaker sound.  They also expect the IBM PC 83-key Keyboard.  The use of F1 to fire makes much more sense when the key is at the side of the keyboard instead of at the top.  Bricks uses Caps Lock and Ins to move the paddle, and while those keys are far apart on modern keyboards, on the 83-key PC/XT and the 84-key AT keyboards they are next to each other.  While they will run on a Tandy 1000, do not expect any of them to run on an EGA or VGA card.

Most of the title screens for these games use a standard 320x200x4 CGA graphics mode or a text mode, but the real in-game gameplay uses the 160x100x16 graphics mode.

Styx

The Exterminator

Moon Bugs

Miscellaneous Games 1

Bricks

Macrocom

Macrocom released two action-adventure games, ICON : Quest for the Ring and The Seven Spirits of RA They use a 40-column based mode, and the effective resolution is 320x200x16.  For these Legend of Zelda-like games, ASCII other than 221 was used, allowing for greater detail in the graphics.  Unfortunately, they rely on the patterns on the ROM of the IBM CGA card, clone cards often tweak the patterns slightly, and Tandys also use slightly different patterns, making the graphics look wrong when the games are played on these systems.  The games are still playable despite the errors.

The extra detail comes with a price, the programmers were limited to the top two lines of each ASCII character, and had to pick the best choice from the limited patterns available.  The Seven Spirits of RA uses the regular 320x200x4 CGA graphics mode for certain screens because it provides finer resolution.  These games should run on a PCjr., a Tandy 1000 or even with an EGA card, but will fail on a VGA card.

ICON: Quest for the Ring

The Seven Spirits of RA

Macrocom also released a demo, one of the earliest known demos for the PC, demonstrating its graphics modes.  The pictures in these modes use both the 40 and 80 column 16 color modes.  The demo is a slideshow of static pictures, and here are all the pictures.  Pictures 7-10 use the 80 column mode, and is one of the only two known programs known to use an ASCII pattern other than 221.  The other pictures use a 40-column mode with multiple ASCII character patterns.

ICON Demo

An extremely basic game called Bandit was released, and it was a slot machine game and nothing more.

Miscellaneous Games 2

Bandit

An Edutainment game called Kids on Keys was released by Spinnaker Software for several systems, and when Tandy released the Tandy 1000, it licensed the game from Spinnaker and released it for the Tandy 1000.  The games included is supposed to help children learn the keys on the keyboard.  The program also contains a feature where you can edit the graphics characters used.  Instead of using a Tandy graphics mode, it used the 160x100x16 CGA mode, most likely because Tandy also released the CGA-based Tandy 1200 computer around the same time.  However, on a Tandy 1000, the game supports 3-voice music.  On a PC, it supports PC speaker sound.  Although the graphics are very blocky, they do not use an 80x100 mode.

Kids on Keys

Level 9 Computing

Two text-based adventure games developed by Level 9 Computing, Lancelot and Scapeghost, use the 160x100 mode for graphics.  They also support other graphics adapters and show graphics in a window with the text with them, but for the 160x100x16 CGA mode, the graphics are full screen.  Essentially these games alternate between text and full color CGA graphics.  Level 9 was a U.K. company and its CGA modes were intended for the Amstrad PC-1512, a very popular PC compatible in the U.K. with a more-or-less CGA compatible video adapter.  They seem to work fine on the real CGA.

Lancelot

Scapeghost

The Final Games

The last game, from 1991, known to support 160x100x16 graphics back in the day was a shareware game called Tunneler.  In this Tank-inspired game, you had to search for your opponent with a limited view of the surrounding area.  If you look at the screenshots in detail, you will see that ASCI 176 is being used for the border around the E and S gauges.  Due to this, it is not totally a 160x100x16 game.

Tunneler

Twenty years after Tunnler, which was the last known game to use 160x100x16 CGA mode, Paladin Systems North released a Pac-Man clone for the PC called Paku Paku that uses the mode.  Originally intended as a retro computing challenge for the IBM PC, the software is free and the code is open source.  Since its release in 2011, it has gone through six revisions, adding support for the PCjr. and Tandy Graphics Adapters, EGA, MCGA and VGA.  In addition, it supports sound devices beyond the PC speaker, including PCjr/Tandy 3-voice sound, Game Blaster, Adlib and MT-32.  While it is quite a bit easier and more lenient with extra lives than the arcade original, it is still a very nice implementation that works on the IBM PC.  You can download it here : http://www.deathshadow.com/pakuPaku

Paku Paku

Programming on the early PC platform and with the CGA card is a challenging endeavor.  A promising demo has been made recently of a game called MagicDuck.  I have found the graphics to be very impressive and the gameplay to be fairly fluid, despite the limited view and early nature of the software.

Aspect Ratio

The above screenshots use a 1.6:1 aspect ratio, although the monitors that CGA was designed to use are 1.33:1.  Fortunately, the low 160x100 resolution can scale to 800x600 and maintain a 4:3 aspect ratio without introducing unsightly artifacts.  Here is an example of these graphics as a CGA monitor or TV would show them :

Click on the image to get the full resolution.