VOGONS


First post, by ripsaw8080

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If you don't already know about Indenture, it's a freeware DOS re-make of the old Atari 2600 console game "Adventure". Remarkable for being a faithful reproduction of the original, right down to the quirks, it also adds significantly more challenge with higher difficulty game modes. Indenture's home page: http://www.erasurewars.net/indenture.html

Indenture runs well in DOSBox, but has a display problem with VGA character-generator fonts the game uses for rendering objects. This is because DOSBox does not currently support a 200 scanline text display in VGA (INT 10/AH=12/BL=30 is not handled). The fonts at first seem corrupted, but actually are showing the residual bottom half of 8x16 characters that should be 8x8 characters. There is a non-VGA display option in the game, which is what I had been using, but it's rather poor.

I made a small program to work around the font problem; the idea being to convert 8x8 characters by doubling the lines in them. DOSBox will still be using an 8x16 font with a 400 line display, but it will have the appearance of an 8x8 font with a 200 line display. Run INDENT2X.COM where INDENTUR.COM is located, and it will run the game with converted fonts. Put any command line switches for Indenture on the converter's command line. Version 1.6 and 1.7 of the game have been tested, but older versions will probably work. See the attached screenshots for before and after comparison. Program and assembler source are in the attached archive.

Attachments

  • Filename
    INDENT2X.ZIP
    File size
    1.61 KiB
    Downloads
    546 downloads
    File comment
    Indenture 8x8 to 8x16 font converter
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception
  • AFTER.PNG
    Filename
    AFTER.PNG
    File size
    1.62 KiB
    Views
    2011 views
    File comment
    With the converter
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception
  • BEFORE.PNG
    Filename
    BEFORE.PNG
    File size
    2.02 KiB
    Views
    2011 views
    File comment
    Without the converter
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception

Reply 2 of 2, by ripsaw8080

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leileilol wrote:

Wouldn't it be easier just to run the game with machine=cga ?

That would be more or less equivalent to running the game with its -V parameter for a non-VGA display, which does not look as good: uglier colors, and no character-generator fonts, so the "graphics" are even more crude.

But, they say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here is a shot of the same scene in CGA:

Attachments

  • CGA.PNG
    Filename
    CGA.PNG
    File size
    1.62 KiB
    Views
    1959 views
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception