Evolution of DOS Games Graphics 

I know, right? You could tell that each pixel's location was measured and placed there by hand. :)

Yeah Space Quest IV was a masterpiece. I was mind blown when it came out. I had to wait until I had a more powerful PC and got the CD-ROM version. I still think of that game when I think of the emergence of VGA.

@@OldAndNewVideoGames This is exactly one of the big reasons why 3D was always so hit an miss, and why pre-rendered 3D tended to be a _lot_ better. Myst still looks amazing - sure, the textures are tiny and the models are very low poly... but they put everything together to look great. Yeah, Quake was a great _technological_ achievement... but didn't look very good, had to make awful compromises in gameplay and wasn't really a very good game overall. Duke Nukem 3D was "outdated"... but brought us interesting, detailed, hand-crafted worlds. And the line of games on the Build engine proved nicely that it worked extremely well. It allowed the _game designers_ to craft the world, rather than be bound by arbitrary limitations like Euclidean geometry or "real" lighting. And full 2D gives you a _huge_ amount of control over what you put on the screen. Even today, I dare you to show me a 3D game that looks more amazing than something like Tyrian :D It took quite a while for games like Legend of Grimrock to finally improve on the feel of games like Dungeon Master. Of course, where 3D can really shine is smooth animation. In practice, it's crazy how few 3D games really put effort into _making_ it shine, outside of simulation games, of course. I expect it's going to be much the same with generative AI nowadays. There will be the poor slop that just chugs out random pointless junk (like a _lot_ of games using procedural generation)... and there will be those who put a lot of effort into making things fit together, hand craft the outputs... or push it to the brink of insanity for fun :D

nah, contemporary pixel arts and cartoon graphics can look equal or better... modern arts directions and assets surpassed those era by far.

@@AngryCalvin It was definitely a step up over EGA.

If something's worth doing, it's worth doing right. Which is a quote from "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas". Not the best example given the source material, but an awesome book, and equally as good movie. ;)

Oh, that's OK, more or less 10 seconds later, both of them are dead, so you can rest easy. ;)

Oh, combined, they easily covered more years than DOS had as a superior system, as after 1997 everything was Windows-based and SVGA reliant.

That's what I'm talking about. It should be utilised more often, as seen on included video, it works like a charm, and could make many of the more arcade-centric games appear much better. :)

My pleasure! Comments like this make it all worth it!

True true. Though it has to be said, that it's much easier to replay the title that takes 2-5 hours to complete, than one that takes 40-70 hours. xD

Yeah, it could be made to look as if there were many more colors. But it was so rarely used, it's shameful. Also, 8-bit guy is great, I love his channel!

I think it was CGA vs EGA. :) While difference between EGA and SVGA is huge, going from 4 colour CGA to anything else is gigantic! :)

VGA was soooo beautiful! For many reasons, not only the palette, but also the artistry.

Oh, EGA Keen is great, but CGA... Objectively speaking, you know... But I get the melancholy. I have similar feelings for C64 games. :)

That's what I was talking about, the tech debuted early, but the adoption was another case. It took few years. Unlike now, when whenever something new comes out, everyone just jumps on it. :)

Going from monochrome to 256 must've felt like at least 2-3 generations worth of a jump ;)

@@OldAndNewVideoGames I mean I did play CGA games in between too, I just remembered playing Prince of Persia on a amber monochrome (CGA probably) monitor. Later I had my own PC when my dad opened a computer shop in 91 and I got a lot of hand me down parts on 286/386 machines, I played CGA/EGA games quite a lot even in the early 90's, after switching from a Commodore 128. I'm 45 and my dad had a computer at home since I was born and computers just became a part of me. I was doing dialup BBSes at like 9-10 years old and thinking back today how many creeps didn't even realize I was just a little kid online when everyone else was probably 30-50 years old

Thank you! I intend to. New one will be out approximately in 9 hours.

Sound cards you say... So PC Speaker (not a card, but it would have to be included), then Adlib, Soundblasters (I'd need to bundle them all, and their compatibles), and maybe Roland MT32. But that would be all. Cause if I was to cover all the obscure cards, which were often fantastic for that matter, I'd never made the video... It's an idea. Thanks! I'll definitely consider it. :)

@@OldAndNewVideoGames your example’s are the right ones.

Going from PC speaker sounds to Soundblaster sound card sounds for Wolfenstein 3d was like playing a brand new game. It was even more pronounced for Doom, tho we had a soundcard already when Doom came out, friends of mine didn't and only knew what PC sounds were like for that game. I remember their excitement when they finally got a soundcard on their PC's

@@Tony_Cardoza What a time that was, right? And remember having to configure them? All the DMA's and interrupts? Man... What a time! And now, all motherboards have them built in, and it never crosses 95% of us minds to ever get a separate cards.

@@pju28 Thanks!

Also, low res 256 colours just looks satisfying. Every pixel and colour are well planned and pre-prepared to assure the best possible quality. Many of the early high res games just looked like cartoon made out of filled with colour vectors. Which is OK, but not as nice. :)

@@OldAndNewVideoGames Yeah, that's what I was getting at. With many early SVGA games, it looked like the artists drew the outlines and then filled in the sections with solid colors with a paint bucket tool, instead of carefully drawing in details and shading. That's why they often looked more like cartoons, as you said.

@@Osprey850 I love my Curse of the Monkey Island, I love my SimCity 2000 or XCom Apocalypse, I do. But majority of the DOS games I come back to, and remember fondly were mainly VGA-based.

Yep, VGA not only displayed 256 colours but had a gigantic palette, so pretty much all colours were available to approximate anything we could find in life. And yeah, EGA was not great cause it still relied on pre-set palettes, which was just stupid. But I'm no engineer, I can't tell you why they went that way. I'm sure there was a reason. Probably it was cheaper. ;) Still I like to compare games that had all three CGA, EGA and VGA releases. And if they also came out on Amiga, that's even more fun. :)

I'm currently running my "10 Years of Early Windows Gaming" and it's covering 1993-2002. And I'm on 1999 now, so will dip into the 2000s. And I've one or two more videos with newer games too. Generally speaking it's "Old And New Video Games", cause I'm into all games, and there's quite a few newer ones I'm into (or was). And eventually I'll tackle more newer stuff more often. But have few of these series that I juggle now, and can't give you any dates yet. I've two rather "new" games in my "No-No Games Episode 1" video, and at least a couple in my Xmas 2023 special... There'll be more is what I'm trying to say with this entirely unnecessary wall of text. xD

Thank you! You know I felt like this video will bomb, and that I made it more for myself than anyone else. xD I thought no one would care. It's a nice surprise!

Oh, this I wont dispute! :)

CGA was pretty good in that low res 16 color mode, and would be acceptable at the time in 4 colors too, if it would allow for use of any colors and not just particular pre-set palettes. That said, it was necessary for creation of EGA, and everything that came after. So, while I'm not a fan, I don't mind it, especially that I experienced it years later, as when it was popular, I had C64 and then Amiga. So, I was all good on the front of graphics. ;) Some of my all time faves are SVGA, but if I was to honestly stack them against VGA, there's many more from the VGA era. I honestly don't know how to answer the question. In part because I've never heard of it. It's curious though and I may read up on it later. :) Btw. I've recorded voice overs for next episode of Windows 1999, and I've such an amazing line up for it. For the video and the year overall. It's gonna be a fun one again. Oh, and I'm gonna start working on Essential DOS 1989 from Monday. It'll be the last one in the mini series, I think. Or do you think I should go below '89? I've been thinking about it, and I'm just not as fired up about earlier games as I'm with those that came out in '89-97 period.

@@OldAndNewVideoGames interesting choice? Like you I had home micros in ‘87/‘88 so have no nostalgia for it but that could actually make it more interesting & obviously it’s all part of gaming history? I think that could be interesting?

You're welcome and thanks for watching! :)

You know, I never knew that (about video out for TVs). Thanks! :) And I've actually not covered text modes intentionally. Though a video on that may come in the future, or on the sound cards. You never know. Cause I never know, so it's all a mystery until I start working on it... ;)

Frontier is one of my most favourite games of all time!

Thanks a lot! :) I actually predicted this video to bomb, as it was not my usual coverage of games. So, I'm happy that you enjoyed it.

MDA, Hercules and MCGA (and Tandy). I know. But honestly, it was a choice. I wanted to focus on the majority here. And also I honestly know very little of the missing ones. Probably as most of us do. I could make a supplemental... It's been a theme here on the channel recently. ;)

​@@OldAndNewVideoGames ye! we need hercules. it was quite good!

@@andrejdamis7263 :)

That's a fun memory. :) And don't mind me not having much love for CGA, it's just my opinion, and truth be told, when I moved to PC from Amiga, it was VGA era already. So my opinion is heavily influenced by coming from Commodore's system. While I was fine with EGA, CGA was a little bit disappointing to me. I mean, I still played the games, but always felt like they lacked polish.

CGA was where I started with a PC. We were playing Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego. I even played Prince of Persia in CGA until I went to VGA.

Yeah, I know AB could be played with EGA, but I needed an attractive game for the CGA section. :)

Oh, yes, I just covered the 99 percentile. The text was MDA, I think, though not sure, so don't quote me on that. There was monochrome Hercules, the MCGA and Tandy earlier on. Which had its own graphical solution inside. It was an interesting time to live in and witness the changes. I cover a lot of SVGA stuff in my "10 Years of Windows Gaming 1993-2002". 1993-1998 are all done, and I just started working on 1999. In fact, second episode for 1999 is coming out tomorrow. And I predict the year to have 8 to 10 episodes overall.

:)

Thanks a lot! :) And yeah, I get that. I'm all fine with EGA, but many of the CGA games look disturbing to me. xD

Yep, my sentiments more or less. :)

And so fun to play! :)

Thank you so much! You're very kind! :D

✈

EGA and CGA monitors are not interchangable.

@@user-jm3xl7rg5k From Wikipedia; "EGA uses a female nine-pin D-subminiature (DE-9) connector for output, identical to the CGA connector. The signal standard and pinout is backwards-compatible with CGA, allowing EGA monitors to be used on CGA cards and conversely. " en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_Graphics_Adapter It does discuss different modes and EGA specific monitors that make it incompatible with CGA, but in the lowest mode, EGA can drive a CGA monitor and vice versa.

True, they could be nice, but... What am I even talking about, there are some that are down right gorgeous, but they're few and far between.

Dark Seed uses custom palettes to display 16 colors in 640x350 (VGA). Looks gorgeous!

@@deemster4249 Have you seen Darkseed on the Amiga? Also something worth seeing. :)

Yes, that's technically correct. :)

Yep, 8GB is not much xD

Green on black had its charm. Have you seen orange on black? Or red on black? Crazy, I know, but it existed! ;)

@@OldAndNewVideoGames @Toon_Pirate my brothers first computer was Orange on black. I think he only had one game, and it was on one of those giant floppy… floppy disks

It's been mentioned to me before. I am seriously considering it. And also, thank you! :)

Check out LucasArts loom. They made EGA look as if it was VGA. The dithering and color-stepping is everywhere in it, and it looks fantastic!

@@OldAndNewVideoGames Ah, did I forget to ask about Loom? :D I've seen some of it, it's really pretty indeed, but haven't played it yet.

@@TeaAndTankControls You'll like it. And not for the graphics, they're just an added value. You'll like it for the gameplay mechanics that's music based where you have to learn sounds to solve puzzles. It sounds dry explained like that, that's why I never do it in the videos, but is really innovative and playable. Kinda like Ocarina of Time, if you played Zelda on N64.

@@OldAndNewVideoGames I've heard of the music puzzles, but didn't want to go into details before giving the game a try by myself. No consoles in my life, except for that Atari 2600. So, apart from some ports (mostly Sega), I haven't played many console games.

@@TeaAndTankControls It's OK. It's not for no reason that there's the PC master race. xD

:)

In some ways, like resolution, it was.

Such a great game! One of the best classics out there!

I hoped that someone would go there! :) And no, sadly that's not the case. The person like my boss' wife cannot be invented, imagined or born. She was spawned by an ungodly love between the Lucifer and Mephisto, and then promptly after coming into existence, she ate their hearts and ascended to Earth to destroy it. xD

Well, CRTs provided early and unintended iteration of anti-aliasing. xD

True true... Seems it was a mistake going for the mainstream only, and I could've added it along with MCGA and Tandy (to a certain degree).

Thank you! :)

Yeah, sorry, it was deliberate though. I'm low key considering separate videos on Hercules and Tandy, as they were an interesting concepts of their own.

True. VGA was such a huge leap though, and so flexible, that even the introduction of AGA on the Amiga was too little (too slow), too late. :/

True, tough as nails. And it get's like that rather quick.

Circle of Blood = Broken Sword

I have CGA listed for 1981, EGA was 1984, 1987 for VGA, and 1988 for SVGA. It's just the general adoption dates that were couple of years later.

There's this new game stylised too look kinda like EGA, it's an indie RPG called Skald, and I'm low key pondering about getting it. I mean, it's not expensive, I just don't have much time to play games outside of the recordings for these videos. I usually get around 8 hours per week, on a weekend to play for fun, so I'm not sure it'll manage to find its place into my "to play" queue. But look it up, it's a work of art. Also, I've no idea why I said all that. xD And yeah, we're much faster adopters these days then we were in the 80/90s.

@@OldAndNewVideoGames You share it because you think me kindered mind? both of us love games and i am way too chatty about them .) so youadjusted your social compass to be more casual with me, inspite me not having name nor face. for all you know i could be Fanthomas! Anyways i did see skald on GoG not sure how much it alures me but i shalt conssider it if and when i happen to have some money to invest into gaming. As mentioned before i do like me sone retro game aesthetic even if it is not from the day (Dusk, Project Warlock ilk and yes the eternal castle, hero hour) but it indeed looks like complex game this skald i may have to ponder time investement too, even if i do have nothing but time to burn. New tech is most expensive early on as well so that tends to slow down adoption early on. Even fast rise and burnout of 3D FX is skewed by them being first professional centric (buzniess to buzniess type thing) before becoming consumer focus... and burned themselves upon trying to become Graphical card maker in their ownright...

@@OldAndNewVideoGames if this seems like double post than my apologies i think YT ate my last reply. i DID see Skald on GoG not entirely sure if i am that interested but i shall put it on my watchlist for now. generaly speaking i love me sone retro games even not from the emulated era (altho i vastly prefer them good old games to be of the 90s) i did enjoy for exmple duck, project warlock, but also hero hour or eternal castle. oh right and party hard was incredible, just shame sequel strayed too far... and undertale... oki i stop now (there are many). You enjoying games is very important to the channel and indeed atracting discussions like ones with me... i do overchat a LOT alas so i might not be ideal person to react to every post of .) As for why you share it my guess would be that you feel comfortable chatting casually about our shared hobby, even tho you never seen my face and do not know my name even... for all you know i could be FANTHOMAS! Jesting aside you just love sharing your passion for the games basicaly thats the point of the videos and these chats we have. Adoption being hindered by initialy huge price is not helping the rate at all. but as i mentioned in the other chat i am hoping ARM might be going for the price first which would definitively bring a lot of computing to more people i think and hope.

@@nameless5413 You know, YT has been misbehaving a lot recently. I get that too, you're not alone with missing comments. xD Skald's devs said they were inspired by C64 games, if that's not a recommendation, I don't know what is, LOL. :) Don't worry about overchatting. Sure, I don't answer as instantly to all the comments at once. Especially that I hold a fill time job outside of *this* and have a "life". Yeah, they quote marks are intended. ;) But I try to get to them all eventually, so don't get discouraged by the pace that I am getting to them at. I just got so many comments overall recently that I'm having a hard time answering them all. :) Time-wise, not will-wise. And when it comes to ARM-based PCs, the first batch is not cheap, as they're banking on AI a lot. And doing it locally (hence the price), and not in the cloud, so they're rather powerful chips. But in time it will go down in price. No doubt about that. :)

@@OldAndNewVideoGames my point on the chatter i produce is that yo nee not worry about me not that i somehow expect immediate replies i rarely add anything of note and if time is what you need more of than certainly cutting down on replying to all the comments would acomplsh that. or at least the worst textwall offenders like me. YT misbehaving "recently", yes since google bought it it is questionable. i never played commodore to be fair so it is not exactly recommandation for me but i do get some of my generation and before are very fond of their specky or commodores. (hell there is even amazing song by Aqua about how iconic it was its called "back to the 80s"). We can only hope, but as i am rather pessimistic fella i will wait before alowing myself to do that. i mean i was through TV going from its height to being complete joke (of the worst kind), i seen internet get overtaken by advertisers who in turn ravaged the whole culture only to blame netizens for their own doing and now it is turn of the AI i reckon, if that software gets to be turned against most people (no not in skynet way... more like in Yes (prime), minister type of way - caring about smaller group rather than genral populace than i just have nothing. humanity has proven itself incompetent at even basic things like compassion and i shalt demmand that reigns over this planet will be handed to ants or something.

Yeah!

Green and white? Not green and black?

My mistake, its green and black 😄 First was green, second was orange I think. Last came pink and then 8 color if I remember correctly... its been so long 🥲 Some of my favs was Monctezuma revenge, Ancient Art of War (land and sea), King of Chicago, Space Invaders... California Games (sometimes while skating there was an earthquake and the letter from HOLLYWOOD fell) it was amazing 😄 Love your videos, my brain is going back to so many games 😊

@@huaweisaturno1474 8 colours? That sounds like ZX Spectrum (Timex)?

Maybe... to ve honest I was to young to know/remember the names. I only remember using a DOS boot disk for some games while other games were auto boot 😄

@@huaweisaturno1474 The autoboot I think is what MobyGames calls now PC Booter. Even though it was a regular PC.

Say what?

@@OldAndNewVideoGames M'Aiq the Liar! You know, from The Elder Scrolls? "I don't know why one would want to destroy a building. It takes time to make it. Much time."

@@Dweller777 I see. xD

MUDs were the original MMOs. Mine was Crossroads of the Elements.

Sadly I've not played any MUDs when they were a big thing. I liked the idea reading about them years later though.

I remember a kid in high school telling me about this MUD his uncle played in the 90s where if you'd find a gemstone in the game, the company would mail you one in real life. It was rare to find them of course, at least according to my classmate.

@@Tony_Cardoza That's so cool! And it reminded me about all these companies that had you mail them your high scores or secret phrases you got for completing the game to get rewards. It was fun!

@@OldAndNewVideoGames MUME is still alive. If Middle Earth is Your thing, check it out.

Yep :)

It still should, it's a thing of nightmares. ;)

I think it's just me, and most don't have as strong feelings about it. That said, CGA low res 16 colors looks fantastic!

@OldAndNewVideoGames ICON Quest for the Ring is the ultimate example for a great game with low res and 16 colors. Still a fun game to play.

@@AngryCalvin I'm gonna check it out, thanks! :)

Number of times I said "titular"? ;) I'm kidding but I've made one video around a year and a half ago in which I unknowingly said it like a dozen or two times (it was compilation made of numerous shorter ones), and someone made a drinking game out of it. And I found it super fun when they told me. :D

@@OldAndNewVideoGames 🤣 IT is number of my comment

@@SERGEY_LIGHTNING xD