Gobliiins only working in EGA

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SKAvatar
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Gobliiins only working in EGA

Post by SKAvatar »

For some reason when I add Gobliiins it only come's in EGA. What's up with that? Why can't I get it in VGA? It doesn't even go to the game setup just straight to the EGA game. HELP!
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eriktorbjorn
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Re: Gobliiins only working in EGA

Post by eriktorbjorn »

SKAvatar wrote:For some reason when I add Gobliiins it only come's in EGA. What's up with that? Why can't I get it in VGA? It doesn't even go to the game setup just straight to the EGA game. HELP!
Maybe you have the EGA-only version? I haven't seen it myself, but judging by the ScummVM source code there was one. It would be detected as "Gobliiins (DOS EGA)" or, less likely, as "Gobliiins (DOS EGA Ru)".
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Re: Gobliiins only working in EGA

Post by fac »

SKAvatar wrote:For some reason when I add Gobliiins it only come's in EGA. What's up with that? Why can't I get it in VGA? It doesn't even go to the game setup just straight to the EGA game. HELP!
There are two versions of Gobliiins.
The first one only used 16 colors (EGA) and has no music.It was released for PC, Amiga and Atari ST.
Then another version with 256 colors (VGA) was released for PC (CD-ROM) and Mac.

You have the first one.

See the diferences (image copied from AITP):
Image
SKAvatar
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Gobliiins

Post by SKAvatar »

The only problem with that theory is when I load the game when not using scumm vm, it goes to some option screens. First it asks which language I want, then it asks about video, audio and mouse compatibility. It usually crashes afterward. Sometimes it works with DOSBOX but then it goes to some copy protection screen which I can't get pass. Does the vga one not even have those option questions?
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exofreeze
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Post by exofreeze »

the real simple answer is - is your game on cd or disk?
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Post by Collector »

There seems to be some difference between Gobliiins floppy VGA and the CD VGA.

floppy EGA:
Image

floppy VGA:
Image

CD VGA:
Image
fac
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Post by fac »

Collector wrote:There seems to be some difference between Gobliiins floppy VGA and the CD VGA.
I always thought that the floppy in EGA was the same as the floppy in VGA. And that was because in VGA (floppy version) the game only used 16 different colours.


After searching i found this:
EGA
The Enhanced Graphics Adapter (EGA) used the 6-bit RGB palette from which the user could select any 16 at a time. It also included 16-color versions of the CGA display modes, where the palette was the same as the full CGA palette.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_palettes

So both VGA and EGA floppy versions use 16 colors, but EGA must use a fixed palette and VGA not.


And now i think SKAvatar question is interesting. Should the PC floppy version be called "EGA"?
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clone2727
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Post by clone2727 »

Although I don't really know much about Gobliiins, the picture in the middle looks like more than 16 colors, but less than 256. Maybe 32 colors (like in MI Sega CD). Just a idea.

Also, the CD picture seems to blend better than the other two.
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Post by fac »

clone2727 wrote:Although I don't really know much about Gobliiins, the picture in the middle looks like more than 16 colors, but less than 256. Maybe 32 colors (like in MI Sega CD). Just a idea.
No. It has 15 colors. If you don't belive open it with Paint Shop (or other Paint program) and use the option to count the number of unique colors.

And why did the floppy VGA only used 16 colors when they could use 256 at the same time? I think this color limitation was made to save time (and money) and made the three platforms (PC, Amiga, Atari) share the same pictures.
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clone2727
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Post by clone2727 »

fac wrote:No. It has 15 colors. If you don't belive open it with Paint Shop (or other Paint program) and use the option to count the number of unique colors.
It can't have 15 colors. It has to be 2^x, where x represents the amount of bits. So, 2^8 = 256, etc. The 16th color probably isn't needed for the first scene.
fac wrote:And why did the floppy VGA only used 16 colors when they could use 256 at the same time? I think this color limitation was made to save time (and money) and made the three platforms (PC, Amiga, Atari) share the same pictures.
Did you try the same method with this picture?
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Post by fac »

clone2727 wrote:It can't have 15 colors. It has to be 2^x, where x represents the amount of bits. So, 2^8 = 256, etc. The 16th color probably isn't needed for the first scene.
16 is the maximum number of colors in each screen. So it's possible. Maybe the 16-th color is the "transparent" color. Many palette based games use this color to display non rectangular images(sprites) on the background.

clone2727 wrote:
fac wrote:And why did the floppy VGA only used 16 colors when they could use 256 at the same time? I think this color limitation was made to save time (and money) and made the three platforms (PC, Amiga, Atari) share the same pictures.
Did you try the same method with this picture?
I only counted the number of colors of the EGA and VGA floppy version.
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DrMcCoy
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Post by DrMcCoy »

Collector wrote:There seems to be some difference between Gobliiins floppy VGA and the CD VGA.

floppy EGA:
Image

floppy VGA:
Image
These two are from the same version, the EGA floppy version. One with the fixed EGA palette, one with a variable palette (but with one and the same image data, therefore still limited to 16 colors at once). The original interpreter lets you choose whether you want EGA (fixed palette) or VGA (variable palette) graphics at the start, ScummVM does not.
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Post by fac »

DrMcCoy wrote: These two are from the same version, the EGA floppy version. One with the fixed EGA palette, one with a variable palette (but with one and the same image data, therefore still limited to 16 colors at once). The original interpreter lets you choose whether you want EGA (fixed palette) or VGA (variable palette) graphics at the start, ScummVM does not.
I see the feature request was closed. I still think the DOS versions should be named (when added to scummvm) Gobliiins (DOS) or Gobliiins (CD). The word EGA isn't needed, since a VGA card was required to use the variable palette and that's the same palette used by ScummVM (second picture).

I know that this is not very important, it's like saying that ScummVM is an emulator. But i think this would made the game description more consistent with other Goblins games. And in the future maybe ScummVM could emulate EGA and CGA mode.
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