Force Mohawk engine (orig EXE) games to play in 16bit color?

[GeorgeQGreg]

When playing Mohawk engine games with the original EXE files (note: Scummvm doesn't yet support all Mohawk games] the game will FORCE you to play in 256 colour mode. Is there a way to force the game to play in 16 bit colour, such as like the Humongous games? Mohawk games can be a big pain in the butt to record footage of, as most software doesn't properly support the graphics mode, especially the way *some* mohawk games do it! (Cough: looking at you Carmen Time.)

[clone2727]

Depends on the game. I know Carmen Sandiego World (v3) allows for both. Myst for Win3.1 refuses to run in 16/24bppp, iirc.

[GeorgeQGreg]

Yeah, the 16bit (length) version only runs in 256 colours, and since the 32bit exe only runs on Windows 95 or later, (and requires directx) no quicktime 16bit (colour) fun for me, at least in dosbox. Or did you mean something else?

[clone2727]

Yeah, the 16bit (length) version only runs in 256 colours, and since the 32bit exe only runs on Windows 95 or later, (and requires directx) no quicktime 16bit (colour) fun for me, at least in dosbox. Or did you mean something else?

You lost me now. "bpp" is "bits per pixel", if you didn't get that.

Also, DOSBox+Win3.1 supports both 16bpp and 24bpp modes just fine.

[GeorgeQGreg]

Windows/dosbox itself supports it, but the 16bit version of the game does not; it will only run in 256 colour mode. That is, there are two EXE files. TIME16, which is intended for Windows 3.1 and NT and TIME32 which is for Windows 95.

I think we're all lost.

[Collector]

NT would have wanted the 32-bit version. WOW in NT 3.1/3.5/4 was not nearly as compatible as in later versions of the NT line.

[GeorgeQGreg]

Hmm... I always found the 16 bit versions of Mohawk games to work better back in the XP days, but maybe I was an idiot. I know for a fact that Just Grandma and Me v2 was 10000000x less crashy on the 16 bit EXE. Trying to play the 32 bit version without Windows 9x was nigh impossible!

[Collector]

While XP is built on the NT kernel, too, back when Win3x was the current Windows, NT was at NT 3.1 to NT 3.5. They were not very compatible with 16-bit programs. To run 16-bit programs on NT requires a the compatibility layer, WoW (Windows on Windows), which in return required the NT Virtual DOS Machine (NTVDM), the built-in DOS emulator. That was the big thing with XP. It was the first consumer version of the NT line. It had better compatibility with older software, including 16-bit games.

[GeorgeQGreg]

Huh. I always thought XP's WoW was the same as NT's. Back on topic, can the 256 colour sections of Carmen Time be made to run in 16 bit graphics mode? Or should I pursue another way of running the game?

[fuzzie]

Mohawk games can be a big pain in the butt to record footage of, as most software doesn't properly support the graphics mode, especially the way *some* mohawk games do it! (Cough: looking at you Carmen Time.)

Which bits do you have a problem with recording? cstime's cdtoons videos (e.g. the intro video) do a lot of palette changes which some crappy recording tools don't cope with (although there are some tools which manage it fine, it was a very common technique for 256 colour modes), but the in-game bits don't seem to really do anything strange at all, so it'd be odd if they didn't cope there..

Since palette animation etc isn't supported in >=16-bit colour modes, if a Mohawk game insists on 256-colour then there's not much you can do about it, from memory. :/

[GeorgeQGreg]

Mostly the software not coping with the mode changes. Like if I set my monitor to 256 colours, Hypercam can record the 256 colour bits fine, but then the 16 bit colour bits show up blank. Same goes vice versa.

What exactly is cdtoons anyway? I thought the intro was Quicktime video.

[fuzzie]

What exactly is cdtoons anyway? I thought the intro was Quicktime video.

cdtoons is Broderbund's own quicktime codec.