Foray in the Forest (development thread)

[K1n9_Duk3]

Thank you for your bug reports. The first bug (lockups after collecting certain ammo items) has already been fixed a while ago. Nisaba forwarded (your?) videos showing such a crash in the Concealed Ruin level to me and I was able to recreate the bug, track it down and fix it. The lockup only happened on real hardware, not in DOSBox, so most people never experienced that. And the stunner items that caused the bug were only spawned when entering a level with less than 5 ammo, which made the bug even less likely to happen for those who stock up on ammo by returning to the BWB in between levels.

The second is a game design decision, not a bug.

[Syllypryde]

......And the stunner items that caused the bug were only spawned when entering a level with less than 5 ammo, which made the bug even less likely to happen for those who stock up on ammo by returning to the BWB in between levels.

The second is a game design decision, not a bug.

For shyts and giggles while I was play testing during pre-release I did one play through to play every level without once going to the BWB to refill to see if it was possible to have enough ammo based on the charging stations and ray guns available in each individual level and it was possible. However it was a whole lot easier to use the BWB. Strangely i never experienced that crash.

[The_Guy222]

Yes, the CGA (and EGA and VGA) are the stuff of tragedies, yet at the same time, the severe limitations of the PC led to an abundance of creativity from game developers.

Fascinating discussion, Bounder!


I recently learned more about this 'tragedy of CGA / EGA' elsewhere. Quadrupling the CGA memory planes, as you say, required four times the output circuitry. So EGA was the best that could be done with the original CGA architecture at that price point.

Not making the expanded colour palette compatible with 200p was shortsighted, I agree. A few hardware tricks to detect the 'right' monitor could have allowed a 64-colour palette in 320x200.


Doing it over again:

Looks like IBM had the wrong assumptions about how people would use CGA, so yes, switcheable palettes would be better. So much better. Might have been like Amstrad CPC, but with a more limited palette.

I agree with all of your points, and things would have looked different if they had been followed. Maybe more ZX ports that way, as well.




When it comes to 'severe limitations leading to an abundance of creativity,' I would love to see what could be done with the original IBM 286s.

Something like the 8088 MPH demo, but for the AT. The relatively standardized hardware of an AT/EGA should allow all sorts of hardware hacking 'tricks' that would be impossible to replicate on clone systems.

Anyway, I hope to find out about running FITF on a VGA 386, and will post later if that happens.

[Nisaba]

Anyway, I hope to find out about running FITF on a VGA 386, and will post later if that happens.

Please do. I'm eager to hear your report.

[Bounder]

Anyway, I hope to find out about running FITF on a VGA 386, and will post later if that happens.

Please do. I'm eager to hear your report.

It works on a VGA 386. So far I’m having trouble on my 286 system because it simply doesn’t have enough memory and I haven’t fiddled around enough with EMS and XMS to get it to run properly.

It would be interesting (albeit sort of pointless) to try to get FitF to work on a 640k system, target DOS 3.3 bare bones boot or something.

I’d like to try it on an actual EGA but I don’t have an EGA card for my 286 either.

[keenmaster486]

FITF works with real EGA but the colors are wrong.

[K1n9_Duk3]

FITF works with real EGA but the colors are wrong.

I am still waiting for an image that shows me what the "wrong" colors actually look like.

[keenmaster486]

I am still waiting for an image that shows me what the "wrong" colors actually look like.

Do I still owe you more info on this? Sorry man, I have been very busy with moving to a different state and now getting married, and currently my AT with EGA is a bit taken apart. I have my XT set up with EGA but FITF doesn't run on it. On that note I am curious how it would run on the XT if it were compiled without 286 instructions, as I have an overclocking board set up in it, and I want to see if I can get it to run at 10 MHz.