Game resolution Mac Color Classic

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2014, June 1 - 4:10pm

Denus

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Joined: 2014 May 29

Game resolution Mac Color Classic

I wonder: I'm waiting for a Color Classic I've purchased, and meanwhile, I'm looking for a few great color games. The problem is the resolution: almost every color game (86x, OS 6-7) is running on a standard 640 by 480 resolution, so does it mean the resolution 512 by 384 is not supported at all for most of them?

I know about the hack to get a 640 by 480 resolution on a Color Classic, but I prefer keep the machine as it is, without having to use a dremel on the analoge circuit-board. Or should I do it?

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2014, June 3 - 7:52am

themacmeister

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Joined: 2009 Oct 26

512x384 is going to be a death knell for a LOT of games. Better to do the dremmel hack. Please post a link to the hack/guide if you could. I almost got a colour classic recently, but it was in too poor shape (no keyboard, HDD or mouse).

2014, June 3 - 10:08am

Denus

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Joined: 2014 May 29

Software mod(?): http://colourclassicfaq.com/mobo/mystic.shtml
Hardware mod: http://colourclassicfaq.com/general/vga.html

My Color Classic is really pristine as far as I can tell (delivery tomorrow) with all the disks, docs etc.
But of course, it has probably the cap leaking issue, so I have to replace those, as I did for my SE/30 (with ceramic SMD capacitors)

2014, June 4 - 12:07pm

Denus

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Joined: 2014 May 29

I just received my CC and man: it's lovely!
No leaking, sound is loud and everything is indeed pristine.
I think I'll leave it as it is, no mods, only a coprocessor and a LAN card (which have already been ordered) and a new battery of course.

Only work to do on this system is the famous hydrogen peroxide/sunlight treatment to restore the original color of the plastics (that's really working great on al my vintage systems such as my SE/30, Commodore 64 etc).

2014, June 6 - 11:57pm

(Reply to #4) #5

MikeTomTom

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Joined: 2009 Dec 7

Congratulations on your new addition, Denus. This is one Mac that I would like to have too, but so far not owned.

I think that back in its day, there were some game makers that took into account the size of the CC display and factored it into their programs. The original Crystal Caliburn was one such game IIRC, it had a modifier key to toggle the screen area during play. Not as helpful as shrinking the game area to fit the screen, but it was at least workable.

2014, June 9 - 11:52am

Denus

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Joined: 2014 May 29

Indeed Mike: that's one of the games that I've installed without any issues.
Prince of Persia and Tetris are also working perfectly.

But I'm getting a little frustrated right now as a lot of games are requesting a 640*480 resolution.
I don't want to modify this system except for the "normal" upgrades like the coprocessor, extra videoram and a networkcard (all on their way).
Instead of a expensive Sonnet Presto Plus and mods on the analogue board, I'll rather buy another old Macintosh which is able to run OS8 or 9 with a standard resolution. That would be much cheaper, and I want to keep my hardware as standard as possible (to preserve the legacy...).

2014, June 9 - 7:04pm

Denus

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Joined: 2014 May 29

Working games so far (Color only):

Crystal Caliburn <- quite good
Prince of Persia <- excellent!
Bert
Tetris (kind of windowed)
Breakline <- who invented such a register code system, it's horrible!
Williams Arcade (windowed)
Atomino (windowed)
Asterax
Citadel of Dead

I could't test more games yet because I only have floppys to make the transfer, and a lot of games and applications are packed into one file larger than 1.44MB.
Waiting for an AppleCD 300 I've ordered on eBay.

2014, June 9 - 9:52pm

MikeTomTom

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Joined: 2009 Dec 7

I'll rather buy another old Macintosh which is able to run OS8 or 9 with a standard resolution.

G3 iMacs are about the cheapest Macs I've seen for sale at present with G4 eMacs a close second. Sellers on eBay have been pushing up their asking prices on pre-G3 PPC & 68k Macs somewhat (astronomically) lately. I would be keeping a Color Classic as stock standard & optimized without modification, if I owned one, too.

Archives can be split over 1.4MB chunks to fit onto multiple floppies and reassembled at their destination if you have the time or inclination.

2014, June 10 - 2:52am

Daxeria

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Joined: 2009 Apr 8

No guarantees, as I don't have a CC myself, but most if not all of these should run in color at 512 by 384 pixels:

3 in Three
Another World
Armor Alley
Astro Chase 3D
A-Train
At the Carnival
Capitalist Pig
Castles: Siege & Conquest
Chrysanthemum
Civilization
Crystal Crazy
Crystal Quest
Cyberblast
Darwin's Dilemma
Desert Trek
Diamonds and More Diamonds
Dubbelmoral!
Factory: The Industrial Devolution
Falcon MC
Full Metal Mac
Glider 4.0
Glider Pro
Heaven & Earth
Hellcats Over the Pacific
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Iron Helix
Lemmings
Loom
Maelstrom
Microsoft Flight Simulator 4.0
Might & Magic II
Might & Magic III
Minotaur: The Labyrinths of Crete
Mission Starlight
MovoD II
NetTrek
Oids
Pararena 2.0
Pathways Into Darkness
Pipe Dream
Quagmire
Quarterstaff: The Tomb of Setmoth
S.C.OUT
The Secret of Monkey Island
SimAnt
SimCity
SimEarth
SimLife
Sky Shadow
Spaceward Ho!
Spaceway 2000
Spectre
Spectre Supreme
Spin Doctor
Splat'ers
Super Maze Wars
Syndicate
TaskMaker
Tesserae
Toxic Ravine
Troubled Souls
Uncharted Waters
Vette!
Wayne Gretzky Hockey
Wolfenstein 3D
ZOA: The Zone of Avoidance

Hope this helps

2014, June 10 - 9:43am

#10

Denus

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Joined: 2014 May 29

Nice list, thanks a lot!
As said before, I'll have to wait for my cd-rom unit to be able to test most of those games: I can't wait!

2014, June 10 - 12:26pm

#11

Denus

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Joined: 2014 May 29

Btw: Zoop is running quite well too, even if a 25MHz is recommended.
I've already seen dedicated games running worse than this one.

2014, June 10 - 10:48pm

#12

MikeTomTom

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Joined: 2009 Dec 7

Pathways Into Darkness (listed above) should be a must try. Images of the original (2 x 800k) floppy disk set, is here at the garden.