DOS version the real thing? (Fish)

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Neville (3554) on 1/30/2014 1:43 PM · Permalink · Report

I'm not sure this game was ever ported to DOS. All DOS versions I've seen around use Magnetic: An interpreter for Magnetic Scrolls adventures written by Niclas Karlsson plus the data extracted from the C64 version.

Kabushi (261192) on 1/30/2014 1:46 PM · Permalink · Report

We have covers for it.

Pseudo_Intellectual (66360) on 1/30/2014 7:52 PM · Permalink · Report

What he said; I don't know if our screen shots are kosher, but the media scan at http://www.mobygames.com/game/fish/cover-art/gameCoverId,86466/ seems pretty conclusive.

vileyn0id_8088 (21040) on 1/30/2014 6:37 PM · edited · Permalink · Report

[Q --start Neville wrote--]I'm not sure this game was ever ported to DOS. All DOS versions I've seen around use Magnetic: An interpreter for Magnetic Scrolls adventures written by Niclas Karlsson plus the data extracted from the C64 version. [/Q --end Neville wrote--] Is that what's shown in the screenshots at the moment? The graphics look more like the Atari ST version.

EDIT: yep, the official DOS version is very different indeed... screenshots up soon hopefully.

eXo (346) on 1/31/2014 5:02 AM · Permalink · Report

vile_r, have you noticed that the dos version scrolls the text behind the picture? It s impossible to read the descriptive text if you play it with graphics on....

vileyn0id_8088 (21040) on 1/31/2014 1:18 PM · edited · Permalink · Report

You can get the picture out of the way when needed by scrolling it up/down with F7/F8 (seems like the mouse cursor has to be moved up for this to work). Or typing "graphics off"... or just use the /8 switch for text mode. :P

Servo (57070) on 1/31/2014 3:04 PM · Permalink · Report

Ah, much better :) DOS screenshots are up now.

Игги Друге (46653) on 1/31/2014 8:25 PM · Permalink · Report

Are those really EGA?

vileyn0id_8088 (21040) on 1/31/2014 9:11 PM · Permalink · Report

Yes - straight EGA mode 10 with a custom 16-color palette. Games rarely used this mode to its full potential since there's only one video page, but with still images and judicious dithering the results can be very nice.

Игги Друге (46653) on 2/1/2014 4:40 AM · Permalink · Report

That's funny, I never knew that EGA had a palette.

Servo (57070) on 2/3/2014 5:34 PM · Permalink · Report

Sure does, it could display a total of 64 different colors; but, you only got to choose from beyond the first 16 colors in 640x350 mode. In 320x200 and 640x200 you were stuck with choosing only the first 16 colors, an annoying limitation apparently done so EGA cards would work in those modes with older CGA monitors (640x350 required an EGA monitor). It seems most EGA games used 320x200 mode so the extra colors weren't seen very often.

vileyn0id_8088 (21040) on 2/4/2014 12:01 AM · Permalink · Report

It's typical IBM. "Please, sir, this is a high-end enhanced graphics adapter. You can always customize the palette using our single hi-res video page for your presentations and CAD work. Games? what games? go get a PCjr or something".

I used an EGA card for a while in the very early '90s and remember being puzzled by this bass-ackwards choice even then... I stayed puzzled for a long, long while until I came across the reasoning.

Havoc Crow (29831) on 1/31/2014 10:21 PM · Permalink · Report

As an aside, the description we have on file is plagiarized from the cover.