Best games for 8086 + MGCA graphics?

[zombienerd]

I've gotten my PS/2 Model 25-004 up and going, and want to try playing some games on it. So far, I've run Battle Chess, F-19 Stealth Fighter, and a handful of CGA games, but I was wondering what you all might consider the "must play" games that make full use of the MGCA, but will run okay on the 8086 + 640k RAM.

I think F-19 might be the most "advanced" game, and I do enjoy flight sims, but I figure there have to be more out there that would give me a few hours of fun.

Not generally a fan of text-input games (like Sierra's adventure games), or side scrolling platform games. I do like simulators, strategy games, and point/click adventure games that don't require text input (like Star Trek 25th). Building games are cool too (like Sim City).

What are your favorites that would fit my arbitrary desires?

 

[Stone]

MS FS-4

I have Accolade's Star Control on 5¼" floppies.

Advanced Flight Simulator

 

[Trixter]

games that make full use of the MCGA, but will run okay on the 8086 + 640k RAM.

You mentioned you like simulators; here's a list of simulators that support MCGA: http://www.mobygames.com/browse/games/dos/tic,2/ti,36/simulation/

You may also like Mean Streets, which has a flightsim-like-thing, digitized 256-color graphics, and digitized sound. If you like Mean Streets, you can check out Countdown and Martian Memorandum. Along those lines, any game that digitized its graphics will look really fantastic on a Model 25's monitor, so look into Heart of China, Rise of the Dragon (my personal favorite), Castle of Dr. Brain, etc.

MCGA also has a 640x480x2 mode. Microsoft Flight Simulator 3.0 and 4.0 can use this mode for very sharp graphics. (They also support MCGA color mode but it's usually only 16 colors and very slow.) The Colony is another game that uses 640x480x2.

 

[PeterNC]

Many Sierra games will support MCGA. MCGA is basically VGA @ 320X200 256 colors. SimCity and some other games will run the higher resolution native MCGA. Civilization, Centurion and other games also support native MCGA 320X200.

I used to own a couple of IBM PS/2 Model 8530 30 8086s with MCGA. I gave up on them after a while because most of these games run pretty slow.

 

[Trixter]

MCGA is basically VGA @ 320X200 256 colors.

It's important to note, however, that not all VGA games that use 320x200x256 use the MCGA-compatible mode to do so. Many games reprogram VGA into "unchained" mode to gain access to all 256K of memory and take advantage of VGA-specific features such as split-screen and smooth scrolling. Such games won't work on the PS/2 Model 25 and Model 30 (but they will on the Model 30-286 since that model came with VGA graphics).

That said, Peter is right that most games that support 320x200x256 use the bog-standard MCGA mode 13h and will likely run fine. In fact, pretty much every game made before 1989 should be ok, because it wasn't until 1989 that programmers figured out how to use the more advanced features of VGA.

I just remembered another game that should run great on MCGA: Indianapolis 500. I can't remember if it's one of the games that uses CGA 320x200x4 mode but then uses MCGA color registers to pick 4 custom colors, but it should run fast enough even if it isn't one of those types.