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HGA(graphic hercules) games = ?

Sandisk78

Experienced Member
Joined
Apr 2, 2016
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111
Location
Moscow, Russia
Hi, people !

At last assembled a 286 with a HGA - but there are too few games to run with a HGA... I know only : F-19,F-15, Stunts, Grand_Prix(1988),Prince of Persia, ...

Maybe there are some more I dont know ? Or any dems ? I have to show my collection to people on 14-15th on a expo on a IT conference - HGA machine will be there, too...
 
As already mentioned, there's plenty of games with HGC support, but vast majority of them actually uses 320x200 CGA graphics, stretched into 640x200 or 640x300, so they don't look very good.
However, there's a few with native HGC 720x348 graphics - I especially recommend Blockout, and Spacewar is also nice - http://ftp.math.utah.edu/pub/ibmpc/spwar171.arc
You can also try Prehistorik, doesn't seem to use 720x348, but still looks OK.

If you want demos, then the only "true" demo with HGC graphics I saw was "3 shades of gray", though I'm not sure if it runs on a 286, I vaguelly recall some troubles running it, maybe it was for 8088 only.
But there's always the BGIDEMO from TP/BP.
 
I suppose we are mainly talking about action type games, but don't forget that Microsoft Windows 1.x to 3.1 support Hercules Monographics. So many Windows games may work, although some may be hard coded to expect color or specific screen sizes.
 
I suppose we are mainly talking about action type games, but don't forget that Microsoft Windows 1.x to 3.1 support Hercules Monographics.
Microsoft provided Hercules Monochrome driver for Windows 3.11 as well, though as a separate download.
And yes, it's possible to play Minesweeper, Solitaire, Windows Entertainment Pack games, and more.
 
The Mobygames data is good, but not perfect, you can't entirely trust that list.

BTW, I have just noticed that someone has made a Mobygames entry for my little Hercules game H-Tron. :)

I don't think there are that many. Many will run with/as CGA emulation, but it's not native.

I wouldn't call that "emulation". To my knowledge these games directly produce Hercules screen output, but the developers just didn't want to invest the time to re-arrange the game screen layout for a perfect 720x348 picture. So they simply displayed the 320x200 CGA graphics in 640x200, resulting in a vertically squashed screen. For some games, horizontal blank "scan lines" were added to blow up the screen height, but that doesn't really look good either.

The Sierra games have proper Hercules support. Some of them (I think at least Space Quest 2) even use a different font for text display in Hercules mode.

Here is a list of games that I have successfully tested on my Hercules hardware. I have marked those with "lazy" Hercules support (see above) with asterisks.

Code:
Afterburner (*)
Airborne Ranger
Arkanoid 2
Avoid the Noid
Bad Cat
Blockout
Budokan
California Games (*) or (**)?
Carrier Command
Carlos Sainz (**)
Chuck Yeager's Advanced Flight Simulator
Fire and Forget (**)
Future Wars (**)
Hard Drivin (**)
Hard Drivin 2 (**)
Jumpjet
King's Quest
King's Quest 2
Leisure Suit Larry
Motocross
North & South (**)
PipeMania
Platoon
Powerdrome
Police Quest
Prince of Persia (**)
Psion Chess
Rock'n Roll
Space Quest 2
Space Quest 3
Starflight (**)
Street Rod
Super Hangon
Test Drive (*)
Test Drive 2 (*)
The Train
Titus the Fox (***)
Ultima 5
Vegi
Wings of Fury (*) or (**)?
Xenon 2
Zeliard


(*) Full screen format with added "scan lines"
(**) Screen does not have full height
(***) Frequency problem on my Hercules monitor
 
The Mobygames data is good, but not perfect, you can't entirely trust that list.

Because the data is wrong, or because the data is incomplete? If the latter, that's not really a fair assessment, since the complete list of games that support Hercules graphics can never truly be verified.

Some additional games not previously mentioned that support the full resolution of 720x348 are Microsoft Flight Simulator 3.0 and 4.0, and The Colony.
 
Because the data is wrong, or because the data is incomplete?
Both. Some are listed as Hercules-compatible although they are not, and some of the games that I listed above lack the Hercules support flag. I think I should post my research results on the Mobygames forum.

Microsoft Flight Simulator 3.0 and 4.0

For some reason, I only get a black screen after I start one of these two games on my Euro PC (while I can hear the Cessna's engine sound). But I know of other people that they enjoyed playing these on a Hercules PC.
 
Interesting topic!

The mobygameslist is really good but there also gamerips out there that are missing files, so sometimes not all gfx-modes do work.

I also love native hercules, but there are not many games that a really native hercules. the number of games which make use of the hires with custom tilesets and introscreens a even smaller. Here is a premium one. Atomino, fantastic usage of native hercules.
 

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my screenshots are from a real machine, no dosbox, it's a schneider euro-pc with nec v20 upgrade gfx-chip is hercules/cga/plt capable. I m using an MCE-Adapter the routs the signal to vga. I have to use a capable TFT for this. 18khz/50hz like Nec 71vm/1970nxp. In 1988 I bought my first PC that was a schneider euro-pc too, but I made the mistake to order it with CGA monitor...if I had known how nice hires hercules was...
 

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my screenshots are from a real machine, no dosbox, it's a schneider euro-pc with nec v20 upgrade gfx-chip is hercules/cga/plt capable. I m using an MCE-Adapter the routs the signal to vga. I have to use a capable TFT for this. 18khz/50hz like Nec 71vm/1970nxp. In 1988 I bought my first PC that was a schneider euro-pc too, but I made the mistake to order it with CGA monitor...if I had known how nice hires hercules was...
Hello, could you please tell me what these two games are?
 
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