Game Requirements

Chilly Willy · Post by **Chilly Willy** » Wed Nov 04, 2015 4:04 pm

When you read the following on a box, what do you think the memory requirements are?

Requires 512K for EGA (256K) & Tandy graphics

Quadko · Post by **Quadko** » Thu Nov 05, 2015 10:19 am

That it will run great in DosBox?

Probably is saying a machine with less than the full 640k can run it, but needs more memory for EGA than CGA. And if you've got 640k and a Vga card, you are golden.

486 player · Post by **486 player** » Sun Nov 08, 2015 4:25 am

256 kB on video card

Quadko · Post by **Quadko** » Sun Nov 08, 2015 11:00 am

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_Graphics_Adapter

The original IBM EGA card had 64k of onboard RAM and required a daughterboard to add an additional 64k (cards with 64k are limited to 4 colors when 640x350 mode is used). All third-party cards came with 128k already installed and some even 256k, allowing multiple graphics pages.

I hadn't remembered EGA cards had variable/expandable amounts of memory, cool!

So, probably "fully" means:
IBM PC with 512k RAM/conventional memory and EGA card with 256k memory installed required to play game in EGA graphics mode.
- or -
Tandy Computer with 512k memory to play game in Tandy graphics mode.

And I assume that means the game will play in CGA mode on computers with less than 512k of memory or not enough EGA card memory.

Rwolf · Post by **Rwolf** » Sun Nov 08, 2015 5:42 pm

The first IBM AT (6MHz 286) that I used was ordered with a 64kB EGA card.

When it arrived, the EGA was on back-order, couldn't be cancelled, and couldn't be delivered for 6 months. Then I saw an advert for a competing brand with 256kB onboard which came in a bundle with this new 'Windows' GUI, and was cheaper than the IBM original too.

Once the 64kB card arrived, it was only used for testing to make sure of backwards compatibility to the minimum reference hardware, as upgrading the memory was ridiculously expensive.