Re: new Brutal Deluxe game

[spec@vax2.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector)]

In article supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer) writes...

>As for the Second Sight card, it might have a slow VGA chip
>compared to other PC video cards but I'm sure it can animate
>at least as fast as the IIGS video hardware, right?

    Possibly, but then only if your talking about 320x200 in
8-bit (256 color) depth. You would gain the ability to place
colors anywhere on the screen--compared with the GS's limited
256 color mode--but would then have the downside of "fat"
pixels caused by the VGA card doing scanline doubling. One of
my biggest pet-peeves about the PC, in its early days, were
games and programs that used MCGA mode with chunky/fat pixels.

    Then again, I'm not even sure it'd be as fast, consider how
it cannot even keep up when shadowing 320x200x16 SHR graphics in
most IIgs games and demos.

>Looking at it from this view, it is a good product for the IIGS.

    Well, I think it's pretty useful from the standpoint of wanting
to connect up a modern SVGA frequency monitor--either because your
old RGB monitor is failing, or, you just find it uneasy on your eyes.
(reading text on a ~10" viewable monitor with a 60 Hz refresh and a
dot pitch of 0.37 can cause eye strain easily. Don't forget this
is talking about an optimal condition screen, most out there are
now at least 10 years old and showing signs of age).

    There is potential in the Second Sight beyond this use, but
very few programmers have shown interest in tapping it and of
the few left out there, most don't even own the card. It is nice
to see Brutal Deluxe making an effort to spark some new life in
the card though (unfortunately many of us won't get a chance to
appreciate their latest work, since we don't own the card).

Mitchell Spector
spec@vax2.concordia.ca