Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!rutgers!ucsd!nprdc!malloy
From: malloy@nprdc.arpa (Sean Malloy)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Flight Simulator 3.0
Message-ID: <681@james.nprdc.arpa>
Date: 25 Jul 88 14:34:46 GMT
References: <2546@mipos3.intel.com> <16800323@clio> <5739@gssc.UUCP>
Reply-To: malloy@nprdc.arpa (Sean Malloy)
Organization: Navy Personnel R&D Center, San Diego
Lines: 44

In article <5739@gssc.UUCP> bradd@gssc.UUCP (Brad Davis) writes:
>In article <16800323@clio> berger@clio.las.uiuc.edu writes:
>>
>>In defense of the developer, your video board should have been tested
>>for IBM compatibility!  You can't expect program developers to have
>>one of every so-called "compatible" on the market.
>>
>
>   Compatibility is a relative term; . . .
>
>     . . .  I bought a copy of Gauntlet, and was rather unhappy when it
>didn't work on any of the four EGAs I could get my hands on.  I called them
>about this and they confirmed that it didn't run on EGAs made by
>Paradise, Quadram or on (at least some) of the IBM PS/2 motherboard VGAs.

Or on the Video-7 Vega, either -- I had the same problem; the program
would get up to the 'pick your character' screen, then turn to garbage.

I was the original poster describing my call to Microsoft about the FS3.0
color problem, and have been watching the followups with some amusement.

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2.x has been one of the big "IBM compatibility"
tests for graphics cards; apparently it was one of the nastier direct-
write-to-screen-memory-and-display-card-registers programs available. Now,
with the release of FS 3.0, it's becoming apparent that FS 3.0 is going to
become to EGA compatibility what 2.x was to CGA compatibility. 

All of the arguments about whether or not it was Microsoft's 'responsibility'
to test FS 3.0 with other EGA cards is a moot point. They didn't, and some
EGA cards won't work in 640x350x16 mode. I would be willing to bet that
every single one of the cards that won't work advertise full register-level
compatibility. As I see it, the fault doesn't lie with Microsoft -- the
program was written to use the IBM EGA standard -- but with the board
manufacturers. If they advertise full compatibility with the IBM EGA, and
software that runs on the IBM board won't run on their board, then they're
falsely advertising their product. 




	Sean Malloy
	Navy Personnel Research & Development Center
	San Diego, CA 92152-6800
	malloy@nprdc.arpa