General EGA compatibility issues for VESA cards; Specifically Commander Keen

[carangil]

I'm having a lot of issues on my VLB SVGA (ATI Mach32) trying to run some EGA games. Specifically KEEN4 is a good example of something that doesn't work; the motion is jerky and the colors are too dark. (And this is WITH 'SVGA compatibility' and 'fix jerky motion' settings turned on in the game!)

Does anyone know any specific drivers, TSRs or settings that can get a later VGA card running a little better with older games?

I have an ISA video card that works fine, but switching is such a hassle. (Maybe with some motivation I'll feel like building a 286/386!)

 

[Raven]

I've never used an ATI Mach32, but other VESA cards have worked fine on my 486 boxes for various EGA games, including at some point or another Commander Keen.

If you have another VLB card try that out, isolate the issue to the card if possible. If so, perhaps there are jumpering settings on the board to be looked into? If not, then I recommend you just get a different card for your box, or as you said, build a different system for that.

As a sidenote, Commander Keen games run perfectly well on my Tandy 1000RL, which is a 10mhz 8088 - heh. You don't need to build a 286 or 386 to run that game.