| smbhax [sys=PC; cat=Sports; reg=UC] |
| | | I have some preliminary notes in entry 2030--for World Class Leader Board, the game by Links dev Access Software that I played on C64 as a kid. 386 is way more complicated, and its screen doesn't draw in slowly in mesmerizing staged fashion like WCLB's did. Well, there IS a draw-in process so I suppose if I nerfed the cycles in the DOSBOX settings--this is the GOG version--I could get it to draw in slow. ; )
386 command-line options from https://www.dosdays.co.uk/topics/Games/game_links386.php#HTS :
/h Display available command-line options (from v1.07 onward only).
/v Display the game's version number.
/m Display the amount of available memory for the game. The total memory, conventional memory (CM) and extended memory (XM).
/f Run the game with write cache flushing off - can alleviate problems running the game.
/j Bypass BIOS for video page switching. (Use this if the screen "breaks up" and redraws in strange patterns.)
/s Sound Blaster fail-safe mode - used to alleviate some interrupt conflicts on Sound Blaster cards.
/1 Force the game to run in 640 x 480 mode (VESA mode 101h). Use this if you get a blank picture.
/3 Force the game to run in 800 x 600 mode (VESA mode 103h).
/5 Force the game to run in 1024 x 768 mode (VESA mode 105h).
/p Use BIOS to change color palette instead of hardcoding addresses as usual. (Try this if the colors do not appear to be correct.)
/d Run the game in demo mode. Start a game as usual and select one or more RECORDED players(no human players). The game will play 18 holes, pause at the score card for 15 seconds, and then start the same game again.
/c Force file CRC usage (from v1.21 only) |
|
|
| | | You can put the command line params in the "GOLF.BAT" file--this came on floppies with the original game--in the game directory. For instance, to force it to run at 640x480 you'd edit the default
LINKS386.EXE %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6
to
LINKS386.EXE /1 %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6
(the /x can go before or after the %x; that order doesn't seem to matter) and the game would run with green top/bottom bars filling in the extra 80 lines with a tiling texture--the actual active game area will still be 640x480; even if you do /5 for 1024x768 you just get a small 640x400 game window inside big green tiled borders. |
|
|
| | | In fullscreen ddraw I started noticing 386's mouse pointer would sometimes stop responding. I think it was more to do with the autolock=true setting--but setting that to false can result in the tracking being off until you sorta mush the pointer into the side of the DOSBOX window. The lockout doesn't seem to be happening now in the openglnb window so maybe it'll be fine. Once right-clicking seemed to get me out of it...
sensitivity=80 seems to be closer to my Windows mouse speed, but seemed to yield stuttery mouse movement near the bottom of the DOSBOX window, so I guess I'd better leave it on 100. |
|
|
| | | | Looked through the 98 manual (manuals downloadable from my GOG game list page) and have googled--Links games don't seem to let you do topspin/backspin. Google AI blurb seemed to imply that those are kind of not realistic anyway as you always need topspin when hitting, so maybe they're kind of a cartoonish thing that came along in Nintendo golf games and stuff? |
|
|
| | | | 386 is 256 colors. 98 went up to 1280x1024 in 32-bit color. The colors are brighter in 386 though. : ) |
|
|
| | | | I *think* I noticed the mouse loss of focus thing happen in the openglnb window once yesterday--but it was much faster/easier to get back. |
|
|
| | |
Getting GOG games Links 386 Pro and Links LS 1998 Edition running and graphically sharpened up a bit in Windows 11! Oh and importing courses from one to the other!
0:00 - Links games on GOG
12:40 - fixing blurriness in Links 386 Pro
21:26 - getting Links LS 1998 Edition running (the wrong way)
24:13 - 98 importing problem
28:23 - regedit to fix importing
39:27 - 98 - don't need old hotfix
48:05 - batch importing & converting courses from 386 to 98
1:01:16 - 386 aspect correction
1:04:07 - 98 video resolution options
1:06:09 - 98 Reround / Resume
1:09:07 - 98 Control Panel Size
1:10:58 - 98 DirectX configuration
The GOG version of Links 386 Pro already comes with the courses imported from the first Links game, Links: The Challenge of Golf (also on GOG).
output=openglnb for DOSBOX fixed the default blurriness from GOG's "overlay" setting there--but didn't capture in my OBS Studio recording software, which I didn't realize while recording at first! So I went back and edited in ddraw for fullscreen capture. Since then though I got tired of ddraw losing mouse focus and being slow to get it back, and its very slow task switching that also forces it out of fullscreen, so going forward I'm gonna go with Window Capture (Capture Cursor & Client Area off) in OBS, and
fullscreen=false
windowresolution=1444x1054
output=openglnb
in DOSBOX, a window that, with title bar, fits my 1080p desktop snugly top-to-bottom.
Ah even after setting "aspect=true" in dosboxLinks386.conf, 386 isn't quite 4:3 because it's 640x400, not 640x480.
Swinging in 386 is the same click sequence on the swing meter as in 98: left-click and hold, release when the moving meter is around the top marker, then single left-click around the bottom marker. But in 386 the meter keeps going after you release, rather than reversing immediately--so in 386 you have to wait for it to get all the way to the top end of the meter, where it finally reverses.
98 wouldn't even run until I turned on Windows 95 compatibility mode--but it turned out 95 compatibility mode was blocking importing the 15 importable 386 courses! And in fact all I had to do both to get 98 running, and able to import, was turn off the 95 compat mode I'd turned on and instead use Windows' Registry Editor (regedit) to change registry key
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Access\PATHS\DefaultCD
from its default value 46 to apparently any other number--I chose "10"--per this comment by GOG user Aktuh: https://www.gog.com/forum/links_series/links_ls98/post28 . It sounds like most people haven't needed to do that--but at least one other person did, so at least I'm not crazy. In that sense.
After messing around with 386 and 98 a bit more, I decided to refund 98. It's higher res, but the graphics are darker and less colorful than the happy bright pixels of 386--despite 98's 24/32 color bits vs 386's mere 8--and 98's control feels worse than 386; like, there are situations where the ball's flight doesn't seem to make sense, a problem I haven't had in 386. So, I'll stick with 386 for my PC golf. ^ _^
(Now if only Access would sell me a download of the C64 version of World Class Leader Board, their superlative 8-bit golf game I loved as a kid for its magically hypnotic slow, staged draw-in of the landscapes and courses https://youtu.be/T0W7RT-Yp9E?t=300 . = ) And its comparatively simple yet addictive gameplay--perhaps ridiculously bamboozling, but perfect for video game masochism. = D) |
|
|
| | | | 386 was 1992. The next new Links game--not counting "An enhanced version called Links 386 CD was released for PC in 1995 that included audio comments by comedian Bobcat Goldthwait acting as the player's caddie, and an aerial flyby of each hole streamed from the game's CD-ROM. Re-branded versions of the game were also released for Microsoft Windows under the titles Microsoft Golf 2.0 (1994) and Microsoft Golf 3.0 (1996), part of the Microsoft Golf series." (Wikipedia)--was Links LS 1997 in 1996, which used what looks like a new engine. Although Wikipedia says it was in development "only" three years; and who knows, maybe it's the same core engine just up-rezzed. Anyway I know '98 didn't feel like huge differences in gameplay except somehow I found the control flakier; it seemed like most of the difference was in the much more elaborate graphics and audio. CPU players first appeared in '97. |
|
|
| | |
0:00 - start
0:41 - golfer edit
17:17 - Troon North (just a peek)
18:24 - Bountiful Municipal Golf Course
22:34 - multi-window display
23:32 - Club Distance Chart
26:52 - swinging
31:19 - narrowly missing the bunker!
39:58 - 51 foot putt!!!
41:16 - instant replay
41:50 - various blather
50:34 - bourgeois paranoia
I suppose the reason I'm enjoying video golf is because the sport is so dang bizarre.
Sinking a 51-foot putt on the first hole of one of the easier-looking courses I've checked out in Links so far--Bountiful Municipal Golf Course, which was in the first Links game, Links the Challenge of Golf (Links 386 Pro is the second game in the series and has a program to convert courses from the first game, which is also on GOG--but the GOG version of 386 Pro comes with those courses already included anyway!) (google says there's a "Bountiful Ridge Golf Course" in Utah, where Access Software was based)--is probably my greatest golfing achievement. ; D
- Had already forgot club max range is shown on mouseover in the club selection pop-up list!
- Full putting power meter probably ~ 80 feet
- Chip shot from rough took off way more than 50% power
Got real lucky just missing the bunker by like 5 inches on my semi-flubbed approach shot. ; D
I was almost hit by an errant disc golfer as I detoured to inspect the gurgling plumbing of the larger duck pond aka water hazard ; D in while walking for exercise in one of my small city's parks yesterday. Super bougie! ^ D^ |
|
|
| | | | Oh! Of course I can set DS4Windows to mimic a mouse--set u/d/l/r on analog stick to the arrows around the sides of the mouse diagram on the mapping screen, X button on left mouse button, O button on right mouse button, and set "Axis Config" to Output Mode "Controls." The mouse moves faster in the game screen for some reason so I set vertical scale and sensitivity (hm haven't experimented with those separately) to 0.7. Needed Dead Zone at 0.5 to avoid drift. Output Curve on "Enhanced Precision" helped for clickin' on tiny buttons? |
|
|
| | |
