VGA Magic
- Initial Release Date
- January 10, 1990
- Color Palette
- 8/18b
- Max Resolution
- 320x200
- License Status
- Shareware © BulletProof Software
- Codebase
- Forth 83, x86 Assembly
- Platform(s)
- MS-DOS
- Author(s)
- Mark I Manning III and Mark I Manning IV
Description
VGA Magic is a kaleidoscopic object spewer by the father and son team, Mark I Manning III and Mark I Manning IV of BulletProof Software. The Manning's BulletProof Software is unrelated to that of the Bulletproof FTP, or the video game developer Bullet-proof Software.
VGA Magic has four kaleidoscopic modes: three bouncing line modes, and a random walk mode. Outside of it's kaleidoscopic modes it also provides a "Polydiags" mode, which renders different patterns in a higher resolution 640x480x4b mode. These are really just demonstrations for the registered product, as they display quickly and then dump you back to the menu.
The default kaleidoscopic mode will not use palette cycling, but it can be enabled with the R, D, H, and Q keys. The way VGA Magic handles cycling is a bit odd. It tracks two separate palettes, and in some cycling modes rotates the one into the other.
- R: Standard palette cycling, rotates just the currently displayed palette
- D: Rotates both palettes, cycling the secondary one into the displayed one. Since the primary and secondary palettes are initially the same, a new palette must be loaded with the # keys for this mode to have visible differences from R mode.
- H: Rotates only half the displayed palette, leaving the top half and secondary palettes static.
- Q: Disables palette cycling.
Different palettes can be loaded by pressing 1-9, these will load into the currently displayed palette leaving the secondary off-screen palette alone.
Video
Screenshots
Downloads
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VGA Magic (Windows DOSBox edition):
The MS-DOS version compatible with Windows via DOSBox.
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VGA Magic (v1.0):
MS-DOS VGA Magic