Dog Catcher on the TRS-80 Model 4 Hi-Res
This game actually requires one of the hi-res graphics cards for the Model 4. I happen to have a Gate Array version, and since the originals are a bit hard to come by, I chose to purchase Ian Mavric's New Improved Grafyx 5.1 v2 cards (http://members.iinet.net.au/~ianmav/hires/hires.htm) back in February of 2020, when he had them on sale. Normally, the TRS-80 Model 4 is capable of only doing block character graphics, and there are a LOT of games out there that are very well done for what they had to work with. The hi-res board gives the Model 4 capability of doing either 640×240 (Model 4 mode) or 512×192 (Model 3 mode) bitmapped graphics. Only 1 bit (on or of) for each pixel, but it was a big improvement over the block character graphics originally available. I actually bought the card because I wanted to be able to play Space Invaders on the TRS-80 in hi-res, and it works great, but decided to do the Dog Catcher video first. It's one of the games downloadable on his site, and kind of addictive, although fairly simple in concept. None of the hi-res games I've played yet seem to have any sound to them, although Space Invaders (Arcade port) and Lode Runner (MSX port) are both ports from systems with actual sound hardware as well, so not surprising the sound doesn't work. Sorry for my not made for YouTube voice, but decided I'd go ahead and talk a bit in this video, although you'll hear liberal sprinkling of the word shit throughout the video, that's about as bad as it gets. LOL!
This game actually requires one of the hi-res graphics cards for the Model 4. I happen to have a Gate Array version, and since the originals are a bit hard to come by, I chose to purchase Ian Mavric's New Improved Grafyx 5.1 v2 cards (http://members.iinet.net.au/~ianmav/hires/hires.htm) back in February of 2020, when he had them on sale. Normally, the TRS-80 Model 4 is capable of only doing block character graphics, and there are a LOT of games out there that are very well done for what they had to work with. The hi-res board gives the Model 4 capability of doing either 640×240 (Model 4 mode) or 512×192 (Model 3 mode) bitmapped graphics. Only 1 bit (on or of) for each pixel, but it was a big improvement over the block character graphics originally available. I actually bought the card because I wanted to be able to play Space Invaders on the TRS-80 in hi-res, and it works great, but decided to do the Dog Catcher video first. It's one of the games downloadable on his site, and kind of addictive, although fairly simple in concept. None of the hi-res games I've played yet seem to have any sound to them, although Space Invaders (Arcade port) and Lode Runner (MSX port) are both ports from systems with actual sound hardware as well, so not surprising the sound doesn't work. Sorry for my not made for YouTube voice, but decided I'd go ahead and talk a bit in this video, although you'll hear liberal sprinkling of the word shit throughout the video, that's about as bad as it gets. LOL!