Super MegaZeux

Super MegaZeux
Author	MadBrain, Akwende, Exophase
Company	n/a
Release Date	n/a
Genre	MegaZeux Fork, regular feature since 2.69
Download	DMZX Archive

Super MegaZeux (or SMZX mode) is the name for an alternative graphics mode accessible through MegaZeux. Its first mode (SMZX mode 1) was first introduced by MadBrain in a fork of 2.51s3.2; this original version was referred to as Super MegaZeux 100 Alpha (smzx100a). It relied on a little-documented text mode supported by NVIDIA, C&T, ATI, and possibly other chipsets. SMZX mode 1 was included in MZXAk, but not in any other MZX releases until MZX 2.69, which sported the original mode plus the more advanced mode 2. Mode 3 was introduced in 2.80, and does not correlate to an actual hardware text mode (as MZX no longer actually relied on text mode).

SMZX mode can be accessed by setting the SMZX_MODE counter to 1, 2, or 3. In the editor, the current SMZX mode can be changed with the Select Screen Mode dialog (F11).

How It Works

SMZX Mode halves the horizontal screen resolution in favor of adding two colors per character, effectively making a color palette of 256 unique colors.

Each "pixel" in SMZX can be either color I (represented in MZX mode as two 'off' pixels), color II ('on' and 'off'), color III ('off' and 'on') ad color IV (both 'on').

SMZX Mode 1

SMZX mode 1, the original mode, generates two new palette colors as intermediates of the two normal-mode colors specified by the palette. This is the simplest Super MegaZeux mode to use, and is used in conjunction with a standard 16 color MZX palette. The example below uses the default palette for simplicity.

SMZX Mode 1

Palette color	Derived by	Example (c4F)
Color I	Background of specified palette	42, 0, 0 (color 4)
Color II	1/3 between BG and FG colors	49, 21, 21
Color III	2/3 between BG and FG colors	56, 42, 42
Color IV	Foreground of specified palette	63, 63, 63 (color 15)

SMZX Mode 2

SMZX mode 2 was the first to allow 4 colors per character that the user had full control over. It uses the same color matrix as SMZX mode 1, but instead of automatically generating the new colors off of a standard 16 color palette, it references a user-defined 256 color palette to find the colors. All colors are defined in pairs of 2 hex digits, represented below by 0xNN. Given the same example palette as before, c4F, the colors are referenced as such:

SMZX Mode 2

Palette color	Derived by	Example (c4F)
Color I	Uses the background color for both hex digits	Color #0x44 (68 decimal)
Color II	Uses the FG for the most significant hex digit and the BG for the least significant hex digit	Color #0xF4 (244 decimal)
Color III	Uses the BG for the most significant hex digit and the FG fore the least significant hex digit	Color #0x4F (79 decimal)
Color IV	Uses the foreground color for both hex digits	Color #0xFF (255 decimal)

If the color indexes for colors II and III seem backwards to experienced programmers, it is not a mistake; this is how they actually are.

SMZX Mode 3

SMZX mode 3, which was added with the SDL port, uses a palette of 256 separate colors as opposed to 16 foreground and 16 background colors (each color, in hex, is a 2-digit pair consisting of the background color and the foreground color). Characters can access these as following:

SMZX Mode 3

Palette Color	Derived by	Example (c4F)
Color I	The color in the palette specified by cXX	Color #0x4F (79 decimal)
Color II	Color I plus 1	Color #0x50 (80 decimal)
Color III	Color I plus 2	Color #0x51 (81 decimal)
Color IV	Color I plus 3	Color #0x52 (82 decimal)

hence yielding a set of 64 unique color palettes. The colors wrap around, so a character set to color 255 (0xFF) will use color 0 for color II, etc.

As of MegaZeux 2.90, the color mappings of all 256 subpalettes in SMZX mode 3 can be customized either by using the SMZX_IDXx,y counter or by reassigning them in the SMZX palette editor.

Compatibility

There are some minor and/or past issues with SMZX mode:

• Modes 1 and 2 only work on selected video hardware in DOS versions. Most DOS emulators, including DOSBox, do not support SMZX. Mode 3 was invented for the SDL port and has no hardware equivalent.
  • Prior to MegaZeux 2.93, to support Super MegaZeux correctly on DOS versions of MegaZeux combined with certain graphics cards, the creation of an "ati_fix" file in the same directory as the MegaZeux executable was required. This causes MegaZeux to tweak the horizontal pixel shift register and reverse the nibble order of each color. Newer versions of MegaZeux attempt automatic detection.
  • In MegaZeux 2.93 and above, the SVGA renderer can be used to draw SMZX in software. This enables its use on any SVGA-compatible graphics card, albeit at a performance cost compared to the EGA renderer.
• Prior to MegaZeux 2.90, the Super MegaZeux modes did not leave room in the palette for the reserved UI colors, and thus the UI borrowed the game colors. This resulted in the UI palette looking corrupted, especially in SMZX mode 3. As of MegaZeux 2.90, the UI is almost always drawn in normal mode with the protected palette.
  • Hardware SMZX in DOS does not support this and still draws the UI in SMZX mode.
  • 8bpp software rendering also doesn't support this and will draw the UI in normal mode but with SMZX palette colors.
• SMZX modes are not supported by the (fairly limited) Nintendo DS port.

Compatible hardware

Hardware with Working SMZX Support

Video Adapter	Year	Device(s)	Last tested MZX version	Reverse nibbles?	Horizontal shift hack?	Reported by	Notes
ATI Mobility Radeon X300	2005	ThinkPad T43	smzxtest	Yes	Yes	pagerorgy
ATI Radeon 7000 (AGP)	2001	-	smzxtest	Yes	Yes	kepstin
ATI Radeon 8500	2001	-	2.70	Yes	Yes	?	ati_fix
ATI Radeon 9200 SE	2003	-	smzxtest	Yes	Yes	kepstin
ATI Rage Mobility-P (AGP)	1999	-	smzxtest	Yes	Yes	kepstin
ATI Rage XL (AGP)	1998	-	smzxtest	Yes	Yes	kepstin
C&T CT65548	1995	Toshiba Satellite 100CS	2.70	No	No	Lachesis
C&T F65554	1997	Toshiba Satellite Pro 465CDX	2.70	No	No	Jon Campbell
NVIDIA GeForce 2 MX100/200/400	2001	-	2.70, smzxtest	No	No	Terryn, kepstin
NVIDIA GeForce 4 MX420	2002	-	smzxtest	No	No	kepstin
NVIDIA GeForce 6200 (AGP)	2005	-	2.93	No	No	BFeely
NVIDIA RIVA TNT2	1999	-	2.70	No	No	?
Oak Technology OTi037C	1988	-	smzxtest	Yes	No	SpindleyQ
S3 UniChrome Pro (VIA VT3344)	2006	Neoware CA21 (VIA CN700)	2.93	No	No	Lachesis

Incompatible hardware

The most common failure mode for SMZX in video adapters seems to be a "pseudo-SMZX" mode with a 320x350 resolution where, for every pair of text mode pixels, the left 4-bit color is selected instead of combining their respective 4-bit colors into an 8-bit color.

Hardware with No SMZX Support

Video Adapter	Year	Device(s)	Last tested MZX version	Reported by	Notes
3dfx Voodoo 3 2000 (AGP)	1999	-	smzxtest	kepstin	Doubles left pixel, 16 colors.
ATI Mobility Radeon X1300	2006	IBM ThinkPad T60	smzxtest	pagerorgy	No doubling.
ATI Radeon HD 3450 (B629)	2007	-	2.93	Lachesis	Displays regular text mode, first 16 colors of VGA palette. The colors are derived from SMZX colors X0h and everything is shifted left by 1 pixel, suggesting ati_fix is being applied. This card needs further testing.
Intel 852GMV	2004	Dell Inspiron 1150	2.93	Lachesis	Doubles left pixel, first 16 colors of VGA palette.
Intel GMA 3100 (Intel G33)	2007	Dell Inspiron 530	2.93	Lachesis	Doubles left pixel, first 16 colors of VGA palette.
Intel HD Graphics 2000	2011	Intel Core i5-2400	smzxtest	Lachesis	Doubles left pixel, first 16 colors of VGA palette.
Matrox MGA Millenium	1995	-	smzxtest	kepstin	No doubling.
Matrox Millenium G200 (AGP)	1998	-	smzxtest	pagerorgy	No doubling.
NeoMagic MagicGraph128XD (NM2160)	1998	IBM ThinkPad 560X	2.93	Lachesis	Doubles left pixel, 16 colors.
NeoMagic MagicGraph256AV (NM2200)	1998	IBM ThinkPad 380Z	smzxtest	bartitsu59	Doubles left pixel, first 16 colors of VGA palette.
NeoMagic MagicGraph256ZX (NM2360)	1999	IBM ThinkPad 600X	2.93	Lachesis	Doubles left pixel, 16 colors.
NVIDIA GeForce 940MX	2016	Acer Aspire E 15 E5-575G-53VG	smzxtest	Lachesis	Doubles left pixel.
Paradise/Western Digital SVGA (unknown model)	1994	Compaq LTE Elite 4/50CX	2.70	Jon Campbell	Doubles left pixel, 16 colors.
S3 Trio64V	1995	Compaq 4704	2.93	Elig	Doubles left pixel, 16 colors.
SiS 530	1998	Compaq Presario 5184	smzxtest	indigoparadox	Doubles left pixel, first 16 colors of VGA palette.

Notable games that use SMZX mode

• & by Lancer-X
• Celestial Altar by Lancer-X
• red by Lancer-X
• Ultima IV (port) by Lancer-X
• Bloodlands by Maxim uses Mode 1 in a novel way: to blur the screen when the player takes damage.
• Akwende's Tetris, the pack-in game included with MZXak 1.0 and above
• Kaboink! by Logicow
• Hackers Can Turn Your Computer into a Bomb!
• Murder on the Yellow Express