can't get 16 colors mode in my B&W G3

[filipetolhuizen]

Hi there. I've been trying to set my desktop to 16 colors mode with no success. I've got 2 HDs, one with Mac OS 9.2.2 and the other with OS 8.6, but both won't show anything less than 256 colors. In Sheepshaver I actually get 16 colors and black & white modes with OS 8.6. Is there anyway I can do this on my G3?

 

[coius]

why do you want to?

 

[LCGuy]

I'd imagine that its probably to play an older game or something that requires 16 colour mode. Anyway, sadly, to my knowledge there is no way to run any modern Mac (G3+) at less than 256 colours, i'm afraid.

 

[bestobothworlds]

I'd imagine that its probably to play an older game or something that requires 16 colour mode. Anyway, sadly, to my knowledge there is no way to run any modern Mac (G3+) at less than 256 colours, i'm afraid.

I think I've been able to switch the 1st/2nd gen iMacs in my school to as low as Black and White. Those were G3s. I seem to remember there was a muppet game for all the school computers that needed 16 colors to run and would run perfectly on the G3 iMacs without any special modifications or patches.

 

[filipetolhuizen]

I read at the Apple's knowledge database that some videocards are limited to the minimum of 256 colors. Must be the case of my ATI Rage 128. Does anybody know if this limit applies to Nvidia cards too?

 

[Bolle]

my early Rev A imac cant display 16 colors and less...

 

[LCGuy]

how'd you do that, bestofbothworlds? I have a tray load iMac and it can only go down to 256. Some sort of software hack i guess?

 

[Quadraman]

Is it required to actually set it to 16 colors? Wouldn't an older piece of software just pick out the 16 colors it needs on a video card capable of supplying more? I can still run old CGA games on newer PC's with much higher resolution and color depth graphics cards in them, so why couldn't you do the same on a Mac?

 

[LCGuy]

Some really old games need it set to 16 colours or B&W. I know Glider does.

 

[madmax_2069]

my Radeon 7000 before i updated its firmware and driver use to do gray scale. but after i did that i could only do 256 color. i dont think ever could do 16 color on my r7000 in OS 9.x

 

[filipetolhuizen]

Is it required to actually set it to 16 colors?

Yes, some games asks for it and refuses to run if set to more.