This has also been reported in a lot of old NES games and had to be fixed, but essentially, here's this one:
Basically, the flickering Wizzrobes stay totally invisible at times on HD computers like Windows 7. This may not normally be an issue, but when playing ROMhack style quests with high damage, this shows up quite brutally and causes unnecessary hits and makes the levels unplayable. Is there any way this can be fixed?
-James
The screen isn't updating every frame, I guess. That's going to be an issue with either Allegro or Windows.
You could try changing the disable_direct_updating setting in ag.cfg; valid values are 0 and 1. If that doesn't do it, it probably won't be fixed at least until we get 32-bit color working, and maybe even until we stop using Allegro.
Ugh............
Well, at least that explains it.
-James
If you're using Windows 7 or Vista, try disabling the Compositor as its vsync code can perform badly with some software/computer displays (This solution won't work for programs operating in a Fullscreen Exclusive Display Mode because such programs disable the DWM's vsync implementation whenever their in focus).
I don't think framerate is the issue. I didn't have any dropped frames on it, I went through a lengthy test off-video for that. It was constantly between 59 and 61.
-James
I still think you should dpible-check vsync.
Also 32-bit color does work in ZC (change via config file). However you lose the menus when you use it (unknown bug).
I know what the issue with the menus is (unless there's something else I'm not aware of). All the GUI colors are palette indices in the 224-255 range. Interpreted as 32-bit colors, those are nearly indistinguishable.
A bigger problem is that resolutions don't scale above 320x240 correctly. It gets kinda crashy, too.
I imagine 32bit mode won't work well unless you operate at a minimum resolution of 640x480 as back in the 90's & early 2000's most games would go from looking like ass at resolutions below 640x480 to looking pretty amazing at 640x480 and above. I imagine video drivers and hardware isn't optimized for super low resolution 32bit display modes.