16 Colour Graphics on the PC in 1982!

[@helldog3105]

I find these different graphics mode videos extremely fascinating. I didn't come to PC until the early 90's, and I missed out on all of these interesting different formats. I have read a bit about them, but my knowledge is sorely lacking. So watching these is both informative and entertaining. Thank you for that.

[@PCRetroTech]

Thanks. Glad you enjoyed it!

[@DxDeksor]

Thanks for the comment show! I'd love to see more programs supporting the plantronics mode. It's very simple (it's just cga twice) and actually quite available. The ATI small wonder does support it as well

[@PCRetroTech]

I have an ATI Wonder 800+ and I thought they might have Plantronics support in that too, but from memory I tried this and nothing happened. But I was aware of the Small Wonder support. After watching this video back, it occurred to me that it would have been nice to have something more like a game in Plantronics mode. I definitely have to write something, at least when life settles back down to a normal pace. It's a bit crazy at the moment.

[@incubus3827]

Excellent video. I was always curious about Plantronics since my 1st PC (Philips NMS TC100) had an onboard adaptor listed as "Plantronics Colorplus". Lacking the documentation on how to program it, I was only ever able to use the CGA modes (and I never found any software which took advantage of it, either). Thank you for finally unveiling these secrets so elusive to my teenage self.

[@PCRetroTech]

Glad I could help!

[@TheSulross]

this is definitely THE channel for indepth coverage on vintage PC graphics - which I confess is interesting (on the Mac platform the graphics framebuffers were more straightforward). Would indeed like to see more on V20. They were interesting back in the day, but then Intel introduced the 80386 and that was a major attention getter that sucked all the CPU oxygen out of the air

[@PCRetroTech]

Thanks for the positive comments. I agree technology advanced too quickly to really see what was possible with the early PC.

[@ichich9153]

Reminds me of my 1st PC compatible... my Amstrad PC 1512 (and its 16 colors in 640 by 200) --- thumbs up!

[@PCRetroTech]

That was also my first PC compatible. It was the predecessor to this machine.

[@jommoner]

PC1512 640x200 16 colors - my first PC! Always wanted a V30; GEM desktop on PC1512 ran in this mode too!

[@Blaze-zm7zt]

Hey man, love the show, new segment is cool. Keep it up, my favorite episodes are the more "obscure" things.

[@PCRetroTech]

Glad you like them! I definitely like finding obscure things, that's for sure!

[@pmsrodrigues]

That is my first PC. Exact same configuration and everything. 😍

[@PCRetroTech]

Nice!

[@JimLeonard]

There are indeed additional instructions that are unique to the NEC v20/v30 CPUs, such as a nybble swap within an 8-bit register. You can look at the datasheet to find all of them, however doing so is frustrating because NEC could not use the same opcode names as Intel for copyright reasons. I have never run across a compiler or assembler for the IBM PC and compatibles that supported these extra instructions. It is easy enough to add your own support, of course.

[@PCRetroTech]

Apparently Eric Isaacson's A86 supports the NEC extra instructions [1]. I didn't check yet whether it uses the NEC mnemonics or some Intel format version of them. The nybble swap should be useful for CGA. As you mention there are macro packs for MASM available on Simtelnet so you can add NEC instruction support. It's a shame about the lack of compilers though. [1] www.eji.com/A86/features.htm

[@wonk1976]

I’ve got a V30 in my pc1640 this allows windows 3.0 to run in EGA with the Microsoft driver and gives a nice speed boost

[@PCRetroTech]

Nice!

[@kuro68000]

GEM Paint... I don't remember what happened to our mouse but we lost it somehow. You can move the cursor with the keyboard. From memory is the number pad, might need to press NumLock.

[@PCRetroTech]

Technically, I guess so. It would be pretty painful though I suspect.

[@kuro68000]

@@PCRetroTech yes. Yes it was. Then again I used to play Hard Driving on it at sub 1 FPS, so... I guess as a kid it didn't seem so bad.

[@minerillusion]

Interesting you should mention Hercules graphics. I installed the DSL in the CEO's house back in the late 90's. I think I was in Danville? I forget where... I worked the entire bay area back then. This was during the beta testing of DSL before it was released to the public.

[@PCRetroTech]

Sounds like they would have been fun times!

[@MaxOakland]

The Gemsoft Paint program is funny because it looks like they just copied and pasted the paintbrush patters you can use in MacPaint from 1984

[@PCRetroTech]

Yeah, a few people have noted the similarity. PCPaint was 1984 as well and I don't know who copied from who.

[@djdjukic]

It's interesting to look at these intermediary steps between the major standards, CGA and EGA... Crazy to think that VGA only came out three years after EGA. Breakneck pace of progress for today's standards. I just recently got a 10-bit monitor (after more than 20 years of 8bpc!) and looking at those smooth, smooth 1024-level gradients gave me a little bit of that old feeling back.

[@PCRetroTech]

I've never heard of a 10 bit monitor. What sort of connector does it have? Just a DB9 like CGA/EGA? I guess it has to be an analog signal though, rather than the TTL signal that CGA/EGA used. Sounds like a very interesting piece of hardware you have anyway. Look after that well!!

[@djdjukic]

@@PCRetroTech Haha, maybe I made it sound better than it is, it's nothing special for today's standards, it's a regular modern IPS LCD with 10 bits per color, HP 27f 4k.

[@PCRetroTech]

@@djdjukic Oh, that kind of 10 bits. Yes, I see now. Those can be run over with a steamroller without affecting their value. :-)

[@ThorLite]

Great stuff my first PC was the 1640.Well done.

[@jeremiefaucher-goulet3365]

How does CGA composite fitting in all this? It's 16 colors too, and got praised a lot by the 8-bit guy.

[@PCRetroTech]

It's been a while since composite appeared in one of my videos. It's tricky in Europe due to the composite output being NTSC and monitors here being PAL.

[@jeremiefaucher-goulet3365]

@@PCRetroTech Interesting. I had no idea there wasn't any PAL CGA cards made. Weird...

[@PCRetroTech]

@@jeremiefaucher-goulet3365 There may have been, but the IBM ones were NTSC. I'm actually not sure why they didn't make a PAL version for Europe.

[@jeremiefaucher-goulet3365]

@@PCRetroTech Who needs colors anyway? IBM computers aren't toys, it's for serious work. 🤷

[@PCRetroTech]

@@jeremiefaucher-goulet3365 That would certainly be my first guess. :-)

[@mogwaay]

Very interesting dives into Plantronics modes. Have a PEGA1A and a PEGA2A card so I'm interested to try them with a Plantronics mode. What was the mystery switch settings you used on the PEGA1A card to get it to work? Also I wonder if there were any old games that offered Plantronics modes alongside CGA 🤔

[@PCRetroTech]

I have to admit I tried switch settings randomly until it worked. I read somewhere that the old Sierra games offered Plantronics support. But people often get the Amstrad PC1512 16 colour mode mixed up. That definitely was supported by some Sierra games (though it actually wasn't available by default in some of them for some strange reason). I admit I intended to test out the Sierra games and didn't get around to it for this video. Another game I'm aware of is Planet X3, though I don't have a copy to try. Other than that, I am not aware of any others that supported Plantronics.

[@espfusion]

Guess we're not counting the hacky 160x100 16-color CGA "mode" you could get with text and CRTC fiddling.

[@PCRetroTech]

Not as a real graphics mode. Of course composite was also a possibility in North America. But yes, I guess I should have mentioned these.

[@okona1up]

Ahh, that glorious 1640!

[@104d_3rr0r_vince]

1986 was the release date of 1640. (Maybe 89 was the purchase?) Me likes new video format. Me wants more.

[@PCRetroTech]

Yes 89 was just the build date of my 1640 not the release date of the 1640.

[@viti95]

In my FastDoom testings, the Plantronics modes are faster compared to EGA ones, the video memory layout is much better and avoids lots of bit shifting. It could be better if the memory layout held 2 pixels per byte.

[@PCRetroTech]

That would align with my expectation. Thanks for mentioning it.

[@Plarndude]

I don’t have a fantastic comment. But I like your videos.

[@PCRetroTech]

That's ok, I appreciate the feedback!

[@drzeissler]

I am using GEM 1.2 on cga b+w...the old gem-versions are best before apple won the lawsuite. So no plantronics for me.

[@BlackEpyon]

TANDY!