18 Jan
2006
18 Jan
'06
1:10 p.m.
Brown was really brown on an IBM display anyway. It wasn't just a
darker color as other people had suggested. The cheaper rip off
monitors typically did not do "true" IBM brown. Why IBM made this a
design requirement, I have no idea. If I have time, I will analyze
the IBM color CGA monitor schematics I have. IBM went to a LOT of
trouble to combine signals for I, B, at 0 and R and G at 1 to get Brown.
I At 02:03 PM 1/18/2006, Jim Leonard wrote:
There is a bit of a spat going on in a few forums
regarding color
index #6 of IBM CGA. The old-timers know that it is brown from
experience and existing working hardware; the newbies (writing or
using emulators) are unwilling to accept that and are instead making
CGA palettes with dark yellow instead of brown.
Can anyone give me the history on why #6 is brown? Was it a design
mistake, or intentional? Is it a property of the monitor or something?
I can't find anything of substance to offer the newbies to convince
them otherwise; digital photos can be accused of being doctored or
miscalibrated (and yet is a digital photo showing "yellow" that
started this whole thing). About the only thing I can think of to
offer as proof is that the text colors in the VGA palette show
brown, and IBM wouldn't have done something like that by mistake --
or were they perpetuating a mistake?
--
Jim Leonard (trixter at oldskool.org) http://www.oldskool.org/
Want to help an ambitious games project? http://www.mobygames.com/
Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/