22 Sep
2004
22 Sep
'04
10:45 p.m.
On Wed, 22 Sep 2004, William Donzelli wrote:
In the old days of the XT and CGA, what text modes
were supported?
I have a Wyse PC+ - an oddball XT class machine - that could run DOS in
several weird text modes (96 and 132 column, I think). I remember using it
this way for some stuff, but often certain programs would barf (Norton
Commander being one of them).
Were these modes standard?
No, but not especially rare.
The "standard" text modes were:
CGA: (startying at segment B800)
0? B&W 40 x 25
1? Color 40 x 25
2 B&W 80 x 25
3 Color 80 x 25
MDA: (starting at segment B000)
7 Mono 80 x 25
Int 10, fn 0F would return which mode you were in.
Almost all software supported modes 3 and 7. Some demented P.O.S.
programs would insist on trying to display color, even if you had
deliberately switched into mode 2.
I still have the PC+, and I doubt I will ever get rid
of it for some
reason. It is a pretty weird machine, and I don't think many were made.
Wyse made some fun weird stuff!
I liked the Wyse 700 / Amdek 1280 monitor and "special" video board, that
did 1280 x 800? b*w pixels, and could be easily coerced into 160 x 50 text
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin(a)xenosoft.com