Usually, an empty socket on late MDA/CGA clones is meant to take a character ROM that can be used instead of the integrated CP437 ROM. The integrated graphics chips usually has a pin that chooses between internal and external ROM. If the manufacturer of your card invested into a DIP socket for the …

I picked up a W86855AF MGA board. (thanks Grzyb) And it has an empty dip socket on the board. It looks like this socket is usually unpopulated. But I was wondering what it was for. Is this an extra character rom option?

You mean an 18 kHz HSYNC monochrome monitor, like IBM 5151, right? There's plenty of options: - Hercules Graphics Card - generic EGA, only supports modes 7 and F on such monitors - some (or all?) of the ATI EGA Wonder series, also support modes other than 7 and F - some early VGA clones with …

Is there an inexpensive way to get graphics on a monochrome monitor? Hercules boards seem to be pricey.

Sorry if this is the wrong forum for this post. I'm going to be re-purposing some cheap thin client type computers for some retro dos/windows emulation. And I was planning to repaint the cases in some interesting colors. I've heard that sometimes dyes are better for this than spray paints. Can …

PCBway or JLCpcb or whichever one suits your pricing :) Since these are ISA cards, you'll potentially need to select "ENIG" finish so there's no risk of the lead solder card pads reacting with the gold contacts of the ISA slot. For my prototypes so far I've just used whatever's cheapest, but those …

I found this link: https://github.com/schlae/ibm-extender And it has files for creating the circuit boards for these cards. I've done a fair amount of soldering. But I've never had PCBs made before. Can someone suggest a place that can accept these fab files and ship me a few sets of these cards? …

I apologize if this question comes up often. I'm getting ready to do some vintage builds... 8088 through 486. And I'd like to find a modern case or at least new old stock that will accept an AT motherboard, preferably something small or slimline desktop shaped. Can anyone suggest a good case for …