The best way is to use a keyboard.

@procyon:
I remember that scene! 😀 But what is the point of linking to it in this thread?

Peter Swinkels wrote on 2021-09-10, 20:21:

@procyon:
I remember that scene! 😀 But what is the point of linking to it in this thread?

Just as a reminder that it's pretty old stuff your dealing with. 😁

And I love that scene and use any excuse to post it. 😜

Yes, this thread is old I admitted I was aware of that earlier. And anything DOS related is 20+ years old in most cases. Isn’t that the point of this whole website?

Is it possible to determine the graphics adapter using Q(uick)Basic, at least for compatibility with CGA-EGA-VGA?

You can use Int 10h function 1Ah to get "Display Combination"

In this document at the bottom of page 21: http://www2.ift.ulaval.ca/~marchand/ift17583/dosints.pdf

If you call Int 10h/1Ah then BL will contain the "active display code".

See here for more information on how to call interrupts in QuickBasic (QBasic doesn't support this): http://www.petesqbsite.com/sections/tutorials … interrupts.html

@pano69:
QBasic doesn't support CALL INTERRUPT but it does support CALL ABSOLUTE. I've never done it myself, but it should be possible to write a machine language procedure to call interrupts using that statement.

Peter Swinkels wrote on 2022-06-28, 21:54:

@pano69:
QBasic doesn't support CALL INTERRUPT but it does support CALL ABSOLUTE. I've never done it myself, but it should be possible to write a machine language procedure to call interrupts using that statement.

Ah, okay. I'm not that familier with QBasic to be honest. But having said that, I haven't touch QuickBasic in any meaningful way either for the past 25 or so years 😀

I guess if people are hellbent on getting interrupts to work in QBasic then the CALL ABSOLUTE could work (like yourself, I never used it) but I guess when you come to a point like that it might be useful to ask yourself if QBasic is actually the way forward.

But then again, I guess the masochism of using old computer systems is part of the charm. 😀

Perhaps the op should consider using C or C++. Or even Turbo Pascal.

Peter Swinkels wrote on 2022-06-29, 10:20:

Perhaps the op should consider using C or C++. Or even Turbo Pascal.

Helped at the cyberforum:

1ON ERROR GOTO etrap
2er = 0
3SCREEN 12: SCREEN 0
4ON ERROR GOTO 0
5IF er = 0 THEN a$ = "VGA": GOTO pr
6 
7ON ERROR GOTO etrap
8er = 0
9SCREEN 9: SCREEN 0
10ON ERROR GOTO 0
11IF er = 0 THEN a$ = "EGA": GOTO pr
12 
13ON ERROR GOTO etrap
14er = 0
15SCREEN 2: SCREEN 0
16ON ERROR GOTO 0
17IF er = 0 THEN a$ = "CGA": GOTO pr
18 
19a$ = "Unknown"
20pr:
21PRINT "Video adapter is "; a$
22END
23etrap:
24er = ERR
25RESUME NEXT

This could be adapted to other languages as well:
https://www.phatcode.net/articles.php?id=210

EMS for QuickBASIC

For CGA emulation in Hercules there is HGCIBM.
Is there a solution to emulate EGA in Tandy (PCJr)?
Because the video modes are similar (320 × 200 × 16) — https://groups.google.com/g/comp.sys.tandy/c/qQ7XYKSLItA
And also, perhaps, similar solutions for Olivetti and Plantronics Colorplus?

Looks like the issue has been resolved, thanks for sharing — Re: Emulation of rare graphics adapters

Do you know further games besides Tyrian and crusade (what I read here) that use 16BIT extender?