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VGA1024.EXE, Paradise video graphics switcher

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First post, by Asaki

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I found this the other day, I don't know how practical it is, but it's kind of neat to play with.

It's a program for Paradise graphics cards (and maybe others?) that will let you switch between different graphics modes in DOS (CGA/EGA/VGA/MDA/Herc/etc). If your card isn't supported, it will just give you an error message.

It was supposed to be included on some official utility disk, but I gave up trying to find that when I found a loose copy of the program on an FTP (here). The readme I included sounds like it comes from a newer version of the program (intended for Tandy computers?), but it's pretty close.

I only tried out a few different games with it, it got Space Quest I to run in monochrome Hercules mode just fine =) Infocom games ran in CGA mode, but unsurprisingly, Wolfenstein 3D just hangs.

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    vga1024.zip
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    178 downloads
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    Fair use/fair dealing exception

Reply 1 of 5, by konc

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Just for clarification: this utility is intended for the Paradise VGA cards, specifically the "VGA 1024" model having the WD90C00 chipset.
Unfortunately it's very-very chipset dependent.

A similar utility for a card with the same chipset is also available at vogonsdrivers, it comes with the drivers disks of Prisma VGART 1024 card (category Graphics -> Other)

What's really neat about the utility Asaki posted is that you can set your card permanently to a mode, without loosing the setting after a reboot.

Reply 2 of 5, by Jo22

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Interesting thread! I do have a floppy disk for a Paradise card, too. Is there any interest in it ?
- As far as I know, the PVGA1,1A,1B and WD90C00 are quite similar (speaking under correction).
It comes with several utilities and drivers for popular software from the 80s..
I do also have some VESA VBE 1.2 drivers floating around.

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Reply 3 of 5, by keropi

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I am pretty sure I have the same utility (called VGAMODE.EXE this time) for my WC90C33 cards, it even allows you to set a mode and reboot to that mode overriding the default vga one

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Reply 4 of 5, by Asaki

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konc wrote:

Just for clarification: this utility is intended for the Paradise VGA cards, specifically the "VGA 1024" model having the WD90C00 chipset.
Unfortunately it's very-very chipset dependent.

I have a different chipset, and it still ran, so it's probably worth trying out.

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