First point :
That occasionally happened to my Fujikama brand TVGA8900 back in the day . You can use the TVGA utils to switch it back to color mode, if memory serves .

Second point :
Try using TVGA utils to switch it to CGA mode before launching the game .

I hope this is the right set of utils .

Going from memory, smonitor.exe allows you to set monitor type and svm.exe changes video mode .

Yes, ISA Tridents (and some other cards) do intermittently mis-recognize DDC monitors as monochrome, it's a well-known issue, easily solved with SMONITOR.EXE
But we're talking here about a modern card - safe bet it's free of this issue, so the problem must be somewhere else...

Grzyb wrote on 2020-04-16, 18:53:

Yes, ISA Tridents (and some other cards) do intermittently mis-recognize DDC monitors as monochrome, it's a well-known issue, easily solved with SMONITOR.EXE
But we're talking here about a modern card - safe bet it's free of this issue, so the problem must be somewhere else...

I'm inclined to agree. I'll try the utility tonight to see if it helps.

Initially, I had some bad solder joints on pins 2, 3, and 4 of the TVGA9000 chip (the blue, green, and red signals respectively) that caused some barely readable text. That problem is sorted out, but after looking over the card schematic and the VGA connector pinout, I'm starting to think maybe the monitor ID portion of the circuit has a problem. I'll check those components as well.

Grzyb wrote on 2020-04-16, 18:53:

Yes, ISA Tridents (and some other cards) do intermittently mis-recognize DDC monitors as monochrome, it's a well-known issue, easily solved with SMONITOR.EXE
But we're talking here about a modern card - safe bet it's free of this issue, so the problem must be somewhere else...

That depends on if the issue is caused by card design and is not dependant on the TVGA9000 chip itself . I remember having that issue with a non DDC , TTX branded monitor when the tech was current . Also, unless the issue was specifically addressed in the design used for this modern card based on an old chip, I do not see why the said issue should be absent from the said design .

darry wrote on 2020-04-16, 19:11:

That depends on if the issue is caused by card design and is not dependant on the TVGA9000 chip itself . I remember having that issue with a non DDC , TTX branded monitor when the tech was current . Also, unless the issue was specifically addressed in the design used for this modern card based on an old chip, I do not see why the said issue should be absent from the said design .

I would actually be relieved if it was a design issue, because then I can stop checking solder joints and traces. 😜 I'll try the utilities out first before I start probing again.

I also had the monochrome issue way back in the day with an early 90s vintage Samsung VGA monitor and the Paradise VGA card in my family's old 386SX, but that was caused by my family kinking the monitor cable so bad at the connector that the red signal started flaking out and eventually became totally severed. I actually was using that same Paradise card in the Micro 8088 temporarily while waiting for the Trident chip to arrive.

Well, good news.

SMONITOR fixes the problem when the system boots in monochrome mode. That's making me 99% happy with the card's operation, although I wish the card wouldn't boot in monochrome mode at all and I still can't figure out why it's doing that.

I did point-to-point checks on the MONITOR pin of the TVGA9000 chip to the resistor, capacitor, and ferrite bead filter and pin 12 of the VGA connector to make sure everything was were it should have been and wasn't bridged. Everything checked out OK so I'm stumped. On 3 out of 4 boots, the card works like it's supposed to, but the other 25% of the time it boots in monochrome.

As far as that old game Archery I was trying to get working. It won't run at all with the TVGA9000 card. However, with the old Paradise card, the game loads with corrupted graphics and crashes to a DOS prompt at a certain point. I swapped out the V20 CPU with a spare 8088-1 CPU, and got the same results with both CPUs and both video cards. So I'm pretty sure that the game just has issues with the Micro 8088 board and VGA cards in general. The game works perfectly on my DTK Turbo XT clone, which has an Everex EGA card. Best guess I have is that this game just doesn't play well with certain hardware.

Happy smonitor.exe helped . I was really hoping svm.exe would help with the CGA compatibility. Oh well .

I just had a look at that card's schematic, and the TVGA9000i datasheet, and...

TVGA9000i pin 46 (MONITOR) is connected to the VGA connector pin 12 (Monitor ID Bit 1)

So, it works as designed.
WIth DDC2, pin 12 is serial I²C data, ie. sometimes 0, sometimes 1.
If you want a DDC2 monitor always detected as color, you need to disconnect that signal.

Grzyb wrote on 2020-04-16, 18:53:

But we're talking here about a modern card - safe bet it's free of this issue

Oops, I lost the bet 😁

Grzyb wrote on 2020-04-17, 02:03:

If you want a DDC2 monitor always detected as color, you need to disconnect that signal.

Thankfully I'm using this 8088 system with an A/B switch to another machine and I have plenty of VGA monitor cables. I just took the male end of the VGA cable and bent pin 12 out of the way.

Rebooted about a dozen times, a combination of CTRL-ALT-DEL, reset button, and power on/off. Color every time.

I'm calling this issue resolved. 😜 Thanks for the help.

Funny, I just stumbled across this thread, looking for nothing in specific - but, adding to the topic, I also built this card and found the same issue with this and an old TVGA9000i 16bit ISA on a TFT (occasionally booting up B/W). So, on the one hand, I can confirm this and on the other hand: thanks a ton @Grzyb, for the DDC2 hint!

Some more related info...
I've got another card with the same problem: Orchid Fahrenheit 1280, based on S3 924
Can't find an appropriate utility from Orchid, so I tried Trident's SMONITOR.EXE, and... it worked!
So, it's likely to work with other VGA cards as well...