Try Googling or using the Wikipedia

Moving to PC as I consider this query a hardware related one...

I did both before posting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hercules_Graphics_Card
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tandy_1000

That was difficult 😉

?

I got these irrelevant pages when I searched each term:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tandy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hercules

How did you find your pages?

I think it helps to find information if you know a bit about it.

You might have avoided the teasing response of hal by stating that you had searched or if you had asked for proper search terms.
Nevertheless it's nothing to worry about.

I'm not worried. I'm genuinely interested to know how to find this sort of information on Wikipedia.

The Tandy 1000 link doesn't shed much light on the video output. How does it rank with the other display protocols?

The Wikipedia Tandy 1000 article links to the PCjr entry, noting Tandy "copied the IBM PCjr's 16-color graphics (PCjr's graphics were an extension of CGA video)". Following the link tells you a bit more about the PCjr's graphics capability. Basically, the PCjr had CGA abilities, but added to that a 320x200x16 colour mode and a 160x100x16 colour mode as well as some other higher resolution modes, but I've never seen any game that actually used those.

Also, the Tandy 1000 article links to Trixter's Oldskool Shrine to the Tandy. That has a lot of information.

As far as a simple ranking, I'd say something like this (which is likely to be argued with by some) from worst to best:

- Hercules. Hi-res but only 2 colors (black and white, amber, or green depending on the color of the monitor). The standard for black & white graphics on PCs.
- RGB CGA. Four colors, two palettes, one ugly mess. The standard for 4 color graphics on PCs.
- Composite CGA. Low-res, but 16 colors. Blurry.
- PCjr/Tandy. 16 colors in a higher res.
- EGA. 16 colors in higher resolutions, and became more widely supported than PCjr/Tandy. The standard for 16 color graphics on PCs.
- VGA/MCGA. 256 colors in CGA/EGA resolution. The standard for 256 color graphics on PCs.
- SVGA. Varies wildly, with poor standardization (VESA came late and was just getting good when Win95+DirectX came along). High resolutions, anywhere from 256 colors up to 16-bit color (65536 colors).

The list is mostly chronological too, except I think that CGA was was the original PC shipped with, and Hercules came after (not sure why it was created, except maybe for the higher-res video).

(search for:
hercules -> hercules video
tandy -> tandy computer
results on first page)

Thanx guys.

Thanx HunterZ. That answers my question.

Originally posted by HunterZ:

The list is mostly chronological too, except I think that CGA was was the original PC shipped with, and Hercules came after (not sure why it was created, except maybe for the higher-res video).

The primary reason that the Hercules video card was created and successfully sold is - Lotus 1-2-3. Everyone like the clear text and additional spreadsheet cells - plus the graphics output for charts/graphs in Lotus 1-2-3, that was the demand in the business world that was satisfied by the Hercules Graphics adapter. The IBM Monochrome adapter was sharp but did not do graphics, - the IBM Color Graphics Adapter did graphics but looked lousy for the spreasheet text display for day-to-day business use...

dvwjr

The Hercules cards and monitors were also far better from the ergonomic point of view. Anyone who had to work for more than just a few hours in front of a CGA screen will know what I mean. The memory still brings tears to my eyes - not because of nostalgia 🤣
In 80-column text modes CGA fonts were ugly and barely readable, and the refresh rate was 50 hz. I had to work with bright text on dark background, otherwise I couldn't stand the flickering! And the CGA color monitors of that time were like TV sets, but a lot more expensive - Low radiation? Anti-reflective coating? Hah!
There was only one positive thing about those CGA monitors: No fingerprints on the screen because of the static shock they delivered when someone came too near 😳
The Hercules cards had better fonts, 60 hz refresh rate, and cheaper monochrome monitors with just one radiating cathode ray gun instead of three - no wonder many people preferred this to CGA.

I used to have a 286 with a Hercules Monochrome monitor and video card. The video card was huge. Anyway, I played games liek SQ4 and it worked fine except that it was SO SLOOOOWWWW. And it wasn't even because it was a 286! I tried putting my dad's VGA (or was it SVGA?) card in and it significantly increased the speed of my games just by using a VGA card! Hercules monochrome seemed to slow it down. I still have that video card, actually. Along with the 40Mb giant big-momma brick-heavy hard drive.

If you were lucky enough and have a computer with some bios options you could enable bios shadowing for B000-B7FF (video pages) and maybe C800-CFFF (bios) addresses for improving speed for the Hercules Monochrome adaptor.

I see....well I didn't know anything about that stuff back then. I saved the motherboard and hung it on the wall but it just mysteriously disappeared. I have no idea what happened to it.

I had an 8MHz 286 with EGA, but the monitor blew out. For a year I used a Hercules monochrome setup. I was able to run hercules-supported games as well as CGA games (with the use of SIMCGA, which showed the colors as dithered patterns).

I then replaced the hercules stuff with an SVGA card and monitor and was able to play VGA games like SQ4, plus all my old EGA-only games.

I don't know how you SQ4 could be played on a hercules setup, as my recollection is that it only supported VGA/MCGA (320x200, 256 colors or 256 shades of gray), or EGA/Tandy (320x200 16 colors, released as a separate version because they re-optimized a lot of the art for 320x200 EGA, unlike later Sierra games that used 640x350 EGA and simply dithered the VGA graphics): http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/space-quest … ippers/techinfo

If I could go back in time, I'd put both the Herclues and SVGA cards in at the same time just for the fun of it. I doubt there was much that could take advantage of it back then though.

If you were lucky enough and have a computer with some bios options you could enable bios shadowing for B000-B7FF (video pages) and maybe C800-CFFF (bios) addresses for improving speed for the Hercules Monochrome adaptor.

I don't believe this would work. Shadowing only applies to ROM, so it wouldn't boost the speed for B000-B7FF, which is invariably filled with RAM. Second, while shadowing a video BIOS may provide a speed boost, a real Hercules card (remember its an MDA with better functionality) doesn't have a BIOS or need to use one.

unlike later Sierra games that used 640x350 EGA and simply dithered the VGA graphics

They use the 640x200 EGA mode, that way they only adjust in one dimension.

f I could go back in time, I'd put both the Herclues and SVGA cards in at the same time just for the fun of it. I doubt there was much that could take advantage of it back then though.

That was quite common debugging configuration. Many debuggers would use monochrome card for output. SoftICE did that, Turbo Debugger and CodeView had this option as well.

I don't know how you SQ4 could be played on a hercules setup, as my recollection is that it only supported VGA/MCGA (320x200, 256 colors or 256 shades of gray), or EGA/Tandy (320x200 16 colors, released as a separate version because they re-optimized a lot of the art for 320x200 EGA, unlike later Sierra games that used 640x350 EGA and simply dithered the VGA graphics): http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/space...s/techinfo

The version I had was the 16 colour version of SQ4 and it had a Hercules Monochrome driver.