Hi. I just installed CGA in my 5170 and how it look. Before i used MDA and text looks sharp on this screen.
That's how CGA is supposed to look. CGA only has 8x8 pixels per character, while MDA has 9x14 pixels.
Hi. Yes, IBM CGA is an ugly duckling. Laptops with LC display sometimes have CGA with 400 lines.
There are CGA/MGA cards with a 400 line jumper, but if set they require monitors that can do 25 KHz (horiz sync).
@n0m4d You could install a Hercules card (MGA) instead of the MDA or CGA board and have hi-res text and graphics.
SIMCGA and other CGA emulators would then help run your CGA games.
On DOS, running MSHERC utility can help to make applications detect Hercules and not just plain MDA.
MSHERC is a runtime for Microsoft programs, but it also sets the appropriate registers of the Hercules card so it can be detected.
"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel
//My video channel//
Jo22 wrote on 2025-01-03, 09:20:MSHERC is a runtime for Microsoft programs, but it also sets the appropriate registers of the Hercules card so it can be detected.
MSHERC is a INT10 extension that makes the Hercules graphics mode supported by the video BIOS. This means that text oriented programs (like for example BASIC interpreters) can output text using BIOS functions in the Hercules mode, just as they can also do in any CGA/EGA/VGA graphics mode. MSHERC also identifies itself to programs that support MSHERC. But MSHERC does nothing that helps programs with native Hercules support to detect Hercules cards. Hercules differs from MDA in the bits supported in the status register (IIRC, MDA did not support the VBlank information in bit 7), and programs with native Hercules support just check whether they can observe bit 7 to toggle within 30ms (it should pulse every 20ms at 50Hz Hercules screen refresh rate). These programs do not need MSHERC to detect a Hercules card.
mkarcher wrote on 2025-01-03, 22:22:Jo22 wrote on 2025-01-03, 09:20:MSHERC is a runtime for Microsoft programs, but it also sets the appropriate registers of the Hercules card so it can be detected.
MSHERC is a INT10 extension that makes the Hercules graphics mode supported by the video BIOS. [..]
I'm not sure why we even arguing again, it tires me.
I did my best to write down the matter in a short, idiot proof sentence.
And I still failed. 😮💨 Whatsoever.
Ok, I will try another time: If MSHERC is loaded (maybe as MSHERC /HALF if needed), then Checkit v3 identifies the Hercules card in the summary.
Checkit v3 will also label the Hercules frame buffer region in the memory browser then.
A happy new year.
"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel
//My video channel//
Jo22 wrote on 2025-01-03, 22:43:Ok, I will try another time: If MSHERC is loaded (maybe as MSHERC /HALF if needed), then Checkit v3 identifies the Hercules card in the summary.
Checkit v3 will also label the Hercules frame buffer region in the memory browser then.
True.
That's because Checkit doesn't try to detect Hercules by direct I/O - it only uses BIOS calls, in case of Hercules provided by MSHERC.
But it's perfectly possible to tell apart MDA and Hercules by direct I/O, without MSHERC or any other TSR.
Nie rzucim ziemi, skąd nasz root!
