infiniteclouds wrote:I found this old guide.... interesting. http://www.oldskool.org/guides/tvdog/1kfaq.html#II.B.1 […]
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I found this old guide.... interesting. http://www.oldskool.org/guides/tvdog/1kfaq.html#II.B.1
II.B. Video
II.B.1. Can I install VGA on my system?
On the original 1000, 1000A, and 1000HD, no. On those systems, the BIOS will not scan for a video ROM or disable the onboard video. Matthew Electronics once manufactured a special EGA card for the original 1000, A, and HD, but it is no longer available. That said, it is generally possible to get a standard EGA card to work to some degree if you make a program for AUTOEXEC.BAT to enable it; see file (ftp://ftp.oldskool.org/pub/tvdog/tandy1000/do … ents/egat1k.txt)
One other problem you are likely to have is that an EGA card will want to use IRQ 2 for vertical retrace, which conflicts with t […]
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One other problem you are likely to have is that an EGA card will want to use IRQ 2 for vertical retrace, which conflicts with the hard drive; you need to have a hard drive controller that does not use an IRQ (or do without a hard drive). Upgrading the video on the original 1000, A, or HD is definitely a "hacker upgrade."
The EX and HX can have VGA but will need a special card because of their nonstandard expansion slots. The SX and TX need to have DIP switch 1 turned off. The SL's, TL's and RL's won't require any hardware changes; just plug in the card.
The RLX's and RSX's came standard with VGA. Both can accept upgrade video cards as well.
All 1000's that don't come standard with VGA will require that a special program be placed in AUTOEXEC.BAT to make sure the new video is recognized
So there was a special EGA card you could buy for the original Tandy 1000s which would've made it capable of 16-color on IBM-PC games that did not have TGA support. The later models like SX, TX and on having VGA support.
Now that's very interesting, I never heard of such a beast.
To answer your original question: was the Tandy the absolute best system for gaming? Probably not, but it was the most affordable IBM compatible system for gaming at around $1200 for the 1000sx with color monitor compared to say $3000-$4000 for an equivalent IBM XT based system. PC Jr was an inferior system for a number of reasons but cost I think about the same as the Tandy. If you wanted the absolute cheapest gaming system that was also a computer you were probably looking at the C64 which I think at the time was around $200?
When the games supported the Tandy mode, it was great. When they didn't, you got that crap 4 color CGA (yes I know some people like it, I'm not one of them 🤣). 3 voice sound, while not as good as Soundblaster or Adlib, was much better than beeps and boops of PC speaker. So yeah I would say for the 80-90% of the time that the game was compatible with the TGA graphics mode, you were set. When it wasn't, well at least you had better sound 🤣.
**note to PC Jr. fans: I'm not saying it was horrible, however the sidecar expansion, the chicklet infrared keyboard and the initial low memory it was definitely not as good as the 1000 or 1000sx. The Tandy was arguably what the PC Jr. should have been in the first place. A properly expanded PC Jr. is not a bad system though and the cartridge slots are definitely an interesting option not common on other PC compatibles.