Apologies a bit or reminiscing going on here, possibly to justify why I have gone to the 286.
Nothing technical, so skip ahead if your want, a bit of a ‘Meg-a-sode ‘ for family guy fans. Click that button no one will blame you…
CGA Compatibility is not something I considered but I am a fan of the Diamond Speedstar series, my dream back then was always the VGA standard.
My first computer was a 286 Zenith Data Systems with CGA Display, which my dads work allowed personnel use for out of hours (no internet but Prince of Persia!). Got to admit I only liked the CGA standard when I bodged a cable and connected it to a TV screen via SCART, so the CGA colour effects worked as intended.
The computer was similar to the bad boy:
https://oldcrap.org/2020/10/30/zenith-supersport-286e/
I loved that machine unfortunately it died, convinced my dad to ask work when they swapped the computer, instead of scrapping to give it to him for me to try and repair, if I could not they could scrap it. My earliest repair job got it working it had CGA, 286-12, could use part of the upper memory for EMS around 200kb, cannot remember the exact amount, maybe expandable to about 4Mb or extended RAM, but even by then everything was going VGA.
Work gave dad a 386SX-25 it sucked think it was a similar form factor called Super Sport SX alright it was faster and could do more but just felt, well weak compared to the 286, I still have that system, but it is starting to fail (backlight/ LCD issue).
Then when the company closed offices in certain buildings my dad moved his main office computer to home (with permission as they were all outdated and due replacement).
And a 286 similar to this:
https://external-preview.redd.it/ZxSVI5e4wc6M … 53f15a7b4484f13
This is when I started really learning about the PC, now it was a big beast maybe even Anonymous Coward may approve, full size massive beast, even had an early version of a flat screen monitor, I even have the original operating system and manuals in their boxes, also boxed versions of Wordstar and Supercalc. Still had a MFM hard drive, which completely died, wish I still had this could have done so much with it today.