Today i installed a VGA adapter in my 8088 EuroPC.

I have some time tried to decide how to utilize the 8bit ISA slot. I had three options: 1. IDE CF Card - 2. SoundBlaster and 3. Graphics card. For a while now i have used a EGA card. The reasoning for not using SoundBlaster/Adlib is that so few games from that area uses Adlib/SB. Putting av CF card would destroy the charm of finding a diskette and waiting for it to load. I would also loose the nice floppy disk sound. An EGA card gave me more colors, but i still had the hassle of finding an CGA/EGA monitor. Also i only have one EGA/CGA monitor - my trusted C1084s - which i also use for my C64/Amiga. With a VGA card i could have the machine set up together with my other PC's and a VGA switch.

I tried two card i bought on eBay:
1. Cirrus Logic. I do not know the exact specs. But see picture below. It worked without changing any jumpers. The drawback was that everytime the diskdrive was used the screen would flicker. Maybe the power supply was not delivering enough power?
2. Trident TVGA9000i-3. It worked fine. I had to set the three jumpers to 8bit. No flickering.

After playing some games i can say that most games gained about 10% more speed. Ex. Digger, brucelee and OutRun. But F29 Retaliator and Elite was about twice (100%) faster. WOW! F29 was actually playable on this 9Mhz 8088.

If you want a VGA card that workes in a 8Bit machine take a look at this VGA 8bit Friendly Card list. http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?264 … y-ISA-VGA-cards

Congratulations! Good work! 😀

(PS: I'ver never got a TVGA9000 to work in my 286s. You're lucky having one with an 8088 friendly BIOS! Take care of it 😁)

XT = MDA/CGA
286 = EGA/VGA
386+ = VGA
486+ = SVGA

That's my approach. Interesting thing should be getting CGA-Composit out of the machine. That would be nice 😀
Having XT-IDE in the slot does not stop the usability of the Floppy for e.g. PC-Booter 😀 but it helps a lot for
using Win1x/2x/Geos/Gem etc. 😀

dr.zeissler wrote:

XT = MDA/CGA 286 = EGA/VGA 386+ = VGA 486+ = SVGA […]
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XT = MDA/CGA
286 = EGA/VGA
386+ = VGA
486+ = SVGA

That's my approach. Interesting thing should be getting CGA-Composit out of the machine. That would be nice 😀
Having XT-IDE in the slot does not stop the usability of the Floppy for e.g. PC-Booter 😀 but it helps a lot for
using Win1x/2x/Geos/Gem etc. 😀

i Agree, but having a VGA card does not mean i have to choose VGA resolution/Colors. - Can i resist?
I have tried getting composite out from this machine. If you see further up you will see what i tried.
Also using XTLINK i can start some of the larger games from another machine with Null-modem cable.

Luckily i have an IBM 5155 with both composite and XT-IDE. 😀

Let us go back to the Paradise PVC4 Chip...

For me the most interesting thing is using hercules-mode and hercules monitor, but running cga-titles without emulation.
The AT-Small-Wonder has such a Solution with a tool named "MS.COM" which sets the gfx mode.

Does anyone know if there is an equal tool for the PVC4 Chip...that would be...a real burner! for me.

I doubt it to be honest, but I hope somebody proves me wrong. The original floppies that came with Euro PC/PCII/XT don't contain anything like that, then again the Schneiders have a BIOS so they might thought it wan't necessary to include it.

is it really a (big) difference if you have dip-switches for the chip, like the PC-II/III have,
or if these settings a controlled by the-pc bios if you need the software or TSR to switch
it in an other mode staying with the bios-settings and the rest of the hardware like the monitor.

This must not be an indication, that schneider does not have that on any disks. I never found
a Schneider Disk for the EGA High-Resolution-Modes of the TowerAT either, but they exist (Gemini VC1)

Therefore I think searching for such a tool as cross-reverence to the PC II/III or directly for the paradise-chip
is the better way then searching for drivers directly from schneider computer division.

I made a video on how i repaired my Schneider EuroPC
Hope you like it.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSUf7nCpwTgFbjGmcTYGZEQ

Someone used a gotek on the euro-pc. It's an interesting Option I think. Perhaps I will check this out too.

dr.zeissler wrote:

Someone used a gotek on the euro-pc. It's an interesting Option I think. Perhaps I will check this out too.

Do you know anything about the Gotek on the EuroPC?
I am trying to make the Gotek work, but am not sure on how to make a compatible EXTERNAL floppy cable.

From: http://oldcomputer.info/hacks/fdd_europc/index.htm
This pinout is used with ribbon cable (25 wires) with twist at the end (lines 3-9) going to connector to drive A. Without twist, a DB25 female port is attached for external drive B. That's why there are two MOTOR and DSEL signals.

The pinout of DB25 connector is:
1. /INDEX
2. /MOTORA (not for ext. drive!)
3. /DSEL
4. /DSELA (not for external drive!)
5. /MOTOR
6. /DIR
7. /STEP
8. /WDATA
9. /WGATE
10. /TRK0
11. /WPROT
12. /RDATA
13. /SIDE1
14-16. +5V DC
17. NC
18. PWRON
19-25. GND

I bought a Gotek for my EuroPC. I can tell you that it works, but it is slow!
It's perhaps as slow as the loading from a real floppy-disk, but you can't hear the disk-acess.
It's not a thing that I would give away my xt-ide in the single isa-slot.

I currently use CGA instead von MDA because I use a !084 with both C64 and EuroPC connected
and I can switch on the front between both machines... that's nice.

Composit CGA that is used in early agi-games (ll1,pq1,sq1,kq1,etc.) is monochrome on my
1084 but it looks much nicer then the real cga-color-mode for RGB which is truly ugly btw.

https://books.google.de/books?id=lB4PAwAAQBAJ … 20larry&f=false

dr.zeissler wrote:

I bought a Gotek for my EuroPC. I can tell you that it works, but it is slow!

I have not made one yet. I will use a Gotek with speaker.
Could you send the connection diagram for making the vable.? Are you using it internal or external?

Jinxter wrote:

I just tried to connect wires from the to pins market in picture to see if there where any composite video there. No luck! […]
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Jinxter wrote:

I am trying to connect the PC to a colour monitor. I see the the Video Controll Chip has a PIN called CMPVD. Could this be Composite video output?

Do you know if anybody has tried to use this pin to get Composite video?

I just tried to connect wires from the to pins market in picture to see if there where any composite video there. No luck!

I can see these reason for this not to work.
1. I used the wrong PIN on the video chip
2. These pins needs to be turned on in bios/setup or software
3. I need some additional electronics.

I would be fun to be able to use composite video and maybe run 8088mph on it.

Want to point out something:

That pic is not the video chip, that´s the bigjim chip (i/o chip)
The video chip is in the middle of the pcb branded as paradise pvc4.

Jinxter wrote:

dr.zeissler wrote:

I bought a Gotek for my EuroPC. I can tell you that it works, but it is slow!

I have not made one yet. I will use a Gotek with speaker.
Could you send the connection diagram for making the vable.? Are you using it internal or external?

No I cannot send you the connection diagram, because I bought it as it is.
The Seller has wired it completly. It works, but it's slow and you can't hear what it is doing.

genocho wrote:

Jinxter wrote:

Want to point out something: That pic is not the video chip, that´s the bigjim chip (i/o chip) The video chip is in the middle o […]
Show full quote

Jinxter wrote:

I am trying to connect the PC to a colour monitor. I see the the Video Controll Chip has a PIN called CMPVD. Could this be Composite video output?

I would be fun to be able to use composite video and maybe run 8088mph on it.

Want to point out something:
That pic is not the video chip, that´s the bigjim chip (i/o chip)
The video chip is in the middle of the pcb branded as paradise pvc4.

Thanks for your input, this means i must try again. It would be greate to get composite video output

Hola amigos. I've got composite video from Schneider euro xt (paradise PVC4) due to this card not really copy of CGA it has problems to demonstrate 8088mph, but works

Also - do you use any cga-scart converters (I mean DIY)

tereg wrote:

Also - do you use any cga-scart converters (I mean DIY)

I made one from this schema.

I also have a video showing it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymulGiO4NrI

tereg wrote:

Hola amigos. I've got composite video from Schneider euro xt (paradise PVC4) due to this card not really copy of CGA it has problems to demonstrate 8088mph, but works

Hola !!!

Do you have the schematics of that composite mod for the euro pc ??? I assume you need an additional circuitry to have the composite color signal right ???

Thanks in advance.

I will provide it little bit later, when do have time.