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I have a couple of games left. I don't mean to overdo, of course.
It's just so very difficult to make a down-sized selection here, considering the gigantic library of DOS games of the day. 😔

Edit: The original idea was to use an external picture hoster.
However, as I learned from reading older forum posts, they often don't last.
After a few years the pictures are gone. 😞

Quick update. Here's an excellent demonstration of a true MCGA/VGA monitor from the 80s.

https://antnik.wordpress.com/2015/07/19/ibm-ps2-77i/

That's roughly what I had when I played 320x200 256c games back in the day.
As you can see, the game graphics are balanced; slightly soft, but not overly blurry.

Some models of this type of monitor (IBM 8512 ?) also were meant to be used with IBM 8514/A graphics hardware (which in turn worked together with VGA) .
These also supported 1024x768 (interlaced) at 43 Hz.

PS: Found interesting information about the monitor models.

Display
Size: Optional 12" (8503) or 19" (8506) mono, 14" (8512) or 16" (8514) colour
Display type: Analog CRT
Graphics modes supported: Integrated MCGA Display adapter

Source: http://ps-2.kev009.com/pcpartnerinfo/ctstips/7492.htm

Edit: Found even more information! 😃

"DESCRIPTION
The IBM 8512 has been designed as a balance between the need for addressability and the ability to blend colors for near image-quality application output.
The Model 001 has the following features:
o 0.41 mm phosphor stripe format
o 31.5KHz horizontal scan frequency non-interlaced
o Etched screen for low glare
o 320, 640, and 720 dot lines of horizontal addressability
o 350, 400, and 480 lines of vertical addressability
o 200 line modes run double scanned (400 lines) for improved solidity of lines, characters and shapes
o 256KB color capability
o A 4:3 horizontal to vertical data area aspect ratio, which allows for the creation of more realistic picture images"

Source: https://groups.google.com/g/comp.sys.ibm.ps2. … e/c/ag96mTnYyqo

Edit: There's a chart/table, even. ^^

http://ps-2.kev009.com/pcpartnerinfo/ctstips/ee1a.htm

Some of the specs of the IBM 8512 Model 1 :

Aspect Ratio.. 4:03
Pels per Inch.. 68
Dot Pitch.. 0.41mm
Phosphor.. P22 Medium-Short Persistence
Screen Size (Diagonal).. 14" Bezel-to-Bezel
Viewing Area (HxV).. 9.4" x 7.05 (240mm x 180mm)
Flatter, Squarer Tube (FST).. No
Screen curvature.. 573mm
X-ray Radiation.. 0.2 millirems/hr at 50mm

Edit: DOS Days is a fine source of information, too, as usual. 🙂👍

https://www.dosdays.co.uk/topics/monitors.php

Quick update. In case you're curious, here's the spiritual grandfather of VGA, IBM PGC.
It uses a maximum resolution of 640x480 pels, 60 Hz progressive scan, like VGA does, but @256c.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_Gr … hics_Controller

Naturally, the corresponding monitor (IBM 5175) was designed with that in mind, too.
It tries to present those 256c as best looking, as possible.

Source: https://forum.vcfed.org/index.php?threads/the … ken-5175.71378/

Dot pitch seems to have been 0.31mm, same as the 5154 EGA monitor has had (source).

I spend first year of my PC ownership using ~24" CRT TV with 15KHz TSR in autoexec. 386DX40 with some random Trident and passive RGB cable going into EURO SCART connector. New VGA monitors cost months salary at the time, and I was still in school. Played UFO, Doom, Cannon Fodder, Privateer, Colonization. Everything 13h worked absolutely great. Black scanlines were visible in 13h and made picture slightly darker than normal. Issues I encountered were in high res programs (640x350 640x480) and to a lesser degree 80x25 text where TSR wasnt able to massage timings enough to fit whole picture on PAL TV. Text mode was missing few pixels on all sides, high res graphical modes were somehow shifted to the side from what I remember. Games/programs trying to manually reprogram CRTC to do something weird (Jazz Jackrabbit 320x199, whatever Pinball Illusions was doing) usually failed outright, Doom with its mode Y worked fine tho.

Last time I used 15khz VGA was for Diablo coop, this time after finetuning picture with Powerstrip whole screen fit perfectly on Commodore 1084S.

Jo22 I highly encourage you to make a simple rgb adapter if you have access to 15khz monitor/TV with RGB input. Afair simplest is just shorting H and V into common Sync, even resistor lowering sync voltage might be optional depending on TV. https://www.geocities.ws/podernixie/htpc/cabl … n.html#vgascart. My original cable sold at a computer fair somewhere around 1995 had a dummy logic chip with scrubbed markings inside 😀 all filled with epoxy to prevent copycats 😀

rasz_pl wrote on 2023-08-23, 04:36:

I spend first year of my PC ownership using ~24" CRT TV with 15KHz TSR in autoexec. 386DX40 with some random Trident and passive RGB cable going into EURO SCART connector. New VGA monitors cost months salary at the time, and I was still in school. Played UFO, Doom, Cannon Fodder, Privateer, Colonization. Everything 13h worked absolutely great. Black scanlines were visible in 13h and made picture slightly darker than normal. Issues I encountered were in high res programs (640x350 640x480) and to a lesser degree 80x25 text where TSR wasnt able to massage timings enough to fit whole picture on PAL TV. Text mode was missing few pixels on all sides, high res graphical modes were somehow shifted to the side from what I remember.

Thank you for sharing your memories with me (us)! 😃
These are the things that are normally not written down or the things not found in history books of computing.
It's these personal experiments and stories that leave a lasting impression on us and
also make the hobby so much more interesting.
It's like merely reading about early multi-player games vs. having been participating on a "LAN party" back in the day.
The real experience usually was much more than what has been reported in books published years later.

While I do also have some fond memories of the 90s, too, I have to admit that I feel I've missed out on a lot of things.
Looking back, I think it's because I both was very young at the time and because my dad was an IT person (and a ham).

There was a lot of interesting computer/electronics stuff in the house, but he wasn't so much into games.
He had an original copy of Larry 1, though. Imported from the US. 😉

And some late 70s/early 80s games for Sharp MZ-80K computer - on datasette.
You know, classics like Chess, Defender, Pac Man, Snake..
That's what I started with before I had a NES or DOS PC, essentially.
It's also the reason why I have a weird take on DOS games and PCs sometimes, I suppose.
My background was similarly weird, I was born between the generations.

Originally, I played games on green monitor all the time (before I got that Commodore 1702).
I even watched VHS cassettes on it! ^^ My dad gave me his old VHS player, a top-loader from the 80s, by a company named Orion.

- No really, it was a player only (no VCR). It had no recording head and only one weak motor.
But it had both an AV out and a rewind feature, which weren't taken for granted.
Even simpler models had an RF output only and no rewind. To rewind, an optional tape rewinder was needed, or so I heard.

In addition, I also was allowed to watch the old tape recordings my dad had made in the 80s.
It contained films like 2001, Daryl, Beverly Hills Cop, Back to the Future and so on. It was like a time travel to me.
The green monitor added a bit to the magical experience, I believe.

Speaking of monochrome, my MZ-700 had a monochrome switch and the games used special symbol graphics at a high-resolution (for its time).
Since they were made with the MZ-80K in mind (predecessor of the 700), they were monochrome, anyway. Ideal for mono monitors.

The symbol/glyph graphics were comparable to what Norton Utilities/PC-Tools use in VGA text-mode, maybe:
Instead of drawing everything on screen by setting individual pixel, there are ready to use symbols provided by a character generator.

So the MZ games were running in text-mode, so to say.
The main difference is that VGA is programmable, though.
The font of the Sharp was hard-coded in ROM.

A bit later on, I got my Commodore 1702 video monitor, which was my primary monitor for everything non-PC.
I used it to play NES/SNES games, to use my MZ-700 computer (now switched to colour, resulting in blue/white output), to watch VHS, to watch satellite TV (anyone else remembering cartoons like DarkWing Duck, Tale Spin, Chip&Dale etc?).

Unfortunately, the 1702 didn't have any RGB inputs.
But AV already was an upgrade to RF to me.
Back then, early 90s, many friends/acquaintances still owned those little camping TVs/portable TVs or vintage TVs in a wooden chassis.
The venerable TVs found in hotels were still similar in appearance, they had nothing but an RF input.

Of course, they weren't state-of-the-art by any means, just still "around".
Kids got those older TVs passed over often, for their bed room, when their parents got a big new 24" TV.
These large, higher-end TVs came with SCART, of course. Maybe S-Video, too. And built-in stereo speakers! 😁

Hear and behold, they could also receive stereo audio via terrestrial antenna! 😄
In my place, this required PAL TVs capable of decoding "A2 Stereo".
Another ancient technology no one uses anymore.
RCA cables and SCART could carry stereo audio much easier.
By comparison, a satellite receiver sinply had RCA output for Composite and L+R audio,
so a simple HiFi Stereo or an AV monitor was all it needed.
Same goes for VCRs, the newer models had L+R audio connectors on the back.
No need for an A2 capable PAL TV.

Speaking of VCRs, I still remember the early days in which my NES was hooked up to the VCR in living room (before everyone got annoyed and it got moved in my bed room)..

The VCR was our main tuner at home, so to say.
All terrestrial TV programme were being programmed into that VCR. The actual TV was an older one with UHF input on the back of the chassis and it had no remote control.

But that's what we had the VCR for, it had a remote control and AV/SCART inputs. 😊
We also hooked the analogue satellite receiver up to that VCR (old style model, with LNC antenna head). That way, we could record everything that was routed via VCR.

Oh well, whenever I look back to those days, it feels like everything was from an entirely different life.
I often miss those times! 🥲

rasz_pl wrote on 2023-08-23, 04:36:

Games/programs trying to manually reprogram CRTC to do something weird (Jazz Jackrabbit 320x199, whatever Pinball Illusions was doing) usually failed outright, Doom with its mode Y worked fine tho.

Yeah, that's a problem indeed. Those hacky resolutions aren't something that a software solution expects and thus has trouble with.
The 199 line mode in Jazz was perhaps used to force 60 Hz frame rate on VGA.
But why ? What's bad about 70 Hz ? Also, if a TSR is able to reprogram the VGA CRTC to output 15 KHz and 60 Hz, why can't Jazz do it same way ? 🤷‍♂️

rasz_pl wrote on 2023-08-23, 04:36:

Last time I used 15khz VGA was for Diablo coop, this time after finetuning picture with Powerstrip whole screen fit perfectly on Commodore 1084S.

Cool! That's a good monitor, actually. I read it has a 0.42 mm dot pitch, at a small screen size of 13".
It will be able to blend those 256c colours nicely, I suppose.
Not much unlike the classic 14" IBM monitor, I suppose, which has 31 KHz scan rate, but about same dot pitch (0.41 mm).

All in all, it would have had been a nice 15 KHz monitor for the real MCGA! 😎
The specs are fine for that purpose. If I ever get my hands on an 1084s, I will do some tests with a custom made VGA cable and a DOS TSR! 😺

rasz_pl wrote on 2023-08-23, 04:36:

Jo22 I highly encourage you to make a simple rgb adapter if you have access to 15khz monitor/TV with RGB input. Afair simplest is just shorting H and V into common Sync, even resistor lowering sync voltage might be optional depending on TV. https://www.geocities.ws/podernixie/htpc/cabl … n.html#vgascart. My original cable sold at a computer fair somewhere around 1995 had a dummy logic chip with scrubbed markings inside 😀 all filled with epoxy to prevent copycats 😀

Thank you very much for the tip! 🙂👍
It makes sense and I'm eager to see a raw, non-doubled 200 line output from VGA, as well.
- I'll try to make cable once I have a bit of spare time (and space for soldering, it's a mess here).

In this case here, though, I'm afraid the little CRT I use for testing can't resolve any scan lines due to its low resolution.
I'm not sure, but I think the actual tube that's installed has a dot pitch of 0.5 or 0.6mm - at 14".
- I've taken some photos with a NES system and two popular games for comparison.

Anyway, on a 20" or 24" CRT TV with a good tube it surely would make a difference, I think. 😃👍
On such a setup, a VGA-SCART cable and a good TSR could provide a flicker-free 200 lines ouput for mode 13h games;
by contrast, the VGA converter I currently use does always output full resolution in normal interlacing format, with both fields being visible.

Descent

Information:
https://www.mobygames.com/game/692/descent/

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