First post, by GloriousCow
- Rank
- Oldbie
We all know about the "hidden" CGA thin font.
A11 from the font ROM runs to the pad on the left in the white box, just below the 6845. The via on the right ties to the ground plane, so if you bridge these pads, it pulls A11 low.
Normally A11 and A12 are high, because the "normal" CGA font is in the last quarter of the ROM. So the MDA font is at high order bits 00,01, the thin font at 10, and the normal font at 11.
Now, I've heard tell that there was actually an honest to god header here on early cards for a jumper so you could switch fonts without any soldering shenanigans. But I have looked all over the internet for a photo of a card that has anything but bare pads, and I cannot find it. Was there actually ever a header or was this always a "mod your card" sort of scenario?
MartyPC: A cycle-accurate IBM PC/XT emulator | https://github.com/dbalsom/martypc