darry wrote on 2021-02-22, 07:26:
I don't believe I recall ever seeing an actual EGA monitor in action, at least not in person .
Does EGA really look different on an actual EGA monitor versus on backwards compatible VGA card ? Are there any compatibility issues ?
I'm also curious. I've always considered EGA to be a sub-mode of VGA..
However, I'm really glad now that I know old Super VGA cards do have dedicated emulation modes for HGC (aka MGA), CGA and EGA.
darry wrote on 2021-02-22, 07:26:
I always assumed that having EGA content on a VGA setup was pretty equivalent to having it on an actual EGA setup . Please correct me if Iam wrong .
Well, EGA is normally displayed withing one of the default resolutions of VGA. 640x350 do fit in 640x400 or 640x480..
To do so, the VGA card centers the EGA image and adds black bars. In simple words. It may also simply blank the unecessesary lines, not sure.
The EGA emulation mode in Super VGA cards might be more sophisticated and use a more native resolution, not sure.
darry wrote on 2021-02-22, 07:26:
That said, CGA is a different story. 15KHz RGBI monitors have a flavor that is characteristic and does not look the same on a VGA setup and CGA composite mode requires an actual composite monitor or a TV.
CGA runs too fast on a VGA card, I reall. Since the x by 200 modes often run in 70Hz on VGA (except in separate emulation mode, maybe).
On a CGA card, all resolutions are in 60Hz only. Otherwise, they wouldn't be viewable on a TV set. Which an 15KHz RGBI monitor simply is, after all. A hacked TV set. 😉
Composite CGA is more interesting, IMHO. A quality NTSC video monitor (-listen, I call it monitor now; not TV set 😁 -) with comb filters or a good screen mask can add quite to the atmosphere.
Depending on the type of CGA games (colours of 4 colour games), a good old green monitor or amber monitor can also prevent somone from getting his/her eyes hurt.
If such a classic monitor is not around, a simple monochrome AV monitor can be used as a subsitute.
Or a pure PAL/SECAM colour monitor without support for NTSC, but knobs for V/H hold adjustment.
Lastly, an old TV set may also do. Some of the early RGB/SCART TVs can't do NTSC also.
Or if they have a separate S-Video input, the CVBS (Composite) signal can be fed into the Luma-In pin.
- SCART is out of question, because it has no separate, pure Monochrome/Sync pin. It uses Composite for this (yuck).
The result is not the most pretty due to the unwanted colour information, but still better than seeing the horribly colours of certain CGA games. 😉
Edit: I do have a CGA RGBI monitor, too. 😉 I'm using it only for testing purposes, though.
Edit: Never mind. When it comes to CGA, I'm into a love/hate relationship. 😉
Edit:
jarreboum wrote on 2021-02-21, 18:14:
Given all that, would you still include an extra monitor in your setup? Or are you satisfied with displaying EGA on your CGA or VGA monitor?
That's a though question. Some free games like EGATrek, CD Man or most of the interactive fiction games, like from Magnetic Scrolls (Wonderland) or Legend Entertainment (Gateway, Spellcasting etc) use EGA in its native resolution of 640x350.
If I had a chance getting a real EGA monitor, I wouldn't want to miss it.
Except if was very pricey or very broken.
Ideally, the monitor would be a Super EGA compatible monitor with 640x480 or 800x600 pels resolution.
Not sure of early multi-sync monitors had digital inputs (TTL), though.
If the inputs were analogue, I would be slightly confused.
Because I wouldn't be sure how the final result would look like.
I mean, the source signals would still be digital (predefined) / binary (powers of two), but noise might sneak in, because an analogue monitor wouldn't filter them.
"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel
//My video channel//