On Wed, 22 Sep 2004, William Donzelli wrote:
> In the old days of the XT and CGA, what text modes were supported?
> I have a Wyse PC+ - an oddball XT class machine - that could run DOS in
> several weird text modes (96 and 132 column, I think). I remember using it
> this way for some stuff, but often certain programs would barf (Norton
> Commander being one of them).
> Were these modes standard?
No, but not especially rare.
The "standard" text modes were:
CGA: (startying at segment B800)
0? B&W 40 x 25
1? Color 40 x 25
2 B&W 80 x 25
3 Color 80 x 25
MDA: (starting at segment B000)
7 Mono 80 x 25
Int 10, fn 0F would return which mode you were in.
Almost all software supported modes 3 and 7. Some demented P.O.S.
programs would insist on trying to display color, even if you had
deliberately switched into mode 2.
> I still have the PC+, and I doubt I will ever get rid of it for some
> reason. It is a pretty weird machine, and I don't think many were made.
Wyse made some fun weird stuff!
I liked the Wyse 700 / Amdek 1280 monitor and "special" video board, that
did 1280 x 800? b*w pixels, and could be easily coerced into 160 x 50 text
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin_at_xenosoft.com
Received on Wed Sep 22 2004 - 22:45:18 BST