Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!sun-barr!newstop!texsun!pollux!attctc!chasm
From: chasm@attctc.DALLAS.TX.US (Charles Marslett)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Atypical VGA question.
Summary: Hercules is not Hercules compatible
Message-ID: <8662@attctc.DALLAS.TX.US>
Date: 15 Jul 89 17:56:29 GMT
References: <4342@tank.uchicago.edu> <1546@bucket.UUCP> <4405@tank.uchicago.edu>
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In article <4405@tank.uchicago.edu>, goer@sophist.uucp (Richard Goerwitz) writes:
> In article <1546@bucket.UUCP> leonard@bucket.UUCP (Leonard Erickson) writes:
> >
> >To the best of my knowledge, *no one* other than Hercules
> >supports RAMFont. Pity. 

A small VGA manufacturer, AHEAD something-or-other, makes a board that is
RAMFont compatible.  I don't know of any others, though.  The company I work
for once tried to license or buy the chip AHEAD uses, but things did not really
have a chance of working out.  The major features were up to 16(w)x32(h)
character cells, and up to 16K characters -- I think those match the RAMFont
exactly (though they may be supersets, ???).

> >But don't give up hope. Hercules makes a VGA card....
> >It doesn't support the Hercules mono or color card graphics, but
> >it *does* come with a program that lets you toggle between it and
> >your old Hercules card. The active card runs fine and doesn't
> >have any problems. 

Actually, any decent VGA or EGA card should do this.  The one exception is
that the very early Herc mono cards did not have the register at 0x3BF to
control the 4K vs. 32K vs. 64K video buffer decode, so they will not
coexist with any (normal) video card.  A PGA or PGA clone would be the
only compatible color card for it.  Fortunately, one of my test cards is
the only one of these I have ever seen!

> This may sound a bit funny, but is *Hercules* Hercules compatible?
> In other words, does their VGA provide backwards compatibility with
> their own latest version of the Herc card (the Plus)?

Nope!

>                                        -Richard L. Goerwitz
>                                        goer@sophist.uchicago.edu
>                                        rutgers!oddjob!gide!sophist!goer

Charles Marslett
STB Systems, Inc. -- BIOS Guru for video thingees we make
chasm@attctc.dallas.tx.us
[Note: apply all standard disclaimers]