Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!maverick.ksu.ksu.edu!hoss!hoss.unl.edu!ho
From: ho@hoss.unl.edu (Tiny Bubbles...)
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Subject: Re: No CGA on a EGA card?
Message-ID: <1990Oct08.231256.24676@hoss.unl.edu>
Date: 8 Oct 90 23:12:56 GMT
References: <14417@netcom.UUCP>
Sender: news@hoss.unl.edu (Network News Administer)
Organization: Daily Nebraskan, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Lines: 31

In <14417@netcom.UUCP> ergo@netcom.UUCP (Isaac Rabinovitch) writes:
>>In article <1990Sep28.145044.26732@ariel.unm.edu> jharper@draco.unm.edu (JT) writes:
>>>I hope I'm not asking this in vain. I'm looking for a CGA emulation package,
>>>preferably Public Domain, that will work with a EGA card set in Monochrome
>>>mode. 

>Hercules is quite different from EGA.  Not only are the two kinds of
>software different, they're quite likely to destroy the monitor if run
>on the wrong hardware, especially if the hardware is Hercules.  The
>only exceptions are C/E/VGA cards specifically designed to emulate
>Hercules.

Hmmm... when I advised some time back to try HGCIBM, that was based on the
setup I had:  a Paradise EGA card with a monochrome monitor attached.  It
is entirely possible that other cards don't emulate the Hercules standard in
monochrome mode, but I hadn't personally seen them -- I was working from my
own experience.  My new VGA card also emulates Hercules (but, again, it's
using the Paradise chipset).

There exists an "EGA Monochrome" mode, 640x350 in two colors (counting black
:-{ ), but I haven't ever seen a program that uses it other than .GIF file
viewers.  Everything else seems to ask for Hercules.

>I thought EGA and VGA were upward-compatible with CGA.

In color mode.  In monochrome mode, an auto-sensing EGA card will prohibit
the video mode from being changed into any color mode, including CGA --
even 2-color 640x200.
--
        ... Michael Ho, University of Nebraska
Internet: ho@hoss.unl.edu | "Mine... is the last voice that you will ever hear."