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From: rdw2030@venus.tamu.edu
Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms
Subject: Re: 640x400x256colour Paradise driver?
Message-ID: <11347@helios.TAMU.EDU>
Date: 19 Jan 91 04:03:59 GMT
References: <1991Jan9.095046.86103@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au> <27901f6f.735f@uop.uop.edu> <1991Jan15.095016.3065@monsanto.com> <~#3^X2-@rpi.edu> <1991Jan17.030037.17857@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca>
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In article <1991Jan17.030037.17857@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca>, tj@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca (Terry Jones) writes...
>I just got the driver downloaded off cica and installed in my machine.
> 
>It is WAY BETTER than I expected!!! 
> 
>Sure there is snow, sure it is slow, but there are times when I want
>256 colours and this is the ticket. 

The snow that everyone keeps talking about is evidently a flaw in the Paradise
VGA card.  I had a VGA Plus card for over a year (until it quit working today
for whatever reason).  I popped in another Paradise VGA card (this one is a
16-bit, unlike the last one, which was 8-bit).  The "snow" problems went away.

One thing I noticed from the VGA+ documentation... there was no mention of
the 640X400X256 mode.  It is a freebie "feature" on that board... in other
words, an unsupported mode.  This new 16-bit VGA board DOES mention the
640X400X256 mode in the documentation, and there is NO SNOW!  By the way,
this card seems to be just a 16-bit version of the VGA+ card, only it was
OEM'd by EPSON.

So don't blame the driver, which works fine!  I guess it could be written
to bypass the hardware problem on those cards, but it's unlikely.  

I'm surprised you guys never noticed this snow problem with programs like
VPIC and VGIF, etc.

Now... as for memory expansion.  I'm tired of 256K VGA already!  I'm not
afraid to solder... Is there a way to hack some more memory onto a 256K
board?  There are RAM socket sites on this board, but no sockets... just
soldered-over plate-through holes.  Alas...

Any advice, other than get a different board (you can't beat FREE after all!)

:-)

Mark C. "Bro!" Lowe - KB5III