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From: bright@dataio.UUCP (Walter Bright)
Newsgroups: net.micro.pc
Subject: Re: EGA/Hercules graphics card (Video-7 Vega)
Message-ID: <1076@dataio.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 23-Aug-86 18:44:52 EDT
Article-I.D.: dataio.1076
Posted: Sat Aug 23 18:44:52 1986
Date-Received: Mon, 25-Aug-86 05:44:42 EDT
References: <156@gouldsd.UUCP> <2057@calmasd.CALMA.UUCP>
Reply-To: bright@dataio.UUCP (Walter Bright
Organization: Data I/O Corp., Redmond WA
Lines: 36
Keywords: graphics video vega hercules monochrome color

In article <2057@calmasd.CALMA.UUCP> dmm@calmasd.UUCP (David MacMillan) writes:
>
>    Does anyone out there have any experience with the VEGA
>EGA/Hercules/CGA/MDA card?  (Particularly warnings)
>In particular, how Hercules compatible
>are they? and how good is their documentation?

I have a Quadram QEGA+ board which is the same board as the VEGA. Problems are:

	1) No documented way to tell if this board or an IBM EGA is
	installed.

	2) No documented way to tell if it is set up in Hercules emulation
	mode (this is a TERRIBLE problem, as sending the board Hercules
	commands in EGA mode or EGA commands in Hercules mode will cause
	the machine to crash).

	3) No technical information whatsoever in the manual.

	4) The software that comes with it interferes with the NMI
	vector. This means that you can't debug graphics code (the
	debuggers also all use the NMI). This usage of the NMI isn't
	documented, I found out about it from PC Magazine.

	5) The manual has been made user-friendly by leaving out all
	useful information.

	6) No list of differences between this board an an IBM EGA or
	a real Hercules board. The emulation of either is far from
	perfect, which you will discover after a while.

	7) Microsoft Codeview will cause the machine to crash when
	run with a QEGA board connected to an IBM monochrome display.
	After calling Microsoft Product Support, they told me to buy
	an IBM EGA. I don't know (and apparently neither does Microsoft)
	whether this is a bug in the QEGA or in Codeview.