Talk:IBM Enhanced Graphics Adapter
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The page previously said "Introduced in 1984 by Microsoft [sic]." I'm assuming this was just a mistake, and have changed it to IBM. I don't recall Microsoft having anything to do with display hardware (although they've had more hardware products than many people thing).
If I'm wrong about this, please revert the change and leave a note here. Dpbsmith 15:26, 10 Jan 2004 (UTC)
- I figured this was a good topic for Google Groups. Joel talks about his woes with his IBM card in December, 1984 in the first message mentioning either "Enhanced Graphics Adapter" or "EGA." He discusses required BIOS dates of October 1982. Further details in this thread discuss an alternate card, the Princeton SR-12, in addition to some workaround information for the memory problem Joel encountered. Based on those early mentions, I'd say IBM did it. -- Ke4roh 15:56, 10 Jan 2004 (UTC)
Currently the article states "EGA also included full 16-colour versions of the CGA 640×200 and 320×200 graphics modes; only the 16 CGA/RGBI colours are available in these modes." However, I'm quite sure the pseudo 64 color mode was also supported at 320x200. Only one game used this to its advantage; Ivan Ironman's Off Road. The mode was called "EGA64" in it.
- Oooh! Pseudo 64 colour mode? Any idea how this was achieved? The EGA has registers I believe that allow for very fast switching from one of four palettes. This could perhaps have been used to switch the palette during display time such that all four palettes were displayed in a single frame, resulting in the EGA's full 64 colour palette being displayed. Perhaps this was the trick? Fast pallette switching has often been used to this effect, think 'copper' bars. -- Funkymonkey
Should we say that EGA is the one which introduces "character generator" for text mode? Where you can modify text-mode character fonts instead of using the hardcoded BIOS ones only... -- FourBlades 20:11, 12 August 2006 (UTC)
"EGA can drive an MDA monitor by a special setting of switches on the board; only 640×350 high-res is available in this mode." EGA can also drive a CGA monitor by doing nothing special, just avoiding 640x350 modes. The max you could do was 640x200@16 colors like you could see in Thexder II. Most sierra games used 320x200@16 colors because of that.
[edit] MC6845
Some sources claim that EGA doesn't include MC6845 controller (this article and the book "Programmer's Problem Solver for the IBM PC, XT & AT" by Robert Jourdain). Can anyone confirm that? --Anton Khorev 11:14, 24 October 2006 (UTC)
