In the display history, there is an embedded NewTek Video Toaster video. Back in those days the Video Toaster contained HUGE amounts of RAM compared to contemporary devices, and there was a huge tariff on foreign RAM imports, to protect American RAM manufacturers (who quit making RAM anyway). Because the import tariff did not include devices containing RAM, NewTek imported large quantities of new laser printers and stripped the RAM from them, sending new RAMless laser printers to the landfill. Amazingly, this was far cheaper than just importing RAM. Sad, but true (according to NewTek employees I talked with back then).

@svofski: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_Graphics_Adapter#Color_palette

I remember first playing IBM’s alley cat in monochrome and later in amazing 4bit color!

The original Hercules graphics card seemed the cat’s meow while doing actual work, compared to the crappy rez from CGA.

Remember when you still had to use a Hercules-style monochrome card to have a second display for debugging? The last time I had to go scrounge for a monochrome PC monitor and card was 1999.

@svofski
I’ve used one of those things. I even learned basic on Pet system. I do not consider them to be a proper application of the processor, and as it happens the part number I cited was when they were still being made by the late Rockwell Semiconductor house.

@svofski
I don’t because that particular processor never went mainstream the way the other members of the family did.
Oh and the differences were such that the R6502 actually ran faster, then the MOS6502. And by the time the company was spun back to its original sources, and now I’m not even sure they are still in business, worse luck, they had even seriously considered making them in CMOS, about the same time as the Apple //C came out.

The basic Apple family member, except the 2GS system wore the R6502 (Could also be the SY6502, it doesn’t matter.), and could run rings around the C64. It wasn’t the software, or even the fanbase, it was the amazing graphics, that were largely the doing of Don Lancaster…..

Dude
I ran a Hercules card right next to a CGA card in my 7Mhz Turbo XT back in the land line BBSing days.

There was this killer little TSR that allowed me to cut and paste local phone numbers over to the monochrome screen from online lists so I could find and hang on as many systems as possible within my local calling area.

GOOD
FREAKING
TIMES

@the_woz
Minor typo, should be TRS80 Model_I

Interesting article.

That Video Toaster promo was very impressive.

MDA/Hercules had a much better text display than CGA too.

Thanks svofski.

@GCL:

ZX81 != ZX Spectrum. The Spectrum have bitmap graphics of the same resolution of the Apple][ and 16colors.

The Apple ][ video circuitry and graphic modes are 'just' a hack, a clever one typical of the genius designs of Steve Wozniak at the time, but a hack nonetheless. Color was achieved by exploiting weaknesses of the NTSC color system. The hires mode introduced in the ][e is 560x192pixels, hardly vector class graphics.

MOSTEK is not the creator of the 6502. It's MOS Technology, two different companies.

The 65c02 (used in the enhanced ][e and the ][c) was created by WDC and licenced to Rockwell among others. Rockwell added some extra opcodes to the 65c02, those opcodes where adopted, with a couple more by WDC and added to their 65c02.

@all: Sorry for the offtopic.

I love the embedded video of the NewTek stuff. The bit about LightWave at the end saying “now with RAYTRACING” is priceless.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_IIe
Double-High-Resolution: 560×192 (16 colors) *
*effectively 140×192 in color, due to pixel placement restrictions

I completely can’t understand the vector graphics claim. Vector graphics would be when an arbitrary line on screen from x1,y1 to x2,y2 would not require rasterization.

Their chart of PC adapters is way off the mark… MDA was 720×384, CGA went to 16 color not eight (hell I’m writing a NEW TP7 unit to use the undocumented 160×100 16 color mode right now for the retrochallenge winter warmup), EGA was 16 colors out of 64, not 256…

…and of course it’s a crime to omit the PcJr/Tandy1k 16 color modes which were made possible using basically the same hardware as a CGA by just giving it more than 16k of RAM.

@GCL: if Wikipedia is wrong, it’s all yours to fix it. But you need some reliable reference material to back up your claims.

Ah the //e. Still have mine. Still runs.

I think I can resolve the raster/vector issue. You guys are both right, but you’re talking at cross-purposes:

When GCL talks about vectors, he’s talking about the BASIC command “HPLOT” that said “draw a line from X1,Y1 to X2,Y2″. The interpreter would then jump into some ROM assembly code that drew the line on a 280×192 raster display. The raster display was capable of 560×192 in the presence of the extra 64K of bank-switched memory in the 80-column card of the //e.

When svofski talks about vectors, he’s talking about an X-Y display, like that used in early Atari games like Battlezone or Asteroids. The electron beam physically moves in a straight line from X1,Y1 to X2,Y2, like an oscilloscope.

560×192 in monochrome was very high resolution for 1983. 280×192 was also pretty darn good. Color was implemented by a half-pixel shift controlled by the high bit: each byte was mapped to 7 monochrome bits, and if the high bit was set, the physical position of the next 7 pixels was shifted over by a half-pixel. The half-pixel shift meant that Orange/Blue could become Purple/Green when this signal was displayed on a monochrome display. (I’ve forgotten the colors you ended up with when you did it in double-high-res mode.)

@Pilotgeek:
It basically means you are something that is used on a computer who runs Linux or UNIX to do something routine. (And that also includes mainframes.)

Wrong! I’ve been right about 75% of the time, which is about par for me. I’m also not afraid to accept when I’ve been wrong. And I do indeed know to use the Internet to do proper searches. The references for the Apple came up after the flawed Wikipedia one. Those are helpdesk drones and ‘droids, and menials. Not the sort who actually gets his hands/paws and octopodal manipulators and even grubby protuberances into actual hardware.

I’ve even spent about three to five years working on the service end of the computer business.

BTW, GCL, you have an absolutely terrible web page.

I’m a small shell script. So I’m typically quite useful for small repetitive tasks? I fail to see how I should be taking offense to this.

If you wanted a computer related insult to show your oh-so-incredible knowledge of computers, you could’ve thought of something a little better. I think your insults need a little debugging, sir ;)

Also, congrats on bragging for about the 3rd time about being a “qualified computer worker”. You’re not the only one here certified and experienced in many computer and datacenter type fields.