[typing]
Greetings, LGR here with an LGR thing.
And specifically, this thing.
This is an IBM 5154 Enhanced Color Display
introduced in 1984 for the IBM PC range of computers.
The IBM AT was around at that same time, but it would work on pretty much anything
as long as you had the appropriate adapter installed inside the computer.
And what's interesting about EGA cards is that it will actually support these other monitors.
So we have the IBM 5153 CGA monitor over here,
which is just your 4-color standard thing
a step down from EGA, of course.
And then we have the IBM 5151, the original monitor for the IBM PC
and this just does MDA, a monochrome display. Green screen phosphor, looks great. Mmm...
I really like the designs of these monitors.
They look a little bit like a microwave, but
a very pleasing, technologically advanced, slightly futuristic microwave.
What I'm going to do is upgrade—
[laughs] "upgrade", you know, in 2016, one of my PCs with EGA graphics
and we're going to plug this thing in
and, uh,
you know, sort of compare it to these.
I mean, maybe not directly
but, you know, I'll show, like, what the difference is
between the color modes and, uh...
Let's go back to 1984!
Check out that 5154 badge.
Mmm, that looks nice.
And I also have here the—
I assume that is the manufactured date.
So we've got July of 1987, is when mine was put together.
And yeah, not a whole lot to see here on the back of this thing
especially since the friggin' camera is not—
Yeah, forget that, there's nothing to see there anyway.
What there is to see, though, is the video card that we will be using
and, yes, the astute among you will realize this is not an IBM card of any kind.
This is a—
a card by a company called Auva.
This is the HEGA-II
manufactured in 1988.
[laughs]
"Auva HEGA." Sounds like something you'd say when you're punched in the gut.
"Auva-HEGA!" [cough]
So anyway, this is an EGA card
an 8-bit one, not one of the the long crazy ones that you would often see from IBM.
I don't have one of those, those are considerably harder to find.
Not that these are very common either, but you know,
it is what it is.
So this is kind of an interesting little card.
Well, all EGA cards are, as far as the ones that I've seen.
So, yeah, we have the EGA connector right here
but of course, if you switch around things then this will work
with CGA or monochrome.
And we have these two RCA connectors here, but
unlike CGA, that is not for composite video output
so you can't plug this up to TVs.
No, these are actually for plugging in different sort of expansions
video controllers and feature devices.
So, yeah.
Don't mess with those, like plugging in TVs. That won't do anything.
And then of course we do have
these little switches here
which, the first four right now in that configuration
they're telling it to go into EGA display mode, to be hooked up to an EGA monitor
and I think the 5 and 6, especially the 5, is telling it that
there's no other video cards plugged in to the computer
and that is the configuration that we'll be using.
This will be a stand-alone card
in the PC that I install this in.
It's also got another little connector here for plugging in light pens, I believe.
And this is like another feature connector, but—
uh, yeah, we're not gonna mess with those.
So, yeah. Let's install this in a PC and see what you get.
Now, I would be installing this in my IBM AT here, as I think that would be very appropriate,
but the power supply is currently blown up
and needs repairs. I just haven't gotten around to doing that yet.
So, I'll be installing it in my IBM XT here instead.
And it's a very capable machine for EGA.
Maybe not some of the later more advanced ones, but it'll work.
And it'll allow me to show some really cool insides.
This thing is neat.
See, I told you it was neat.
I love working on these things. They're impressively complex for their day
and yet very simple and straightforward.
[sighs] So, what we're going to be replacing
is this longest card here.
This is a CGA card. It's, uh...
Well, it's ridiculous.
But, it's gotta come out of there, at least, for what my purposes are.
You could leave it in. It's able to work with two cards.
But, you know, I'm just gonna make it a little bit simpler.
So this is what I was talking about when I was saying those
really long 8-bit cards.
A lot of the EGA cards, especially from IBM, looked like this.
But you know, years later they were able to cram everything into
something that is, well, much less than half the size.
The wonders of the modern day!
[seats card]
And, uh, that's it.
It's installed!
Really as simple as that,
except, of course, one more little thing here,
and that is these little DIP switches here.
On IBM PCs, the older ones like this,
you're gonna have to worry about those in that white box there.
Specifically, switch 5 and 6.
If you're changing around the video type at all,
you're going to need those to be in the correct positions.
So I'm actually gonna have to switch them both to on
in order to let it know that it is a special video device, which is EGA or VGA.
So, yeah, they kind of thought of everything, and that just lets the BIOS know what to look for.
Alright, everything's starting up just fine here.
And we'll be loading MS-DOS 3.3.
I guess PC-DOS 3.3. I don't know. I guess it's MS— I dunno... which one do I have...
This is PC-DOS.
IBM-DOS... mmm...
Who cares about the date?
You wouldn't believe me if I told you!
So, let's get over to the C drive,
and I'm actually gonna play some "California Games"
not because it's like the greatest game ever, but because it's a pretty good measure
of what it's like to go from CGA to EGA. In fact, it's got a lot of different things.
It's actually really fun to compare the different modes
I'd like to do a more involved video looking at all these modes,
I just don't have enough stuff set up to do that right now, and I'm feeling kinda lazy. So,
let me just show you what CGA looks like first, in case you're not familiar somehow.
[PC speaker noises]
[PC speaker: "Louie, Louie"]
[key click]
Ya, man...
Let's play some "California Games."
So we can compete in the events, but I don't want to.
I'm gonna practice because I'm terrible at this.
Well, let's play some good old footbag.
Also known as Hacky Sack.
So, yeah, it's in the warmer sort of CGA tones at the moment.
You got the oranges, yellows, greens, reds, that kind of thing, but
it will switch over to the cooler colors: the cyan, magenta, white, black, that kind of thing.
And those are the two color palettes
that are very commonly used.
And I guess this one's more of the red and cyan, but that's cool.
Oh, my gosh.
This is the slowest—I forgot how slow this game is on an XT. Um...
It is not good. Aw...
I forgot, uh, how to do it.
I can move.
That's the head thing.
Well, whatever, I suck at this.
Let's switch over to EGA, though,
and look at the difference directly.
And here it is in EGA.
And you'll notice it's actually a lot quicker. [laughs]
Which I'm assuming has to do with the higher amount of video memory.
As far as I know, that particular board has 128K,
which is, uh...
a far cry more than what a CGA board would have.
I'm sure it's faster in other ways, too, that I'm just not aware of.
Some boards had 64K, and—for EGA.
This one, of course—
I mean, not of course. I don't know.
I think I read somewhere that it was 128, but either way,
neat.
Quite a substantial improvement in color depth and speed and all sorts of wonderful things.
I'm not sure how do we get out of here.
How—
[quietly] How do I get out, man?
[keys clicking]
Ah, there it is: control-escape.
So, yeah, even the menus look better.
I mean, how sweet is this?
This is just awesome.
EGA, man.
Let's do some halfpipe.
This is by far the one I'm worst at, so
that should be even more amusing.
Yeah, even this, this just looks better.
I'm not sure how well colors are coming across, but I mean they are VIVID on this monitor.
It is just—it's great!
Aw, it's really neat to see, like, EGA in its most native form like this.
Ah...
Super sharp. I mean...
Razor sharp.
It's pretty awesome.
[typing]
What do I do?
Alright, here we go.
Yeahaw!
Whoah!
Aw, man...
[California accent] That was gnarly, man! Aww...
Yeah, just look at those scanlines.
You know, it's just something— you're not gonna notice it when you're just playing,
but you can see them, and the pixels are just— they're delightfully sharp.
I—I enjoy
all these kind of things very much.
Noooo...
Mmm...
So let me see if I can find something else to show on here really quick. Because I can!
Of course, it's gotta run on an XT, though, and that, uh...
limits my selection somewhat.
So here's something I don't try very often.
"Super Solvers: Treasure Mountain".
An edutainment classic.
Should look pretty sweet in EGA.
Loading very slowly, but looking sweet.
Once it gets there.
[floppy drive grinding]
[PC speaker music]
Aw, yeah...
[PC music continues]
Play it, PC speaker!
[music continues]
[upper-crust accent] "The Master of Mischief has stolen the crown and hidden the treasures of Treasure Mountain!"
[accent] My god!
Alright.
Help these friggin' elves.
[music, drive grinding]
[mimics disk drive] Weeeh, weeeh.
Weh-weh weeeh weh.
[typing]
Yeah. I have 3½" floppy versions of this that I play normally.
So I haven't tried the 5¼", but apparently it's working.
"Hi! My name is Flutter." Alright.
Get outta here.
[PC music]
[laughs]
Well, you know.
I might be a little slow here, and
the screen is drawing like crazy, but that's—
that's okay!
Yeah, let's go outside!
So, this is the outside. That's good.
And, uh, man. This guy— [chuckles]
Poor Super Solver's walking
so slow, and look at that screen scrolling.
Mmm, so smooth.
So that was a famous problem with, well, CGA, EGA—pretty much anything
on the PC for a while, up until like VGA and SVGA, of course.
Scrolling. Was a pain.
So, yeah.
You weren't able to do like smooth-scrolling platformers—you know, like per pixel kind of scrolling.
Famously, that was corrected with id Software and "Commander Keen."
They were doing some crazy, crazy stuff.
And, uh, yeah.
On EGA.
But of course, that was with faster hardware, too.
On an XT, you're kinda looking at slow EGA stuff anyway.
Like I said, I would have preferred to use this EGA card on my IBM AT, and I need to get that thing fixed.
Let me see if I can get at least one dude.
There you are, you jerk.
Yeah
Suck it.
"These words end with 't'. If you can see one more word that ends with 't'..."
It might be this one!
[PC speaker fanfare]
Alright, this game is incredibly slow. Let's see if I can find something just a little bit faster.
I don't know if it's going to be any faster, but we're going to try
Platoon here, by Data East
The EGA version, which I just happen to have in the box.
Uh, if that's EGA, that's
not very impressive, I gotta say.
[PC speaker music]
I guess it is EGA.
Sweet!
Uh...
Right, enterin' the combat zone!
Aw man, that's pretty cool-looking.
I don't—
I don't know
how to control anything, um...
These controls are ridiculous!
[tosses manual aside]
[PC speaker gunshots]
[PC speaker sound]
Argh, no!
Well...
This is awful.
All right, I'm gonna try Fast Food Dizzy
'cuz, uh, I haven't. [Laughs]
So...
"Your system has a choice of Keyboard control only." All right!
"No Music."
[keypress]
No AdLib installed either, so
It's gonna be silent
But that's okay.
Or not.
[Thrashes on keyboard]
Frick.
Well, I guess we won't, because it never loaded.
So, uh, I guess that was just a little too much for it.
[power switch]
[PC spins down]
[chuckle]
Ah, that power-off.
I love the noises this thing makes.
But yeah, this is such a neat monitor. I've been after one of these things for, like, six years pretty much.
Oh, man, probably longer than that now, it's 2016.
A long time.
The thing is, they're really not that common. A lot of people had other EGA monitors,
and EGA was only around for a few years anyway, when VGA came and took over
since it was more or less backwards compatible.
It just, you know, there was no real need for EGA monitors. VGA took off.
And so, yeah, this is such a cool thing though.
Um, if you can find one, I highly recommend grabbing one
[laughs]
It's just, you know, expect to pay like 500 bucks.
There was one recently that sold for that.
I didn't pay nearly that much. I got mine for closer to 300 for this
and the EGA card itself, which is a pretty good deal.
Those cards go for like 50–60 bucks on their own.
But, uh,
even that's kind of a premium
since I only paid 10 bucks for my IBM 5150 and like, what was it, 30 for this XT?
Course, those were thrifting finds years ago and whatnot, so yeah whatever.
This stuff's expensive, man! But it's fun! A lot of fun
and I hope you had fun watching this,
even though I didn't get to play more of the games that I wanted to.
I'll need to fix up that IBM AT and—
That's it for this video. Thank you very much for watching!