PeeCee Text

[Fred Cisin]

On Wed, 22 Sep 2004, William Donzelli wrote:
> In the old days of the XT and CGA, what text modes were supported?
> I have a Wyse PC+ - an oddball XT class machine - that could run DOS in
> several weird text modes (96 and 132 column, I think). I remember using it
> this way for some stuff, but often certain programs would barf (Norton
> Commander being one of them).
> Were these modes standard?

No, but not especially rare.

The "standard" text modes were:
CGA: (startying at segment B800)
0?	B&W 40 x 25
1?	Color 40 x 25
2	B&W 80 x 25
3	Color 80 x 25

MDA: (starting at segment B000)
7	Mono 80 x 25

Int 10, fn 0F would return which mode you were in.
Almost all software supported modes 3 and 7.  Some demented P.O.S.
programs would insist on trying to display color, even if you had
deliberately switched into mode 2.


> I still have the PC+, and I doubt I will ever get rid of it for some
> reason. It is a pretty weird machine, and I don't think many were made.

Wyse made some fun weird stuff!
I liked the Wyse 700 / Amdek 1280 monitor and "special" video board, that
did 1280 x 800? b*w pixels, and could be easily coerced into 160 x 50 text

--
Grumpy Ol' Fred     		cisin at xenosoft.com