Review of a new 8-bit ISA monochrome graphics card for vintage PCs, originally available for $4.95 from Alltronics. Sorry, it's now sold out, but they have many other vintage PC and electronic items: anatekinstruments.com/
Back in the 90s, the company I worked for used SoftICE to help with debugging our hardware under Windows 3.1 and Windows 95. Soft Ice had an option to use a secondary Monochrome/MGA/Hercules card for the debugging output (stack trace, memory display, CPU registers, etc) while the software you were debugging continued to run on the VGA display. It was super useful!
SoftIce was still useful even up to Windows XP. You could actually break Windows itself and step through the code. I guess Microsoft didn't really approve of its low-level access (especially with Microsoft's support of TPM modules ¬_¬).
@@user-vn7ce5ig1z understood. :) We were working on device drivers that interfered with the SoftIce copy protection dongle, so we had to run the system without it... so the first thing we needed to do when starting up the system was to step through softice itself to skip their copy protection check... ;D we used their device to outsmart their device. :D
@@FlyingDutchman19801 I believe WinICE was just a component of SoftICE. But many A/V checkers used both names in reference to SoftICE (perhaps just by misunderstanding on their part).
SoftIce was the bomb back in the day. I think prior to that I used something called "periscope" and it was a ISA debugging card. I reverse-engineered many of my Sierra games with SoftIce :)
Well now, ain't that _somethin._ Ordered one myself, along with a couple controller cards. Thanks for sharing, sir! EDIT: they canceled my order, dang it
They canceled mine too. I told them their system said there were 19 available when I placed my order and I thought that was underhanded. Their response was that they sell stuff from their inventory on multiple channels. Kinda poor customer service if you ask me. It would've been really nice to have one of these cards for my 5150.
Shoulda gone here to get gis Wang Wet! ;-) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wetwang . Over here in Yorkshire, England we sometimes say, “Wang it over here!” meaning to throw. Here's a few more Yorkshire sayings imfromyorkshire.uk.com/yorkshire-sayings/
You've captured the esccence of MGA and the 5151 monitor just perfectly. The choice of apps and games you've demonstrated really show off the "Eerie-green-glow" personality of this system. Great work! Thank you :)
Boss walks in. "Steve, you don't need to be wasting your time on that particular spreadsheet. Ned down the hall is already working on it. Told me he'd be done by noon!"
Still have our first XT clone with its original ISA Hercules monochrome card in the attic.. still remember using a tool called HGCIBM to enable CGA emulation for games :) Thanks for the nice throwback!!
There's also SIMCGA Didn't see a Herc clone card until a friend got a 286 system. I still had a turbo XT back then. Had EGA though, so that wasn't too bad.
Since everyone else is making Wang jokes... Q: what do you get when you cross a Bell telecommunications satellite with a word processor? A: a six-ton Wang that wants to reach out & touch someone.
@@tarstarkusz It will sell, if it is marketed to the correct crowd that values it. For instance, there was little to no market, for C.R.T.s, from 2010-2016, then gamers realized that they display pre-1998 video games properly, and VGA C.R.T.s make PC games look exceptionally well. Now monitors and televisions that were brought to the curb, are being sold for money.
@@qwertykeyboard5901 That is true, but the computer monitor C.R.T.s that I own, are only upper mid-range. 768p @ 85Hz/1024p @ 64 Hz But even though I don't have a really high refresh rate C.R.T., they STILL have better motion blur resolution, compared to a modern OLED. ...unless one uses a black-frame insertion mode (Trumotion), ...but that adds processing time, which adds lag. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-z4xgLUdQhKA.html It makes me wish plasma's were not a thing of the past. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-iLdkiyYeod8.html ...imagine a plasma gaming monitor, with 1 ms refresh circuitry, and modern OLED's anti-burnin technology.
You are amazing! There are a few games, which I played on my dad's first computer when I was still in kindergarden. I thought I had sought out most of them... but Space War was one I had forgotten about until I just saw this video. It is an amazing feeling to be suddenly taken back like that. Thank you!
Congrats! The Monochrome CRT monitor actually works :) I love the long afterglow on the phosphor layer. There is something incredibly beautiful about green and black terminal screens. The first Monochrome PC monitor i ever worked with was a Commodore IBM compatible DOS PC with a yellow and black monochrome screen.
I didn't know that I made IBM compatibles back in the day! Out of curiosity though, I went searching on a few Taiwanese auction sites, and sure enough I found quite a few people selling bundles of these very generic looking ISA monochrome graphics cards, all with the same MGP port configuration. Couldn't find one with the exact same PCB layout though. I bet the graphics chip was a reverse engineered chip that the chip fabs in Hsinchu were churning out in the late 80s and early 90s.
I had a "clone" ISA Hercules card and the biggest chip on the board was made by Hitachi. I bet I still have that card somewhere, I don't recall throwing it out...
My mom used a Wang computer back in the late 1980's, early 1990's when doing database entries for Hartford Insurance back then and the monitor had different colors to choose from for the MDA graphics and she chose purple as it was better for the eyes.
@@RetroPCUser You meant the CGA i.e. Color/Graphics adapter (note the slash, you essentially could use either one but not both at the same time)? MDA had no colors, or it has back, green (depending on the monitor) and high intensity.
Wang was pretty big in the word processor market as well as creating their own line of computers before they dove into the IBM-compatible market as sort of a hail mary to survive in the market. Wang very much went for the boring corporate look and they even somewhat outdid IBM in terms of looking like 1970s computers well into the 1980s.
@@NozomuYume I had a (very dead) Wang OIS-50 in my storage shed for a time (but no terminal, even if it was working. I had been planning to do a "case-mod" with it, but then I figured it would be too hard to do. Seeing the case mods people do now, that one would have been a cinch.
Back when I was a teen I had one of those IBM Monochrome monitors. One day, I noticed a crackling noise when it was on. I opened it up and found that there was a tiny hole in the side of the flyback and it was arcing. Almost like the high voltage somehow broke down and burned through the plastic of the flyback. I thought about what to do and it occurred to me that I read somewhere that silicone has a high dielectric strength. It just so happened that there was some silicone bathroom caulk left over from some bathroom work my parents were doing..so I covered the damaged part of the flyback with the silicone caulk and let it cure. It stopped the crackling noise and the monitor continued to work for at least the next year or two till I got rid of it.
Hi, We had the same issue with a hmm ?? Rank Arena colour TV, it was lets say 10 years old and had a crackle, initially i thought it was a sound issue but you could hear it was coming from the back not the speaker I opened up the TV and like you said i found the crack / hole. I rang a few tv repair man and explained what happened, most quoted almost as much as what we paid for the tv and said, part is not in stock and once they order it i have t o pay up front, i said no because they would not give a firm price Anyway the last guy i rang was local, he was helpfull, he did say not in stock, but said it i want to give this fix a go i can try it as i cant really make it worse ( well it is still working so i can make it worse ) Basically unplug the tv, open the rear case, sue some sandpaper and scratch clear the burnt section, not use a piece of plastic ( he recommended macdonalds plastic knife ), now turn the tv on its side or upside down so the hole is facing down, use a piece of paper to make a template with 50% overlap so it the hole is 3mm , make the cut 5-6mm more than enough to cover it . Mix some 2 part araldite, if you dont have it superglue will do but it m ay dry out over time and just fall off. Yep i mixed the glue , placed it on the cut plastic knife, and pushed the cut piece in place, then put some newspaper under than and maybe a sponge or some towel to apply pressure , while it is 5 minute glue i left it overnight Next day put the TV upright , turn it on and it worked for another 5 years untill the same part burnt out or failed completely Regards George
That Wang PC reminded me: wasn't there a video where at the end you showed off a Wang brand keyboard with the humourous phrase of "By the way, I'd like to show you my Wang." Do you remember which video that was?
This is a really cool video, I am a fan of old computers myself and I love to see how people still cherish these old miracles of technology. The way it is presented, relaxed and laid back, without the typical youtube hyperdrive mode, makes it very enjoyable to my taste.
Those interfaces were built using a library that they included with both Pascal and C, called Turbo Vision. From time to time I come across with other Turbo Vision-based projects.
Yeah i remember having played several games as CGA versions back then. Like Magic Pool Billiard, Super Ski and Test Drive. Or the amazing Alley Cat. Still one of the cutest DOS games ever made. It's amazing how well even in Monochrome mode these games were playable and fun.
@@jamiemarchant I have a long sound card. An Aztech Sound Galaxy NX Pro 16 and can be longer with a SCSI or Sony CD-ROM expansion adapter installed, which are hard to find, but will be cool as a collector's item or useful.
Seems like 340*120mm (rounded to the nearest 5mm) is the maximum size for an ISA card. Big, but at least it only takes up one slot. No huge, thick heatsinks.
I remember when I was a kid I couldn't wait to get home so I could go to my room and play around with my Wang. I'd grab my joystick and it was like I was in another world.
Thank you for making this video. I've had my 5150 since 2012, and I've been looking for a reasonably priced clone Hercules card ever since then. I've got a 5151 monitor, so this is gonna add a lot of functionality as far as games are concerned because I'll no longer be confined to text mode. I was interested to see that your video has caused a bit of a run on these cards which is understandable. There's a pretty big demand for them, and I'm not sure Alltronics knew what they had and what they're actually worth. Alltronics has since updated the listing of the card which now accurately describes it, and as of me purchasing one about 15 minutes ago, they now only have 19 of them in stock. They have also raised the price to $8.95. Still a massive bargain!
Thanks for making this vid. I ordered the same card from Alltronics via eBay for a 386 build a few months back (I think it was around $11 shipped). I didn't know why the PC was detecting the LPT port, but no serial. It wasn't until almost a couple of hours of troubleshooting that I actually looked at the port noticed it was not serial. I ended up sticking it in my parts bin and bought another combo card. At least now I now what that port is actually used for. Like yours, mine was advertised as a serial/parallel combo card and am sure it is still listed for sale on eBay.
my first well second asi had a trs color computer but the 8088 was my jam - no hd , 2x 5.25 w/ mono chrome . it was a freaking BEAST of a machine and talk about reliable . i dont miss those days but i love watching your videos so thanks !!
I love the way it sounds when it boots up and the clickity clack of the keyboard. Brings back fond memories of playing King's Quest with my cousins on my uncle's OG IBM when we were little. They don't make 'em like that anymore.
The phosphor delay sort of helped some programs, especially ones that emulate dumb terminals or a talking back to a a maninframe. Most of the screen remains constant, eg bottom line 25 in does, screen heading field names, when you do the data or transaction only the user information is sent or when you do a inquiry only part of the screen changes. The first accounting program i worked on was like this, the instruction manual even had a IT / stats page , showed each screen, number of text characters that are "background / menu" and the number of user data you can enter or is sent back We had 4 AT PC's daisy chained to 1 x 2400 modem and it worked ok as even a full screen of data is 80x25=2,000 characters, very fast even at 2400 Later when 4800 and 9600 modems came in people said , "this is lame or to slow upgrade to 9600" so my answer was - OK here is a stop watch, type and fill the screen lets see how long you take to fill the screen, the 2400 takes 2 to 3 seconds to send your request, get the info of the server and send back the data - people are the slowest component Yeah back to the phosphor delay, "possibly" CGA and better monitors refresh at 60hz, in the early days you got flicker as there was very little video ram and buffer, people used to get headaches from the flicker, the phospher delay partially solved this and the monitor now with the delay of fade was causing almost flicker free images as the original pixel / character had not begun to fade yet A bit of history Commodore 64 monitors were 15hz, The brilliant NEC Multisync ( hybrid EGA+ almost VGA ) was 25-30hz, early CGA was 50/54/60 - but then you need to take into account font size, memory/buffer speed on video card etc Regards George
~sniff~ You've hit us right in the feels remembering the 'green-screen' monitor we'd found at 'Curby's' and used for our Commodore 128 back in the '90s. Had rigged a toggle switch it so it go from the High and Low-res feeds of the comm-ptar... Good times...
Those slow phosphors... It's funny how it was actually marketable as a feature back then - it reduced visible flicker and the resulting eye strain. But just imagine this level of ghosting today... Man the times have changed...
Thanks so much for demonstrating Blockout and the Spectrum Holobyte version of Tetris. These were games we had on the family AT back in the day and I immediately recognized them. I remember Blockout out vividly and being rather bad at it but could not remember the name. I also played a Risk or risk like game and Yahtzee. I played them in color though because we actually had a VGA card and IBM color monitor, it made Eye of the Beholder look great. Thanks again.
I could already HEAR it start and boot up in my mind before you hit that switch! Oh man, good memories :-) I used to have these machines. Slept next to them even. I miss the sound of MFM drives...
Thank you for answering a question I forgot I even had, what the inside-out power jacks were for! Also, I remember that scene from Tetris with the hockey players, when I first heard of Tetris in a magazine I saw that screen and thought the hockey players were part of the game and shooting blocks into the Tetris board like it was a Breakout clone.
That green phosphor is just gorgeous. I had an amber monochrome monitor when I was growing up, but the green ones always looked more vibrant for me. That said, I think I'd prefer an amber phosphor for prolonged use.
Wow, does that bring back some memories! I used to have a system like that when I was still in high school! It was primarily my father's as he would use for work, but in the evening, he would let me play on it (where I also initially learned to write software, thus launching my career as a software engineer). I remember spending hours playing that Block Out game. Also Starflight worked really good with the old Herc cards, as well as Ultima III (I still have my copy of that game somewhere around here, complete with the cloth map that it came with). I forgot how friggan long that system would take to boot up. Oh yes, another piece of nostalgia - hearing those sounds that those old hard drives and floppy drives made when accessing data. I also do remember the "boss hide game" feature of many of those games, although it was not a feature I really needed, since I was still in high school and was playing most of those games at home.
I noticed SPINRITE.EXE in one of the directories. I would love to see one of your fantastic videos on that legendary program. I loved the little things in that program like the ASCII animation sequences used as a sort of progress bar.
A lot of dejavu or nostalgia or something watching this.. I definitely remember the 'do you want to use a joystick' prompt but none of the games you tried lol... AWESOME VIDEO :)
I whould love it if you did a video of your old computer collection. ( it whould have to be multiple videos probably. ) because you probably have so much that we have not seen and since many of your computer videos are rather old,the collection has proboly changed a lot.
I have several Parallel/Serial port cards. 2 ISA and 1 PCI. Remember the Soundblaster joystick/MIDI cable? I have several of those too. I love old PC collectibles. Back in 1994, the Law Firm I did support for in NYC, used Wang computers for Networking just before they switched to all IBM. Yes we did use Manchester for supplies.. They went out of business in 2004.
I was actually just looking at picking up a Hercules card for my original spec XT. As I need a few other parts and cables, think I’ll give this one a try. At that price, not much to lose. Thanks!
i had two Wangs. What i loved about them was they dual booted either to the winchester disk or to a boot rom that contained a business suite. I think it was called apricot, or some fruit name like that. What i did not care about them was their massive weight. if i ever get another one i would see how far i could push it with newer stuff like an sd to ide drive. C-pokeman brought memories. When the dude was eating dots, after a while it started to sound like "This is the life this is the life."
I've order a lot of stuff from "All Electronics" in Van Nuys, CA, but never from Alltronics in Santa Clara but they seem to have similar offerings. Thanks for letting your audience know about them! I had (and may still have) a monchrome ISA graphics card from my very first IBM clone that looks very similar to this one, I'll look for it, and see if there is a brand logo. My old monochrome monitor was amber, not green. And the "click" of your keyboard is awesome! POKE-MAN lol!
This is good. Looking at your retro tech purchases in front of your retro gear made me think that if this video wasn't shot in 16:9 ratio, with high resolution and clear audio it would be hard to tell what year this was made. Modern high definition is what you want for showing such detail but I would definitely be entertained if you went through the trouble of acquiring video recording equipment from the late 80s and finding a way to get the resulting footage on RU-vid. (As long as we don't miss out on any detail.)
I bought some motherboards from these guys, they were selling mystery untested vintage motherboards for $20 each. I got a Socket 4 motherboard with VLB slots(!!!) and a Compaq Slot 1 motherboard.
@VWestflie my father obtained a full Wang system for my college days. I held back the laughter as I opted for my C64 instead. Geez I feel old thanx. Love your channel and your incredibly intelligent but fun posts. :)
Jeez that brings me back. My first PC as a 10 year old was an 8088 with a 40mb MFM hard drive. The sound of that thing winding up and waiting a good 10 minutes for post. Good times.
The monitor power plug can be used to power any monitor, it's just a pass-through that's switched to the power button of the PC - I have a cable that goes from that to a normal AC plug for PCs/monitors so I could even chain PCs, lol. Usually I put a VGA monitor on it, though, on a Pentium-era box. Also, wish I knew you needed an MGA card, I could have sent you one.
That Hauppauge advert sounded like something from price is right. Very retro. All you neded at end was "and that's your showcase on the priccce has riighgghhttt. " lol. I never heard of the website til now. Neat isa card
When the title screen from the Spectrum Holobyte version of Tetris started loading, I heard the title music from v1.0 (Mac version) in my head. The photos used were mostly the same between the IBM/Mac versions, but in a different order. (Level 9 was the Cosmonaut Space Station and at 7.888 MHz, those pieces were FAST!) Parking hard drive heads... That takes me back!
oo, nice! i have one of the original ibm monochrome/parallel cards but dont have a suitable monitor to match it, been wondering if its possible to alter its 18khz ish line frequency to 15khz ish to suit a normal tv composite input (would need to rig up a resistor network between card and tv)? pity you're not in the uk or i'd offer the card to to you as not really much use to me, 'as-is', (no idea if it works) (postage to you would no doubt be expensive.?) rather have a cga card with composite out...
I also had a Hercules and CGA in a XT. The Hercules was not only full length but also had a resistor on the outer border so I had to bend open the card holder on the end.
the rhythm game osu! has a boss key, it's the insert key. and instead of emulating something, it just puts osu in the system tray I think it's pretty nice having the boss key, even playing a game from 2007 to now
I remember that exact same version of "NYET" was installed in my first computer, which was an '83ish IBM PC XT 'Industrial' with an IBM CGA monitor and IBM model F keyboard, which I bought from a co-worker back in '96. That image you have on that monochrome monitor in text mode is exactly how it looked on the color graphics monitor in CGA mode, except the pieces were in color.... otherwise, it's exactly the same. I loved to play that little game. :-) The full size 10 meg hard drive in my XT also sounded exactly like that one in yours. What make/model HD is in that one? It's been so long I don't remember the make/model of mine, but I do remember that the make name started with "Micro..." , anyway, same exact cool little whooshing/beeping sorta "wheeping" sound like that one in your PC...lol! :-D I had a total blast with the XT back in those days. Thanks for sharing, VWestlife
6:03 "The IBM 5151 monochrome monig…" Sorry, I could not resist.
3 года назад
Been after an ISA gameport card for an old Microsoft Sidewinder controller for quite a while. The ones I have managed to find have only parallel and gameport
