Converting MDA/CGA/EGA Graphics Output to VGA! 

Me too! David's been cool enough to send me some early versions to test on various hardware.

Hey there display picture twin! (sorry couldn't resist)

TheiBookGuy and LGR are my favs tbh

This is the 8-bit Guy's game, right?

@@duffman18 Yes

Kairu Hakubi This has got to be one of the greatest compliments anyone doing instructional/informational videos could possibly hope for!

Haha 100th like

Don't get me wrong I love this stuff, but yeah that's one of the things about it that kinda tick me the wrong way

Altera Cyclone IV is not a processor, it is an FPGA (programmable gate array).

@@TzOk Is that bad?

@@TzOk see also: pedantic.

@@RodrigoBadin No it is not bad, but you can't say about the computing power when talking about FPGA. Although you can make a CPU or DSP out of FPGA, the processing power would depend on the IP core you use/create. FPGA can be whatever digital device you want.

well after LGR made his own ultimate Windows XP PC, I made my own ultimate Windows XP PC but with old case and CRT monitor. It just feels good 😊😊😍😍

I got lucky and recently picked up an IBM PS/2 model 70 (great for DOS!) on the cheap... too bad it's only got MCA slots... I do have a number of Win98 PC's i still need to refurbish back into working condition...

@@HappyBeezerStudios For the most part, a quad core cpu running at 3 ghz is enough as a CPU... Phenom II X4's are quite nice. For period-proper graphics cards... go with a Radeon X1900 or nvidia 7900 ultra (the last of the pure DirectX 9 cards) top it off at 4 GBs of RAM (since XP 32-bit only supports up to 4GB anyways).

LGR is the reason i bought a Macintosh SE

Dammit that's my situation as well. And I hate that I love it!

It's pretty expensive though. Even my whole gaming PC setup is cheaper than the full kit. I'm rocking with my BSEL modded Intel Pentium E2160, vmodded ATI HD4670 and 19'' 1280x1024 monitor. I can play AAA games like The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion/Skyrim, The Witcher 2, Mass Effect 1/2/3, Dragon Age 1/2/3 and Fallout 3/NV/TTW. Too bad I can't play Fallout 4 or The Witcher 3, because my GPU doesn't support DX11 but I can watch ''Let's play'' videos and it's almost like playing the game. I have my studio tour and gaming setup video on my channel.

@@basshead. This is for much older stuff and is pretty cheap for what it is honestly.. A lot of work must have went into this product.

I'm an OG gamer, I've been playing video games since the 90s.

> "What I've learnt watching LGR" > "10 HELLO" well, I got bad news for you ...

SYNTAX ERROR

10 PRINT "YOU HAD TO WATCH LGR TO LEARN BASIC?" 20 GOTO 10

How about some classic Unix shell script? #!/bin/sh while true; do echo FART done

@@LGR This is syntax error for sure. There was "FARTS".

"I'm gonna kill that guy!" _"No, you won't."_ "...you drive a hard bargain, Clint."

RGBI*

Can anyone tell me if it is possible and if so, how do I need to connect the 9-pin EGA output of the video card to the GBS-8220 (or GBS-8200) so I get picture with all EGA colors? The GBS-82x0 board has only 5 input ports for EGA, but the graphics board's EGA output has 9 pins. Must "secondary Red / Green / Blue (Intensity)" be connected to create an image? Is there at least a simpler DIY solution to make a monochrome EGA to VGA adapter?

Ave Avis Thing is, the "CGA" and "EGA" boards like those from Gonbes talk about are only the Horizontal Scan rate (15 and 24KHz, in this case). So they only accept a standard RGB signal with raw composite sync. The DE-9 of CGA and EGA cards not only use separated horizontal and vertical sync each on dedicated pins, but the connector also uses another pin for the "intensity" signal. For IBM CGA, this adds a brighter variant of the original 8 colors. So in that regard, you would need something like the non-RXi series of Extron RGB interfaces (like my 202PLUS), which has 9-pin TTL input along with both the ability to transcode into analog RGB and output only composite sync.

@@aveavis2247 I use a GBS-8200 as a CGA to VGA converter for my PC/XT. To get a picture (albeit with only half the colour palette) you can ignore the intensity pin(s); alternatively you can use a couple of different circuits (analog "cheating" with resistors+diodes works for me) to produce the analog RGB the GBS-8200 is expecting. The more problematic part is that the GBS-8200 cannot do split H and V sync at the horizontal frequencies CGA uses (and EGA at some resolutions/modes), it requires composite sync. You need to combine the H and V sync signals together by XNORing them, then provide that as composite sync. The GBS-82x0s were not really designed for use with vintage computers; they appear to have been primarily designed for use with arcade machines. The board accepts (all analog) YPbPr, RGBS (starting from 14.5KHz H freq) and RGBHV (starting from 30.5KHz H freq). CGA and EGA as being discussed here are not analog, they are digital TTL of the type RGBIHV (at approx 15KHz H freq minimum), therefore both the sync (too slow to be H/V) and colour (digital with intensity, not analog) portions of the signal are not as the GBS-82x0 expects them, and it will not work without additional electronics.

​@@NightSprinter thx. See my answer/question to you and Knucks under Knucks answer.

​@@KnuckxCB ​ ​ TheRetroDudeAbides Thanks for your contribution. I will think about it. Building a CGA-to-SCART adapter seems easy. I'll try that for now, because I can switch my graphics card from EGA to CGA. If I understand correctly, the CGA-to-SCART adapter can be used to build an EGA-to-SCART adapter by combining the Color and Color Intensity with a resistor. Is that correct? Source: www.repairfaq.org/sam/vidconv.htm#nvctlvg -> Look at: "TL to VGA / Analog" ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ymulGiO4NrI.html -> wiring diagram I also find different resistance values for the Schlatung: imgur.com/WZb0rdB or www.electroschematics.com/377/cga-scart-adapter/ Or are they both right? Thanks in advance.

Agsma, Just Agsma Yes you want!

When do CRT monitors start failing anyway? If they've lasted so long already, I would think they would be able to last longer.

Thumbs up for correct terminology! Usually people only call them "letterboxes", ignoring pillerboxes and windowboxes (my least favourite type of box, which I often get when people play square content in a video rendered in widescreen on my square monitors).

It's more a matter of capture devices needing to support 720x400@70hz and the like, which the MCE2VGA is outputting as intended. For example, my AV.io HD captures the MCE2VGA in all its graphics modes just fine, but my Avermedia Game Broadcaster HD does not. So it really depends on what the VGA capture device looks for in terms of video signals, and unfortunately that varies wildly across devices. But still, an alternate output mode for the MCE2VGA would be neat to have!

@@LGR They do offer an add-on programmable development board with USB that might be able to do that.

Maybe the special output mode could be a 4th version of the product. Calling it the "MCE2VGA/LGR edition" :D Or a more general name like "Video Capture Edition" is also a possibility if it is worth doing that of course.

In theory it should since it's also 15Khz RGBI.

Tucker Orton people yes yes video

Well said. It is useful for capture too, as well as for those who want to game on flat panels. And is good future-proofing. But for me, it's CRT or bust!

@@Nukle0n Yes thanks for bringing that up! I had forgotten to mention that a lot of stuff doesn't like a 70Hz refresh rate. I think the OSSC fixes that but I'M not sure, would ave to dig a little. From the top of my head, the Framemeister has the ability to convert to a locked 60Hz signal, despite the source not having that. I'm guessing it can convert a 70Hz signal as well? not sure the OSSC does. I've seen mention of this on the Hardware section at the shmups forum, I'll have to double check.

@@FinalBaton and what happens when you 40-year+ monitor does go bust? Have you priced a vintage monitor lately? Not even gonna mention shipping...

@@Caseytify Well I did mention "and is good for future-proofing" in my original post, didn't I?

I may be wrong, but I record VHS tapes using a cheap HDMI to RGB adaptor, if you want to go down to RF you can get an adaptor for that aswell. I don't know about those monochrome IBM's CRTs if they have different ports or something, speaking of which didn't LGR make a video about it already?

@@LolMan4409 The type of video output and therefore the CRTs these computers would have used have different signalling which is the point of this video. If the goal is simply to connect to modern computer to a black and white television, look through the LGR library and you'll find a video where he did this very thing.

Indeed, it's fun as hell though!

For damn sure!

Carlos Teixeira So it can't output to SVGA (800x600) or WVGA? And it can't do refresh rate conversion to typical VGA or SVGA speeds? As I commented on a community post about this, it wouldn't be that hard to hook a VRAM chip to the FPGA and actually do scan rate conversion using different FPGA programs for each mode with a microcontroller loading from a serial EEPROM/Flash as needed. There may even be capacity left for on on screen display.

Correct, no SVGA. Though it outputs at refresh rates of either 60 or 70hz depending on the graphics mode being converted. All native to VGA!

@@johnfrancisdoe1563 I didn't design the thing, so can't speculate on how what could be done. Every graphics mode is displayed to the closest most compatible VGA output. MDA and Hercules will be displayed in 720x400 @70Hz, 15KHz TTL CGA and low res EGA will be displayed in 720x480 @60Hz and EGA high res at 640x350 @70Hz.

Lousy Gamel Rebuker

Camel never saw it coming!

Would this work with the RGBI output on the C128?

@@0raffie0 in theory, yes.

@@steveg5122 Interesting, will have to try it out, although even if it will work, it might not have the "brown color fix"

I'm also a proud belgian

iDevastate 👍🏼🙂

Where as this is a great product, can it do what I need? I want to restomod a IBM 5150 XT. I got orginal case and working monitor. Case guts are gone. Want to install a raspberry pi but run command line linux on the orginal momochrome monitor. Will this device (with another converter box before I suppose) take what the Pi outputs (composite or HDMI) so I can use the orginal monochrome display?

You are asking the wrong person LOL.

If you want it! i.imgur.com/PHJRZik.jpg

@@LGR Thank you!