If you've been living under one of these large heavy boxes for the past 5 years you might find yourself out of a roof due to someone snatching it up - retro gaming is big right now. Don't be surprised if you see people happily lined up to take them heavy old clunkers off your hands (or your nearby curb).
Give it to a retro gamer or smash bros player and you'll make him/her happy as a clam. A lag-free, DRM-free true black level display that doesn't scale incoming video and looks good in all supported resolutions? Hell yeah!
I don't know what a PC monitor would do with a VGA input signal with a horizontal frequency as slow as 15.6 kHz
With CRT VGA monitors, unless they belong to the very rare 'old multisync' breed you either get an 'OUT OF RANGE' message or a distorted raster complete with horrid screeching noises emanating from the clearly very unhappy horizontal deflection circuits, it might even result in damage to the display. It's an electrical limitation of the deflection circuitry.
With LCD monitors, one of the following happens:
The monitor displays the picture perfectly and might even identify the resolution/scan rate correctly on the OSD, which is all kinds of awesome.
The picture is displayed but with gross H/V size/positioning errors which might or might not be able to be corrected through the OSD controls. Could still be usable if picture quality is not a top priority.
The picture appears heavily distorted (repeated, parts missing or graphically glitched) usually with the OSD complaining about it on top.
No picture, OSD shows 'OUT OF RANGE' message. Sorry, better luck next time.
Many LCD monitors and TVs from many brands can take a VGA style 15kHz signal but since it's not advertised anywhere finding it out is a matter of trial and error. If you search for something like 15kHz compatible LCD monitors you'll find tons of user-created lists of working displays scattered among forum threads and wikis from the retro home computer and console communities (the people most interested in such a thing). If you wanted one you could scour these lists so you know what to buy, or you could arm yourself with a portable 15kHz VGA source and test every LCD in sight - you'll hit the jackpot sooner than later.
Getting smooth, tear-free 50/70 Hz scrolling from LCDs is IMO a much more difficult quest.
I've just tried that with my Spanish ISO layout keyboard on Firefox, and indeed AltGr+Left / Right doesn't work at all as Back / Forward like the left Alt key does, at least on this particular setup. Funny how in all these years such a thought never crossed my mind.
The tradition maybe, but not the quality. Build quality on the Unicomp keyboards is generally regarded as mediocre to bad compared to their IBM/Lexmark predecessors, especially considering their price.
For years I had the Test Mode message plastered on my desktop because I used a webcam without Windows 7 drivers so I had to manually modify the Vista driver to get it to work - never really bothered me to be honest. It was on the bottom right corner, in small white text, barely visible over a typical desktop wallpaper. I can totally live with that.
As of 2010, "ch" and "ll" aren't individual letters of the Spanish alphabet anymore. That was one big pet peeve of mine for a long time. They're digraphs, not letters!
There's a difference between LCD TVs and LCD monitors: chroma subsampling. If your LCD TV doesn't support 4:4:4 chroma subsampling using it as a PC monitor will yield mediocre results - text and other fine details won't look right even if you're using the panel's native resolution and disabling any "image enhancement" options the TV scaler may provide. This is why a 1080p LCD TV might look like absolute garbage next to a similar 1080p PC monitor when displaying computer graphics even though they take the same input signals, have the same resolution and probably the same type of LCD panel.
Old NTSC TVs can be modified to display PAL signals by tweaking the vertical scan rate, the RF/IF stages and by adding a PAL color decoder board in the right place. Sometimes the external board isn't needed at all, the set's own chassis has the spots to add the missing PAL decoder components, this is especially true of cheap Asian made TVs intended for worldwide export. Countries like Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay had a lot of experience in modifying US NTSC-M or Brazilian PAL-M imported TV sets into their unique PAL-N standard, as in every TV repairman worth his/her salt could perform such a modification. Russia was in a similar situation during the early 90s, old Soviet-era TV sets were SECAM only, and since Russia didn't have an official video game market consoles entering the country were PAL. A decoder board could be installed by your local TV tech if you wanted to play video games in color on your old TV.
Newer CRT TVs with full microprocessor control (two or one-chip designs) are either NTSC/PAL compatible from the get-go or just need a slight software change to get them to display PAL signals. Again, this is especially true of cheap, mass produced designs intended to cover most of the world's TV standards with few to no alterations. Line voltage is also a non-issue nowadays, most switching power supplies are able to take any voltage between 90 and 260V AC, just replace the plug on the end to fit your outlets.
People who are into retro video games, where newer display technologies just don't cut it.
Better stock up on CRT TVs if you want to keep your razor sharp, lag free 240p/288p gaming fix for the future.
I was able to distinguish between the game not booting and the system reset being held low by the CIC back in the day, apparently no sync is generated during reset or something along those lines because even though you get a black screen you can see it "free-running" and getting torn up horizontally, and newer TVs just blank out the video entirely like an invalid signal. I was even able to hear the difference by 'feeling' if the horizontal oscillator on the TV was free-running or locked. With a successful CIC handshake but bad program execution you get a black screen with proper sync which overrides video blanking on newer TV sets.
There's a glass fuse on the Commodore 64 motherboard you can replace yourself without soldering. Same deal with the keyboard, a couple of screws and a plug. Even some of the main chips are socketed for easy replacement.
I got one of these a few months ago from eBay for about $50. Has supported every ancient & modern chip I've thrown at it so far (even parts not on the device list by using clever substitutions) except for the 27C1024 (16-bit wide 128K EPROM), it even came with two PLCC adapters for free!. The only time it failed it was caused by a flaky USB cable. Software isn't very well translated but it does the job. If you like Engrish, read the manual for a good laugh.
Pros:
* Great device compatibility (it even takes those crazy ancient 21V parts)
* Software works on Windows 7 x64
* True USB (power + data)
* Good build quality for a Chinese product
* Cheap. If you're on a budget and don't want to mess with parallel port programmers, this is the way to go.
Cons:
* Software is proprietary and Windows only
* Software is a bit quirky and full of Engrish (eventually you'll get used to it)
* Seems to top up at 1MB for EPROM and 512KB for Flash even though it has more than enough pins
You might also want to take a look at the G840, the successor of the G540. I also second the suggestion of getting a UV eraser. I've made one myself with the internals of a small air purifier and a project box, but you can get cheap ones on eBay that will do the job.
Ah, the AMI Color BIOS . I had a 486 motherboard with it and I remember a Pentium-era motherboard which had both a standard text-mode BIOS and the graphical one, user selectable.
If you used the AMI Color BIOS with a pre-VGA adapter it would use text characters to draw the GUI elements and the pointer, much like old DOS programs.
It will die when solid-state media like NAND Flash reaches throw-away prices, at least for small capacities. DVD-R discs are so cheap now they're essentially a disposable off-line distribution system.
Until I can buy something like a 10-pack of SD cards for $2, I'll have to keep my optical drives around.
Long ago I had a Macintosh PowerBook 145 which did something similar. If I suddenly powered off the machine and powered it back on a while later, the monochrome LCD would show the contents of the display buffer prior to the shutdown for a split second after the startup chime but before the usual checkerboard pattern, with varying degrees of corruption depending on how long the machine stayed off. It held a recognizable image for a surprisingly long time. I remember reading that this particular laptop uses pseudo-static RAM so I attributed such behavior to that.
I also remember that a friend's beige G3 showed some remnants of old video memory contents as well. It took several seconds to generate a valid video signal from a cold boot, in those intermediate states it would sometimes display "pieces" of whatever was left in VRAM from the previous session. That one had SGRAM for its video chipset if I remember correctly.
Slashdot Mirror
If you've been living under one of these large heavy boxes for the past 5 years you might find yourself out of a roof due to someone snatching it up - retro gaming is big right now. Don't be surprised if you see people happily lined up to take them heavy old clunkers off your hands (or your nearby curb).
Give it to a retro gamer or smash bros player and you'll make him/her happy as a clam. A lag-free, DRM-free true black level display that doesn't scale incoming video and looks good in all supported resolutions? Hell yeah!
I don't know what a PC monitor would do with a VGA input signal with a horizontal frequency as slow as 15.6 kHz
With CRT VGA monitors, unless they belong to the very rare 'old multisync' breed you either get an 'OUT OF RANGE' message or a distorted raster complete with horrid screeching noises emanating from the clearly very unhappy horizontal deflection circuits, it might even result in damage to the display. It's an electrical limitation of the deflection circuitry.
With LCD monitors, one of the following happens:
Many LCD monitors and TVs from many brands can take a VGA style 15kHz signal but since it's not advertised anywhere finding it out is a matter of trial and error. If you search for something like 15kHz compatible LCD monitors you'll find tons of user-created lists of working displays scattered among forum threads and wikis from the retro home computer and console communities (the people most interested in such a thing). If you wanted one you could scour these lists so you know what to buy, or you could arm yourself with a portable 15kHz VGA source and test every LCD in sight - you'll hit the jackpot sooner than later.
Getting smooth, tear-free 50/70 Hz scrolling from LCDs is IMO a much more difficult quest.
I've just tried that with my Spanish ISO layout keyboard on Firefox, and indeed AltGr+Left / Right doesn't work at all as Back / Forward like the left Alt key does, at least on this particular setup. Funny how in all these years such a thought never crossed my mind.
Runs fine on my computer with Windows 7 x64 SP1.
What about home computers and video games? You know, when they used to use a standard TV as a display.
The tradition maybe, but not the quality. Build quality on the Unicomp keyboards is generally regarded as mediocre to bad compared to their IBM/Lexmark predecessors, especially considering their price.
For years I had the Test Mode message plastered on my desktop because I used a webcam without Windows 7 drivers so I had to manually modify the Vista driver to get it to work - never really bothered me to be honest. It was on the bottom right corner, in small white text, barely visible over a typical desktop wallpaper. I can totally live with that.
Naked-line DSL still has a (non-working) phone number attached to it.
It also offers component video output for GameCube games without an expensive, hard to find cable with a D/A converter built in.
As of 2010, "ch" and "ll" aren't individual letters of the Spanish alphabet anymore.
That was one big pet peeve of mine for a long time. They're digraphs, not letters!
I'm guessing this is the same Taiwan that illegally cloned tons of video game hardware and software during the late 80s and early 90s.
There's a difference between LCD TVs and LCD monitors: chroma subsampling. If your LCD TV doesn't support 4:4:4 chroma subsampling using it as a PC monitor will yield mediocre results - text and other fine details won't look right even if you're using the panel's native resolution and disabling any "image enhancement" options the TV scaler may provide. This is why a 1080p LCD TV might look like absolute garbage next to a similar 1080p PC monitor when displaying computer graphics even though they take the same input signals, have the same resolution and probably the same type of LCD panel.
Old NTSC TVs can be modified to display PAL signals by tweaking the vertical scan rate, the RF/IF stages and by adding a PAL color decoder board in the right place. Sometimes the external board isn't needed at all, the set's own chassis has the spots to add the missing PAL decoder components, this is especially true of cheap Asian made TVs intended for worldwide export. Countries like Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay had a lot of experience in modifying US NTSC-M or Brazilian PAL-M imported TV sets into their unique PAL-N standard, as in every TV repairman worth his/her salt could perform such a modification. Russia was in a similar situation during the early 90s, old Soviet-era TV sets were SECAM only, and since Russia didn't have an official video game market consoles entering the country were PAL. A decoder board could be installed by your local TV tech if you wanted to play video games in color on your old TV.
Newer CRT TVs with full microprocessor control (two or one-chip designs) are either NTSC/PAL compatible from the get-go or just need a slight software change to get them to display PAL signals. Again, this is especially true of cheap, mass produced designs intended to cover most of the world's TV standards with few to no alterations. Line voltage is also a non-issue nowadays, most switching power supplies are able to take any voltage between 90 and 260V AC, just replace the plug on the end to fit your outlets.
but who in this day in age hoards CRTs?
People who are into retro video games, where newer display technologies just don't cut it.
Better stock up on CRT TVs if you want to keep your razor sharp, lag free 240p/288p gaming fix for the future.
Windows 2000 did say "Built on NT Technology" on its startup and login screens.
I was able to distinguish between the game not booting and the system reset being held low by the CIC back in the day, apparently no sync is generated during reset or something along those lines because even though you get a black screen you can see it "free-running" and getting torn up horizontally, and newer TVs just blank out the video entirely like an invalid signal. I was even able to hear the difference by 'feeling' if the horizontal oscillator on the TV was free-running or locked. With a successful CIC handshake but bad program execution you get a black screen with proper sync which overrides video blanking on newer TV sets.
There's a glass fuse on the Commodore 64 motherboard you can replace yourself without soldering. Same deal with the keyboard, a couple of screws and a plug. Even some of the main chips are socketed for easy replacement.
I got one of these a few months ago from eBay for about $50. Has supported every ancient & modern chip I've thrown at it so far (even parts not on the device list by using clever substitutions) except for the 27C1024 (16-bit wide 128K EPROM), it even came with two PLCC adapters for free!. The only time it failed it was caused by a flaky USB cable. Software isn't very well translated but it does the job. If you like Engrish, read the manual for a good laugh.
Pros:
* Great device compatibility (it even takes those crazy ancient 21V parts)
* Software works on Windows 7 x64
* True USB (power + data)
* Good build quality for a Chinese product
* Cheap. If you're on a budget and don't want to mess with parallel port programmers, this is the way to go.
Cons:
* Software is proprietary and Windows only
* Software is a bit quirky and full of Engrish (eventually you'll get used to it)
* Seems to top up at 1MB for EPROM and 512KB for Flash even though it has more than enough pins
You might also want to take a look at the G840, the successor of the G540. I also second the suggestion of getting a UV eraser. I've made one myself with the internals of a small air purifier and a project box, but you can get cheap ones on eBay that will do the job.
Ah, the AMI Color BIOS . I had a 486 motherboard with it and I remember a Pentium-era motherboard which had both a standard text-mode BIOS and the graphical one, user selectable.
If you used the AMI Color BIOS with a pre-VGA adapter it would use text characters to draw the GUI elements and the pointer, much like old DOS programs.
Thanks for the nostalgia trip, by the way.
It does! Xell spits out the CPU key and the DVD key at the boot console. Just have a digital camera handy!
Optical media needs to die.
It will die when solid-state media like NAND Flash reaches throw-away prices, at least for small capacities. DVD-R discs are so cheap now they're essentially a disposable off-line distribution system.
Until I can buy something like a 10-pack of SD cards for $2, I'll have to keep my optical drives around.
Long ago I had a Macintosh PowerBook 145 which did something similar. If I suddenly powered off the machine and powered it back on a while later, the monochrome LCD would show the contents of the display buffer prior to the shutdown for a split second after the startup chime but before the usual checkerboard pattern, with varying degrees of corruption depending on how long the machine stayed off. It held a recognizable image for a surprisingly long time. I remember reading that this particular laptop uses pseudo-static RAM so I attributed such behavior to that.
I also remember that a friend's beige G3 showed some remnants of old video memory contents as well. It took several seconds to generate a valid video signal from a cold boot, in those intermediate states it would sometimes display "pieces" of whatever was left in VRAM from the previous session. That one had SGRAM for its video chipset if I remember correctly.
Consider a person with turret's calling you an asshole
Clearly that person has been playing too much Portal.
For video games it is, they share the same region (because of the legacy NTSC TV standard).