@stage7 @Wintermute_BBS I was probably the only one...

@stage7 @Wintermute_BBS I was probably the only one who noticed at the time. previous computer to the 486 was an IBM PC jr so even 640x480x16 colors looked like LCARS in comparison :3

Like 8 January at 20:44 | Wall-to-wall | Open on mstdn.social

3 comments

argv minus one

@jiub

640×480 was also a big deal because, for the first time, the PC had a graphics mode with square pixels. Most computers at the time (except the Mac) had pixels taller than they were wide.

Fun fact: standard VGA can (just barely) do 800×600×4bpp. The VGA BIOS doesn't supply a predefined mode for it, so you have to do black magic similar to Mode X in order to use it. Pity Windows' VGA driver couldn't do that; it would've turned heads and raised eyebrows for sure!

@stage7 @Wintermute_BBS

9 January at 0:09 | Open on mstdn.party

Jiub

@argv_minus_one
oh that's wild, didn't know it was possible to exceed 640x480 with standard VGA.

@stage7 @Wintermute_BBS

9 January at 0:32 | Open on mstdn.social

argv minus one

@jiub

I've never actually seen it, but Wikipedia claims it can be done https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_Graphics_Array#Other_graphics_modes and VGA does have enough RAM (800×600×0.5=240000 bytes; VGA has 262144 bytes).

@stage7 @Wintermute_BBS

9 January at 0:36 | Open on mstdn.party