stu@ptsfa.UUCP (Stu Loventhal) (09/24/84)
I have an IBM mono PC with 256K and with a modem port and printer port already installed. I would like to add mono graphics. What is the cheapest and/or best approach to take? Your help and assistance is greatly appreciated.
dmt@hocsl.UUCP (09/26/84)
REFERENCE: <272@ptsfa.UUCP> Sorry for bothering the net, but I can't find a path to stu@ptsfa. The Hercules board will provide graphics on your mono monitor (high res, 720 x 350 pixels), for a hardware price of about $300 at discount. (I got a roughly equivalent bare board from SuperComputer, and built it for a total cost of a little over $100, plus parts I had on hand.) An obvious alternative is to get a color graphics board (under $200 at discount) plus another monitor (needn't be color, but your IBM mono monitor WON'T WORK). Total cost here -- about $300. Resolution not as fine, only 640 x 200. However, this only gives you the HARDWARE! Just about all IBM graphics programs work with the color board. But the majority don't work with the Hercules. If you're writing your own graphics programs, there are good low-level routines available for the Herc, or you can write your own, and get very good monochrome graphics. But if you want to run Flight Simulator or similar existing graphic-using programs, you'll have to check one at a time. (Lotus 1-2-3 and Microsoft Word DO work.) Just about all will work with the color board and a standard (that means non-IBM-compatible) mono monitor. Warning! If you decide to go to color graphics with the color board, you can't make do with a cheap monitor. (I'm assuming you only want one monitor for both text and graphics, and don't want the hassle of figuring out patches to switch monitors.) To get 80-column text in color, you need to spend about $500 on the monitor alone, and the text is much harder on the eyes than you'll get from your present setup (or Hercules). Summarizing the options: BOARD MONITOR TOTAL SOFTWARE Hercules board $300 - $300 Selected SuperComputer board >100 - >100 Selected B&W w/ color board $200 $100 $300 "all" Color all the way $200 $500 $700 "all" (There are some newer (generally more expensive) boards now on the market since I made my choice. None that I've seen clearly dominates the first three lines.) Good luck! Dave Tutelman