nather@utastro.UUCP (07/15/84)
[] AST has announced, and is delivering, a monochrome graphics/text card for the IBM PC that includes a serial port, a parallel port, and a clock- calendar. It goes for $429 at a local discount store. The AST ads speak highly of it. BE WARNED! They offer *no* graphics support whatsoever -- they don't even tell you how the board works, how to address a pixel -- the graphics option is hardly even mentioned in the manual. They supply *no* software of any kind, demos or otherwise, to even show the graphics work. A call to the factory was less than satisfactory -- "It runs Lotus 1-2-3." "But I don't WANT to run Lotus 1-2-3." "Well, that's what the board is for...we offer no support for graphics besides what's in the manual." "There's *nothing* in the manual." "I know that. It runs Lotus 1-2-3." Experiment shows it also runs HBASIC -- the modification of BASICA supplied with the Hercules graphics card -- and probably is a Hercules clone. If you buy one you can have a lot of fun guessing how it works -- AST won't tell you a damn thing. And the discount house won't take it back. Emptors had damn well better caveat. -- Ed Nather {allegra,ihnp4}!{ut-sally,noao}!utastro!nather Astronomy Dept., U. of Texas, Austin