[comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d] EGACGA simulator...

jt@tnosel.UUCP (Johan Taal) (06/23/88)

Hello Netusers!

Is there someone familiar with a public domain software package
that runs on a video EGA card and simulates CGA?
If you do, please send it to me?! 

					w.r. Johan Taal!


-- 
Johan Taal                             USENET : jt@tnosel
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simcha@humming.UUCP (Simcha Lerner) (06/26/88)

In article <693@tnosel.UUCP> jt@tnosel.UUCP (Johan Taal) writes:
>
>
>Hello Netusers!
>
>Is there someone familiar with a public domain software package
>that runs on a video EGA card and simulates CGA?
>If you do, please send it to me?! 
>
>					w.r. Johan Taal!

Since the EGA ROM BIOS is a compatible superset of the CGA
code in the standard ROM BIOS, I doubt that there is too
much you can do on a standard PC to improve compatibility
via software.

This is because the real incompatibility arises at the
hardware register level.

(Note that some enhanced EGA cards have a mode that they
 detect writes to the registers and reinterpret them
 accordingly)

Phoenix Technology has an OEM product for '386 machines
called Control 386(TM).  Among the many other features
of this product is the ability to trap writes to CGA
registers and to write the appropriate values to the EGA
registers.  I have seen this product fix a lot of games
that would otherwise not run on an EGA (these were old
versions of the games for obvious reasons - I don't think
anyone ships stuff that won't work with an EGA anymore.)

Alas, since this is an OEM product, you probably can't
get a copy unless your machine was bundled with it.

On the other hand, a call to Phoenix might get you a copy of 
the "generic" version.

Simcha Lerner

...harvard!humming!simcha

"Since I didn't express any opinions, do I need a disclaimer?"