wehr@fmsrl7.UUCP (Bruce Wehr ) (04/24/91)
My son's first grade class was given an old IBM PC. This PC appears to
be one of the earliest ones, and I'm no expert on the evolution of PCs
(and what they were like when they first came out). First look reveals
a system with a mono monitor, two 5.25" full height drives, and a
keyboard. Unfortunately, the system came with nothing else - no books,
no disks, no system, no software. I told his teacher that I would help
them set up with public domain educational software.
I recently had my first look at the machine. I brought "Fun With
Letters and Words," a good PD program for first graders. The machine
booted, with no visable memory check (so no clue as to how much memory
is inside), and no boot rom identification. The screen was blank until
you saw a DOS prompt (I found that unusual). "Fun w/L&W" claimed that
it needed a color monitor, and exited gracefully.
I'm not familiar with the different types of monochrome adapters out
there. Just out of curiosity, I tried to install another package (one
that had an install utility). When I told it that the system had a
Hercules Monochrome card, the screen went blank. I tried the MCGA
option (whatever that is), and the install program claimed "illegal
video option" (despite the fact that it was a menu pick!).
I opened the machine to look at the video card (which also had a
parallel port on it), and I found a full length card simply labeled
"black & white / parallel" (surprising, no? :-) The motherboard was
labeled "64K/256K CPU" - I presume it has 256K, because Fun w/L&W
loaded (it's about 135K).
Is it possible that this video adapter is monochrome text only? Is/was
there such a thing? If so, does anybody know of any text only
educational software?
Better yet, does anybody have a monochrome graphics adapter that would
work with this display (simply labeled "IBM Personal Computer Display",
with a 9 pin D connector) laying around that they would be willing to
donate/sell real cheap? How about an old CGA adapter/monitor combo? A
serial mouse/driver? Other donations or real good deals?
Thanks for any and all help. Please email replies - follow-ups are
directed to me.
--
Bruce Wehr (wehr%dptc.decnet@srlvx0.srl.ford.com)
(..!uunet!srlvx0.srl.ford.com!wehr%dptc.decnet)
Ford Motor Company - Engineering Technology Services
P.O. Box 2053, Room 1153, Dearborn, Michigan 48121-2053 (313)337-5304