IBM 1501982

This is the original IBM Color Graphics Adapter (CGA) that was an option in the IBM 5150 computers back in 1981. Alternatively you could get the Monochrome Display Adapter (MDA) that could only display monochrome text (it did not have bitmapped graphics like Hercules).

The CGA-card offered both text modes and graphics modes. The graphic modes seem very limited compared to later EGA and VGA adapters but remember it is 1981 hardware with just 16KB video memory. The typical CGA-mode is 320x200 with 4 colors with teal and purple like the screenshot on the right from the game Bloxinies.



However CGA could do more: high resolution 640x200 in black and white and low resolution 160x100 with 16 colors.

In 2015 a team of programmers created the 8088 MPH demo that uses (very) clever programming to be able to display even more colours. Keep in mind that this runs on an original IBM 5150 PC from 1981 and that the demo is specifically programmed to get the most out of that system.



Another demo in 2022 appeared that really shows what this hardware could do when using tricks that aren't even mentioned in the books. Compare this to the typical 4-color mode that I used in Bloxinies .