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    CGA Graphics - Not as bad as you thought!

    The 8-Bit Guy

    6 HN recommenders · recommended in 9 months, 2016–2024

    YouTube

    11:27 · 2.4M views · Mar 26, 2016

    The 8-Bit Guy covers IBM's 1981 CGA graphics system, including how composite output and artifacting produced extra colors beyond the nominal palette. He argues CGA looked better in period than it does on RGB monitors.

    HN recommends it for showing how old developers exploited the smeary nature of composite signals and what CGA really looked like on period hardware.

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    10 comments from Hacker News

    1. @djsumdogMar 2017· in “Secret colours of the Commodore 64”

      If you want to see how this type of colour magic works in video form, the 8-bit guy does a GREAT video on this: this video He shows all the interesting artifacting that makes these extra colours possible.

      Strongly recommendsView on HN
    2. @nzachNov 2021· in “Trackers: The Sound of 16-Bit [video]”

      Your comment got me thinking: "Wouldn't be nice if existed an 'awesome list' for this kind of content?" After a brief google search the best I could find is this [0] and it seems to be abandoned. Does anyone know a better source for this type of content? I'm leaving some random links to great channels that produce this kind of content: - CGA Graphics - Not as bad as you thought! [1] - DVD-RAM: The Disc that Behaved like a Flash Drive [2] - The Story of Super Mario Bros. 3 | Gaming Historian [3] [0] - [LINK] [1] - this video [2] - [LINK] [3] - [LINK]

      RecommendsView on HN
    3. @jandreseMar 2020· in “Why do color TVs make black and white snow?”

      The 8-Bit guy did a great piece on CGA that goes into detail about how old developers abused the fuzzy smeary nature of composite signals to output somewhat decent graphics. The tricks however didn't work when people upgraded to proper monitors and as a result a lot of CGA games look much worse today than they did on the intended equipment of the day. this video

      RecommendsView on HN
    4. @laumarsMar 2021· in “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade EGA/VGA Comparison”

      Bare in mind the displays of the time would have blended the pixels. Likewise those who complain that CGA is “only 4 awful colours” have clearly never used a proper CGA system the way it was originally intended. The following YouTube video does a good job describing what CGA was really like back in the day: this video

      RecommendsView on HN
    5. @geckoJan 2020· in “The Polygons of Another World: IBM PC”

      CGA colors were designed for display on composite; the issue is most people were using digital cables, which had the garish colors. this video has a great overview of what was possible.

      RecommendsView on HN