1 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:07,800 Speaker 1: Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 2 00:00:12,200 --> 00:00:15,080 Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 3 00:00:15,200 --> 00:00:18,440 Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 4 00:00:18,480 --> 00:00:21,800 Speaker 1: and I love all things tech. And for today's episode, 5 00:00:21,840 --> 00:00:26,200 Speaker 1: we're going to learn about old computer graphics standards. Don't 6 00:00:26,280 --> 00:00:29,440 Speaker 1: run away. This is actually really interesting. We'll learn how 7 00:00:29,480 --> 00:00:32,159 Speaker 1: they became standards in the first place, and what the 8 00:00:32,200 --> 00:00:34,919 Speaker 1: company IBM had to do with all of this, and 9 00:00:34,960 --> 00:00:38,479 Speaker 1: why some early decisions by IBM would lead to the 10 00:00:38,520 --> 00:00:42,680 Speaker 1: company extricating itself from the personal computer business altogether a 11 00:00:42,680 --> 00:00:45,440 Speaker 1: couple of decades later. Now, when I was growing up, 12 00:00:45,960 --> 00:00:49,600 Speaker 1: my family owned a couple of personal computers over the 13 00:00:49,600 --> 00:00:53,000 Speaker 1: course of my childhood. We were in that rare small 14 00:00:53,120 --> 00:00:56,880 Speaker 1: percentage of households with a personal computer back in the 15 00:00:57,000 --> 00:01:00,480 Speaker 1: nineteen eighties, and our first computer was an Apple to 16 00:01:00,800 --> 00:01:04,680 Speaker 1: E with a mono chromatic screen that could only display 17 00:01:04,920 --> 00:01:08,920 Speaker 1: Matrix green style letters. I seem to recall that we 18 00:01:09,000 --> 00:01:12,760 Speaker 1: eventually got a monitor one hundred, which is Apple's color monitor, 19 00:01:13,280 --> 00:01:16,399 Speaker 1: and that was compatible with the two E, assuming that 20 00:01:16,480 --> 00:01:19,800 Speaker 1: you had a too E with the appropriate interface card installed. 21 00:01:20,240 --> 00:01:23,319 Speaker 1: But honestly, that memory might be conflated with the second 22 00:01:23,520 --> 00:01:28,479 Speaker 1: personal computer that my dad would purchase. See, Dad got 23 00:01:28,520 --> 00:01:31,440 Speaker 1: these computers in order to work on his novels. He 24 00:01:31,480 --> 00:01:34,360 Speaker 1: wrote his first couple of books on the old Apple 25 00:01:34,400 --> 00:01:36,959 Speaker 1: to E. I don't know if he still has them, 26 00:01:37,000 --> 00:01:40,199 Speaker 1: but for years he had these novels stored on old 27 00:01:40,280 --> 00:01:43,560 Speaker 1: five and a quarter inch floppy disc and those discs 28 00:01:43,600 --> 00:01:46,720 Speaker 1: could hold about a hundred forty kilobytes worth of information each, 29 00:01:47,080 --> 00:01:49,640 Speaker 1: so to be safe, Dad would typically store two to 30 00:01:49,720 --> 00:01:53,240 Speaker 1: three chapters per disk, since his novels were too long 31 00:01:53,320 --> 00:01:56,200 Speaker 1: to fit onto just one five and a quarter inch disc, 32 00:01:56,600 --> 00:01:59,200 Speaker 1: and the Apple to E had no hard drive. Anyway, 33 00:01:59,240 --> 00:02:02,480 Speaker 1: I digress, So I love thinking about those old times. 34 00:02:02,520 --> 00:02:07,240 Speaker 1: I remember going through sleeves of discs and seeing Dad's 35 00:02:07,280 --> 00:02:11,240 Speaker 1: old novels on there. Our second computer that we owned 36 00:02:11,280 --> 00:02:14,200 Speaker 1: as a family was a two eight six. But what 37 00:02:14,240 --> 00:02:17,040 Speaker 1: does that actually mean. Well, it was a personal computer 38 00:02:17,200 --> 00:02:21,120 Speaker 1: that relied on the Intel eight two eight six central 39 00:02:21,200 --> 00:02:25,400 Speaker 1: processing unit, and it also relied on MS DOSS as 40 00:02:25,440 --> 00:02:28,760 Speaker 1: the operating system. So this computer fell into what we 41 00:02:28,800 --> 00:02:32,280 Speaker 1: would call an IBM compatible computer back in the day. 42 00:02:32,520 --> 00:02:35,920 Speaker 1: It used components and an operating system that allowed it 43 00:02:35,960 --> 00:02:40,160 Speaker 1: to run any software designed for those IBM specific machines. 44 00:02:40,720 --> 00:02:43,080 Speaker 1: I think of this as an interesting part of personal 45 00:02:43,080 --> 00:02:46,320 Speaker 1: computer history and it helps illustrate a shark contrast between 46 00:02:46,320 --> 00:02:50,919 Speaker 1: IBM S strategy and apples. So let's backtrack a little 47 00:02:50,919 --> 00:02:54,440 Speaker 1: bit now, before there were personal computers, Back when you 48 00:02:54,600 --> 00:02:57,720 Speaker 1: needed to work for a special research facility or be 49 00:02:57,880 --> 00:03:00,239 Speaker 1: enrolled in an engineering course in the universe s D, 50 00:03:00,440 --> 00:03:03,160 Speaker 1: or maybe one of a handful of folks who knows 51 00:03:03,160 --> 00:03:06,040 Speaker 1: about computers and works for a big financial company, or 52 00:03:06,120 --> 00:03:09,200 Speaker 1: maybe you're in the military. Back in those days, computers 53 00:03:09,200 --> 00:03:12,720 Speaker 1: really didn't have monitors at all. Computer graphics weren't even 54 00:03:12,760 --> 00:03:16,080 Speaker 1: a thing yet. The computer would typically print out the 55 00:03:16,160 --> 00:03:19,920 Speaker 1: results of a computational process on some sort of paper 56 00:03:20,080 --> 00:03:23,080 Speaker 1: or paper tape. Richard Garriott, who would go on to 57 00:03:23,160 --> 00:03:26,840 Speaker 1: create the Ultimate Computer Game series before You would become 58 00:03:26,880 --> 00:03:29,959 Speaker 1: one of seven private citizens to visit the space Station, 59 00:03:30,320 --> 00:03:33,120 Speaker 1: programmed his first games on a computer that would print 60 00:03:33,160 --> 00:03:36,960 Speaker 1: out each move of his Dungeon Crawler. So imagine a 61 00:03:37,120 --> 00:03:40,600 Speaker 1: top down view of a dungeon Crawler, except you're not 62 00:03:40,640 --> 00:03:43,120 Speaker 1: looking at it on a screen. You actually have to 63 00:03:43,240 --> 00:03:47,160 Speaker 1: print out each move. So you make a move in 64 00:03:47,200 --> 00:03:50,160 Speaker 1: the game, the printer would print out a new display 65 00:03:50,320 --> 00:03:53,680 Speaker 1: of what had happened, and all the figures were represented 66 00:03:53,680 --> 00:03:57,640 Speaker 1: by the basic characters that the printer could replicate, so 67 00:03:58,040 --> 00:04:00,440 Speaker 1: it was limited to whatever the printer could print, and 68 00:04:00,480 --> 00:04:04,480 Speaker 1: that was typically stuff like your standard letters, numbers, and 69 00:04:04,560 --> 00:04:07,720 Speaker 1: symbols on a keyboard. So making a move would require 70 00:04:07,720 --> 00:04:09,800 Speaker 1: the whole system to print out a new picture showing 71 00:04:09,800 --> 00:04:12,400 Speaker 1: the results of that move. So playing the game took 72 00:04:12,400 --> 00:04:17,400 Speaker 1: a while. Obviously the refresh rate was terrible, but eventually 73 00:04:17,720 --> 00:04:20,600 Speaker 1: engineers began to create a way for computers to display 74 00:04:20,680 --> 00:04:24,039 Speaker 1: information over a screen. You might connect the computer to 75 00:04:24,120 --> 00:04:26,640 Speaker 1: a regular old television system and you might have a 76 00:04:26,640 --> 00:04:30,000 Speaker 1: little adapter to do that, or, as would later become 77 00:04:30,000 --> 00:04:33,560 Speaker 1: the norm, you would build computer monitors specifically for the 78 00:04:33,640 --> 00:04:37,440 Speaker 1: systems you were creating, and later we would call these displays. 79 00:04:37,480 --> 00:04:39,520 Speaker 1: But I'm so old i still refer to them as 80 00:04:39,560 --> 00:04:44,159 Speaker 1: computer monitors because that's just how it cemented itself in 81 00:04:44,240 --> 00:04:47,599 Speaker 1: my brain. Obviously, you've got to have some sort of 82 00:04:47,680 --> 00:04:50,640 Speaker 1: bridge for a computer to be able to send meaningful 83 00:04:50,680 --> 00:04:54,039 Speaker 1: information to a display, which will then follow the instructions 84 00:04:54,160 --> 00:04:57,000 Speaker 1: sent by the computer to represent the information to the 85 00:04:57,080 --> 00:04:59,840 Speaker 1: end user. There's got to be some sort of in 86 00:05:00,000 --> 00:05:03,240 Speaker 1: interface to make this happen. On the computer side. As 87 00:05:03,320 --> 00:05:05,920 Speaker 1: well as a port that allows a user to connect 88 00:05:06,000 --> 00:05:08,039 Speaker 1: the computer to the display, there has to be some 89 00:05:08,080 --> 00:05:10,920 Speaker 1: sort of physical connection between the two, and in the 90 00:05:10,960 --> 00:05:14,800 Speaker 1: early days of personal computers, there was no set, standardized 91 00:05:14,839 --> 00:05:18,200 Speaker 1: way to do this. The technology used in one computer 92 00:05:18,320 --> 00:05:21,520 Speaker 1: system wasn't compatible with another, so you couldn't mix and 93 00:05:21,560 --> 00:05:25,920 Speaker 1: match monitors and cables and based systems together. These were 94 00:05:25,960 --> 00:05:29,640 Speaker 1: the wild West days of computing, when making a choice 95 00:05:29,720 --> 00:05:32,760 Speaker 1: as a consumer was complicated because you had no way 96 00:05:32,800 --> 00:05:35,719 Speaker 1: of knowing if the computer you chose was going to 97 00:05:35,760 --> 00:05:38,320 Speaker 1: stand the test of time. You could end up purchasing 98 00:05:38,320 --> 00:05:41,839 Speaker 1: a system at great cost and see the parent company 99 00:05:41,880 --> 00:05:45,520 Speaker 1: crumble and all support for that system would wither away. 100 00:05:45,880 --> 00:05:48,760 Speaker 1: And software developers were affected by this too in a 101 00:05:48,760 --> 00:05:53,640 Speaker 1: big way. Developing software can be an arduous process. Back 102 00:05:53,640 --> 00:05:57,360 Speaker 1: in the early days, it was feasible and even common 103 00:05:57,720 --> 00:06:00,920 Speaker 1: for a single programmer to produce a piece of software 104 00:06:00,960 --> 00:06:03,760 Speaker 1: for a system, But developers had to make the same 105 00:06:03,800 --> 00:06:06,440 Speaker 1: sort of bets that consumers were making. They had to 106 00:06:06,560 --> 00:06:10,480 Speaker 1: choose which systems they would develop four and they would 107 00:06:10,480 --> 00:06:13,000 Speaker 1: hope that they made the right bet and it often 108 00:06:13,040 --> 00:06:16,000 Speaker 1: meant dedicating a lot of their time to learning how 109 00:06:16,040 --> 00:06:20,240 Speaker 1: to program for that particular computers operating system. Since the 110 00:06:20,279 --> 00:06:23,560 Speaker 1: OS of say, an Apple computer was different from that 111 00:06:23,720 --> 00:06:26,960 Speaker 1: of the Texas Instruments trash a D system, which was 112 00:06:27,000 --> 00:06:30,520 Speaker 1: different from the Commodore sixty four, et cetera. So in 113 00:06:30,560 --> 00:06:33,960 Speaker 1: the early days of personal computers, there were many competing 114 00:06:34,000 --> 00:06:37,200 Speaker 1: systems to choose from, both as a consumer and as 115 00:06:37,200 --> 00:06:41,080 Speaker 1: a developer. Apple, Commodore, and Texas Instruments were three of 116 00:06:41,080 --> 00:06:43,320 Speaker 1: the big ones here in the United States, and they 117 00:06:43,360 --> 00:06:46,440 Speaker 1: weren't alone, but they didn't have to contend with a 118 00:06:46,520 --> 00:06:49,719 Speaker 1: really big name in computers for a few years, and 119 00:06:49,800 --> 00:06:54,400 Speaker 1: that was I b M. And that's because initially IBM 120 00:06:54,480 --> 00:06:59,240 Speaker 1: chose to concentrate on its traditional enterprise focused business and 121 00:06:59,320 --> 00:07:02,080 Speaker 1: not really get into the consumer market. They were making 122 00:07:02,440 --> 00:07:06,520 Speaker 1: products and services for other companies, not for end users 123 00:07:06,560 --> 00:07:09,440 Speaker 1: like me and you. Now that would change in nineteen 124 00:07:09,840 --> 00:07:13,920 Speaker 1: one when IBM introduced the IBM Personal Computer or the 125 00:07:14,120 --> 00:07:18,239 Speaker 1: fifty one fifty. IBM didn't invent the term personal computer, 126 00:07:18,560 --> 00:07:21,400 Speaker 1: but the fact that this juggernaut had used the phrase 127 00:07:21,480 --> 00:07:25,040 Speaker 1: for its own product would shape the terminology for computers 128 00:07:25,080 --> 00:07:29,200 Speaker 1: in general, we all know that ultimately the two major 129 00:07:29,320 --> 00:07:32,960 Speaker 1: systems to emerge from those early days were Windows based 130 00:07:33,080 --> 00:07:37,400 Speaker 1: PCs and Mac computers from Apple. These would be the 131 00:07:37,440 --> 00:07:40,720 Speaker 1: two big ones for consumers. There are obviously others out 132 00:07:40,720 --> 00:07:44,520 Speaker 1: there there, Linux systems, for example, but for the majority 133 00:07:44,520 --> 00:07:48,400 Speaker 1: of people out there, it's the Windows based PC and 134 00:07:48,560 --> 00:07:53,880 Speaker 1: Apple's Mac. Well, we call the Windows based machines PCs. 135 00:07:53,920 --> 00:07:57,760 Speaker 1: Because of IBM and its influence, a MAC is a 136 00:07:57,800 --> 00:08:01,320 Speaker 1: personal computer. To a MAC is a PC in the 137 00:08:01,320 --> 00:08:03,520 Speaker 1: sense it's a personal computer, but you wouldn't call it 138 00:08:03,600 --> 00:08:08,160 Speaker 1: a PC typically because to us, PCs means a machine 139 00:08:08,240 --> 00:08:11,920 Speaker 1: built upon ibm s approach, and that leads us into 140 00:08:11,960 --> 00:08:15,360 Speaker 1: the choices IBM made that would ultimately contribute to the 141 00:08:15,360 --> 00:08:18,960 Speaker 1: company getting out of the personal computer business. Further down 142 00:08:19,040 --> 00:08:21,600 Speaker 1: the road. It all comes down to how they chose 143 00:08:21,640 --> 00:08:23,680 Speaker 1: to get into it in the first place. You see, 144 00:08:24,040 --> 00:08:27,560 Speaker 1: when IBM was making the personal computer, the company wasn't 145 00:08:27,600 --> 00:08:31,640 Speaker 1: exactly putting its full support behind that effort in order 146 00:08:31,680 --> 00:08:34,760 Speaker 1: to produce the system cheaply, which would mean the company 147 00:08:34,760 --> 00:08:37,600 Speaker 1: could sell the manufactured systems at a premium and have 148 00:08:37,679 --> 00:08:40,880 Speaker 1: a really sweet profit margin. You know, you you buy 149 00:08:40,960 --> 00:08:44,880 Speaker 1: cheap and you sell high. IBM engineers built the PC 150 00:08:45,080 --> 00:08:48,720 Speaker 1: using off the shelf components. The company didn't build a 151 00:08:48,800 --> 00:08:53,760 Speaker 1: custom made microprocessor or anything. Instead, the original IBM PC 152 00:08:54,120 --> 00:08:58,320 Speaker 1: used an Intel eight chip as the CPU. In a 153 00:08:58,360 --> 00:09:02,240 Speaker 1: similar fashion, the engineers used other standard components to build 154 00:09:02,240 --> 00:09:06,360 Speaker 1: out the PC, and they made an arrangement with Microsoft 155 00:09:06,400 --> 00:09:09,280 Speaker 1: to supply the operating system for this new personal computer. 156 00:09:09,960 --> 00:09:13,400 Speaker 1: And the story behind all of that operating system stuff 157 00:09:13,480 --> 00:09:17,960 Speaker 1: gets really super juicy and bonkers. That has betrayal and backstabbing. 158 00:09:18,000 --> 00:09:20,640 Speaker 1: It's like a Game of Thrones episode. For one thing, 159 00:09:21,000 --> 00:09:24,640 Speaker 1: Microsoft was not the company to originally develop DOSS, but 160 00:09:24,720 --> 00:09:29,800 Speaker 1: it's sure as heck profited from it. But that's another story. 161 00:09:30,160 --> 00:09:34,120 Speaker 1: The operating system that IBM used was called PC DOSS, 162 00:09:34,120 --> 00:09:38,559 Speaker 1: but IBM did not establish an exclusivity agreement with Microsoft, 163 00:09:38,800 --> 00:09:43,880 Speaker 1: and so Microsoft would also develop another OS called MS DOSS, 164 00:09:43,920 --> 00:09:48,800 Speaker 1: which was to all intents and purposes, identical to PC DOSS, 165 00:09:48,840 --> 00:09:52,360 Speaker 1: and it would remain so for several versions. Now, all 166 00:09:52,400 --> 00:09:55,920 Speaker 1: the pieces were in place for IBM's eventual decision to 167 00:09:55,920 --> 00:09:59,040 Speaker 1: get out of the consumer PC market, and it was 168 00:09:59,720 --> 00:10:01,680 Speaker 1: just to the point when it was getting in. You 169 00:10:01,720 --> 00:10:05,440 Speaker 1: see the basic components for the computers were available to anyone, 170 00:10:05,920 --> 00:10:10,120 Speaker 1: and the operating system was likewise available through licensing with Microsoft. 171 00:10:10,240 --> 00:10:15,080 Speaker 1: So an enterprising computer company with much lower operating costs 172 00:10:15,160 --> 00:10:20,120 Speaker 1: than a behemoth like IBM could conceivably swoop in, build 173 00:10:20,160 --> 00:10:24,920 Speaker 1: a reasonable facsimile of an IBM PC machine using similar components, 174 00:10:25,280 --> 00:10:28,000 Speaker 1: and include a licensed version of MS DOSS as the 175 00:10:28,000 --> 00:10:31,160 Speaker 1: operating system. In presto, you have a computer that runs 176 00:10:31,320 --> 00:10:35,080 Speaker 1: just like an IBM PC, including support for all software 177 00:10:35,120 --> 00:10:38,280 Speaker 1: designed for the IBM system, and it's at a fraction 178 00:10:38,320 --> 00:10:41,520 Speaker 1: of the cost. This gave birth to an entire subclass 179 00:10:41,520 --> 00:10:46,320 Speaker 1: of computers called the IBM clones or IBM compatibles. The 180 00:10:46,360 --> 00:10:48,760 Speaker 1: two six I mentioned at the top of this episode 181 00:10:49,240 --> 00:10:52,480 Speaker 1: was just such a machine. We didn't known an official 182 00:10:52,559 --> 00:10:55,520 Speaker 1: IBM Burstal computer, but rather a machine with the same 183 00:10:55,559 --> 00:10:59,600 Speaker 1: sort of guts inside and running MS DOSS. It would 184 00:10:59,600 --> 00:11:01,920 Speaker 1: take a long time for all of this to actually 185 00:11:01,960 --> 00:11:05,280 Speaker 1: catch up to IBM, mind you, it's not like they 186 00:11:05,320 --> 00:11:09,280 Speaker 1: were shot and sunk as soon as they launched. The 187 00:11:09,320 --> 00:11:12,120 Speaker 1: company would ultimately pull back from the PC business, but 188 00:11:12,160 --> 00:11:14,440 Speaker 1: it would stick around long enough to make an enormous 189 00:11:14,559 --> 00:11:18,920 Speaker 1: influence on computers and programming and that includes graphics. When 190 00:11:18,960 --> 00:11:23,280 Speaker 1: the IBM PC debut in nine, the company offered two 191 00:11:23,320 --> 00:11:27,160 Speaker 1: options when it came to graphics. Each was a type 192 00:11:27,160 --> 00:11:30,160 Speaker 1: of circuit board that could be plugged into the motherboard 193 00:11:30,280 --> 00:11:34,240 Speaker 1: of the computer, the sort of an expansion slot. These 194 00:11:34,240 --> 00:11:37,360 Speaker 1: types of cards were called add in boards or A 195 00:11:37,520 --> 00:11:40,960 Speaker 1: I B s, and they represented ways to add capabilities 196 00:11:40,960 --> 00:11:45,160 Speaker 1: to a base computer model. Sometimes those abilities were fairly 197 00:11:45,240 --> 00:11:49,240 Speaker 1: simple additional features. Sometimes, like in this case, they were 198 00:11:49,320 --> 00:11:52,720 Speaker 1: required in order to send images to an external display. 199 00:11:52,760 --> 00:11:54,920 Speaker 1: So without one of these two cards you wouldn't have 200 00:11:55,000 --> 00:11:59,040 Speaker 1: any way of sending information to a computer monitor. The 201 00:11:59,120 --> 00:12:02,520 Speaker 1: first of the two was called the Monochrome Display Adapter 202 00:12:02,800 --> 00:12:06,479 Speaker 1: or m d A. This was a video card installed 203 00:12:06,600 --> 00:12:11,880 Speaker 1: on the PC that would output monochromatic signals to the monitor. Furthermore, 204 00:12:12,360 --> 00:12:16,760 Speaker 1: it didn't do so in a pixel addressable way. So wait, wait, wait, 205 00:12:16,760 --> 00:12:20,240 Speaker 1: what does that mean? All right, So let's remember that 206 00:12:20,320 --> 00:12:23,720 Speaker 1: the images we see on displays and monitors and screens 207 00:12:23,720 --> 00:12:27,200 Speaker 1: like on smartphones are made up of little points of light. 208 00:12:27,720 --> 00:12:30,640 Speaker 1: By changing the brightness and color of those points of light, 209 00:12:31,080 --> 00:12:34,640 Speaker 1: you can create full images. It's not that different from 210 00:12:34,720 --> 00:12:38,440 Speaker 1: the technique used by the famous painter George Serat in 211 00:12:38,559 --> 00:12:42,200 Speaker 1: his famous work A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of 212 00:12:42,320 --> 00:12:46,760 Speaker 1: Lagrange Jatt. In that painting, all the images consist of 213 00:12:46,840 --> 00:12:49,640 Speaker 1: tiny dots of paint, but when you view it from 214 00:12:49,640 --> 00:12:53,120 Speaker 1: a distance, they form the shapes of people spending a 215 00:12:53,160 --> 00:12:56,400 Speaker 1: lovely day at a park along the Sin River. It's 216 00:12:56,440 --> 00:12:58,520 Speaker 1: an example of a style called point to list, and 217 00:12:58,520 --> 00:13:02,040 Speaker 1: it's perhaps the most famous version of this of all time. 218 00:13:02,160 --> 00:13:06,040 Speaker 1: But television's computer monitors and electronic displays like the one 219 00:13:06,120 --> 00:13:10,200 Speaker 1: smartphones use have a similar technique, except they use points 220 00:13:10,240 --> 00:13:14,240 Speaker 1: of light rather than points of paint. Now, as I mentioned, 221 00:13:14,520 --> 00:13:19,040 Speaker 1: the m d A wasn't pixel addressable, and addressability refers 222 00:13:19,080 --> 00:13:24,560 Speaker 1: to the capacity to separately access individual units of something, so, 223 00:13:24,600 --> 00:13:28,640 Speaker 1: in this case pixels. A pixel addressable approach allows the 224 00:13:28,679 --> 00:13:33,120 Speaker 1: computer system to send specific instructions to each and every pixel, 225 00:13:33,360 --> 00:13:37,199 Speaker 1: which in turn lets computers send full images and graphics 226 00:13:37,200 --> 00:13:40,720 Speaker 1: to a connected monitor. But m d A didn't have 227 00:13:40,880 --> 00:13:44,160 Speaker 1: that capability, so you couldn't send a black and white 228 00:13:44,160 --> 00:13:47,480 Speaker 1: photo to display on a connected monitor. The m d 229 00:13:47,600 --> 00:13:52,600 Speaker 1: A was dedicated purely to text mode. The screen consisted 230 00:13:52,679 --> 00:13:56,480 Speaker 1: not of pixels so much as it did of character cells. 231 00:13:56,520 --> 00:13:59,560 Speaker 1: So imagine a box that's large enough to hold the 232 00:13:59,679 --> 00:14:03,679 Speaker 1: large ist text character, like an uppercase G or W 233 00:14:04,040 --> 00:14:08,080 Speaker 1: or something. Now imagine that the entire screen is a 234 00:14:08,120 --> 00:14:12,000 Speaker 1: grid of those boxes. Each box is exactly the same shape, 235 00:14:12,040 --> 00:14:14,960 Speaker 1: so it can a lot for the largest of characters 236 00:14:15,040 --> 00:14:17,920 Speaker 1: inside of it. But that's all they can fit inside. 237 00:14:17,920 --> 00:14:21,920 Speaker 1: Each box is one character. You couldn't create more complex images, 238 00:14:22,240 --> 00:14:26,080 Speaker 1: only pictures that consisted of those basic characters, just like 239 00:14:26,160 --> 00:14:29,160 Speaker 1: the old printers that I mentioned earlier that Richard Garriott 240 00:14:29,200 --> 00:14:32,320 Speaker 1: had been playing with. Well, with these displays you could 241 00:14:32,320 --> 00:14:37,160 Speaker 1: get really good resolution on those characters, so the images 242 00:14:37,200 --> 00:14:41,280 Speaker 1: were crisp and clear. The pictures, the text was incredibly 243 00:14:41,320 --> 00:14:45,000 Speaker 1: clear to read. It was very simple too. With these displays, 244 00:14:45,040 --> 00:14:48,040 Speaker 1: you could get really good resolution on those characters. The 245 00:14:48,120 --> 00:14:52,240 Speaker 1: text is crisp and clear. And that was a big 246 00:14:52,320 --> 00:14:54,600 Speaker 1: drop because a lot of these computers were meant to 247 00:14:54,680 --> 00:14:58,920 Speaker 1: go towards small businesses, where presumably the applications you're running 248 00:14:58,960 --> 00:15:02,960 Speaker 1: are mostly text based. There were some tradeoffs because the 249 00:15:03,000 --> 00:15:06,480 Speaker 1: screen was made up of a grid of equal sized boxes, 250 00:15:06,520 --> 00:15:10,720 Speaker 1: and each of those boxes could contain one character. Every 251 00:15:10,800 --> 00:15:14,080 Speaker 1: letter would use up the same amount of space on 252 00:15:14,160 --> 00:15:18,160 Speaker 1: the screen. So an upper case W, which is about 253 00:15:18,160 --> 00:15:20,720 Speaker 1: as wide as it gets, would take up the same 254 00:15:20,760 --> 00:15:23,320 Speaker 1: amount of space as an upper case I. Now I 255 00:15:23,360 --> 00:15:26,040 Speaker 1: don't mean that the upper case I would be wide, 256 00:15:26,800 --> 00:15:30,120 Speaker 1: but rather it would occupy a spot that would be 257 00:15:30,440 --> 00:15:34,480 Speaker 1: surrounded by an invisible box the same size as the 258 00:15:34,520 --> 00:15:37,360 Speaker 1: invisible box that goes around the upper case W. So 259 00:15:37,400 --> 00:15:40,920 Speaker 1: you get this weird spacing between letters in the same word, 260 00:15:41,280 --> 00:15:44,760 Speaker 1: if you're using a collection of wide and narrow letters, 261 00:15:45,400 --> 00:15:50,680 Speaker 1: it would just look off. It's called monospace font. It's 262 00:15:50,800 --> 00:15:52,720 Speaker 1: it's the same sort of thing that you would see 263 00:15:52,960 --> 00:15:56,960 Speaker 1: with a lot of printers and typewriters because they were 264 00:15:57,040 --> 00:16:01,040 Speaker 1: limited to having all of their stamps at the same size, 265 00:16:01,120 --> 00:16:04,840 Speaker 1: even if the letters were different sizes. In contrast, most 266 00:16:04,880 --> 00:16:08,680 Speaker 1: fonts we use today are proportional fonts, which means individual 267 00:16:08,760 --> 00:16:12,200 Speaker 1: characters are given space proportional to their own size, so 268 00:16:12,240 --> 00:16:14,840 Speaker 1: you don't get these odd gaps between letters that should 269 00:16:14,840 --> 00:16:17,000 Speaker 1: be right next to each other. But that was just 270 00:16:17,120 --> 00:16:20,040 Speaker 1: one option for the IBM PC. The other option had 271 00:16:20,120 --> 00:16:23,800 Speaker 1: direct addressability for pixels. It also had support for color, 272 00:16:23,880 --> 00:16:26,880 Speaker 1: so you could have color graphics with this version, and 273 00:16:26,960 --> 00:16:30,080 Speaker 1: it was called c g A and we'll talk about 274 00:16:30,120 --> 00:16:41,080 Speaker 1: it more after the break. So c g A stands 275 00:16:41,120 --> 00:16:45,440 Speaker 1: for Color Graphics Adapter, and describing this technology will also 276 00:16:45,480 --> 00:16:47,720 Speaker 1: require us to examine a couple of other sets of 277 00:16:47,760 --> 00:16:50,600 Speaker 1: standards that affected the graphics that displayed on old c 278 00:16:50,800 --> 00:16:55,560 Speaker 1: g A systems. C g A had big limitations had 279 00:16:55,640 --> 00:16:59,800 Speaker 1: compared to graphics cards today, they seem absolutely stone a. 280 00:17:00,480 --> 00:17:04,760 Speaker 1: The c g A system could support four different modes officially, 281 00:17:05,040 --> 00:17:08,960 Speaker 1: but clever programmers figured out ways to boost this. We'll 282 00:17:08,960 --> 00:17:12,600 Speaker 1: get into that. There were two text modes and two 283 00:17:12,640 --> 00:17:16,879 Speaker 1: graphic modes for the c g A card. The first 284 00:17:17,040 --> 00:17:20,800 Speaker 1: text mode supported four bit color and could display up 285 00:17:20,840 --> 00:17:24,720 Speaker 1: to forty characters per line, with twenty five lines making 286 00:17:24,800 --> 00:17:28,080 Speaker 1: up the total screen space, so twenty five like you 287 00:17:28,080 --> 00:17:31,800 Speaker 1: could stack twenty five vertically or you could stack forty 288 00:17:31,840 --> 00:17:36,880 Speaker 1: horizontally across the screen. The pixel aspect ratio was one 289 00:17:37,200 --> 00:17:40,359 Speaker 1: to one point two. But what does that mean. Well, 290 00:17:40,440 --> 00:17:44,720 Speaker 1: these pixels were not perfect squares. They were actually taller 291 00:17:45,080 --> 00:17:48,639 Speaker 1: than they were wide. With that ratio of one for 292 00:17:48,760 --> 00:17:52,160 Speaker 1: width to one point two for height, this would mean 293 00:17:52,160 --> 00:17:55,040 Speaker 1: that the visual resolution of the screen was more like 294 00:17:55,160 --> 00:17:59,480 Speaker 1: three twenty by two forty In actuality, it was three 295 00:17:59,520 --> 00:18:03,280 Speaker 1: twenty by two hundred. So why the three forty, Well, 296 00:18:03,600 --> 00:18:08,080 Speaker 1: because the pixels were longer than they were wide. If 297 00:18:08,119 --> 00:18:11,520 Speaker 1: you were clever with the way you create your computer graphics, 298 00:18:11,880 --> 00:18:15,320 Speaker 1: it would seem almost like you had stacked more pixels vertically, 299 00:18:15,920 --> 00:18:17,959 Speaker 1: and you could take advantage of things and make a 300 00:18:17,960 --> 00:18:20,520 Speaker 1: picture that had that sort of look as if it 301 00:18:20,560 --> 00:18:23,680 Speaker 1: was a resolution of three twenty by two forty. However, 302 00:18:24,240 --> 00:18:27,160 Speaker 1: if you needed to cut things short and the ratio 303 00:18:27,280 --> 00:18:30,080 Speaker 1: just wasn't working for you, it would become a detriment, 304 00:18:30,200 --> 00:18:32,800 Speaker 1: not an asset. However, if you do the math, you'll 305 00:18:32,840 --> 00:18:36,159 Speaker 1: see that this means every character on screen would have 306 00:18:36,280 --> 00:18:39,840 Speaker 1: eight pixels dedicated to it. And here's how I did that. 307 00:18:39,880 --> 00:18:43,040 Speaker 1: You just take the resolution with that's three twenty pixels. 308 00:18:43,400 --> 00:18:45,280 Speaker 1: You divide that by the number of characters that could 309 00:18:45,320 --> 00:18:48,840 Speaker 1: fit on one line. Remember it's forty characters across, so 310 00:18:49,000 --> 00:18:52,160 Speaker 1: three twenty divided by forty you get eight. The same 311 00:18:52,240 --> 00:18:55,480 Speaker 1: is true vertically. You can have twenty five characters stacked 312 00:18:55,520 --> 00:18:58,119 Speaker 1: from top to bottom on the screen, and the vertical 313 00:18:58,200 --> 00:19:01,520 Speaker 1: resolution is two hundred pixels top to bottom. Two hundred 314 00:19:01,560 --> 00:19:06,640 Speaker 1: divided is eight. So each character and the adapter supported 315 00:19:06,680 --> 00:19:11,359 Speaker 1: two fifty six different characters could use eight pixels for 316 00:19:11,440 --> 00:19:16,040 Speaker 1: display purposes. The four bit color part also needs explaining. 317 00:19:16,200 --> 00:19:20,159 Speaker 1: So a bit is a single unit of computer information, 318 00:19:20,320 --> 00:19:23,160 Speaker 1: and we represent it as either a zero or a one, 319 00:19:24,119 --> 00:19:27,200 Speaker 1: So that means a bit has one of two possible 320 00:19:27,240 --> 00:19:29,639 Speaker 1: states at any given time. You can think of it 321 00:19:29,680 --> 00:19:34,720 Speaker 1: as off or on, zero or one. We have four 322 00:19:34,800 --> 00:19:37,120 Speaker 1: bits for four bit color, so that means we can 323 00:19:37,160 --> 00:19:41,160 Speaker 1: think of having to the possible number of states per bit. 324 00:19:41,760 --> 00:19:45,440 Speaker 1: Raised to the power of four, that's equal to sixteen. 325 00:19:45,880 --> 00:19:50,640 Speaker 1: So four bit color could support sixteen different colors total, 326 00:19:51,040 --> 00:19:56,679 Speaker 1: not all at once, but total, like, that's the number 327 00:19:56,720 --> 00:20:02,040 Speaker 1: of colors this display could show. In text mode, programmers 328 00:20:02,080 --> 00:20:05,800 Speaker 1: could choose a foreground and background color, choosing from those 329 00:20:05,880 --> 00:20:10,159 Speaker 1: sixteen pre made colors. In addition, a bit for the 330 00:20:10,240 --> 00:20:12,920 Speaker 1: foreground color could be dedicated to make the character blink, 331 00:20:13,000 --> 00:20:16,439 Speaker 1: so you can have blinking text in the foreground the 332 00:20:16,680 --> 00:20:21,359 Speaker 1: blinking bit the bit responsible for that blinking command, was 333 00:20:21,440 --> 00:20:24,560 Speaker 1: repurposed for the background color, and it's served as an 334 00:20:24,560 --> 00:20:29,639 Speaker 1: intensity bit instead. Intensity essentially means how dark or bright 335 00:20:29,920 --> 00:20:33,760 Speaker 1: that particular color happens to appear. The second text mode 336 00:20:34,280 --> 00:20:38,160 Speaker 1: was an eighty by twenty five four bit color mode, 337 00:20:38,800 --> 00:20:42,639 Speaker 1: so that meant you could fit eighty letters across in 338 00:20:42,680 --> 00:20:47,920 Speaker 1: a line twenty five lines per screen. These letters were 339 00:20:47,960 --> 00:20:50,920 Speaker 1: half as wide as the forty by twenty five versions. 340 00:20:51,200 --> 00:20:54,040 Speaker 1: Makes sense, right, you could fit twice as many across 341 00:20:54,119 --> 00:20:56,439 Speaker 1: the screen, they must be half as wide as the 342 00:20:56,480 --> 00:21:01,760 Speaker 1: forty five. The pixel ratio the this would create for 343 00:21:01,800 --> 00:21:05,760 Speaker 1: a visual representation of the resolution was six forty by 344 00:21:05,840 --> 00:21:09,439 Speaker 1: four eighty. Now, in reality, those pixels again were taller 345 00:21:09,440 --> 00:21:12,879 Speaker 1: than they were wide. In fact, they were notably taller 346 00:21:12,920 --> 00:21:16,200 Speaker 1: than they were wide, so the real resolution, the true 347 00:21:16,240 --> 00:21:19,119 Speaker 1: resolution was six forty by two hundred, but it looked 348 00:21:19,119 --> 00:21:23,560 Speaker 1: like six forty eight. More programs were written in this 349 00:21:23,640 --> 00:21:26,960 Speaker 1: mode because that you could fit way more text on 350 00:21:27,000 --> 00:21:30,000 Speaker 1: a screen than you could with the forty five mode. 351 00:21:30,520 --> 00:21:34,080 Speaker 1: It was less chunky, but most text based programs relied 352 00:21:34,240 --> 00:21:38,320 Speaker 1: on the eighty by twenty five approach. If you were 353 00:21:38,400 --> 00:21:41,240 Speaker 1: using a word processor or something, this was the style 354 00:21:41,600 --> 00:21:43,920 Speaker 1: that you were most likely looking at. That being said, 355 00:21:43,920 --> 00:21:46,320 Speaker 1: the resolution of text on a C G A machine 356 00:21:46,760 --> 00:21:48,959 Speaker 1: was lower than what you would have found on the 357 00:21:49,040 --> 00:21:52,800 Speaker 1: monochromatic M D A computers, so it was a tradeoff 358 00:21:52,920 --> 00:21:57,719 Speaker 1: You could have a c g A ibm PC running 359 00:21:57,720 --> 00:22:00,199 Speaker 1: on this eighty by twenty five text mode for a 360 00:22:00,240 --> 00:22:03,600 Speaker 1: specific program and it would be fine. It just wouldn't 361 00:22:03,600 --> 00:22:06,480 Speaker 1: be as crisp and clear as the monochromatic m d 362 00:22:06,640 --> 00:22:12,040 Speaker 1: A text specific machines onto the graphics modes. However, that's 363 00:22:12,040 --> 00:22:15,639 Speaker 1: what we're really interested in, right, What actually made the images, 364 00:22:16,080 --> 00:22:21,680 Speaker 1: not just the text on these computers. Well, the graphics 365 00:22:21,680 --> 00:22:24,600 Speaker 1: mode for the c g A machine had, like I said, 366 00:22:24,640 --> 00:22:27,800 Speaker 1: two different modes to it, two different official modes to it. 367 00:22:28,080 --> 00:22:32,480 Speaker 1: One was a three twenty by two hundred resolution, but 368 00:22:32,720 --> 00:22:35,280 Speaker 1: the pixel ratio was one to one point two, so 369 00:22:35,400 --> 00:22:38,520 Speaker 1: again it looked more like three by two forty. This 370 00:22:38,560 --> 00:22:42,520 Speaker 1: mode could display up to four colors at any one time, 371 00:22:42,800 --> 00:22:46,880 Speaker 1: using one of two pre selected palettes. This is why 372 00:22:46,880 --> 00:22:49,080 Speaker 1: if you ever look at old c g A games, 373 00:22:49,119 --> 00:22:51,800 Speaker 1: they all start to look really similar. They're all using 374 00:22:51,800 --> 00:22:56,080 Speaker 1: the exact same colors for colors. The programmers were working 375 00:22:56,119 --> 00:22:59,639 Speaker 1: under some really tight restrictions. The first palette of colors 376 00:22:59,640 --> 00:23:05,160 Speaker 1: include did black, green, red, and yellow. This was palette zero. 377 00:23:05,560 --> 00:23:10,879 Speaker 1: The second palette, a k A Palette one had black, cyan, magenta, 378 00:23:11,000 --> 00:23:14,640 Speaker 1: and white. Now, as you can imagine it's pretty tough 379 00:23:14,720 --> 00:23:18,040 Speaker 1: to create good graphics with this limited color selection. Now 380 00:23:18,720 --> 00:23:22,480 Speaker 1: on top of that, programmers could use low intensity or 381 00:23:22,560 --> 00:23:27,200 Speaker 1: brightness or high intensity or brightness, So that would add 382 00:23:27,240 --> 00:23:31,080 Speaker 1: another variation. And I've seen the same screen presented in 383 00:23:31,680 --> 00:23:36,760 Speaker 1: both palettes at both levels of intensity, and there are differences, 384 00:23:36,880 --> 00:23:39,720 Speaker 1: like you can get a very different effect going from 385 00:23:39,760 --> 00:23:42,719 Speaker 1: one to the other. So programs had a little bit 386 00:23:42,760 --> 00:23:46,800 Speaker 1: of flexibility, but not by much. In both palettes, black 387 00:23:47,040 --> 00:23:51,359 Speaker 1: is color zero, and color zero was actually customizable. You 388 00:23:51,359 --> 00:23:54,760 Speaker 1: could swap it out. You could choose one of the 389 00:23:54,800 --> 00:23:58,600 Speaker 1: other fifteen colors that c g A supported and use 390 00:23:58,720 --> 00:24:01,879 Speaker 1: that as color z Yerow. Black would no longer be used. 391 00:24:02,200 --> 00:24:04,560 Speaker 1: The flip side of this is that the new color 392 00:24:04,680 --> 00:24:07,520 Speaker 1: would replace color zero in all of the image, So 393 00:24:07,800 --> 00:24:11,160 Speaker 1: if you wanted the image to have black in it, 394 00:24:11,160 --> 00:24:13,600 Speaker 1: it would get replaced by whatever color you had now 395 00:24:13,720 --> 00:24:17,639 Speaker 1: designated as color zero. If you wanted to have green 396 00:24:17,800 --> 00:24:22,200 Speaker 1: included with your white, cyan, and magenta, then it would 397 00:24:22,240 --> 00:24:25,520 Speaker 1: mean that if you had a scene with a night sky, 398 00:24:25,920 --> 00:24:28,600 Speaker 1: that night sky is going to be green because it 399 00:24:28,640 --> 00:24:31,840 Speaker 1: would normally be black, but you've designated that color to 400 00:24:31,880 --> 00:24:35,680 Speaker 1: go to green. Instead of black. So yeah, very limited. However, 401 00:24:35,760 --> 00:24:39,480 Speaker 1: another trick programmers could do is leverage the way CRT 402 00:24:39,760 --> 00:24:43,480 Speaker 1: screens work. I'm gonna gloss over the details, but in 403 00:24:43,600 --> 00:24:47,320 Speaker 1: CRT screens there is an electron gun and it paints 404 00:24:47,440 --> 00:24:50,840 Speaker 1: the back of the screen with electrons. That causes phosphor 405 00:24:50,880 --> 00:24:54,760 Speaker 1: the glow as the phosphor absorbs electrons. But the painting 406 00:24:54,880 --> 00:24:58,040 Speaker 1: is the important part. It happens at the top line 407 00:24:58,119 --> 00:25:01,560 Speaker 1: on the screen. It goes all the way across horizontally, 408 00:25:01,800 --> 00:25:04,639 Speaker 1: then it moves down the line and it does this again, 409 00:25:04,840 --> 00:25:09,120 Speaker 1: and it does this really fast. A slow CRT monitor 410 00:25:09,359 --> 00:25:13,679 Speaker 1: would repaint the entire screen sixty times a second. But 411 00:25:13,800 --> 00:25:17,639 Speaker 1: this means that if you're programming, you know precisely what 412 00:25:17,840 --> 00:25:20,200 Speaker 1: parts of an image are going to be painted first, 413 00:25:20,240 --> 00:25:22,679 Speaker 1: because it's going to go top to bottom. So if 414 00:25:22,720 --> 00:25:27,159 Speaker 1: you're meticulous, you can swap from one pallette set to 415 00:25:27,640 --> 00:25:31,959 Speaker 1: the other pallette set in mid screen draw. That allows 416 00:25:32,000 --> 00:25:35,679 Speaker 1: for slightly more colors to display on screen at one time, 417 00:25:35,840 --> 00:25:38,320 Speaker 1: or at least what we perceive to be at one time, 418 00:25:38,680 --> 00:25:43,000 Speaker 1: because our perception lags behind this refresh rate. So in 419 00:25:43,040 --> 00:25:46,560 Speaker 1: any given band of horizontal lines, you would be limited 420 00:25:46,600 --> 00:25:49,480 Speaker 1: to four colors because you'd be limited to one pallette. However, 421 00:25:49,520 --> 00:25:52,480 Speaker 1: you could swap from band to band, so you might 422 00:25:52,520 --> 00:25:54,840 Speaker 1: have a screen with an image in it that has 423 00:25:55,160 --> 00:25:58,199 Speaker 1: the four colors represented from palette zero, and then at 424 00:25:58,200 --> 00:26:00,960 Speaker 1: the bottom you swap out to pal at one and 425 00:26:01,000 --> 00:26:04,040 Speaker 1: you get a little more variety that way. The second 426 00:26:04,080 --> 00:26:08,040 Speaker 1: official graphics mode that the c g A chip supported 427 00:26:08,480 --> 00:26:12,959 Speaker 1: was a six forty by two hundred one bit color mode. 428 00:26:13,440 --> 00:26:17,560 Speaker 1: Now this was a monochromatic approach, so you had black 429 00:26:17,920 --> 00:26:20,919 Speaker 1: the background color, and then whatever the foreground color was, 430 00:26:21,720 --> 00:26:25,400 Speaker 1: whether it's white or green or amber. With color monitors, 431 00:26:25,440 --> 00:26:29,000 Speaker 1: you could technically choose any of the sixteen colors the 432 00:26:29,080 --> 00:26:32,320 Speaker 1: c g A chip supported to be the foreground color. 433 00:26:32,880 --> 00:26:35,320 Speaker 1: And the bonus of this was that it allowed for 434 00:26:35,359 --> 00:26:38,159 Speaker 1: more fine detail. It was a greater resolution than what 435 00:26:38,240 --> 00:26:41,720 Speaker 1: you would find in the other mode, but now you 436 00:26:41,760 --> 00:26:45,080 Speaker 1: were reduced to just one color in addition to the background. 437 00:26:45,520 --> 00:26:47,720 Speaker 1: This mode was primarily meant for users who had a 438 00:26:47,720 --> 00:26:51,639 Speaker 1: monochromatic display but who wanted to have graphics support. They 439 00:26:51,640 --> 00:26:54,359 Speaker 1: didn't want to just get the text based m d 440 00:26:54,520 --> 00:26:57,720 Speaker 1: A approach. You could enable this mode on a color 441 00:26:57,800 --> 00:27:00,320 Speaker 1: display and swap out that foreground color, like I said, 442 00:27:00,359 --> 00:27:02,280 Speaker 1: but you were still limited by that one color on 443 00:27:02,320 --> 00:27:04,439 Speaker 1: a screen at a time. There were a couple of 444 00:27:04,440 --> 00:27:07,719 Speaker 1: other tricks programmers could use to to kind of fool 445 00:27:07,840 --> 00:27:10,919 Speaker 1: the system to get more colors on screen. One involved 446 00:27:11,000 --> 00:27:14,600 Speaker 1: using the text mode instead of the graphics mode. So 447 00:27:14,640 --> 00:27:18,040 Speaker 1: the text mode actually supported more colors on screen at once. 448 00:27:18,760 --> 00:27:22,400 Speaker 1: And if you could just make your game out of text, 449 00:27:23,000 --> 00:27:26,639 Speaker 1: then you can have much more colorful games. However, there 450 00:27:26,680 --> 00:27:28,680 Speaker 1: are games that are made up of text. So how 451 00:27:28,720 --> 00:27:32,360 Speaker 1: do you adjust for that. Well, one of the two 452 00:27:32,800 --> 00:27:36,119 Speaker 1: fifty six characters that you could choose from was a 453 00:27:36,200 --> 00:27:39,560 Speaker 1: simple shape. It took up half of the character cell. 454 00:27:40,080 --> 00:27:43,480 Speaker 1: So one half of the cell would be this color 455 00:27:43,560 --> 00:27:45,560 Speaker 1: and the other half would be the background color. So 456 00:27:45,600 --> 00:27:47,879 Speaker 1: you have a foreground color in the background color. However, 457 00:27:48,160 --> 00:27:50,640 Speaker 1: what if you set both the foreground and the background 458 00:27:50,720 --> 00:27:53,399 Speaker 1: to the exact same color, Well, you would get a 459 00:27:53,440 --> 00:27:57,919 Speaker 1: solid block of that color, and using those blocks, you 460 00:27:57,960 --> 00:28:00,840 Speaker 1: could create simple graphics. But it's kind of like using 461 00:28:01,160 --> 00:28:03,760 Speaker 1: wooden blocks that you would have as a kid. Right, 462 00:28:03,880 --> 00:28:05,600 Speaker 1: you can make stuff out of it, but it's gonna 463 00:28:05,640 --> 00:28:09,680 Speaker 1: be chunky. You're not gonna get the fine graphic detail. 464 00:28:09,760 --> 00:28:12,720 Speaker 1: You would down to the pixel level. Now, your pixels 465 00:28:13,000 --> 00:28:16,000 Speaker 1: are much much bigger than they would have been otherwise, 466 00:28:16,040 --> 00:28:19,520 Speaker 1: so the resolution was just one sixty by one hundred 467 00:28:19,600 --> 00:28:22,240 Speaker 1: in this mode, but you'd be able to use a 468 00:28:22,240 --> 00:28:25,560 Speaker 1: lot more colors. The last trick programmers could rely upon 469 00:28:25,800 --> 00:28:28,280 Speaker 1: had to do with the monitors themselves, So there were 470 00:28:28,280 --> 00:28:32,640 Speaker 1: two big categories at this time. The IBM PC had 471 00:28:32,680 --> 00:28:35,520 Speaker 1: an R G B I monitor, and r G B 472 00:28:35,760 --> 00:28:40,800 Speaker 1: I stands for red, green, blue, and intensity, which again 473 00:28:40,880 --> 00:28:43,400 Speaker 1: is the brightness of a color. But you could also 474 00:28:44,200 --> 00:28:48,320 Speaker 1: use a composite video monitor like a television set. You 475 00:28:48,320 --> 00:28:51,200 Speaker 1: could use that as your computer monitor, and you could 476 00:28:51,240 --> 00:28:54,959 Speaker 1: feed video to it through a composite cable. That's the 477 00:28:55,080 --> 00:28:58,280 Speaker 1: yellow r c A cables of old. That one cable 478 00:28:58,280 --> 00:29:01,920 Speaker 1: would carry out all the video information to the display. However, 479 00:29:02,040 --> 00:29:06,240 Speaker 1: composite video monitors had an interesting tendency. Colors would bleed 480 00:29:06,320 --> 00:29:09,000 Speaker 1: into each other a little bit, and that bleed that 481 00:29:09,560 --> 00:29:13,680 Speaker 1: melding of colors would present other colors that you might 482 00:29:13,720 --> 00:29:18,200 Speaker 1: not otherwise be able to create in c g A graphics, 483 00:29:18,240 --> 00:29:23,040 Speaker 1: So you could kind of create through the process of transmission, 484 00:29:23,280 --> 00:29:26,400 Speaker 1: brand new colors. So it's not like it's in the programming. 485 00:29:26,480 --> 00:29:30,960 Speaker 1: It's literally impairing two different colors that could be represented 486 00:29:31,040 --> 00:29:34,040 Speaker 1: in C G A next to each other, because you know, 487 00:29:34,120 --> 00:29:36,280 Speaker 1: when it's going to be shown on a screen, they're 488 00:29:36,280 --> 00:29:38,960 Speaker 1: going to bleed together a little bit, so you get 489 00:29:39,000 --> 00:29:44,080 Speaker 1: a more rich from a color perspective image. However, there 490 00:29:44,200 --> 00:29:47,040 Speaker 1: was a drawback to this as well. It would mean 491 00:29:47,080 --> 00:29:49,960 Speaker 1: that the image is a little more blurry and not 492 00:29:50,120 --> 00:29:52,760 Speaker 1: as sharp, so it would almost be like you're ending 493 00:29:52,800 --> 00:29:56,720 Speaker 1: up with a lower resolution image. However you would get 494 00:29:56,720 --> 00:29:59,360 Speaker 1: more colors. So it just depended on what was most 495 00:29:59,400 --> 00:30:02,000 Speaker 1: important to you when you were putting these things together. 496 00:30:02,480 --> 00:30:04,800 Speaker 1: But why was there such a limitation on colors in 497 00:30:04,800 --> 00:30:08,080 Speaker 1: the first place, Like, what was the factor that was 498 00:30:08,320 --> 00:30:12,280 Speaker 1: making this be so primitive. Well, it wasn't because of 499 00:30:12,320 --> 00:30:16,920 Speaker 1: display technology. Like color televisions have been around since the seventies, 500 00:30:16,960 --> 00:30:21,240 Speaker 1: really earlier technically, but definitely commercially. They've been available since 501 00:30:21,280 --> 00:30:24,440 Speaker 1: the seventies, and there's no reason why a monitor wouldn't 502 00:30:24,440 --> 00:30:27,560 Speaker 1: be able to handle lots of different colors. The real 503 00:30:27,720 --> 00:30:31,040 Speaker 1: issue lay with computer memory. See, in the early days, 504 00:30:31,400 --> 00:30:35,240 Speaker 1: computer memory was a pretty valuable and scarce resource. It 505 00:30:35,320 --> 00:30:38,880 Speaker 1: was expensive, it was hard to implement. Most computers had 506 00:30:38,880 --> 00:30:43,080 Speaker 1: a very limited amount of random access memory or RAM. 507 00:30:43,240 --> 00:30:47,360 Speaker 1: Computers pulled data into RAM from some other storage source 508 00:30:47,440 --> 00:30:49,880 Speaker 1: like a floppy disk or a hard drive, and then 509 00:30:49,920 --> 00:30:53,480 Speaker 1: the computer response to input provided by the user or 510 00:30:53,520 --> 00:30:57,040 Speaker 1: by some program and performs operation on the data in 511 00:30:57,080 --> 00:31:00,920 Speaker 1: this memory, thus producing output. The more information the computer 512 00:31:01,000 --> 00:31:04,120 Speaker 1: can hold in RAM, generally speaking, the better because it 513 00:31:04,160 --> 00:31:08,040 Speaker 1: brings downloading times and speeds things up quite a bit. 514 00:31:08,360 --> 00:31:11,800 Speaker 1: But RAM was pretty precious in the early days of computing. 515 00:31:12,200 --> 00:31:18,280 Speaker 1: The IBM PC shipped standard with just sixteen kilobytes of RAM, 516 00:31:18,400 --> 00:31:20,920 Speaker 1: so rather than eat up that memory by supporting more 517 00:31:20,960 --> 00:31:24,840 Speaker 1: colorful graphics, IBM chose to give limited support to color 518 00:31:24,920 --> 00:31:28,320 Speaker 1: representation and reserve that RAM for other stuff like, you know, 519 00:31:28,560 --> 00:31:32,560 Speaker 1: actually helping the computer execute programs. Other companies looked at 520 00:31:32,560 --> 00:31:35,800 Speaker 1: IBMS c g A approach and they reverse engineered it. 521 00:31:36,200 --> 00:31:39,600 Speaker 1: Soon they could also produce computers that supported c g 522 00:31:39,760 --> 00:31:43,280 Speaker 1: A graphics. Thus c g A approach became a standard, 523 00:31:43,720 --> 00:31:46,640 Speaker 1: and originally you could just think of it as being proprietary. 524 00:31:46,840 --> 00:31:50,360 Speaker 1: It was an IBM proprietary technology, but through reverse engineering 525 00:31:50,600 --> 00:31:54,120 Speaker 1: it became a standard in computer graphics and some of 526 00:31:54,120 --> 00:31:56,920 Speaker 1: these third parties took this approach a step further. There 527 00:31:57,000 --> 00:32:01,440 Speaker 1: was a company called Hercules Computer Technology that introduced the 528 00:32:01,440 --> 00:32:05,840 Speaker 1: Hercules Graphics Card in two. The card came about as 529 00:32:05,880 --> 00:32:08,720 Speaker 1: a matter of necessity. The developer needed a way to 530 00:32:08,760 --> 00:32:13,520 Speaker 1: display Thai characters from from the language of Thailand, and 531 00:32:13,920 --> 00:32:16,440 Speaker 1: that was his native language was Thai, and in a 532 00:32:16,520 --> 00:32:18,560 Speaker 1: resolution similar to I B M S M D A. 533 00:32:18,680 --> 00:32:20,960 Speaker 1: That was the goal, like to have these very clear, 534 00:32:21,040 --> 00:32:25,240 Speaker 1: crisp figures in the Thai language, but the m D 535 00:32:25,360 --> 00:32:28,959 Speaker 1: A didn't support that alphabet. The Hercules Graphics card had 536 00:32:28,960 --> 00:32:32,560 Speaker 1: a resolution of seven twenty by three fifty, but unlike 537 00:32:32,600 --> 00:32:36,040 Speaker 1: the m D A, it was pixel addressable, so it 538 00:32:36,040 --> 00:32:39,840 Speaker 1: could display both text and graphics at high resolution. It 539 00:32:40,000 --> 00:32:43,160 Speaker 1: was a monochromatic technology, so you weren't going to get 540 00:32:43,240 --> 00:32:46,600 Speaker 1: full color this way, but the resolution was superior to 541 00:32:46,680 --> 00:32:49,800 Speaker 1: the c g A standard, so you could program a 542 00:32:49,880 --> 00:32:52,760 Speaker 1: game in the c g A one bit mode that 543 00:32:52,840 --> 00:32:56,680 Speaker 1: monochromatic graphics mode of c g A, but had a 544 00:32:56,760 --> 00:32:59,000 Speaker 1: much higher resolution than what you would do with a 545 00:32:59,040 --> 00:33:01,600 Speaker 1: c g A computer. Now that being said, not many 546 00:33:01,600 --> 00:33:05,640 Speaker 1: programmers actually took advantage of this because it wasn't standard 547 00:33:05,720 --> 00:33:08,880 Speaker 1: for developers to cater to a specific ad in board 548 00:33:08,920 --> 00:33:12,040 Speaker 1: like that, but man those times would change. However, a 549 00:33:12,160 --> 00:33:14,960 Speaker 1: lack of BIOS support for this card meant not many 550 00:33:15,000 --> 00:33:18,800 Speaker 1: programmers would actually take advantage of this and develop games 551 00:33:18,880 --> 00:33:22,400 Speaker 1: specifically for computers with that type of card. Other companies 552 00:33:22,400 --> 00:33:25,520 Speaker 1: would begin producing similar cards, and IBM was hard at 553 00:33:25,560 --> 00:33:28,680 Speaker 1: work on the next generation of graphics capabilities. We'll talk 554 00:33:28,720 --> 00:33:31,800 Speaker 1: about how they enhanced graphics in just a second, but 555 00:33:31,840 --> 00:33:43,720 Speaker 1: first let's take another quick break in. IBM boosted the 556 00:33:43,720 --> 00:33:46,720 Speaker 1: graphical capabilities of its line of personal computers by a 557 00:33:46,800 --> 00:33:50,920 Speaker 1: decent amount, though again by today's standards, still primitive. The 558 00:33:50,920 --> 00:33:56,280 Speaker 1: company introduced e g A, or Enhanced Graphics Adapters. These 559 00:33:56,360 --> 00:33:59,240 Speaker 1: add in boards, similar to c g A, included a 560 00:33:59,280 --> 00:34:01,920 Speaker 1: bunch of chips that would show a marked improvement over 561 00:34:01,960 --> 00:34:05,120 Speaker 1: the old c g A approach. E g A could 562 00:34:05,120 --> 00:34:09,600 Speaker 1: support sixteen colors at the same time for some resolutions, 563 00:34:09,640 --> 00:34:12,520 Speaker 1: so think of that four times the number of colors 564 00:34:12,560 --> 00:34:16,160 Speaker 1: on screen at once. Wow, And it could pull colors 565 00:34:16,160 --> 00:34:20,240 Speaker 1: from a palette of sixty four total options. No longer 566 00:34:20,280 --> 00:34:23,200 Speaker 1: were you forced to decide between supporting dark yellow or 567 00:34:23,239 --> 00:34:27,000 Speaker 1: having brown. C g A chose brown because it was 568 00:34:27,080 --> 00:34:29,160 Speaker 1: decided that that was a color that would far more 569 00:34:29,239 --> 00:34:33,080 Speaker 1: frequently be used than dark yellow. The resolution support for 570 00:34:33,160 --> 00:34:36,200 Speaker 1: graphics had increased as well. E g A support resolutions 571 00:34:36,200 --> 00:34:39,880 Speaker 1: of up to six forty by three fifty, though there 572 00:34:39,920 --> 00:34:42,400 Speaker 1: are some caveats I'll get to in a second. The 573 00:34:42,480 --> 00:34:46,760 Speaker 1: card itself included sixteen kilobytes of RAM. RAM is read 574 00:34:46,920 --> 00:34:50,840 Speaker 1: only memory, and as the name suggests, read only memory 575 00:34:50,880 --> 00:34:54,480 Speaker 1: cannot be written to or changed. Data stored in ROM 576 00:34:54,520 --> 00:34:57,719 Speaker 1: typically includes sets of instructions that are necessary for doing 577 00:34:57,760 --> 00:35:00,960 Speaker 1: stuff like booting up a program or running a critical process. 578 00:35:01,480 --> 00:35:03,680 Speaker 1: In the case of e g A cards, the RAM 579 00:35:03,840 --> 00:35:07,440 Speaker 1: included basic instructions for graphics applications that took some of 580 00:35:07,480 --> 00:35:11,360 Speaker 1: the load off the host computer's own memory. In addition 581 00:35:11,400 --> 00:35:14,280 Speaker 1: to those kilobytes of RAM, the card also had sixty 582 00:35:14,320 --> 00:35:18,759 Speaker 1: four dedicated kilobytes of RAM, or random access memory. This 583 00:35:18,840 --> 00:35:21,279 Speaker 1: is like the short term memory stuff, you know, the 584 00:35:21,320 --> 00:35:24,040 Speaker 1: memory where a computer stuff's data in order to access 585 00:35:24,080 --> 00:35:27,919 Speaker 1: that information rapidly while carrying out operations. The card also 586 00:35:27,960 --> 00:35:31,640 Speaker 1: allowed for a secondary memory card to boost the capability 587 00:35:31,800 --> 00:35:35,279 Speaker 1: of e g A another sixty four kilobytes, which is 588 00:35:35,320 --> 00:35:38,440 Speaker 1: good because at the base level of sixty four kilobytes 589 00:35:38,560 --> 00:35:41,000 Speaker 1: from the basic e G A card, you would only 590 00:35:41,040 --> 00:35:43,719 Speaker 1: get four colors on screen at once if you were 591 00:35:43,719 --> 00:35:46,359 Speaker 1: showing graphics at the full resolution of six forty by 592 00:35:46,400 --> 00:35:49,480 Speaker 1: three fifty. The e g A card provided support for 593 00:35:49,520 --> 00:35:52,080 Speaker 1: both the c G A and m d A modes 594 00:35:52,120 --> 00:35:55,520 Speaker 1: of IBM's previous graphics adapters, in addition to the new 595 00:35:55,600 --> 00:35:59,240 Speaker 1: capabilities of the e G A itself. And IBM provided 596 00:35:59,320 --> 00:36:02,799 Speaker 1: extensive of documentation on the e G A, and that 597 00:36:02,920 --> 00:36:06,200 Speaker 1: documentation came in handy not just for people who wanted 598 00:36:06,200 --> 00:36:08,640 Speaker 1: to program for systems with a e g A card, 599 00:36:09,040 --> 00:36:11,560 Speaker 1: but for companies that wanted to produce their own version 600 00:36:11,880 --> 00:36:14,000 Speaker 1: of the e G A card. It would go on 601 00:36:14,080 --> 00:36:17,680 Speaker 1: to become one of the most cloned cards in computer history, 602 00:36:17,920 --> 00:36:20,840 Speaker 1: and only that companies were upping the anti by including 603 00:36:20,880 --> 00:36:25,040 Speaker 1: more RAM on these cloned cards, providing greater graphical support 604 00:36:25,120 --> 00:36:27,520 Speaker 1: than what IBM was offering out of the gate. So 605 00:36:27,680 --> 00:36:30,560 Speaker 1: while a basic e G A card would support four 606 00:36:30,600 --> 00:36:33,879 Speaker 1: colors at full resolution, these clones would allow for all 607 00:36:33,920 --> 00:36:39,560 Speaker 1: sixteen colors simultaneously at that same resolution ouch. Just two 608 00:36:39,680 --> 00:36:43,040 Speaker 1: years after IBM introduced e G A, we saw more 609 00:36:43,080 --> 00:36:47,920 Speaker 1: than twenty companies offering up clones of that technology. Some 610 00:36:48,160 --> 00:36:50,480 Speaker 1: iconic games that came out during the e g A 611 00:36:50,600 --> 00:36:54,760 Speaker 1: era include Ultimate five Warriors of Destiny. I mentioned the 612 00:36:54,840 --> 00:36:58,400 Speaker 1: Ultimate series earlier in this episode. The first several Ultimate 613 00:36:58,440 --> 00:37:01,719 Speaker 1: games came out for the Apple platform primarily and then 614 00:37:01,760 --> 00:37:05,600 Speaker 1: we're later reported to other computer systems. Ultimate five included 615 00:37:05,640 --> 00:37:08,120 Speaker 1: e g A Support, and I remember this game fondly. 616 00:37:08,120 --> 00:37:11,520 Speaker 1: In fact, it's my favorite of the Ultimate series. But 617 00:37:11,640 --> 00:37:15,600 Speaker 1: other iconic e g A games included Cosmos, Cosmic Adventure, 618 00:37:16,160 --> 00:37:21,320 Speaker 1: Commander Keene, and the original Nucom platforming game, and many more. 619 00:37:22,000 --> 00:37:24,359 Speaker 1: One of the big advances in graphics found its way 620 00:37:24,400 --> 00:37:27,320 Speaker 1: into e g A, which was the concept of bit mapping. 621 00:37:27,560 --> 00:37:30,000 Speaker 1: So remember when I said that images on a screen 622 00:37:30,040 --> 00:37:33,760 Speaker 1: are made up of individual points of light called pixels. Well, 623 00:37:33,840 --> 00:37:37,400 Speaker 1: in the older version of interlaced graphics, you would include 624 00:37:37,440 --> 00:37:41,759 Speaker 1: information about each pixel, so you might say pixel in 625 00:37:41,880 --> 00:37:46,120 Speaker 1: column one, row one is read pixel, and column two 626 00:37:46,320 --> 00:37:50,239 Speaker 1: row one is read pixel and column three in row 627 00:37:50,360 --> 00:37:54,960 Speaker 1: one is read. That gets pretty tedious. Bit mapping allowed 628 00:37:55,000 --> 00:37:57,839 Speaker 1: for a different approach. With bit mapping, you would only 629 00:37:57,880 --> 00:38:01,239 Speaker 1: include data on a pixels color if the color was 630 00:38:01,320 --> 00:38:05,600 Speaker 1: different from the pixel immediately before that one. So if 631 00:38:05,600 --> 00:38:09,400 Speaker 1: pixels one, two, and three are all red, you would 632 00:38:09,400 --> 00:38:12,640 Speaker 1: only have to define it for pixel one. The system 633 00:38:12,680 --> 00:38:15,759 Speaker 1: would understand that if you didn't have any new information 634 00:38:15,800 --> 00:38:19,040 Speaker 1: for pixel two, that it would also be read the 635 00:38:19,080 --> 00:38:21,440 Speaker 1: same as for pixel three. It would only be when 636 00:38:21,440 --> 00:38:23,879 Speaker 1: you had new information that would say, all right, now 637 00:38:23,920 --> 00:38:27,200 Speaker 1: we have a new color like blue. This made displaying 638 00:38:27,239 --> 00:38:31,200 Speaker 1: shapes that all were the same color throughout much more efficient. 639 00:38:31,480 --> 00:38:33,880 Speaker 1: There's more to it than that, but it gets technical 640 00:38:33,880 --> 00:38:36,360 Speaker 1: and we'd have to talk more about electron guns and stuff, 641 00:38:36,400 --> 00:38:38,640 Speaker 1: so we'll just leave it off from here. But it 642 00:38:38,719 --> 00:38:42,080 Speaker 1: was a big advance. It wouldn't be long before IBM 643 00:38:42,080 --> 00:38:46,200 Speaker 1: introduced another advance in graphics technology. E g A debuted 644 00:38:46,200 --> 00:38:50,120 Speaker 1: in nine four, and just three short years later, IBM 645 00:38:50,160 --> 00:38:54,600 Speaker 1: introduced the video graphics Array or v g A. No 646 00:38:54,760 --> 00:38:58,960 Speaker 1: longer were we talking about adapters, Nah, this here was 647 00:38:59,000 --> 00:39:01,680 Speaker 1: an array. So what does that mean? Well, it actually 648 00:39:01,719 --> 00:39:04,160 Speaker 1: matters in this case. The c g A and e 649 00:39:04,320 --> 00:39:07,200 Speaker 1: g A adapters were add in boards that you would 650 00:39:07,200 --> 00:39:10,400 Speaker 1: slot onto the main frame circuit board of a computer. 651 00:39:10,840 --> 00:39:13,160 Speaker 1: So you'd open up the computer case. There would be 652 00:39:13,200 --> 00:39:15,920 Speaker 1: these little slots where you could slide in circuit boards. 653 00:39:16,280 --> 00:39:18,719 Speaker 1: You'd slide the circuit board in and it would have 654 00:39:18,920 --> 00:39:21,040 Speaker 1: a port in the back that would poke out the 655 00:39:21,040 --> 00:39:24,000 Speaker 1: back of the computer case and you could plug stuff 656 00:39:24,000 --> 00:39:26,799 Speaker 1: in that way. This was very typical in fact still 657 00:39:26,920 --> 00:39:29,319 Speaker 1: is to this day. There's still computers that do this 658 00:39:29,880 --> 00:39:33,840 Speaker 1: with expansion slots. So v g A was different. V 659 00:39:34,000 --> 00:39:38,239 Speaker 1: g A was hardwired onto the motherboard itself for the 660 00:39:38,280 --> 00:39:42,320 Speaker 1: IBM computers. Later, third party companies would make v g 661 00:39:42,560 --> 00:39:45,759 Speaker 1: A adapter cards to give computers that did not have 662 00:39:45,880 --> 00:39:48,800 Speaker 1: the v GA installed directly on the motherboard the added 663 00:39:48,800 --> 00:39:53,719 Speaker 1: capabilities of the new graphics standard. So, while IBM took 664 00:39:53,719 --> 00:39:57,080 Speaker 1: a different approach to this, other companies would replicate what 665 00:39:57,160 --> 00:40:00,080 Speaker 1: IBM was doing on expansion cards that you could and 666 00:40:00,719 --> 00:40:04,359 Speaker 1: plug into an existing machine. So what were those capabilities? Well, 667 00:40:04,400 --> 00:40:06,360 Speaker 1: you could use lots of colors if you were also 668 00:40:06,480 --> 00:40:10,200 Speaker 1: using lower resolutions. So at a resolution of three twenty 669 00:40:10,360 --> 00:40:13,040 Speaker 1: by two hundred pixels, the array could support up to 670 00:40:13,160 --> 00:40:18,759 Speaker 1: two hundred fifty six colors simultaneously. Wow, But if you 671 00:40:18,800 --> 00:40:22,520 Speaker 1: want better resolution then you had to reduce the number 672 00:40:22,560 --> 00:40:25,080 Speaker 1: of colors. Higher resolution mode of six forty by four 673 00:40:25,080 --> 00:40:29,440 Speaker 1: eighty supported just a modest sixteen colors. The palettes could 674 00:40:29,520 --> 00:40:31,880 Speaker 1: draw from a global collection of more than two hundred 675 00:40:31,920 --> 00:40:36,320 Speaker 1: sixty thousand colors. One other big difference between v G 676 00:40:36,560 --> 00:40:39,439 Speaker 1: A and its predecessors is that v G A would 677 00:40:39,440 --> 00:40:42,520 Speaker 1: send out data in an analog signal. E G A 678 00:40:42,640 --> 00:40:45,800 Speaker 1: and c G A used digital signals. So what's the 679 00:40:45,840 --> 00:40:51,400 Speaker 1: difference there, Well, an analog signal is continuous. It's unbroken, 680 00:40:51,960 --> 00:40:55,279 Speaker 1: so you can plot that as a smooth wave. Uh, 681 00:40:55,400 --> 00:40:59,200 Speaker 1: it doesn't have to be like a smooth gentle repeating pattern. 682 00:40:59,239 --> 00:41:01,600 Speaker 1: It can be all over the place, but it's unbroken. 683 00:41:01,880 --> 00:41:05,560 Speaker 1: It's a continuous signal, so it can get really squiggly, 684 00:41:05,920 --> 00:41:10,560 Speaker 1: but it's still one continuous, unbroken signal. So imagine playing 685 00:41:10,800 --> 00:41:13,799 Speaker 1: a stringed instrument and you strum a string and it's 686 00:41:13,880 --> 00:41:16,680 Speaker 1: playing a tone, but then you move your finger up 687 00:41:16,719 --> 00:41:20,279 Speaker 1: the fret board while the string is vibrating. That increases 688 00:41:20,320 --> 00:41:24,240 Speaker 1: the frequency of the strings vibration, and thus we perceive 689 00:41:24,360 --> 00:41:26,880 Speaker 1: that as the pitch of the note going up and 690 00:41:26,920 --> 00:41:29,839 Speaker 1: you can bend the note up. So if you've ever 691 00:41:29,840 --> 00:41:32,640 Speaker 1: heard that kind of sound, you know, oh, well, that's 692 00:41:32,640 --> 00:41:36,479 Speaker 1: like a continuous experience. It's not like I I heard 693 00:41:36,520 --> 00:41:39,719 Speaker 1: it play low and then play high. I heard it 694 00:41:40,160 --> 00:41:44,400 Speaker 1: shift through all those different frequencies until it reached its 695 00:41:44,400 --> 00:41:48,080 Speaker 1: its ending frequency. It was a very smooth transition. That's 696 00:41:48,160 --> 00:41:52,920 Speaker 1: kind of like describing just an analog signal, this smoothness. 697 00:41:53,480 --> 00:41:57,880 Speaker 1: Digital signals are done in a series of steps, so 698 00:41:57,920 --> 00:42:01,520 Speaker 1: this is more about taking slices of time and applying 699 00:42:01,560 --> 00:42:04,840 Speaker 1: a specific value to whatever signal you're sending out in 700 00:42:04,960 --> 00:42:08,520 Speaker 1: that slice of time. The finer you slice the time, 701 00:42:08,960 --> 00:42:13,160 Speaker 1: so the smaller or thinner the slices, the smoother you 702 00:42:13,200 --> 00:42:16,759 Speaker 1: can make the signal. But in turn, it requires way 703 00:42:16,800 --> 00:42:21,239 Speaker 1: more information to describe that signal, So rather than it 704 00:42:21,320 --> 00:42:25,200 Speaker 1: being smooth and continuous and unbroken, if you were to 705 00:42:25,360 --> 00:42:28,359 Speaker 1: zoom in on a digital signal, you would see these 706 00:42:28,400 --> 00:42:32,600 Speaker 1: little edges of these steps of time as the signal 707 00:42:32,719 --> 00:42:35,399 Speaker 1: goes up or down, depending on whatever it is you're 708 00:42:35,400 --> 00:42:39,280 Speaker 1: measuring or indicating here. But it indicates a discrete amount 709 00:42:39,360 --> 00:42:42,400 Speaker 1: of time and the data associated with that discrete amount 710 00:42:42,400 --> 00:42:44,680 Speaker 1: of time. If you've got a lot of processing power, 711 00:42:44,960 --> 00:42:48,120 Speaker 1: you can make those time slices very very very thin. 712 00:42:48,719 --> 00:42:52,040 Speaker 1: And if you can do that thin enough, then it's 713 00:42:52,080 --> 00:42:55,960 Speaker 1: almost as if you're listening to an unbroken signal, you 714 00:42:56,040 --> 00:42:59,080 Speaker 1: get beyond the level of human perception. But there is 715 00:42:59,120 --> 00:43:02,520 Speaker 1: a point where human perception definitely picks up on this stuff. 716 00:43:03,120 --> 00:43:07,840 Speaker 1: So one downside of analog is that analog cables, if 717 00:43:07,880 --> 00:43:12,200 Speaker 1: they're not properly shielded, can suffer from interference problems. Digital 718 00:43:12,239 --> 00:43:16,200 Speaker 1: cables don't. You don't get interference with digital cables. But 719 00:43:16,280 --> 00:43:19,120 Speaker 1: generally speaking, with an analog cable, the longer the cable, 720 00:43:19,239 --> 00:43:23,520 Speaker 1: the more prone it is to interference issues. Uh. And 721 00:43:23,680 --> 00:43:26,040 Speaker 1: the shielding, as I said, is a big factor. So 722 00:43:26,080 --> 00:43:28,200 Speaker 1: if you think of a cable as having several wires 723 00:43:28,239 --> 00:43:32,200 Speaker 1: inside of it, if the individual wires are not shielded properly, 724 00:43:32,480 --> 00:43:35,960 Speaker 1: you could get interference between them and that would result 725 00:43:36,040 --> 00:43:40,120 Speaker 1: in poor performance. From graphics perspectives. V g A really 726 00:43:40,160 --> 00:43:43,000 Speaker 1: did set a new standard for computer graphics on the 727 00:43:43,040 --> 00:43:45,040 Speaker 1: PC side of things, and it would also lead to 728 00:43:45,040 --> 00:43:48,719 Speaker 1: IBM no longer being the entity that would define those standards. 729 00:43:49,239 --> 00:43:53,319 Speaker 1: The rise of third party companies creating IBM clones by 730 00:43:53,320 --> 00:43:56,520 Speaker 1: this time we pretty much just called them PCs would 731 00:43:56,520 --> 00:44:01,240 Speaker 1: prompt anyc Home Electronics to announce the intention to form 732 00:44:01,360 --> 00:44:05,920 Speaker 1: a new organization. This organization is called the Video Electronics 733 00:44:06,080 --> 00:44:10,200 Speaker 1: Standards Association or VASA, and the purpose of VESAS to 734 00:44:10,239 --> 00:44:14,200 Speaker 1: come up with technical standards for computer video displays and graphics. 735 00:44:15,040 --> 00:44:18,320 Speaker 1: The group would build upon the v g A proprietary 736 00:44:18,360 --> 00:44:22,359 Speaker 1: standard to create what has collectively been referred to as 737 00:44:22,600 --> 00:44:26,040 Speaker 1: super v g A. So think of v g A, 738 00:44:26,160 --> 00:44:30,319 Speaker 1: but with even more capabilities and no longer dictated by 739 00:44:30,360 --> 00:44:33,760 Speaker 1: a single company, but rather by a consortium of companies 740 00:44:33,800 --> 00:44:37,160 Speaker 1: that have decided what the standards should be. Super v 741 00:44:37,280 --> 00:44:40,000 Speaker 1: g A could expand the resolution up to eight hundred 742 00:44:40,000 --> 00:44:44,120 Speaker 1: by six hundred pixels. Again, it's not one single standard, 743 00:44:44,160 --> 00:44:46,719 Speaker 1: it's rather a collection of supersets of the v g 744 00:44:46,880 --> 00:44:48,759 Speaker 1: A standards, So it's a little tricky to talk about 745 00:44:48,760 --> 00:44:52,320 Speaker 1: super v g A. It's not just one thing. IBM 746 00:44:52,360 --> 00:44:55,680 Speaker 1: would continue to go on to create the Extended Graphics 747 00:44:55,800 --> 00:44:58,800 Speaker 1: Array or x g A, but by that time super 748 00:44:58,920 --> 00:45:00,400 Speaker 1: v g A had kind of take and on a 749 00:45:00,480 --> 00:45:03,680 Speaker 1: life of its own as the new model for computer graphics. 750 00:45:04,080 --> 00:45:07,160 Speaker 1: IBM would no longer be front and center when it 751 00:45:07,200 --> 00:45:11,560 Speaker 1: came to defining how PCs would display graphics on a monitor. 752 00:45:12,360 --> 00:45:15,400 Speaker 1: By this time, we're getting into the mid nineties, and 753 00:45:15,440 --> 00:45:18,080 Speaker 1: the term IBM clone was pretty much dropped in favor 754 00:45:18,080 --> 00:45:21,839 Speaker 1: of PC, and that would apply to any computer running MS, 755 00:45:21,880 --> 00:45:25,759 Speaker 1: DOSS or later like after nine five or so Windows. 756 00:45:26,320 --> 00:45:29,600 Speaker 1: IBM's decision to cut down costs by going with the 757 00:45:29,719 --> 00:45:33,120 Speaker 1: off the shelf components, coupled with the failure to secure 758 00:45:33,120 --> 00:45:36,880 Speaker 1: an exclusive license for DOSS from Microsoft, meant that IBM 759 00:45:36,960 --> 00:45:41,960 Speaker 1: set the stage for its own competition in the consumer space. Ultimately, 760 00:45:42,280 --> 00:45:45,800 Speaker 1: those competitors got big enough to create their own standards organizations, 761 00:45:45,840 --> 00:45:48,000 Speaker 1: and so it became a group effort to come up 762 00:45:48,000 --> 00:45:51,520 Speaker 1: with the way computers would continue to work. This in turn, 763 00:45:51,760 --> 00:45:54,440 Speaker 1: made it easier for lots of companies to enter the space, 764 00:45:54,640 --> 00:45:59,040 Speaker 1: offering up competing products at competitive prices. IBM, for its part, 765 00:45:59,080 --> 00:46:01,759 Speaker 1: would exit the per stall computer market completely by the 766 00:46:01,800 --> 00:46:05,280 Speaker 1: mid two thousand's. The company sold off its PC division 767 00:46:05,320 --> 00:46:07,919 Speaker 1: to Lenovo in a deal that was valued at one 768 00:46:08,000 --> 00:46:13,440 Speaker 1: point seven five billion dollars A princely some IBM was 769 00:46:13,719 --> 00:46:16,680 Speaker 1: just finding it impractical to compete in that space and 770 00:46:16,680 --> 00:46:20,280 Speaker 1: instead would return a full focus on enterprise level products 771 00:46:20,280 --> 00:46:24,080 Speaker 1: and services. But if it weren't for IBM, we wouldn't 772 00:46:24,080 --> 00:46:27,399 Speaker 1: have seen this particular progression with computer graphics. I'm sure 773 00:46:27,480 --> 00:46:30,080 Speaker 1: we would have arrived at some sort of place similar 774 00:46:30,120 --> 00:46:33,560 Speaker 1: to where we are now without the IBM PC. But 775 00:46:33,920 --> 00:46:37,000 Speaker 1: who knows what it would look like. You know, maybe 776 00:46:37,000 --> 00:46:39,560 Speaker 1: there's a parallel universe out there in which we see 777 00:46:39,600 --> 00:46:42,720 Speaker 1: a world where IBM never gotten to the consumer market 778 00:46:42,800 --> 00:46:46,279 Speaker 1: at all, and someone else took on that role, and 779 00:46:46,320 --> 00:46:49,080 Speaker 1: maybe computer graphics themselves would be very different from the 780 00:46:49,080 --> 00:46:53,960 Speaker 1: way they are today. But I can't travel in parallel dimensions, 781 00:46:54,160 --> 00:46:57,960 Speaker 1: so I'll just have to imagine it. That's it for 782 00:46:58,000 --> 00:47:00,319 Speaker 1: this episode. Hope you guys learned something of about the 783 00:47:00,360 --> 00:47:03,279 Speaker 1: history of computer graphics in the PC world and why 784 00:47:03,400 --> 00:47:05,799 Speaker 1: IBM was such an important part of that. If you 785 00:47:05,800 --> 00:47:08,720 Speaker 1: have any suggestions for future topics of tech Stuff, whether 786 00:47:08,840 --> 00:47:12,439 Speaker 1: it's a specific technology, a company, a trend in tech, 787 00:47:12,560 --> 00:47:15,200 Speaker 1: anything like that, send me a message. You can reach 788 00:47:15,200 --> 00:47:17,759 Speaker 1: out to me on Facebook or Twitter. The handle for 789 00:47:17,840 --> 00:47:20,759 Speaker 1: both is tech Stuff hs W and I'll talk to 790 00:47:20,840 --> 00:47:29,160 Speaker 1: you again really soon. Tech Stuff is an I Heart 791 00:47:29,239 --> 00:47:33,000 Speaker 1: Radio production. For more podcasts from My Heart Radio, visit 792 00:47:33,040 --> 00:47:36,080 Speaker 1: the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you 793 00:47:36,160 --> 00:47:37,520 Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.