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Graphic cards that support IBM 5151

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nestor

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I have a IBM 5151 with a MDA card, but i'd like to play some games. I know that Ati Small Wonder can show Hercules and CGA graphics in a IBM 5151, but it seems hard to find. What alternatives are available?

I have seen two VGA cards that have both VGA and DB9 connector, the output is selectable by DIP switches. One is a Cirrus Logic and the other is a Oak OTIVGA. Will this cards show EGA/VGA graphics using the IBM 5151?
 
The IBM 5151 is a TTL monochrome display. Through some software trickery, it will show green-colored CGA graphics with some hercules-compatible display cards using a program such as Chuck G's SimCGA. It can be used to display mono modes for CGA/EGA, but it will not display color EGA or VGA resolutions at all. If you're after EGA/VGA resolutions, get a multisync, or use an EGA/VGA monitor with it (paired with the appropriate adapter, of course)
 
This 5151 is connected to a 5170 PC/AT. I don't want to change it for another display, instead I want to change the MDA card of the 5170. The posibilities I know are:

- Put a Hercules clone card. It will display monochrome graphics at 720×348
- Put an Ati Small Wonder. It will display Hercules mode plus CGA modes at 4 green shades. It also has the plantronics mode but don't have software that supports it.

But the 5170 being a 80286, there are a lot of 16 colors EGA/VGA software that could run pretty well in this machine. If there was a card that could display these modes on a 5151, it would be great.

So my question is, are there another cards that could display graphics in the 5151, apart of the Hecules and the Ati Small Wonder? What about the Oak OTIVGA and Cirrus Logic that have DB9 connector?
 
nestor said:
...So my question is, are there another cards that could display graphics in the 5151, apart of the Hecules and the Ati Small Wonder? What about the Oak OTIVGA and Cirrus Logic that have DB9 connector?
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The Graphics Solution card will do MDA, CGA, Hercules, Plantronics and some 132 col text on a 5151 if the application supports it.
 
The "ATI Graphics Solution" and the "ATI Small Wonder Graphics Solution" are the same card :D
 
nestor said:
The "ATI Graphics Solution" and the "ATI Small Wonder Graphics Solution" are the same card :D
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D'oh! Right you are, of course! I somehow was thinking that the Small Wonder had EGA emulation, but of course that's the EGA Wonder.

I should know; I've got several of each on the shelf beside me ;-)
 
You are lucky, I have been searching eBay for two months and none appeared!

So the ATI EGA Wonder can display EGA software on a 5151?
 
nestor said:
You are lucky, I have been searching eBay for two months and none appeared!

So the ATI EGA Wonder can display EGA software on a 5151?
Click to expand...
From the manual:
All major software standards - EGA, Color/Graphics, Hercules and MDA - can be displayed on any popular monitor type - MultiSync, EGA, RGB, 25kHz, Composite and TTL monochrome.
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Some of the higher resolutions and VGA are only available on the MultiSync monitor though.
 
Yeah, I recall most monochrome being able to still support the codes for CGA it just ends up being shades of whatever monochrome you have. Still lots of fun games out there to play (I won't hijack the thread with a list but there are lots of favorite dos game threads with a good selection).
 
Original IBM EGA cards could support the 5151. The big gotchya is that combination only works for monochrome text and a specific monochrome 640x350 graphics mode.

I used to have one of those Oak VGA cards with the dual ports (and a bank of DIP switches). It's been a long time but my recollection was that by setting the DIP switches appropriately you could make the card emulate anything from Hercules to EGA using the digital port (and if you had a digital-capable MultiSync monitor hooked to the DB-9 port it would even run VGA resolutions with a strange EGA color palette) but I don't think it was capable of any tricks like faking "inappropriate" modes. I think it *may* of offered the choice of emulating either EGA+Mono or Hercules with a 5151 attached but I'm pretty sure it didn't support running CGA/EGA *color* modes in monochrome.

(The one exception is it did come with a program that'd let it emulate Hercules on a VGA monitor. It was a handy card to have since it was so universally compatible, but I don't *think* it does what you want. Maybe you could set it to Hercules mode and run SimCGA on it?)
 
Thank you Eudimorphodon, so the VGAs with dual ports don't emulate color modes for mono monitors. I suppose this extends to the Cirrus Logic, Trident 8800CS and others...
 
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Well, it seems that the ATI VGA Wonder also emulates EGA modes on a 5151 like the EGA Wonder does, in addition it has a VGA port so I could plug my Mitsubishi 17'' CRT there. I think this is the card I'm looking for :D

But I found that 'VGA Wonder' is in fact a family of cards, as there are a lot of submodels:
VGA Wonder, VGA Edge 8, VGA Wonder 16, VGA Edge 16: They use the ATI 18800 chipset, the Edge models are cut down versions.
VGA Wonder+, VGA Basic-16, VGA Wonder XL, VGA Wonder 1024: They use the ATI 28800 chipset, the Basic-16 and the Wonder 1024 are cut down versions.

Any experience with these models and a IBM 5151?
 
I purchased an ATI VGA Wonder+ and works like a charm with the IBM 5151. I can run Hercules, CGA and EGA software now. The only issue is that 16 color modes don't look good, the green shades are similar and that makes the image look weird...
EDIT: It was a VGA16 game, so it was expected that it looked weird.
 
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Hello Nestor, I just bought an ATI VGA Wonder 16, but it does not work with my 5151 monitor ... (I get a scrolling green square on the screen).
I put the SW1 switches 5 and 6 to ON but the problem is still the same ...
Can you please tell me how could you make your ATI Wonder+ work with your 5151 ?
I saw your IBM PC is a 5170, as mine is a 5150 it may be an XT compatibility issue which would be bad as I paid the card a high price ...

EDIT : I tried the ATI Wonder on a Pentium motherboard, and it worked perfectly when connected to my 5151 monitor ...
So I guess my problem comes from the 5150 motherboard ... I don't know why it does not work with it as I found a people saying it works with their 5150 ...
I will need to make a specific post for this problem ...
 
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Hi! (and Merry Xmas everybody) ;)

Reviving the issue ... There would be a VGA to TTL adapter to use our 5151 monitor with VGA cards?

Thanks in advance!
 
joemorgan said:
Hi! (and Merry Xmas everybody) ;)

Reviving the issue ... There would be a VGA to TTL adapter to use our 5151 monitor with VGA cards?

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...

In theory...but it's very unlikely you will find one. Not a very common requirement. As stated before some early VGA cards have a DB9 port for TTL output to MDA/CGA/EGA. Anything external is going to need a scan converter, and will be expensive. In my experience unless it is a very expensive design, it will look awful. Your going digital>analogue>digital. It will be much better if you have a card that can output to it directly. I'm not saying it cant be done, but if you were to do it, you would probably want the VGA card to output 'VGA' at Hercules resolution from the start, thereby eliminating resizing requirements. And if you have that, the card would be very inflexible in terms of VGA compatibility.
 
gaming on a 5151... with that slow phosphor... sounds interesting but probably horrendous in practice!
 
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