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Color/graphics CP/M

The GSX library was DRI's method for having color and graphics on a CP/M machine. Someone started a GSX for C-128 project, see http://www.z80.eu/gsx.html

GSX's design was influenced by GKS so there may be a lot of code that could be easily adapted.
 
I assume that we're talking about 8 bit CP/M and not CP/M-86?

There was the Compucolor of the early 70s, but AFAIK, it didn't run CP/M. There were also a few Japanese color 8-bitters--again, not sure about CP/M.
 
GSX-80 was used in DR-DRAW and DR-GRAPH plus had bindings for the various DRI languages which did lead to a few GKS programs ported over to the Z-80. And a very expensive DRI solution to output slides.

Strangely, the largest user base of GSX-80 seems to be the Amstrad CPC line. This includes one recent GSX game. http://atariage.com/forums/topic/24...ased-game-for-pcw-cpc-and-other-cpm-machines/

Some screenshots of GSX samples are available at Udo Munk's website where he shows off his emulator running them. http://www.autometer.de/unix4fun/z80pack/screenshots/gsx80.html
 
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>There were also a few Japanese color 8-bitters--again, not sure about CP/M.

That would be the Epson QX-10 with a color graphics board. I owned one back in the day but not the color board.
However, using this emulator: http://homepage3.nifty.com/takeda-toshiya/
I was able to run DrGraph and produce this:
beer_survey.jpg

My avatar which is supposed to be a gear but someone from this group told me it looks like an old telephone dial
was done on the Tektronix 4014 emulation by Udo Munk using Mallard basic with a gsx driver:
mallard.jpg

Not sure what can be done with Commodore 128, just depends if a gsx driver was written for it.

Larry G
 
There were also some Fujitsu and Hitachi (and possibly NEC) more-or-less professional 8 bit systems, running what, I don't recall. The Japanese were very active in the graphics area.

But at Z80 speeds and reasonable resolution, color really is more of a novelty.
 
I suppose another approach would be to use escape sequences to change the colour foreground and background of the characters. Not really graphics of course but possible.


Cheers,

Andy.
 
The H89 had several 3rd-party add-on cards that added either monochrome or color graphics. For these, the manufacturer typically offered source in multiple languages to control the graphics. I don't believe any of them supported GSX.

Mark
 
GSX under an Amstrad CPC or PCW systems uses CP/M Plus (v3.x). CP/M v2.2 (CP/M80) under a CPC setup also allows Graphics/Colour, but relies on system specific Firmware to make it happen.

I think a C128 with the Z80 card could do this and there is a website with a GSX example, as point out earlier. :D
 
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