Windows 1.03 was the first Windows version with support of what during installation is called Micro Display Systems Genius Graphics Adapter. I tried to find any information about it across the web, but it wasn't very successful. I was able only to find information about MDS Genius VHR, which was monitor with 736 x 1008 resolution and video card that supported this monitor. So is there any information available about MDS Genius (not VHR) video card and the modes is supported? Thank you.
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Micro Display Systems Genius Graphics Adapter
- Thread starter Raiker
- Start date
MaTel
Experienced Member
Is it possible that the MDS Genius VHR Adaptercard and MDS Genius video card are the same thing?
I don't know since I couldn't find any additional information. However during installation it calls simply Genius Graphics Adapter.
Caluser2000
Banned
PDF of the monitor vhr and the card. Does it look the same and has a parallel port? It would appear they were sold as a bundle.
http://www.thecomputerarchive.com/a...icro Display Systems - Genius VHR Monitor.PDF
Maybe a photo of your card would help. Model number?
http://www.thecomputerarchive.com/a...icro Display Systems - Genius VHR Monitor.PDF
Maybe a photo of your card would help. Model number?
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Yes, I saw this document. However it doesn't help to understand if Genius VHR video card and Genius Graphics Adapter are the same thing...
Chuck(G)
25k Member
The only product by MDS in my 1987 product guide is the VHR card-mono-monitor combo. Sometime around 1988, MDS got eaten by InTech.
So do you think it was VHR supported in Windows 1.03, just in its CGA mode?
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Chuck(G)
25k Member
Well, the listing shows it being sold with a portrait aspect ratio monochrome display. Perhaps there was a color display option. But the scan numbers show it to be anything but CGA compatible.
Caluser2000
Banned
The pdf I posted indicates CGA is possible with the 402 Model. CGA in windows 3.0 even- http://www.jj54.com/172877-Using-The-Micro-Display-Systems-Monitor-With-Windows/
Text from the url with corrections:
"The Genius Monitor may be used to Win 3.0 without the Micro Display Systems driver if you do the following:
1. Put the Genius Monitor on CGA mode. on the Genius DIR on the hard disk, there was a document named VHR.COM. Run the program by typing VHR CGA to put the Genius Monitor on CGA mode.
2. Add the command VHR CGA to your AUTOEXEC.BAT document or run the program loading it into ram before you run Windows.
3. Install Win and choose CGA graphics adapter as your display.
The products included here are manufactured by a vendor independent of Microsoft; we make no warranty, implied or otherwise, regarding these products' performance or reliability. "
A bit more about it- http://books.google.co.nz/books?id=...&resnum=5&ved=0CDQQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q&f=false
Seems screen can be split in two. Text at the top and CGA(in monochrome) on the lower half as well which is interesting.
Text from the url with corrections:
"The Genius Monitor may be used to Win 3.0 without the Micro Display Systems driver if you do the following:
1. Put the Genius Monitor on CGA mode. on the Genius DIR on the hard disk, there was a document named VHR.COM. Run the program by typing VHR CGA to put the Genius Monitor on CGA mode.
2. Add the command VHR CGA to your AUTOEXEC.BAT document or run the program loading it into ram before you run Windows.
3. Install Win and choose CGA graphics adapter as your display.
The products included here are manufactured by a vendor independent of Microsoft; we make no warranty, implied or otherwise, regarding these products' performance or reliability. "
A bit more about it- http://books.google.co.nz/books?id=...&resnum=5&ved=0CDQQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q&f=false
Seems screen can be split in two. Text at the top and CGA(in monochrome) on the lower half as well which is interesting.
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Chuck(G)
25k Member
Okay, that would figure. I assume that you have the disk?
Caluser2000
Banned
Any chance of a photo of the system running 
Those archived shots are pretty fuzzy and it might help someone else out.
Those archived shots are pretty fuzzy and it might help someone else out.
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compu_85
Experienced Member
I know it's an old thread, but I just picked up a 386 system with one of these. There were drivers that work in at least Windows 3.1.
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Andrettigto
Experienced Member
That’s a beautiful setup you’ve got there! Reminds me of the early Xerox GUI display.
compu_85
Experienced Member
Here's a copy of the drivers which were on the hard disk of the system:
-J
Genius VHR Display Drivers : Micro Display Systems, Inc : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
DOS and Windows 3.0 / 3.1 drivers for the Micro Display Systems (MDS) Genius VHR (Very High Resolution) display card. This is a graphics card and matching...
archive.org
-J
A few rather abstruse question about this one:
- There's some info about the MCA version of this board (along with a ROM dump) at https://ardent-tool.com/video/MDSI.html.
Reading out the extended 512-character font from that ROM (440026), it looks like this:
However, @JohnElliott's site has a different ROM font shown at http://www.seasip.info/VintagePC/mdsi_genius.html:
The upper 256 characters are completely different, except for the last row, although there are a number of small differences in the first 256 as well.
Any idea what's up with that - is that an ISA vs. MCA distinction? Or perhaps one of localization? (The second font would appear to support more European languages, for one.)
- In text mode, the card can be programmed to display 12, 13, 14 or 15 scanlines per character. The manual also mentions a "8 x 12 pixel character matrix, including 3 scan lines for descenders" (page 3-5).
However... the charsets above clearly use the full 15 lines of vertical space. What happens when a height of <15 is selected - is it the ascent or descent that gets cut off? Or a little bit of both?
- The manual also mentions a "13th scan line for underscore". The ROM charsets do appear to have a continuous underline, but it occupies the 16th line of the character cell.
Since the maximum height is 15, I assume it's only there for byte-alignment purposes, and isn't actually displayed... but then it does seem to have some actual content when the character contains a descender. Is this used to control the position of the actual underline? Or does it relate to the above-mentioned character height setting in some way?