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Cheapest way to display CGA

Scali said:
On the Amiga, you can use all resolutions and modes on all displays, both TV and monitor.
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Only if you stick with OCS/ECS/AGA. Those of us who didn't have been using either a switchable monitor, or two monitors, for a very long time. Or, like I've done, just go without the second monitor and have to reboot if I accidentally run something that switches to an ECS screen with no way back.
 
KC9UDX said:
Only if you stick with OCS/ECS/AGA.
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What else is there for stock Amigas? :)
I think it's pretty obvious that if you use a third-party graphics card, that you need to connect a monitor to that card. It's the same on all systems (remember the piggy-back cables in the early 3d accelerator age on PC?).
 
Scali said:
What else is there for stock Amigas? :)
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What's stock? I always had (and have) mine expanded to the limit! :) Anyone who could did.

I think it's pretty obvious that if you use a third-party graphics card, that you need to connect a monitor to that card.
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Not necessarily, some of the solutions have video inputs for that reason.

It's the same on all systems (remember the piggy-back cables in the early 3d accelerator age on PC?).
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No... I was using an Amiga :)
 
Scali said:
Most people had A500/600/1200 though, so stock graphics was all they had :)
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My A500 had a Cybervision 64/3D :) Of course it had a 030/50, a large SCSI array, three RS232 ports, two Centronics ports, Ethernet, and I don't even remember what all else. For a long time I used it without its case. It took up a whole card table. It had a Pentodium processor as well. (That was an audio amplifier I built).
 
Scali said:
Well, I think given the timeframe, analog RGB wasn't really an option yet, especially for a home computer.
The Amiga was a high-end machine at the time, so requiring a separate (high-end) monitor was less of an issue. But the C128 was supposed to be the successor to the C64, so it would have to just plug into a simple composite monitor or TV.
Analog RGB monitors didn't really become commonplace until later, with VGA (the friends who had an A500 back in the day, would often use it on a TV as well, not everyone had a 1084S back then).
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I can believe that, yes. I think when we finally purchased a 1084 monitor for the A500 we had in about '91 they were running around $300US. I hobbled along for a year or two with just the A520 composite adapter and our old monitor from the C-64. Nothing like smeary 80 column text!
 
JonB said:
I guess the question is, can I get (or build) an adapter that will do the conversion? Do any of them actually work? I've seen simple things and others with PCBs having lots of surface mount components fitted (which make me wonder if conversion is non trivial).
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Yes - one of these - http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/showthread.php?40965-Commodore-128-Video-DAC-Board-Available

Along with a GBS-8220 (check ebay), and you've got CGA to VGA.

Looks like there may be another option as well, though it appears to be very much like the other one - http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcf...C128-VGA-adapter-released-at-CommVEx-v11-2015

Wesley
 
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