Mode X Madness
After learning about Mode 13h last time, I’ve been digging about in the ancient tomes of wisdom and discovered Mode-X. Let’s make a PC’s VGA card do odd things it was never designed for.
Nostalgic DOS Development
activeProgramming MS-DOS in C the way it was done in the 90s: FreeDOS, DJGPP, RHIDE, and VGA graphics modes the hardware was never meant to do.
Modern programming is too abstract. This is a return to a time when 640K was enough and a 486 DX2/66 was a fast computer: FreeDOS running in 86Box, the DJGPP C compiler, the RHIDE editor, and direct access to the hardware.
Along the way: recreating a 90s PC BIOS boot screen, Mode 13h, and prising Mode X out of a VGA card that was never designed to do it.
Screenshots
4 images — scroll →-
Mode X running on real VGA hardware
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The Award BIOS boot screen being recreated
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FreeDOS installed under 86Box
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RHIDE, the DJGPP development environment
Devlog
5 entriesFixing the PC BIOS Boot Screen Recreation
Thanks to @hobbified on YouTube, making the EPA logo look correct was quite straight forward…
Let's recreate a 90's PC BIOS Boot Screen
Because why not, it looks simpler than it really is and we’ll get to fall down a rabbit hole trying to draw the Energy Star logo.
Earlier
- Nostalgic DOS Development Part 2 - Writing our first programs
- Nostalgic DOS Development - Setting up the machine
