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Mode X
Mode X is an alternative 256-color graphics display mode of the IBM VGA graphics hardware that was popularized by Michael Abrash. It was first published in July 1991 in ''Dr. Dobb's Journal'', and republished in chapters 47-49 of Abrash's ''Graphics Programming Black Book'' (now freely available online). The term "Mode X" was coined by Abrash. The primary advantage of Mode X is that it has square pixels: a resolution of 320×240 instead of the standard VGA Mode 13h which is 320×200. Additionally, Abrash enabled the VGA's planar memory mode (also called "unchained mode"). Even though planar memory mode is a documented part of the VGA standard and was used in earlier commercial games, it was first widely publicized in the Mode X articles, leading many programmers to consider Mode X and planar memory synonymous. It is possible to enable planar memory in standard 320×200 mode, which became known as Mode Y in the Usenet rec.games.programmer group.Roberts, Dave. ''PC Game Programming ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Graphics Mode
Computer display standards are a combination of aspect ratio, display size, display resolution, color depth, and refresh rate. They are associated with specific expansion cards, video connectors and monitors. History Various computer display standards or display modes have been used in the history of the personal computer. They are often a combination of aspect ratio (specified as width-to-height ratio), display resolution (specified as the width and height in pixels), color depth (measured in bits per pixel), and refresh rate (expressed in hertz). Associated with the screen resolution and refresh rate is a display adapter. Earlier display adapters were simple frame-buffers, but later display standards also specified a more extensive set of display functions and software controlled interface. Beyond display modes, the VESA industry organization has defined several standards related to power management and device identification, while ergonomics standards are set by the TCO. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Abrash
Michael Abrash is a programmer and technical writer specializing in code optimization and 80x86 assembly language. He wrote the 1990 book ''Zen of Assembly Language Volume 1: Knowledge'' and a monthly column in '' Dr. Dobb's Journal'' in the early 1990s. A later book, ''Zen of Graphics Programming'', applied these ideas to 2D and 3D graphics prior to the advent of hardware accelerators for the PC. Though not strictly a game programmer, Abrash has worked on the underlying technology for games, such as '' Quake'', for much of his career. Since 2014, he has been the chief scientist of Oculus VR, a subsidiary of Meta Platforms Game programmer Abrash was a game programmer in the early days of the IBM PC. His first commercial game was a clone of ''Space Invaders'' published by Datamost in 1982 as '' Space Strike''. He co-authored several games with Dan Illowsky, who had previously written the successful ''Pac-Man'' clone ''Snack Attack'' for the Apple II. Abrash and Illowsky worked to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mode 13h
Mode 13h is the standard 256-color mode on VGA graphics hardware introduced in 1987 with the IBM PS/2. It has a resolution of 320×200 pixels. It was used extensively in computer games and art/animation software of the late 1980s and early to mid-1990s. "13h" refers to the number of the mode in the VGA BIOS. The "h" stands for hexadecimal. Mode 13h provides programmers with a linear 320x200 block of video memory, where each byte represents one pixel. This allows ease of programming at the expense of access to other useful features of the VGA hardware. Given the aspect ratio of a 320×200 resolution screen for use on a 4:3 display, Mode 13h does not have square pixels. Technical details Mode 13h is something of a curiosity, because the VGA is a planar device from a hardware perspective, and not suited to chunky graphics operation. The VGA has 256 KiB of video memory consisting of 4 banks of 64 KiB, known as planes (or 'maps' in IBM's documentation). Planar memory ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Usenet
Usenet () is a worldwide distributed discussion system available on computers. It was developed from the general-purpose Unix-to-Unix Copy (UUCP) dial-up network architecture. Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979, and it was established in 1980.''From Usenet to CoWebs: interacting with social information spaces'', Christopher Lueg, Danyel Fisher, Springer (2003), , Users read and post messages (called ''articles'' or ''posts'', and collectively termed ''news'') to one or more topic categories, known as newsgroups. Usenet resembles a bulletin board system (BBS) in many respects and is the precursor to the Internet forums that have become widely used. Discussions are threaded, as with web forums and BBSs, though posts are stored on the server sequentially.The jargon file v4.4.7 , Jargon File Archive. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
