Great video yet again! You're keeping up creating content with very useful information in a very solid and dense story. While the content is quite unique, the information is very useful. Thanks for that!
Great stuff! Nice detailed overview of the device, including the alternate firmware of which at least I'd not heard before. Been planning to get MCE2VGA for a long while already, but for no good reason I've kept postponing that over and over again. This video made the last straw which bent me to finally do the long intended order.
that shot @ 12:38 feels ripe for somehow hearing Krazy Ken to utter "Conversion Technology" because of all thats required to get capture from M/C/Ega Video
Thanks for making a video about this device! I purchased one of of the MCE2VGA devices and mistakenly didn't order the LPGA card with it. I purchased the LPGA card and programming cable from Ebay, and attempted to upload the files as you have shown in this video. When I connect my Tandy 1000 to this device, it seems to sense a signal, but no graphics or texts comes through. Do i need to upload different files from the ones you are showing here (mce2vga.jic)? Thanks!
Very comprehensive, nice work tackling this subject. I haven't brought myself to do it yet (although I did tackle the speaker, see the channel "The Oldskool PC' for the video). My issue with the MCE2VGA is that it scales the output, and also doesn't handle borders/overscan. It is a great device for people who want to hook up VGA monitors, but I can't make 1:1 pixel captures from it so I personally don't use it. (I have my own capture path that I'll document at some point, and a friend is working on new hardware that should be able to tackle this in 2020.)
Sounds great ... please keep us posted on that. MCE2VGA is one of the few solutions out there that handle both mda / hercules / cga and ega and I've found the results to be really good ... with the new firmware I'm really pleased with the capturing results for cga / ega. Only hercules needs some post processing.
New hardware sounds exciting. Since all the historical outputs are essentially digital it seems it would make most sense to convert directly to an HDMI signal without scaling. That would let you make pixel perfect captures and perform any scaling and aspect ratio correction in post, with more flexibility than a hardware scaler offers.
My other IBM AT came with the standard 16 bit MFM controller + seagate MFM 30mb hard drive. This one has a scsi card + scsi2sd card so that I can easily transfer software
that's CRT Whine, Good news! your ears are still in their prime!. As much as youtubers who record Anything with a CRT in it try, they cannot erase the whine completely :/
Also: For future comparisons, you may want to use a program that supports the full native resolution of Hercules. I suggest Microsoft Flights Simulator 3 or 4, as they draw in the full 720x350 resolution, as well as supporting 4-color CGA and 16-color 320x200 EGA (and also 640x350 EGA if you have a capture path for that).
yeah thanks for the suggestions ... planning on doing a follow-up ... busy with some additional research right now. Feel free to contact me if there are specifics that you want to see. There is an email in the about section of the channel.
It is playable on a 286 like the IBM AT. Game was released in 1989 so think lots of people did end up playing it on a 286. 486 not really needed. Think people had more time, were less impatient and not so demanding ;)
There are diminishing returns with Test Drive, Test Drive II, Gran Prix, and The Cycles -- they all use the same engine on the PC, and are framerate-locked, so even on a Pentium you don't get more than (IIRC) 18fps.
@@fradd182 It runs acceptably if using CGA graphics. If using any other graphics mode, it's twice the amount of memory to copy and thus needs a 10-12MHz system to be fun. (486 not "obviously" needed :)
@@JimLeonard But this was a CGA version, shown here. It produces 11 frames per 5.2 seconds, making it 2.1 fps. I dont know, some games dont demand high fps to be playable. It might be acceptable when one actually plays it, it just doesnt look like it.
I'm not interested in video capturing at all. I just came to see the old displays and formats, namely CGA, EGA, and VGA, as the pack-in software that came with my first computer varied between the three. But, I am also interested in seeing old computers running on new displays using original output.
Great video yet again! You're keeping up creating content with very useful information in a very solid and dense story. While the content is quite unique, the information is very useful. Thanks for that!
You’re very welcome. Thx for the kind words and glad you enjoyed it.
Great stuff! Nice detailed overview of the device, including the alternate firmware of which at least I'd not heard before. Been planning to get MCE2VGA for a long while already, but for no good reason I've kept postponing that over and over again. This video made the last straw which bent me to finally do the long intended order.
Haha ... good for you ! Glad you enjoyed the video !
Great vid dude..keep up the good work..very interesting for vintage computing enthusiasts
Thanks a lot ! Appreciate the kind words. More great content coming your way.
Great video ! I always loved the EGA font, since I got my first EGA card.
Thanks for showing MCE2VGA !
I think I'll buy myself a present for New-year ;)
Enjoy your channel so much! Great work!
Thanks so much! Really appreciate comments like this !
Wow! Had no idea there was hardware to allow viewing the old video card signals on modern devices. Great overview.
Thx a lot ... its a great little device.
that shot @ 12:38 feels ripe for somehow hearing Krazy Ken to utter "Conversion Technology" because of all thats required to get capture from M/C/Ega Video
Thanks for making a video about this device! I purchased one of of the MCE2VGA devices and mistakenly didn't order the LPGA card with it. I purchased the LPGA card and programming cable from Ebay, and attempted to upload the files as you have shown in this video. When I connect my Tandy 1000 to this device, it seems to sense a signal, but no graphics or texts comes through. Do i need to upload different files from the ones you are showing here (mce2vga.jic)? Thanks!
Very comprehensive, nice work tackling this subject. I haven't brought myself to do it yet (although I did tackle the speaker, see the channel "The Oldskool PC' for the video).
My issue with the MCE2VGA is that it scales the output, and also doesn't handle borders/overscan. It is a great device for people who want to hook up VGA monitors, but I can't make 1:1 pixel captures from it so I personally don't use it. (I have my own capture path that I'll document at some point, and a friend is working on new hardware that should be able to tackle this in 2020.)
Sounds great ... please keep us posted on that. MCE2VGA is one of the few solutions out there that handle both mda / hercules / cga and ega and I've found the results to be really good ... with the new firmware I'm really pleased with the capturing results for cga / ega. Only hercules needs some post processing.
New hardware sounds exciting. Since all the historical outputs are essentially digital it seems it would make most sense to convert directly to an HDMI signal without scaling. That would let you make pixel perfect captures and perform any scaling and aspect ratio correction in post, with more flexibility than a hardware scaler offers.
You're running a SCSI harddrive on your AT? Just curious because the AT has a harddrive out of the box (I don't remember if it was IDE or MFM).
My other IBM AT came with the standard 16 bit MFM controller + seagate MFM 30mb hard drive. This one has a scsi card + scsi2sd card so that I can easily transfer software
For each of these computers did you have to switch the DIP switches at all?
Searching in 2024 and the MCE2VGA v2 looks to be out-of-stock from the US store Texelec. Can't see where else you might buy a ready made one.
three awesome machines
Why didn't you use a Tandy computer as well? And a C-128?
some sort of high pitched whine starts 17:04
that's CRT Whine, Good news! your ears are still in their prime!. As much as youtubers who record Anything with a CRT in it try, they cannot erase the whine completely :/
Also: For future comparisons, you may want to use a program that supports the full native resolution of Hercules. I suggest Microsoft Flights Simulator 3 or 4, as they draw in the full 720x350 resolution, as well as supporting 4-color CGA and 16-color 320x200 EGA (and also 640x350 EGA if you have a capture path for that).
yeah thanks for the suggestions ... planning on doing a follow-up ... busy with some additional research right now. Feel free to contact me if there are specifics that you want to see. There is an email in the about section of the channel.
saludos desde Mexico =D
Welcome to the channel !
i tried one on the c128 80 column mode i am getting wavy characters anyone picture looks good though if anyone has a solution let me know
I have the same Acer LCD monitor, I stopped using it as it's screen is crap.
I now use a 50" Panasonic 4K TV as my monitor.
you can be cheap and capture from CGA composite ;D
True, but that won’t be a solution for mda, hercules and ega. The mce2vga also has support for cga composite video emulation.
Cycles runs poorly on 286, 486 obviously needed.
It is playable on a 286 like the IBM AT. Game was released in 1989 so think lots of people did end up playing it on a 286. 486 not really needed. Think people had more time, were less impatient and not so demanding ;)
There are diminishing returns with Test Drive, Test Drive II, Gran Prix, and The Cycles -- they all use the same engine on the PC, and are framerate-locked, so even on a Pentium you don't get more than (IIRC) 18fps.
@@JimLeonard Ok, but this is far from 18, its like 2fps.
@@fradd182 It runs acceptably if using CGA graphics. If using any other graphics mode, it's twice the amount of memory to copy and thus needs a 10-12MHz system to be fun. (486 not "obviously" needed :)
@@JimLeonard But this was a CGA version, shown here. It produces 11 frames per 5.2 seconds, making it 2.1 fps. I dont know, some games dont demand high fps to be playable. It might be acceptable when one actually plays it, it just doesnt look like it.
I'm not interested in video capturing at all. I just came to see the old displays and formats, namely CGA, EGA, and VGA, as the pack-in software that came with my first computer varied between the three.
But, I am also interested in seeing old computers running on new displays using original output.