Ya...bog standard VGA can do 80x50; VESA SVGA can do 132x50 (or more, I think). I seemed to remember 8514/XGA had something like a 132x50 mode with decently re

Ya...bog standard VGA can do 80x50; VESA SVGA can do 132x50 (or more, I think). I seemed to remember 8514/XGA had something like a 132x50 mode with decently readable fonts (8x16?), but I can't find a reference. 132x50 + tmux/screen is pretty usable. You could also plug in a Hercules mono card and get a 2-monitor setup, if you had software that could grok it. The color and mono video memory lived in different, non-overlapping memory regions. Couple of shops (Xerox. Amdek? Moniterm?) had 1280x800 monochrome setups that could be a second monitor like this. Those were pretty sweet.