4 ms·

> lots-of-color meant 256 colors. Sixteen- and twenty-four-bit color weren't just widespread by 1998. They were standard. Not supporting 24 bit color was unhe

> lots-of-color meant 256 colors. Sixteen- and twenty-four-bit color weren't just widespread by 1998. They were standard. Not supporting 24 bit color was unheard of for a normal desktop monitor and normal desktop graphics.

nikau 2y ago
> Sixteen- and twenty-four-bit color weren't just widespread by 1998. They were standard. Maybe in 800x600, but not in higher resolutions. A lot of PCs still had 1MB video ram cards like the S3 trio - I remember running Xwindows on a s3 card that would change the colour palette for whichever app was active when you ran it in 1024x768.
bombcar 2y ago
256 was kind of rare in 1994 when Doom came out (new machines had it, older often didn't). But by 1998 the pace of hardware changes were moving so fast that anything top of the line from 1994 was just trash, you could get one for free if you asked.
- robin_reala 2y ago
  I don’t think that’s quite right. VGA and 256 colour came in in 1987, and like you say the rate of change was so fast that EGA was basically obsolete by 1990, 92 at the latest.
  - bombcar 2y ago
    What I recall was that "what was sold" was changing at a steady clip but "what was used" was changing much slower - if you bought an EGA machine in 1990 you kept using it even when VGA was out; no real reason to upgrade since the only thing noticeable was games (maybe). But Windows 3.11 started to change that and by the time Windows 95 was out nobody wanted to use a 2 year old machine anymore. (Though to be fair most people I knew went from CGA/Hercules straight to VGA, there really wasn't a "driving need" for EGA, especially if your machine was business oriented - Hercules was better for text). VGA was a "sweet spot" also in that it always worked, SVGA started getting really hairy sometimes, and could be a bear to get working right.
    - int_19h 2y ago
      SVGA worked pretty well so long as you stuck to basic VESA modes, which was relied upon by many games of the era (e.g. Warcraft 2, the first two Heroes of Might & Magic games).
  - dragonwriter 2y ago
    The web plus Windows 95 were a major force bringing both new people into computing and pushing upgrades: the rapid pace of new standards displacing old technology in use rather than picking up a slice at the top of the market and slowly expanding share in use didn't really start until then.
    - bombcar 2y ago
      I feel Windows 95 especially was a turning point where people began to buy "personal computers" for various uses instead of "I need a machine to do program X" which was more common before.

nikau 2y ago

> Sixteen- and twenty-four-bit color weren't just widespread by 1998. They were standard. Maybe in 800x600, but not in higher resolutions. A lot of PCs still had 1MB video ram cards like the S3 trio - I remember running Xwindows on a s3 card that would change the colour palette for whichever app was active when you ran it in 1024x768.

bombcar 2y ago

256 was kind of rare in 1994 when Doom came out (new machines had it, older often didn't). But by 1998 the pace of hardware changes were moving so fast that anything top of the line from 1994 was just trash, you could get one for free if you asked.

robin_reala 2y ago
I don’t think that’s quite right. VGA and 256 colour came in in 1987, and like you say the rate of change was so fast that EGA was basically obsolete by 1990, 92 at the latest.
- bombcar 2y ago
  What I recall was that "what was sold" was changing at a steady clip but "what was used" was changing much slower - if you bought an EGA machine in 1990 you kept using it even when VGA was out; no real reason to upgrade since the only thing noticeable was games (maybe). But Windows 3.11 started to change that and by the time Windows 95 was out nobody wanted to use a 2 year old machine anymore. (Though to be fair most people I knew went from CGA/Hercules straight to VGA, there really wasn't a "driving need" for EGA, especially if your machine was business oriented - Hercules was better for text). VGA was a "sweet spot" also in that it always worked, SVGA started getting really hairy sometimes, and could be a bear to get working right.
  - int_19h 2y ago
    SVGA worked pretty well so long as you stuck to basic VESA modes, which was relied upon by many games of the era (e.g. Warcraft 2, the first two Heroes of Might & Magic games).
- dragonwriter 2y ago
  The web plus Windows 95 were a major force bringing both new people into computing and pushing upgrades: the rapid pace of new standards displacing old technology in use rather than picking up a slice at the top of the market and slowly expanding share in use didn't really start until then.
  - bombcar 2y ago
    I feel Windows 95 especially was a turning point where people began to buy "personal computers" for various uses instead of "I need a machine to do program X" which was more common before.