3 ms·

I had a 386 PC with 4MB of RAM when I was a kid, and it ran Windows 3.1 with a GUI, but that also had a VGA display at 640x480, and only 16-bit color (4 bits pe

I had a 386 PC with 4MB of RAM when I was a kid, and it ran Windows 3.1 with a GUI, but that also had a VGA display at 640x480, and only 16-bit color (4 bits per pixel). So 153,600 bytes for the frame buffer.

Dwedit 10mo ago
640 * 480 / 2 = 150KB for a classic 16-color VGA screen.
perching_aix 10mo ago
> and only 16-bit color (4 bits per pixel). The "high color" (16 bit) mode was 5:6:5 bits per channel, so 16 bits per pixel. > So 153,600 bytes for the frame buffer. And so you're looking at 614.4 KB (600 KiB) instead.
- snek_case 10mo ago
  "Windows 3.1 primarily used palette-based color modes, common modes included 16 colors (VGA/EGA) and 256 colors (SuperVGA)"
  - perching_aix 10mo ago
    Right, so 16 color, not 16 bit color. To be frank, I wasn't aware such a mode was a thing, but it makes sense.
    - mananaysiempre 10mo ago
      I recently installed NT4 (including Plus!) in an emulator with a VESA video driver, and was greatly surprised when about half of the icons that I thought of as “Windows 2000” (including the memorable “My Computer” one with the bulbous sky-blue screen) turned out to be available even there, provided a non-indexed mode. The rest were the more familliar 16-color-compatible 95/NT4 ones, making for an incongruous result overall. I guess what I want to say is that 16-color compatibility is a large part of the 95/NT4 look from which 2000 very carefully departed.