Author: Dave Farquhar

VGA and MCGA were two new video standards introduced in April 1987 with the IBM PS/2 line. They were meant to make the new IBM computers more competitive with Amiga, Atari ST, and color Macintosh computers, all of which had ability to create high resolution graphics with more colors then IBM’s first generation of PCs. MCGA vs VGA confused people in 1987, and it can confuse people today.

Of the two standards, VGA proved the most enduring. The GPU in your desktop or laptop PC is fully backward compatible with VGA, and whatever graphics mode you’re using right now is an extension of VGA. The 15-pin VGA plug is still very common 35 years after the PS/2’s introduction. VGA approved to be the most enduring element of the PS/2 line.

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Dave Farquhar

David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He has written professionally about computers since 1991, so he was writing about retro computers when they were still new. He has been working in IT professionally since 1994 and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He holds Security+ and CISSP certifications. Today he blogs five times a week, mostly about retro computers and retro gaming covering the time period from 1975 to 2000.

dfarq.homeip.net

Why did the Atari ST fail? It is hard for me to be objective about the Atari ST, because I was a dyed in the wool Amiga fanboy in the early ’90s. I am not supposed to like the Atari ST. And I’m not sure if that makes it easier or harder for me to see it as a failure, but I don’t see the Atari ST as a failure.

Then again, since you probably are not reading this on an Atari ST, there is an argument that it did fail. So it could be that I am grading on a curve. I expected the machine to be a nothing burger, and it ended up selling 2.1 million units at a time when 2.1 million units shipped still was a pretty impressive number.

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Dave Farquhar

David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He has written professionally about computers since 1991, so he was writing about retro computers when they were still new. He has been working in IT professionally since 1994 and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He holds Security+ and CISSP certifications. Today he blogs five times a week, mostly about retro computers and retro gaming covering the time period from 1975 to 2000.

dfarq.homeip.net

The IBM 7496 Executive Workstation is a rare IBM computer from the late 1980s. It gained some measure of fame in the early 2020s, when vintage technology Youtubers got their hands on them and rebuilt them. Their success, or lack thereof in one case, helped elevate this machine in enthusiasts’ minds.

The IBM 7496 Executive Workstation is some kind of a purpose built PC, derived from the PS/2 Model 30. About a dozen examples turned up in the inventory of Computer Reset, a now legendary Dallas-based warehouse of computers dating back to the 1980s that was liquidated from 2019-2022.

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Dave Farquhar

David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He has written professionally about computers since 1991, so he was writing about retro computers when they were still new. He has been working in IT professionally since 1994 and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He holds Security+ and CISSP certifications. Today he blogs five times a week, mostly about retro computers and retro gaming covering the time period from 1975 to 2000.

dfarq.homeip.net