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Mode X: The Graphics Trick IBM Never Authorized episode artwork

Mar 29, 2025 26 min

Mode X: The Graphics Trick IBM Never Authorized

from NCOT Technology Hosted by juytre

Github: https://github.com/ncot-tech/MS-DOS-Mode-X-Animation Blog Post: https://ncot.uk/projects/dosdev/mode-x-madness/ Support the channel! https://www.patreon.com/c/ncot_tech Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio After learning about Mode 13h last time, I’ve been digging about in the ancient tomes of wisdom and discovered Mode-X. Let’s make a PC’s VGA card do odd things it was never designed for. When IBM created the original VGA adaptor, they never intended it to produce high colour real time graphics. However by cleverly altering the card it is possible to unlock an undocumented video mode known simply as Mode X. I came across the Graphics Programming Black Book by Michael Abrash and printed out chapter 49 to read, which describes how this mysterious Mode-X actually works, including source code to play with. #msdos #programming #retrocomputing #cprogramming #borland

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Mode X: The Graphics Trick IBM Never Authorized

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