Classic Computer Magazine Archive COMPUTE! ISSUE 117 / FEBRUARY 1990 / PAGE 10

Out In the Cold?

I have had an IBM PS/2 Model 30 for over two years. I bought it to write, and I find that the machine lives up to and beyond what the local IBM agent promised me.

The problem? My kids are keen to use the machine, but Dad owns the only member of the PS/2 family that has an MCGA monitor. So when it comes to those handsome programs reviewed and advertised in your valuable magazine, the MCGA monitor apparently leaves us out in the cold. Few of those programs seem to know of or care about our kind of monitor.

The result: inferior graphics.

Am I too pessimistic? Can my machine be adapted?

GEORGE RUSHE

PAGET, BERMUDA

A subset of the VGA graphics standard, MCGA gives you the 320 × 200, 256-color graphics mode, but not the EGA emulation and high-resolution 640 × 350. 16-color mode. However, most VGA games use the lower resolution in order to take advantage of the extra colors available, so they should work fine on your MCGA system. If there's no MCGA option on the game's setup screen, try the VGA setting.