Old Video Game Magazines online

[1_history_book_will_help]

Hi everyone!!

 

I once saw my friends Dave and Raymond try to connect their 1980s computer hard drive to a TV to play a simulation (game) though it failed to work out.  But, I want to ask you people why and how this type of connection was done long back.  Thank you so kindly.

[jhd]

On 4/25/2020 at 3:08 PM, 1_history_book_will_help said:

I once saw my friends Dave and Raymond try to connect their 1980s computer hard drive to a TV to play a simulation (game) though it failed to work out.  But, I want to ask you people why and how this type of connection was done long back.  Thank you so kindly.

 

Only a VERY few PCs had the capacity to directly connect to a television -- the IBM PC Jr. and the closely-related Tandy 1000 come to mind. Presumably composite output video cards were available for other, generic, PCs as well.

 

The resolution would have been far too low for most practical purposes, beyond playing games. 

[zzip]

24 minutes ago, jhd said:

 

Only a VERY few PCs had the capacity to directly connect to a television -- the IBM PC Jr. and the closely-related Tandy 1000 come to mind. Presumably composite output video cards were available for other, generic, PCs as well.

 

The resolution would have been far too low for most practical purposes, beyond playing games. 

I had an original IBM PC that had composite output on the CGA card, and I was able to use it.

 

It's a feature that mostly disappeared on mainstream clones until TVs started adding VGA ports, and PCs added HDMI

[jhd]

Was the resolution adequate for anything beyond just playing games? Was 80-column text readable on a TV screen?

 

My very first experience with a PC (Fall 1988) used this weird hybrid colour/monochrome (switchable) monitor -- it may have been composite. The computer was from IBM, but I do not know if it was a PC or an XT; there was no hard drive as it was connected to a network.