Windows 8.1 graphics get bit-crushed into working in 40-year-old EGA graphics mode — less than half-megapixel display mode is limited to 16 colors

Computer enthusiasts are always looking to push the boundaries of technology. This urge seems to apply mainly to the latest hardware and software, but some, like Bob Pony, also have a soft spot for ancient technology. A case in point is provided by Pony’s recent escapade, where he recounts successfully installing Windows 8.1 on a system restricted by the ancient EGA graphics standard. Not a simple task. And the result, though somewhat functional, wasn't aesthetically pleasing.

EGA technology recap

It is worth providing some context regarding EGA and outlining its key features. IBM introduced this PC graphics mode in October 1984, and its initials are an acronym for Enhanced Graphics Adapter. The first EGA graphics cards (I keep stopping myself from typing EVGA by accident) originated from IBM, and they were heralded as the successor to the even more restrictive Monochrome Display Adaptor (MDA) and Color Graphics Adaptor (CGA) standards. EGA would be eclipsed by the perhaps better-known VGA standard in 1987.

An unscaled EGA screen on a modern monitor would cover just a small patch of your display. Standard modes available from this 40-year-old graphics adaptor maxed out at just 640 × 350 pixels, using 16 colors from a paltry palette of 64. Later in its life, third-party EGA ISA graphics card makers would boost the resolution available to up to 800 x 600 pixels.

Windows 8.1 in EGA - YouTube

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Pony leaps hurdles in emulator

According to the diminutive equine tech enthusiast, getting his emulated EGA system working, with virtualized era-appropriate parts, wasn’t quick. In the video above, you will notice that some of the setup process was sped up 5,300%. Pony blamed the sluggish performance on an ‘Intel Generic CPU’ selected in the PCBox emulator.

Boot screens are mainly absent from the startup process, a quirk of the emulated system. However, we have some really awful-looking color-clashing setup screens ahead of the awful-looking Windows 8.X UI.

SuperEGA?

You may also notice that the video card emulated was one that expanded upon IBM’s standard by boosting VRAM from 64KB to 256KB, among other tweaks, according to a DOS Days article. The upshot was that this Chips & Technologies Inc. design, which debuted in 1987 (the same year VGA arrived), could address up to 800 x 600 pixels in 16 colors. Wowsers.

Despite my recitation of those specs, when we pay attention to Pony’s video of the Windows 8.1 installation and setup, you can see that the OS lists the graphics adapter mode as having 256MB, not KB, of memory. Moreover, it allows for a 640 x 480 pixels, True Color (32-bit) display mode at 64 Hz. Something may be wrong with the OS’s display hardware reporting…

Regardless, the specs appear to still be well below the official Windows 9 requirements published by Microsoft in 2012. For example, the OS requires a display with a minimum resolution of 1,366 x 768 pixels, powered by an adapter with DirectX 9 support and a WDDM driver. Such specs only became mainstream multiple eras beyond EGA’s heyday.

All this software tweaking and waiting on slow virtual hardware might leave you with one central question – why? On several of his social media platforms, Pony claps back – “Why not?” This seems to be the modern tech twiddlers' equivalent to “Because it’s there” - the British mountaineer George Leigh Mallory’s famous maxim, delivered in response to a question about why he would want to climb Mount Everest (1923).

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