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Comment by dsr_ | Hacker News Reader

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dsr_·

Even if you can find a CGA or MDA, good luck finding a surviving monitor to display it.

Honestly, you're probably better off finding an intact PC on ebay or Craigslist or such.

And for doing anything practical, much better off with a Raspberry Pi variant.

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Does it seem to you that literally anyone buying such a thing is concerned about practicality?

CGA is probably surprisingly easy. Composite out can plug into almost any TV made in the last 15 years, and many monitors. I could see using my Dell 2007FP for something like this; I've already tried it with a C128.

> Even if you can find a CGA or MDA, good luck finding a surviving monitor to display it.

A quick Google Shopping search finds plenty, as well as converter devices from those signals to VGA.

My parents still have a presumably functional CGA monitor in the basement because we’ve never thrown away any electronic we’ve owned. I am sure there are people like that out there.

Used, new old stock, and LCDs that support CGA/MDA/EGA are readily available. Converters from CGA/MDA to VGA are also readily available.

Most CGA cards had composite out, as CGA timings were based on TV standard.

with regard to displays, gbs-8200 will help here.

Gonbes GBS-8200/8220 CGA/EGA/YUV to VGA Arcade HD-Converter PCB allows all types of RGB, EGA, VGA or YUV component signals to be up-converter and display on a 31KHz PC VGA monitor, TFT monitor, LCD display, or HD-TV with VGA connection. No need to set dip switches in order to figure out the specific input frequency as all inputs are detected automatically! A great alternative to purchasing a expensive, heavy CGA monitor.

[0]: https://www.mikesarcade.com/cgi-bin/store.pl?sku=GBS-8200

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