| layout | title | permalink | machines | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
page |
Michael Abrash's VGA "Black Book" Tests |
/tests/pcx86/vga/ |
|
To aid the development of PCjs VGA support, selected VGA Black Book Tests from Michael Abrash's Graphics Programming Black Book have been added to the project, which you can run in the VGA Black Book Test Machine below.
Abrash's book is available on many sites, but I'm partial to the Markdown version that James Gregory has made available on GitHub, because (a) it's a brilliant way to render and share the text, and (b) it apparently has Abrash's blessing, so I feel more comfortable forking it, using it, and resharing it.
The main reasons for my fork are to make the book's images display properly on GitHub, and to extract and add assorted source code listings as I need them. Since that project's /src folder contains just the book's text, I've added a /code folder for the source code listings. The name of each source code file matches the name displayed in the text (eg, L23-1.ASM is Listing 23.1 from Chapter 23).
I assume something similar was done on the CD-ROM that accompanied the Black Book, but since I don't have the original book or its CD-ROM, I've extracted the source code directly from the Markdown text and then "tabified" it with 8-column tab stops.
Development of PCjs VGA support began June 2015, and not everything here runs properly inside PCjs yet. For example:
- L29-4 doesn't actually blank the screen (then again, other emulators don't bother blanking it, either)
- L30-1 and L30-2 require split-screen support
The Compaq DeskPro 386 machine below loads the VGA Black Book Binaries diskette from the PCjs Disk Library into Drive B. Click the Run button to start the machine.
{% include machine.html id="deskpro386" %}
This disk image contains the source code for selected VGA Black Book Tests. It was built using DiskDump and the --normalize option, which automatically converts linefeeds in known text files (including ASM files) into DOS-compatible CR/LF sequences.
Volume in drive A is VGASRC
Directory of A:\
L23-1 ASM 14690 08-09-16 11:53a
L24-1 ASM 7243 08-09-16 11:53a
L25-1 ASM 4872 08-09-16 11:53a
L25-2 ASM 1606 08-09-16 11:53a
L25-3 ASM 2347 08-09-16 11:53a
L25-4 ASM 2437 08-09-16 11:53a
L26-1 ASM 6949 08-09-16 11:53a
L26-2 ASM 7170 08-09-16 11:53a
L27-1 ASM 5766 08-09-16 11:53a
L27-2 ASM 6055 08-09-16 11:53a
L27-3 ASM 3928 08-09-16 11:53a
L28-1 ASM 5809 08-09-16 11:53a
L28-2 ASM 4436 08-09-16 11:53a
L28-3 ASM 2285 08-09-16 11:53a
L29-1 ASM 3262 08-09-16 11:53a
L29-2 ASM 2919 08-09-16 11:53a
L29-3 ASM 5940 08-09-16 11:53a
L29-4 ASM 1614 08-09-16 11:53a
L30-1 ASM 10178 08-09-16 11:53a
L30-2 ASM 12499 08-09-16 11:53a
L31-1 ASM 8073 08-09-16 11:53a
L31-2 ASM 6703 08-09-16 11:53a
L32-1 ASM 5493 08-09-16 11:53a
L32-2 C 6000 08-09-16 11:53a
L33-1 ASM 4788 08-09-16 11:53a
L34-1 ASM 9662 08-09-16 11:53a
L35-1 C 6037 08-09-16 11:53a
L35-2 C 2371 08-09-16 11:53a
L35-3 ASM 9258 08-09-16 11:53a
L42-1 C 5353 08-09-16 11:53a
L42-2 C 5294 08-09-16 11:53a
L42-3 C 715 08-09-16 11:53a
L42-4 C 2288 08-09-16 11:53a
L42-5 C 1263 08-09-16 11:53a
L42-6 ASM 10098 08-09-16 11:53a
L47-1 ASM 2793 08-09-16 11:53a
L47-2 ASM 1564 08-09-16 11:53a
L47-3 ASM 1453 08-09-16 11:53a
L47-4 ASM 3192 08-09-16 11:53a
L47-5 ASM 4329 08-09-16 11:53a
L47-6 ASM 3980 08-09-16 11:53a
L47-7 C 680 08-09-16 11:53a
L48-1 C 1886 08-09-16 11:53a
L48-2 ASM 6563 08-09-16 11:53a
L48-3 ASM 6612 08-09-16 11:53a
L48-4 ASM 4515 08-09-16 11:53a
MAKEFILE 1011 08-09-16 11:53a
REGS H 662 08-09-16 11:53a
48 file(s) 234641 bytes
Total files listed:
48 file(s) 234641 bytes
64512 bytes free
This disk image contains executables built from selected VGA Black Book Tests.
Volume in drive A is VGABIN
Directory of A:\
L23-1 EXE 2176 07-05-15 1:12p
L24-1 EXE 1482 06-27-15 11:56a
L25-1 EXE 1253 06-26-15 2:06p
L25-2 EXE 1097 06-26-15 2:06p
L25-3 EXE 1131 06-27-15 11:56a
L25-4 EXE 1131 07-07-15 12:45p
L26-1 EXE 1322 06-27-15 11:56a
L26-2 EXE 1334 06-27-15 11:56a
L27-1 EXE 1327 06-27-15 6:26p
L27-2 EXE 1541 06-27-15 6:26p
L27-3 EXE 13604 06-27-15 6:26p
L28-1 EXE 2279 06-29-15 10:29a
L28-2 EXE 1173 06-29-15 10:29a
L28-3 EXE 1109 06-29-15 10:29a
L29-1 EXE 1400 07-05-15 7:59a
L29-2 EXE 1290 07-05-15 7:59a
L29-3 EXE 1687 07-05-15 7:59a
L29-4 EXE 1242 07-05-15 7:59a
L30-1 EXE 1391 07-05-15 7:59a
L30-2 EXE 1351 07-05-15 7:59a
L31-1 EXE 1385 07-06-15 2:11p
L31-2 EXE 1245 07-05-15 7:59a
L33-1 EXE 1430 07-05-15 11:26a
L34-1 EXE 664 07-05-15 1:12p
L35-1 EXE 9185 07-07-15 12:49p
L35-3 EXE 8801 07-06-15 3:32p
L47-4 EXE 3643 07-06-15 3:33p
L47-5 EXE 3707 07-07-15 12:42p
L47-6 EXE 3683 07-07-15 12:42p
L48-2 EXE 3923 07-07-15 1:34p
30 file(s) 77986 bytes
Total files listed:
30 file(s) 77986 bytes
73728 bytes free
The VGA Black Book tests taken from Michael Abrash's Graphics Programming Black Book to create the PCjs VGA Black Book Binaries are listed below.
- L27-2.ASM: Illustrates one use of write mode 2 of the VGA and EGA by drawing lines in color patterns
- L30-1.ASM: Demonstrates the VGA/EGA split screen in action
- L30-2.ASM: Demonstrates the interaction of the split screen and horizontal pel panning
- L32-1.ASM: Illustrates VGA line drawing in 360x480 256-color mode
- L32-2.C: Sample program to illustrate VGA line drawing in 360x480 256-color mode
- L35-2.C: Sample program to illustrate EGA/VGA line drawing routines
- L35-3.ASM: Fast assembler implementation of Bresenham's line drawing algorithm
- L47-1.ASM: Mode X (320x240, 256 colors) mode set routine
- L47-2.ASM: Mode X (320x240, 256 colors) write pixel routine
- L47-3.ASM: Mode X (320x240, 256 colors) read pixel routine
- L47-4.ASM: Mode X (320x240, 256 colors) rectangle fill routine (slow)
- L47-5.ASM: Mode X (320x240, 256 colors) rectangle fill routine (medium)
- L47-6.ASM: Mode X (320x240, 256 colors) rectangle fill routine (fast)
- L47-7.C: Program to demonstrate mode X (320x240, 256-colors) rectangle fill
- L48-1.C: Mode X (320x240, 256 colors) patterned rectangle fills
- L48-2.ASM: Mode X (320x240, 256 colors) rectangle 4x4 pattern fill routine
