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Hercules Graphics Card

ID: HERCULES
RELEASED 1982
PRICE
DISCONTINUED 1990s
UNITS SOLD Millions

I/O PORTS

Parallel printer portMDA connector

System Analysis

Monochrome brilliance. High-resolution text and graphics on a single card. The business standard before VGA.

Processor

N/A
Motorola 6845

Same CRTC as CGA but better used.

Audio Subsystem

0
None

N/A

Memory

DRAM
64 KB

Expandable to 64 KB

Storage

N/A
N/A

Graphics Architecture

Hercules HGC
Palette: Monochrome (2 colors)
  • 720x348 (Mono)
Hardware Tricks
  • ▹ High resolution for text
  • ▹ Two graphics pages

Did You Know?

  • ? Lotus 1-2-3 drove adoption - spreadsheets needed high-res.
  • ? Games had to specifically support Hercules mode.
  • ? Sharp text made it preferred for word processing.