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Re:Windows 2 for the Apricot PC/Xi by spankibalt on Sunday December 28, 2025 @09:50AM (#46411452)
Neither Mindset nor Mindset II. Mindset II had the 640 x 400 four-color mode upgrade. Double-buffered but interlaced. Could be genlocked to another Mindset.
Re:Windows 2 for the Apricot PC/Xi by bitwize on Sunday December 28, 2025 @10:51AM (#46411912)
The Tandy 2000 could do 640x400 8-color noninterlaced. It was pretty useful as a CAD and DTP workstation, predating even the EGA by a year, which is why it was chosen to develop and test color Windows.
Re:Windows 2 for the Apricot PC/Xi by spankibalt on Sunday December 28, 2025 @02:11PM (#46413554)
The Mindset machines were (also) advertised as Video Production System, with custom VLSI chips and modules for graphics and video workflows and assorted applications (e. g. Lumena). So a bit of a different market.

I wonder if there's some top-class Japanese x86 machines from the "IBM workalike" era.

Re:Windows 2 for the Apricot PC/Xi by bitwize on Sunday December 28, 2025 @02:46PM (#46413826)
Indeed. At the time, Tandy was trying to break into the business market with its computer offerings, and the 2000's software library reflects that, including MultiMate, Basic Four, Lotus 1-2-3 and Symphony with hi-res graphic/charting add-ons, a version of Ashton-Tate's Framework, and the best desktop version of AutoCAD available at the time. The Mindset and Amiga lapped it in terms of video, audio, and in particular NTSC- and composite-compatible output capabilities, but machines that were targeting those workflows were doing something very different from the generic business market (which Windows, at the time, was aimed squarely at).

A composite compatible output addon, called the TV/Game Adapter, was planned but never released for the Tandy 2000; if released it might not have supported genlocking or really much beyond getting 16-color 320x200 or so video onto a TV. Until recently the only graphical game I recall actually being released for the machine was a special version of Flight Simulator; but recently on Facebook I saw a photo of a 2000 running some sort of video poker or other card game. It was unlikely to have been very fast paced and may even have been written in GW-BASIC; I don't know much about it.

Re:Windows 2 for the Apricot PC/Xi by nkali on Sunday December 28, 2025 @06:23PM (#46415525)
PC-9801 could do 640×400 in 8 colors, and is supported by early Windows.