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56-520: VGA was the last IBM graphics standard to which the majority of IBM PC compatible computer manufacturers conformed, making it the lowest common denominator that virtually all post-1990 PC graphics hardware can be expected to implement. VGA was adapted into many extended forms by third parties, collectively known as Super VGA , then gave way to custom graphics processing units which, in addition to their proprietary interfaces and capabilities, continue to implement common VGA graphics modes and interfaces to

112-431: A $ 60 video game should offer some imaginative surprises will be severely disappointed." In 1994, PC Gamer US named Pinball Fantasies the 33rd best computer game ever. The editors hailed it as "the best and most realistic pinball action ever seen on a PC screen". That same year, PC Gamer UK named it the 19th best computer game of all time. The editors wrote, "[I]f Pinball's your thing, there's currently nothing on

168-505: A bank of targets marked "STONE-BONE" and then cycle continuously through the modes. All four tables award one extra ball at the instant the highest score on the list is exceeded, and when the match at the end succeeds. Each table also has one special ramp (Speed Devils has two), which keeps track of the number of hits as a running total of Cyclones (Party Land), Miles (Speed Devils), Skills (Billion Dollar Gameshow) or Screams (Stones 'N Bones). The first shot counts for two. Each of these shots

224-406: A factor with low-quality or overly long cables. Solutions include shielded cables, cables that include a separate internal coaxial cable for each color signal, and "broken out" cables utilizing a separate coaxial cable with a BNC connector for each color signal. BNC breakout cables typically use five connectors, one each for Red, Green, Blue, Horizontal Sync, and Vertical Sync, and do not include

280-409: A fixed line scan (H-scan) rate – "multisync" monitors being, at the time, expensive rarities – and so the vertical/frame (V-scan) refresh rate had to be reduced in order to accommodate them, which increased visible flicker and thus eye strain . For example, the highest 800 × 600 mode, being otherwise based on the matching SVGA resolution (with 628 total lines), reduced

336-488: A graphical boot screen, while text-mode boot uses 720 × 400 @ 70 Hz. This convention has been eroded in recent years, however, with POST and BIOS screens moving to higher resolutions, taking advantage of EDID data to match the resolution to a connected monitor. 640 × 480 @ 60 Hz is the default Windows graphics mode (usually with 16 colors), up to Windows 2000. It remains an option in XP and later versions via

392-456: A low-resolution CGA display simultaneously. Many programmers also used such a setup with the monochrome card displaying debugging information while a program ran in graphics mode on the other card. Several debuggers, like Borland's Turbo Debugger , D86 and Microsoft's CodeView could work in a dual monitor setup. Either Turbo Debugger or CodeView could be used to debug Windows. There were also device drivers such as ox.sys , which implemented

448-523: A main VGA chip, which eliminated several other chips in previous graphics adapters, so VGA only additionally required external video RAM and timing crystals . This small part count allowed IBM to include VGA directly on the PS/2 motherboard, in contrast to prior IBM PC models – PC , PC/XT , and PC AT  – which required a separate display adapter installed in a slot in order to connect

504-417: A monitor. The term "array" rather than "adapter" in the name denoted that it was not a complete independent expansion device, but a single component that could be integrated into a system. Unlike the graphics adapters that preceded it ( MDA , CGA , EGA and many third-party options) there was initially no discrete VGA card released by IBM. The first commercial implementation of VGA was a built-in component of

560-509: A much wider range of resolutions and refresh rates at arbitrary sync frequencies and pixel clock rates. For the most common VGA mode ( 640 × 480 , 60 Hz, non-interlaced ), the horizontal timings can be found in the HP Super VGA Display Installation Guide and in other places. 640 × 400 @ 70 Hz is traditionally the video mode used for booting VGA-compatible x86 personal computers that show

616-471: A problem, in part because of the poor scrolling, but also because "Since a lot of the scoring devices are near the top of the table, it means that most of the time you're shooting blind." GamePro gave the Jaguar version an only slightly more positive assessment. The reviewer praised the graphics but assessed the game to be completely lacking in fun due to the limited gameplay, stating that "anybody who thinks

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672-519: A rule, proposal, opinion, or media that is deliberately simplified so as to appeal to the largest possible number of people. Pinball Fantasies Pinball Fantasies is a 1992 pinball video game originally developed by Digital Illusions and published by 21st Century Entertainment in Europe for the Amiga home computers . It is the sequel to Pinball Dreams , which was released earlier in

728-638: A serial interface simulation on the monochrome display and, for example, allowed the user to receive crash messages from debugging versions of Windows without using an actual serial terminal. It is also possible to use the "MODE MONO" command at the command prompt to redirect the output to the monochrome display. When a monochrome adapter was not present, it was possible to use the 0xB000–0xB7FF address space as additional memory for other programs. A VGA-capable PCI / PCIe graphics card can provide legacy VGA registers in its PCI configuration space , which may be remapped by BIOS or operating system . "Unchaining"

784-604: Is backward compatible with the EGA and CGA adapters, but supports extra bit depth for the palette when in these modes. For instance, when in EGA 16-color modes, VGA offers 16 palette registers, and in 256-color modes, it offers 256 registers. Each palette register contain a 3×6 bit RGB value, selecting a color from the 18-bit gamut of the DAC . These color registers are initialized to default values IBM expected to be most useful for each mode. For instance, EGA 16-color modes initialize to

840-410: Is a multiple of all the denominators: their lowest common multiple . The product of the denominators is always a common denominator, as in: but it is not always the lowest common denominator, as in: Here, 36 is the least common multiple of 12 and 18. Their product, 216, is also a common denominator, but calculating with that denominator involves larger numbers: With variables rather than numbers,

896-436: Is also provide this port-mapped I/O segment: Due to the use of different address mappings for different modes, it is possible to have a monochrome adapter (i.e. MDA or Hercules ) and a color adapter such as the VGA, EGA , or CGA installed in the same machine. At the beginning of the 1980s, this was typically used to display Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheets in high-resolution text on a monochrome display and associated graphics on

952-479: Is expressed with the same denominator, called a "common denominator". For example, the numerators of fractions with common denominators can simply be added, such that 5 12 + 6 12 = 11 12 {\displaystyle {\frac {5}{12}}+{\frac {6}{12}}={\frac {11}{12}}} and that 5 12 < 11 12 {\displaystyle {\frac {5}{12}}<{\frac {11}{12}}} , since each fraction has

1008-407: Is sometimes seen is 80 × 30 or 80 × 60 , using an 8 × 16 or 8 × 8 font and an effective 640 × 480 pixel display, which trades use of the more flickery 60 Hz mode for an additional 5 or 10 lines of text and square character blocks (or, at 80 × 30 , square half-blocks). Unlike the cards that preceded it, which used binary TTL signals to interface with a monitor (and also composite , in

1064-445: Is worth 100,000 points in the bonus. With the exception of Party Land, the tables also award special awards at specific numbers. Each of the four tables has one or two high-scoring rounds that can be started by achieving certain objectives. Specific numbers of Miles and Skills trigger their respective tables' rounds. The scores for these modes, excluding "Tower Hunt", are awarded as part of the bonus though not multiplied and can be lost if

1120-577: The Amiga CD32 , Atari Jaguar , Game Boy , MS-DOS , PlayStation and Super Nintendo Entertainment System , with each one featuring several changes and additions compared to the original version. Upon its release on the Amiga, Pinball Fantasies was met with critical acclaim from video game magazines and garnered praise for several aspects such as the presentation, visuals, audio, gameplay and overall improvements from its predecessor. Other versions of

1176-508: The NTSC-M video system, as this made it much easier to offer optional TV-out solutions or external VGA-to-TV converter boxes at the time of VGA's development. It is also at least nominally twice that of CGA, which also supported composite monitors . All derived VGA timings (i.e. those which use the master 25.175 and 28.322 MHz crystals and, to a lesser extent, the nominal 31.469 kHz line rate) can be varied by software that bypasses

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1232-530: The "VGA" graphics mode remained a compatibility option for PC operating systems. Nonstandard display modes can be implemented, with horizontal resolutions of: And heights of: For example, high resolution modes with square pixels are available at 768 × 576 or 704 × 528 in 16 colors, or medium-low resolution at 320 × 240 with 256 colors. Alternatively, extended resolution is available with "fat" pixels and 256 colors using, e.g. 400 × 600 (50 Hz) or 360 × 480 (60 Hz), and "thin" pixels, 16 colors and

1288-639: The 256 KB VGA memory into four separate "planes" makes VGA's 256 KB of RAM available in 256-color modes. There is a trade-off for extra complexity and performance loss in some types of graphics operations, but this is mitigated by other operations becoming faster in certain situations: Software such as Fractint , Xlib and ColoRIX also supported tweaked 256-color modes on standard adaptors using freely-combinable widths of 256, 320, and 360 pixels and heights of 200, 240 and 256 (or 400, 480 and 512) lines, extending still further to 384 or 400 pixel columns and 576 or 600 (or 288, 300). However, 320 × 240

1344-575: The 256-color palette. The CPU interface combines the 4 planes in the same way, a feature called "chain-4", so that each pixel appears to the CPU as a packed 8-bit value representing the palette index. The video memory of the VGA is mapped to the PC's memory via a window in the range between segments 0xA0000 and 0xBFFFF in the PC's real mode address space (A000:0000 and B000:FFFF in segment:offset notation). Typically, these starting segments are: A typical VGA card

1400-514: The 70 Hz refresh rate with e.g. 736 × 410 mode. "Narrow" modes such as 256 × 224 tend to preserve the same pixel ratio as in e.g. 320 × 240 mode unless the monitor is adjusted to stretch the image out to fill the screen, as they are derived simply by masking down the wider mode instead of altering pixel or line timings, but can be useful for reducing memory requirements and pixel addressing calculations for arcade game conversions or console emulators. The PC version of Pinball Fantasies has

1456-842: The IBM PS/2, in which it was accompanied by 256 KB of video RAM, and a new DE-15 connector replacing the DE-9 used by previous graphics adapters. IBM later released the standalone IBM PS/2 Display Adapter , which utilized the VGA but could be added to machines that did not have it built in. The VGA supports all graphics modes supported by the MDA, CGA and EGA cards, as well as multiple new modes. The 640 × 480 16-color and 320 × 200 256-color modes had fully redefinable palettes, with each entry selected from an 18-bit (262,144-color) gamut. The other modes defaulted to standard EGA or CGA compatible palettes and instructions, but still permitted remapping of

1512-504: The LCD is used in cross-rhythms and polymeters to determine the fewest notes necessary to count time given two or more metric divisions. For example, much African music is recorded in Western notation using 8 because each measure is divided by 4 and by 3, the LCD of which is 12. The expression "lowest common denominator" is used to describe (usually in a disapproving manner)

1568-467: The Super NES version. The reviewer remarked that though there is a large number of tables, the scrolling is so jerky that the game is almost unplayable. He further criticized that the graphics are dull and fail to make the ramps and obstacles of the tables stand out from the backgrounds. Next Generation also found the fact that the Super NES version displays less than half of the table at a time to be

1624-609: The VGA firmware interface and communicates directly with the VGA hardware, as many MS-DOS based games did. However, only the standard modes, or modes that at least use almost exactly the same H-sync and V-sync timings as one of the standard modes, can be expected to work with the original late-1980s and early-1990s VGA monitors. The use of other timings may in fact damage such monitors and thus was usually avoided by software publishers. Third-party "multisync" CRT monitors were more flexible, and in combination with "super EGA", VGA, and later SVGA graphics cards using extended modes, could display

1680-423: The boot menu "low resolution video" option and per-application compatibility mode settings, despite newer versions of Windows now defaulting to 1024 × 768 and generally not allowing any resolution below 800 × 600 to be set. The need for such a low-quality, universally compatible fallback has diminished since the turn of the millennium, as VGA-signalling-standard screens or adaptors unable to show anything beyond

1736-459: The case of the CGA), the VGA introduced a video interface using pure analog RGB signals , with a range of 0.7 volts peak-to-peak max. In conjunction with a 18-bit RAMDAC (6-bit per RGB channel), this produced a color gamut of 262,144 colors. The original VGA specifications follow: The intended standard value for the horizontal frequency of VGA's 640 × 480 mode is exactly double the value used in

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1792-454: The common denominator 12. Without computing a common denominator, it is not obvious as to what 5 12 + 11 18 {\displaystyle {\frac {5}{12}}+{\frac {11}{18}}} equals, or whether 5 12 {\displaystyle {\frac {5}{12}}} is greater than or less than 11 18 {\displaystyle {\frac {11}{18}}} . Any common denominator will do, but usually

1848-510: The default CGA 16-color palette, and the 256-color mode initializes to a palette consisting of 16 CGA colors, 16 grey shades, and then 216 colors chosen by IBM to fit expected use cases. After initialization they can be redefined at any time without altering the contents of video RAM, permitting palette cycling . In the 256-color modes, the DAC is set to combine four 2-bit color values, one from each plane, into an 8-bit-value representing an index into

1904-423: The game is tilted. Pinball Fantasies was created by the original team who previously developed Pinball Dreams at Digital Illusions. Producer Barry Simpson led the project's development process, with Fredrik Liljegren acting as manager and chief. Andreas Axelsson and Ulf Mandorff served as programmers , while Olof Gustafsson composed the soundtrack and created the sound effects . Markus Nyström acted as

1960-476: The game were met with a mostly similar positive response from reviewers, with some publications like PC Gamer regarding it as one of the best video games of all time . A follow-up, Pinball Illusions , was released in 1995. Like Pinball Dreams , Pinball Fantasies is an arcade -style pinball game featuring four types of pinball tables and each one has their own main objective, gameplay mechanics and thematic. The game has various levels of difficulty and

2016-469: The game's sole artist . The game was first released for the Amiga by 21st Century Entertainment in Europe in October 1992. In September 1993, an Amiga CD32 conversion was released, based upon the improved Amiga Advanced Graphics Architecture (AGA) version for the Amiga 1200 and Amiga 4000 . It was later ported to MS-DOS computers by FrontLine Design, offering multiple audio options. The DOS port

2072-557: The horizontal dimension), vertical roll, poor horizontal sync or even a complete lack of picture depending on the exact mode attempted. Due to these potential issues, most VGA tweaks used in commercial products were limited to more standards-compliant, "monitor-safe" combinations, such as 320 × 240 (square pixels, three video pages, 60 Hz), 320 × 400 (double resolution, two video pages, 70 Hz), and 360 × 480 (highest resolution compatible with both standard VGA monitors and cards, one video page, 60 Hz) in 256 colors, or double

2128-421: The horizontal resolution in 16-color mode. Lowest common denominator#Colloquial usage In mathematics , the lowest common denominator or least common denominator (abbreviated LCD ) is the lowest common multiple of the denominators of a set of fractions . It simplifies adding, subtracting, and comparing fractions. The lowest common denominator of a set of fractions is the lowest number that

2184-450: The letters of either "PARTY" or "CRAZY" must be lit to start a high-scoring event. "Speed Devils" is focused on car racing and the players must overtake cars to take the lead position. "Billion Dollar Gameshow" is a game show -style table where players attempt to win prizes by achieving certain combinations of ramps. "Stones 'N Bones" is based on a haunted house , where players must light eight successively more rewarding modes by completing

2240-458: The lowest common denominator is desirable because it makes the rest of the calculation as simple as possible. The LCD has many practical uses, such as determining the number of objects of two different lengths necessary to align them in a row which starts and ends at the same place, such as in brickwork , tiling , and tessellation . It is also useful in planning work schedules with employees with y days off every x days. In musical rhythm,

2296-450: The mid 1990s, a 640 × 480 ×16 graphics mode using the VGA memory and register specifications was expected by operating systems such as Windows 95 and OS/2 Warp 3.0 , which provided no support for lower resolutions or bit depths, or support for other memory or register layouts without additional drivers. Well into the 2000s, even after the VESA standard for graphics cards became commonplace,

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2352-802: The monitor. The 400-line signal was the same as the standard 80 × 25 text mode, which meant that pressing Esc to return to text mode didn't change the frequency of the video signal, and thus the monitor did not have to resynchronize (which could otherwise have taken several seconds). The standard VGA monitor interface is a 15-pin D-subminiature connector in the "E" shell, variously referred to as "DE-15", "HD-15" and erroneously "DB-15(HD)". All VGA connectors carry analog RGBHV (red, green, blue, horizontal sync , vertical sync ) video signals. Modern connectors also include VESA DDC pins, for identifying attached display devices. Because VGA uses low-voltage analog signals, signal degradation becomes

2408-420: The option to use non-standard modes "high res" modes, such as 640 × 350 , allowing it to display a larger portion of the pinball table on screen. VGA also implements several text modes: As with the pixel-based graphics modes, additional text modes are possible by programming the VGA correctly, with an overall maximum of about 100 × 80 cells and an active area spanning about 88 × 64 cells. One variant that

2464-422: The original resolutions have become increasingly rare. 320 × 200 at 70 Hz was the most common mode for early 1990s PC games, with pixel-doubling and line-doubling performed in hardware to present a 640 × 400 at 70 Hz signal to the monitor. The Windows 95/98/Me LOGO.SYS boot-up image was 320 × 400 resolution, displayed with pixel-doubling to present a 640 × 400 at 70 Hz signal to

2520-408: The other signal lines of the VGA interface. With BNC, the coaxial wires are fully shielded end-to-end and through the interconnect so that virtually no crosstalk and very little external interference can occur. The use of BNC RGB video cables predates VGA in other markets and industries. The VGA color system uses register-based palettes to map colors in various bit depths to its 18-bit output gamut. It

2576-503: The palette with VGA-specific commands. The 640 × 480 resolution (at 256 colors rather than 16) was originally used by IBM in PGC graphics (which VGA offers no backward compatibility for) but did not see wide adoption until VGA was introduced. As the VGA began to be cloned in great quantities by manufacturers who added ever-increasing capabilities, its 640 × 480 , 16-color mode became the de facto lowest common denominator of graphics cards. By

2632-438: The player can set the number of balls for play, among other gameplay options. In certain versions of the game, high-scores and other settings made by the player are automatically kept via the cartridge's internal EEPROM , as well as reset the internal memory of the cartridge to erase saved high-scores and personal settings. "Party Land", the table included in the shareware release, is oriented around an amusement park where

2688-466: The present day. The VGA analog interface standard has been extended to support resolutions of up to 2048 × 1536 for general usage, with specialized applications improving it further still. The color palette random access memory (RAM) and its corresponding digital-to-analog converter (DAC) were integrated into one chip (the RAMDAC ) and the cathode-ray tube controller ( CRTC ) was integrated into

2744-483: The refresh rate from 60 Hz to about 50 Hz (and 832 × 624 , the theoretical maximum resolution achievable with 256 KB at 16 colors, would have reduced it to about 48 Hz, barely higher than the rate at which XGA monitors employed a double-frequency interlacing technique to mitigate full-frame flicker). These modes were also outright incompatible with some monitors, producing display problems such as picture detail disappearing into overscan (especially in

2800-700: The same music as the Amiga version, but suffers from a limited color palette. The SNES version was also published in Brazil by Playtronic in February 1996. In June 1995, an Atari Jaguar conversion by Spidersoft with extra colors was co-published by 21st Century Entertainment and Computer West in North America and Europe. The Jaguar port was also distributed in Japan by Messe Sansao. A PlayStation compilation created by Spidersoft titled Pinball Fantasies Deluxe

2856-435: The same principles apply: Some methods of calculating the LCD are at Least common multiple § Calculation . The same fraction can be expressed in many different forms. As long as the ratio between numerator and denominator is the same, the fractions represent the same number. For example: because they are all multiplied by 1 written as a fraction: It is usually easiest to add, subtract, or compare fractions when each

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2912-453: The same year on multiple platforms . In the game, players can choose between any of the four available playfields, both of which have their own thematic and main objectives in order to obtain the highest score possible. Pinball Fantasies was created by the same team who previously developed Pinball Dreams and although it was initially released for the Amiga computers, the title was later ported to other computers and consoles including

2968-458: The same year, a PlayStation Network version was released by Cowboy Rodeo for PlayStation Portable and PlayStation 3 . A Nokia N9 version was released 20 July 2011 by Cowboy Rodeo in the Nokia Store . In 2012, a 3D / HD rendition was released for iOS by Cowboy Rodeo. Pinball Fantasies was a major commercial success, and among its era's highest-selling games. GamePro panned

3024-625: Was digitally re-released by Rebellion Developments on 22 February 2011 on Good Old Games with support for Microsoft Windows . It received an OS X build on 23 April 2013 and a Linux build on 19 August 2014 respectively. A compilation including the tables from Pinball Mania was released for DOS as Pinball Fantasies Deluxe . In February 1995, versions for both the Game Boy and Super Nintendo Entertainment System were developed by Spidersoft and released in North America and Europe by GameTek . The Super NES port contains all four tables and

3080-482: Was published exclusively in Japan by VAP on 25 October 1996, which also includes the Pinball Mania tables but these have to be unlocked first. A Game Boy Advance version of the game, under the title Pinball Challenge Deluxe , with tables added from Pinball Dreams , was released only in Europe by Ubi Soft . On 20 July 2009, an iOS version was released by Cowboy Rodeo. Between October and December of

3136-510: Was the best known and most frequently used, as it offered a standard 40-column resolution and 4:3 aspect ratio with square pixels. " 320 × 240  × 8" resolution was commonly called Mode X , the name used by Michael Abrash when he presented the resolution in Dr. Dobb's Journal . The highest resolution modes were only used in special, opt-in cases rather than as standard, especially where high line counts were involved. Standard VGA monitors had

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