1983 Micro prices (was Re: The Origins of DOS)

[Fred Cisin]

On Tue, 31 Oct 2006, Richard wrote:
> The 5150 came with a monochrome adapter, IIRC, not CGA.  CGA was later!

ONLY IN CERTAIN SUB-MARKETS.

CGA and MDP were available at the same time.
MDP had much nicer text display; CGA color monitors were very expensive.

Therefore, it didin't make much sense to go CGA.

UNLESS, . . . you have the extreme level of technical expertise
to make or buy a cable to connect a composite video monitor
(often with UHF connectors) to the composite RCA jack (or to the
4 pin Berg that was supplied for connecting SUP'RMOD2 RF modulator),
and the willingness to accept video quality that was about the same
as other current micros, just to save $700.