The Paradise Systems Modular Graphics Card pictured above, released in 1984, was the first CGA card that could output to a monochrome monitor. Considering the base configuration was $395 (in today’s dollars, over $900), being able to save up for the future purchase of a color monitor and still benefit from a graphical display in the mean-time was a nice feature.

When IBM released their seminal PC 5150 in 1981, prospective buyers had a choice of a low cost Monochrome Display Adapter (MDA) or a more expensive Color Graphics Adapter (CGA). While the MDA card was limited to a single, graphics-free text mode, the CGA card, with its 16k of video memory, opened up the burgeoning PC standard to the possibilities that multiple resolutions and color graphics could offer, including enhanced gaming.

Although many CGA games were rendered in a resolution of 320x200 in four colors, other modes were available, including a high resolution 640x200 monochrome mode, and a low resolution 160x100 mode that gave access to all 16 colors from the hardware pallet. While use of a digital RGBI monitor like the IBM 5153 retained the integrity of the card’s color output, connecting to a television or monitor over an analog composite connection created color artifacts. This peculiarity of the NTSC signal was often exploited by game makers to effectively display far more than the four, often garish, available colors over RGBI.

Although technically modest, as the first graphics card option for PCs, and one that set the precedent for various clones and the vastly improved graphics cards and standards that would follow, CGA’s influence can’t be overlooked. And even with the introduction of the next two major standards, Enhanced Graphic Adapter (EGA) in 1984, and Video Graphics Array (VGA) in 1987, CGA would continue to see software support into the early 1990s.