🚀 go-pugleaf

I just got my first DOS machine with some software and I have a few questions,
which don't seem to be covered in FAQ.

Color standards: I already knew DOS color isn't very standardized, but it's more
chaotic than I expected.  The color on my machine (Northgate) is supposed to be
better than VGA, created on the mother board by a chip set made by, I think,
Zymos (correct name?).  My resolution is supposed to be 1024 by 760 or so.  I
tried installing PC Paintbrush IV+ and, out of over 300 choices, I couldn't find
anything that looked like the color standard I have.  The guy from the
publisher's tech support suggested using PS/2 VGA.  This works but looks like
less than the resolution I should be getting.  I don't want to experiment since
each installation that fails requires quite a bit of undoing, because something
seems to stay resident and screw up the next installation if I just reinstall
with a different color-driver choice.  Any suggestions?

I got PC Tools 6 and I'm unclear about what can be active (loaded, not
necessarily running) at the same time.  Ideally I'd like to have PC Shell, PC
Desktop, and another application all "available", in the task-switching or
memory-resident sense.  But when I had Shell and Desktop both loaded, I couldn't
run another program; the message was "too many programs resident".  But I have 4
meg and a memory manager; shouldn't I be able to handle everything at once?  I'm
not even clear on what runs "under" what else.

Sound board: The game Sim City says that it gives great sound with a sound
board, from someone called COVOX, which it describes as low-cost.  I can't find
this in any vendor ads.  Does anyone know about this board?

Thanks for any advice.

Christopher Brewster
Cray Research Inc.
612: 683-5759
cb@timbuk.cray.com