Game programming involves an incredible variety and depth of
skills and one of those skills includes a solid understanding
of video hardware features and their use.
The VGA hardware is comparatively well standardized, even
though almost every video card goes far beyond the standard,
today. Learning the VGA hardware model and how to make use of
its various features is a good place to start in gaining a
basic understanding of video hardware, generally.
The VGA was designed quite a while back and the hardware
organization is essentially a "scattered" one,
with a focus on getting the maximum function from the least
amount of logic.