Re: monitors

[spec@vax2.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector)]

In article mfumu@alphalink.com.au (Bill Robbins) writes...

>I wasn't aware there was a mono monitor made specifically for the IIgs.

    Yep, there was one, simply called the "Monochrome Monitor". It
looked virtually identical to the AppleColor RGB display, although
it was a plain everyday composite monochrome display with RCA jack.

    I've never seen one in person, though from what I recall, it
used white phospher making it a black and white display. I doubt
it was very popular as one of the most exciting features of the
IIgs was its *color* capabilities. Two years later however, Apple
had a stand produced for it and made it the standard monochrome 
display for the Apple IIc Plus.

>There is a plug on the back which offers an NTSC compatible signal to the
>outside world.  This should work with any mono monitor made for the
>earlier IIs - I think.

    That's right, all you required was a male to male RCA phono
cable. I've connected up my monochrome Monitor II, Monitor III
and Monitor IIc to the IIgs (as well as various color composite
monitors, TV's and other video sources) and it worked just fine.

    One thing I would recommend though is that you go into the
Control Panel, and under the Display option, change 'Type' from
"Color" to "Monochrome". What this does is allow the IIgs to
display graphics in 16 shades of gray (this also works with any
8-bit II+/e/c graphics modes, replacing dot patterns with hues). 

Mitchell Spector
spec@vax2.concordia.ca