Re: Which Macs work with the AppleColor IIgs monitor?

[sheldon@atlcom.net (Sheldon Simms)]

In article <57anrb$qm8@darla.visi.com>, nathan@visi.com (Nathan Mates) wrote:

> In article <ZFJXptH.rocketusa@delphi.com>,
> Darren Johnson  26 yo  32 MPG  <rocketusa@delphi.com> wrote:
> >I'm thinking of getting a Mac, but would like to save on the monitor.
> >I remember a thread a few mos. ago where some reported that dome Macs
> >and not others worked with the AppleColor IIgs monitor. Anyone recall which.
> 
>    I didn't think that any Macs could use the GS's monitor. The basic
> problem is that the GS's monitor wants a 15Khz Horizontal Sync pulse,
> while Macs want to put out at least a 30Khz pulse.

The only way a Mac can use the IIgs monitor is to generate interlaced
output at the proper frequency. I have heard that some very old Mac cards
could be programmed to do this, and AV Macs might possibly be programmed to
do it, but Nathan is correct. In general, no Mac can use the IIgs monitor.

You wouldn't want to do it anyway. The dot-pitch of the IIgs monitor is
lousy and Mac programs would look lousy on it. One of the reasons 640 mode
dithering works on the IIgs is the poor output resolution of the IIgs monitor.
If you use a second sight card this becomes immediately apparent since all
sorts of colors that looked solid on the IIgs monitor suddenly become
blocky checkerboards on the VGA monitor. Anyway, Mac programs designed for
a high resolution monitor wouldn't look very good on the IIgs monitor.

You can get a pretty decent 14" SVGA monitor brand new for $250 and down
that will work on current Mac models and whose output will be acceptable.

-Sheldon

-- 
W. Sheldon Simms III - sheldon@atlcom.net