Re: Apple IIGS monitor replacement

[Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca>]

On Mon, 28 Apr 2008, magnusfalkirk wrote:

> I tried answering this earlier on Google Groups, but apparently my response
> got eaten by the Internet gods. Unfortunately you can't use a Mac monitor with
> a GS. From what I remember of other GS monitor discussions the GS uses Analog
> RGB and the signal is 15Khz. There are very few monitors that accept that sort
> of signal. Why Apple didn't decide to make it easy to use a Mac monitor with
> the GS is a good question. Here is a list of other monitors that will work
> with the GS: In fact here's a part of a FAQ relating to monitors for the GS:
When the Apple IIGS was introduced, a quick check says 1986, there were
no VGA monitors (a quick check there says 1987).

Back in 1986, there were still a lot of NTSC monitors, be they composite
or RGB.  They were common because there were still lots of computers that
used them, the "IBM PC" not completely taking over the computer world, and
of course you could get NTSC monitors because that's what TV is.

Note that circa 1986, the Mac didn't use a VGA monitor either, it was
an odd intermediate set of sync frequencies.

Even when the VGA standard was introduced, it would have taken some
years for it to become common, so even if the introduction of VGA had
proceeded the IIGS by enough for the computer to include VGA output
in its design, it would have been too early to know that it would
become the standard and cheap and plentiful.  Remember, before VGA,
there was CGA, and monochrome, and EGA for the "IBM PC", every one of them 
requiring a different IBM board to use the monitor with.  It's only
in looking back that one can decide that VGA was a keeper.

ANd of course, the problem isn't that the IIGS didn't output VGA, it's
that the design is over twenty years old now, so what was easy to
get back then may no longer be the case.  But history doesn't intend
to be historical, so it didn't matter at the time what was used in
the IIGS.

  Michael