Re: video card for IIGS

[andrew.webber2@btinternet.com (Andrew Webber)]

a_specto@alcor.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector) wrote in message news:<3cda9dd0.2751332@news1.sympatico.ca>...
> "binaryside" <binaryside@yahoo.fr> wrote:
> 
> >Please, where can I find a video card for my IIGS which could offer a better
> >resolution  than the original one?
> 
>     There were two such video cards, unfortunately both have been out 
> of production for a number of years and now considered quite rare.
> 
>     The Second Sight is obviously one. As it uses a more or less standard
> VGA chipset (the Oak-087) it's technically capable of producing a wide  
> range of resolutions and color depths, though the IIgs will _not_ ordinarily
> take advantage of them. Most native Apple II video modes are emulated 
> by the card and shadowed onto a fixed 640x400 signal at 70 Hz refresh. 
> Video remains the same number of pixels and colors per screen as before,
> though with the advantage of being able to display on a VGA-compatible
> display (albeit less attractive looking in some respects, due to differences
> between NTSC-RGB and VGA). I don't believe it would work with modern
> LCD displays as those operate on fixed resolutions, unlike CRTs. At the
> very least it would have to stretch image to the point of heavily distorting
> it, assuming it could be done.
> 
>     It is possible to display higher resolutions and color with the Second
> Sight but you must have software that specifically supports it. As that
> stands this consists of about a half-dozen graphic viewers for GIF, TIFF,
> JPEG, etc. From memory, these only supported a maximum of 640x480
> in 15-bit color. Essentially the card is useful for connecting the IIgs up
> to a modern CRT (and quite possibly an LCD overhead projector; yet
> again I'd question the feasibility of flat panel LCD displays).
> 
>     The other, which few people think of as a video card, is the Apple II
> Video Overlay Card. Its main function is as a genlock device, but it
> does duplicate the IIgs's built-in video and capable of driving a CRT
> display independently. It supports interlaced video and can be used
> to display 320x400 and 640x400 video on, say, an AppleColor RGB 
> display--unlike the IIgs. SuperConvert is one program that lets you 
> take advantage of this to display converted graphic images at higher
> vertical resolutions.
> 
>     Incidentally, there just happens to be Second Sight for auction on 
> eBay at the moment. Expect it to fetch a few hundred dollars though. 
> I have both a Second Sight and Video Overlay Card in my IIgs sitting
> beside me, though I'm not likely to part with either.
> 
> Mitchell Spector
> a_specot@alcor.concordia.ca


I am thinking of hunting one of these down, when you say the display
is not quite right on a VGA monitor is it the colours that look odd?
Apart from that do Games etc work ok?

Thanks