Re: monitors

[shack@onyx.southwind.net (Randy Shackelford)]

Mitchell Spector (spec@vax2.concordia.ca) wrote:

: >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.

Actually my recollection is that it looked the same as the //c composite 
color monitor. That's not so different from the IIgs monitor though.

:     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.

It had a light blue colored phosphor I think. The old user group in my 
home town had one on their official group IIgs until they got a cheap
RGB, then they put the mono on the box running the group's BBS.

: >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.

Plus composite color monitors make good TV monitors. A Mac using buddy just
picked up a memory expandable //c, color monitor, and IW II for $15 at a
thrift store because he had a //c color monitor in use as a TV but the 
color was washed out. He spotted me the //c and IW II and his old color
monitor. That was pretty nice of him.

:     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). 

I'd recommend that for any composite monitor on a IIgs. It doesn't affect
color in native software and it makes DHR programs easy on the eyes. Of
course, any composite output is mediocre except coming out of a VOC. Its
output looks pretty good on a composite color monitor.
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