Re: talk.abortion

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

In article shack@onyx.southwind.net (Randy Shackelford) writes...

>:Mitchell Spector (spec@vax2.concordia.ca) wrote:
>:     What kind of Nubus and PCI cards do you have to plug in? And
>: sure you can plug in any IBM PCI card on the market, but it must
>: have a software driver to support it and generally it's a good
>: idea to have programs that use it too. The analogy made between
>: the IIgs with SCSI and Mac with PCI posted recently was a good
>: one (you can plug any SCSI device into a GS with SCSI card, but
>: many are not supported with drivers).
>
>I have three video cards on hand (handy for the multiple monitor setup
>which is really slick) plus an A/V digitizer card. I am talking to a guy
>with a PAS16 sound card for sale, which does 16 bit audio I/O, MIDI, and
>some other stuff. There are cards for running Windows, cards to give
>extra serial ports, and plenty more. I only talk nubus since I don't
>have a Pmac.

    The Pro AudioSpectrum 16 is a good example for what I was talking
about above. One of its features is an OPL3 FM-synthesis chip, do you
know any Macintosh games or programs that support it? There is also a
joystick port on that (doubles for MIDI with a special adapter), are
there any programs that make use of it either?

    Incidentally, its a cool card, I'm using one in my PC right now
for digital sound and its mixer input. I bought mine used for $20
but it came with a dead joystick connector and the seller never
answered me back after I mentioned it. :/

>:     Both are plug 'n play mostly because everything is already built-in.
>
>Isn't it great?

    Yep, unless of course the hardware built-in becomes very obsolite
like it has on my Apple IIgs. The VGC chip only supporting a maximum
resolution of 640x200, 16 colors per scanline and only being able to
sync with NTSC frequency monitors was passable 10 years ago, but not
long after was a pain. No one ever came out with video cards for the
GS (at least not until 1995, and just _one_ useless one) because the
video was integrated. The same thing with sound, the Ensoniq chip was
state of the art when the GS was introduced, but by the early 90's it
fell sorely behind. Did anyone ever come out with a sound card? No.
Notice the same thing happened to the Mac in respect to sound? It is
stuck with what it came with.

    Yeah, it sure is great having things permanently attached to the
motherboard. I kind of like it better when I can put in what I want,
and when it goes old or I change my mind, just swap in something
new.

>:     Originally I really liked the Trinitron, the colors are so much
>: more vibrant and brighter than most other displays (other monitors
>: looked washed and faded in comparison). What kills the Trinitron are
>: all the side affects of using an aperture grille. Have you noticed
>: the very concaved image? It looks like the whole screen is bending
>: inwards, many people I know jokingly call it the "punch-in" effect
>: because it looks like someone punched and dented in the screen! :)
>: There are other geometry problems too so things are not accurate.
>: I also find they have a very grainy looking image, it looks as
>: though you've overlayed a fine silk cloth over the screen. This
>: creates a terribly noticable moire pattern and colors that do not
>: have a solid look (in fact, it looks a lot like the GS's dithered
>: 640 mode in a way). They also have terrible mis-convergence in
>: the corners quite commonly, unless your lucky.
>
>I must be mighty lucky, because my five year old 16" monitor has no such
>problems. And you have to have your eyes about three inches from the
>screen and squint to see the horizontal wires on it.

    Actually all Trinitron tubes have that concaved image, it is a
side affect of the technology. The line lines are more noticable on
a screen with light colors or an all white screen, but they're quite
visible to me despite what I'm looking at. It looks like someone
scratched the screen with a fine blade horizontally across.

    Whether or not you notice it, those geometry distortions are
there. Trinitron displays are only recommended for graphic art
where color is more important than image. You will not find them
in use for technical uses where accurate geometry is a must, like
CAD or page layout, etc. I think they're completely pointless now
when there are monitors with superior color _without_ geometric
distortions. In any case, that is only my personal opinion and
tastes, just like those on the Macintosh which was my point.

>If you're wondering why I changed the name of this thread, it's because
>"talk.abortion" is about as related to the discussion as is the original
>name ("OS for IIgs") and this discussion is about as productive as the
>discussion in that newsgroup.

    We have gotten far off topic, but at least it's still related to
computers and more interesting than the usual flames. :) I'm all for
ending it if you are, I rather talk about Apple II's than the rehashed
PC vs Mac debates you can find on dozens of other groups. Might as well
keep on topic for this group if possible, no need to add to the noise...

Mitchell Spector
spec@vax2.concordia.ca