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Re: 'What is the Apple IIgs?' Archive Still Needs Your Help!

On 2006-04-23 12:21:40 +1000, Mitchell Spector <mitch2gs@hotmail.com> said:


"Michael J. Mahon" <mjmahon@aol.com> wrote:


Alex Lee wrote:

Hi all,
'What is the Apple IIgs' (http://www.whatisthe2gs.apple2.org.za/ ) might seem a bit quiet these days, but I'm working on things behind the scenes.
One thing I'd like to get the ball rolling with is a hardware section - I'd like to include short descriptions, images of hardware (memory cards, accelerators, scanners, etc) and software/driver downloads. I've already got disk images of software ready, but no images of hardware. Anyone got the time to quite literally place their expansion cards onto a flat bed scanner and scan them that way? I don't even have a definuitive list of GS specific related hardware, but if you let me know what you can make a scan of by emailing me first, that'd be great. 

For some, relatively deep focus, scanners, this works well.  But many
new scanners have such poor depth of focus that this will produce a very
poor scan of a card.  Using a digital camera is a much better way to
image cards, with attention to focus, lighting, and a plain background
(like a sheet of white paper).
If you're referring to a CCD versus CIS scanner, in the case of the latter it's a question of being low-end (i.e. less costly) rather than 
availability and age. CIS scanners have the lense directly under and
against the glass and cannot focus on three dimensional objects.
They still sell CCD scanners which scan 3D objects well.
That is excellent to know! Thanks Mitch! I was planning on buying a new scanner myself to scan additional items for the archive, even though I think my CanoScan N1240U is really very good with colour, it's very small size and not requiring a power cable, it's true to say it doesn't do what I want it to do.
I picked up a USB Epson CCD-based scanner (about 4-5 years old) for only $7 which works great for 3D objects and _much_ sharper and clearer than my old parallel CCD scanner which I ended up retiring recently. 

    Here's a test I did scanning my Second Sight a few weeks ago. It by no
means sit flush against the glass, the pins and one oscillator raise it quite
a bit, but even at 300 DPI it came out clearly:

www.digitalsparkles.com/student_a/Second_Sight.jpg
That example is PERFECT. It does have a slightly strange viewing perspective, but I can imagine that's due to the pins on the left raising that side of the card to a gentle slope. But for the most part, it's brilliant - all the detail is there and the lighting is perfect. 


    Since I have a scanner and a fair number of IIgs cards I wouldn't mind
helping out (for example I have every stereo card except for the GStereo and Futuresound). Most of them are in storage though. I also have a collection of promotional Apple IIGS ad booklets to scan which is finally 
feasble with this new scanner.
Mitch, you know I think that would be brilliant if you could scan all that hardware. And those promotional IIgs booklets you mentioned many moons ago! :-) 


Isn't there considerable overlap with the Wikis that have been discussed
here recently?  Maybe mirroring a Wiki, or a subset of one, would be an
easier approach.


    If Alex is planning to do something along the lines of the Gaming
Fairway, Slamdunk and Ring for IIgs hardware, then absolutely not. It would be like saying the Smithsonian museum is unnecessary because there are printed encyclopedias covering the same thing. :)
<blush> Thanks Mitch! Yeah, I'm hoping the hardware archive can be a one stop quick stop for hardware reference on the IIgs - you'll be able to identify expansion cards easily, find out what they do with a given description and download necessary drivers and support software. I might even attempt instructions with black and white illustrations for modifying ZipGS and Transwarp GS to faster clock speeds so even laymen like myself are willing to give it a go!
It seems everyone's well acquainted with the Fairway, Ring and Slam Dunk now but a lot of the posts I see on c.s.a2 come from people who've picked up a second hand IIgs with weird and wonderful expansion cards that they can't easily identify. Also, quite a few expansion cards have appeared on eBay over the years with little or no explanation as to what they do - I'm hoping this additional archive will quickly answer those questions. 

Thanks everyone! Your interest maintains my interest!

- Alex
http://www.whatisthe2gs.apple2.org.za/