Re: Apple IIe RGB card?

[Roger Johnstone <rojaws@orcon.net.nz>]

In <S%i3d.10888$wV.8700@attbi_s54> Ernest wrote:
> I have an Apple card which is labeled:
> 
> A//e Ext. 80 col/RGB (1984 video 7)
> 
> This will sound like a dumb question, but is this an RGB card? I don't 
> have the dongle for it, so I'm not sure. Would this go into the AUX 
> slot?
>
> Does anyone know the pin-outs for this, so that I could have a dongle 
> made for it? It has 16 pins on the plug.
>
> It also has two dip switches. Does anyone know what those are for?
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> E.

It's the Apple combined 64KB RAM/RGB video card for the Apple IIe 
auxilliary slot. I knew Video 7 used to make RGB adapters for the IIc, 
but I never knew the IIe card sold under Apple's name was made by Video 
7 too.

The card ouputs digital RGB video in the Apple III XRGB format. The 
connector it's supposed to have will be a 15-pin D socket, wired the 
same as the Apple III. It's designed to drive the AppleColor 100 display.

Switches on RGB cards are generally for setting a single foreground and 
a single background colour in text mode, instead of just white on black. 
The IIGS lets you do the same thing. However this card is unusual in 
that it allows for full software control of the text colours. Each 
character can have its own foreground and background colours. 
Unfortunately this extended text mode never made it to the IIc, IIGS or 
other RGB cards, and I don't know of any software that supports it 
except for a demonstration disk that originally came with the card. A 
disk image is available from one of the Apple II software archives (
sorry, I can't remember which one I saw it on).

-- 
Roger Johnstone, Invercargill, New Zealand
http://vintageware.orcon.net.nz/
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