Re: Well, back into a IIe I am

[Matt Jenkins <mdj@bob.dynalias.net>]

On Mon, 08 Dec 2003 19:20:40 +0000, Michael J. Mahon wrote:

> I'd always wondered why the PAL Apples had the AUX slot in line
> with slot 3--picking up -12v sounds like the answer.

That's the answer, but the machines aren't actually PAL; The video
frequency has been changed to 50Hz, but the color-burst signal coming
from the board is the same quasi-ntsc signal generated by US Apple II's.
The was a modified extended 80 column card for Euro standard markets
that delivered a PAL signal on a seperate connector on that card. Once
the platinum IIe was released these became unavailable as the platinum
IIe shipped with the same minature card here as in the US. Additionally
Apple's Composite Colour monitor was capable of generating a colour
picture from the 50Hz Apple's. Although for some reason the pre-platinum
Euro boards produce 'wrong' colours from their composite port when
connected to this display (which is I think the real reason the fancy
80 column card was created)

One thing that's really frustrating these days is that even with
multi-mode tv's that support either a PAL or NTSC signal, you still can't
get colour out of the Euro models on a TV set, as most of them seem to
assume a PAL signal because of the 50Hz refresh. On the original II and
II+, the 50 Hz version is created by cutting special pads on the
motherboard (and maybe some other things, can't remember right now, it's
in the Apple II Reference manual) so you can at least reverse it and
create a real 60Hz ntsc signal. Unfortunately there's no easy way to do
this on a IIe.

My solution on the IIe was to buy a US model motherboard from eBay,
although I did this primarily to get slot 3 'back' as I run my
pride'n'joy IIe on RGB these days.

On the IIc you need the RF modulator Apple released with the early IIc's. 

The IIGS is the simplest of the lot since the video refresh is selectable
via the control panel, although connecting a GS to the TV in the lounge
room for a quick game of Wings of Fury always seemed somehow 'wrong' to me :-)

Cheers,

Matt