Thread
IIgs Display
If it was not packaged right then you never know.
Does the green light come one? Is the IIgs putting out a good video signal?
If every thing is set to black from the control pannel on the IIgs then it is like the black out virus. Have to bring up the control pannel then hit 2 then then 2 again and again or something like that. To set everything to standard defaults. There is a few other things but it would be easier over the phone.
Take Care
Does the green light come one? Is the IIgs putting out a good video signal?
If every thing is set to black from the control pannel on the IIgs then it is like the black out virus. Have to bring up the control pannel then hit 2 then then 2 again and again or something like that. To set everything to standard defaults. There is a few other things but it would be easier over the phone.
Take Care
The packaging was OK as far as I'm concern, but the box looked a bit crushed. So far, the display was physically OK. There was a plastic corner on i that is missing, but I do not think it was because of the shipping.
The green light on the display does not show up. Does the light goes on when a signal comes on, on simply when the display goes on? But I hear a little sound when I open it, so I know at least there is an electrical current going in.
How can I validate if the signal is coming out of the IIgs?
I'll try the control pannel stuff and see what it does, but the same result on two IIgs is suspicious...
The green light should come on the monitor when the power button is pushed in. Does not need a signal.
On the IIgs you have a composite Video out. Should work with any TV that is also a monitor with an RCA type cable. 80 Col might not be clear, and you won't be able to change the text color, but you should still get a good picture. That is if the monitor is good.
On the IIgs you have a composite Video out. Should work with any TV that is also a monitor with an RCA type cable. 80 Col might not be clear, and you won't be able to change the text color, but you should still get a good picture. That is if the monitor is good.
The Amiga was capable of 4 hardware voices with 8-bit wavetable playback using it's dedicated Paula chip. (The Amiga, depending on configuration, has up to 2MB of "CHIP RAM" which is memory shared between video and audio systems (aside from main memory, or "FAST RAM")). This was easily the best sound in a commercial computer up to that point.
The IIgs has a superior sound chip, the Ensoniq DOC which is also used in the Mirage synthesizer, capable of, in the most common configuration, playing 15 comparable channels in hardware - but the thing is, Apple tied only 64K (yes, kilobytes) to this chip limiting it dramatically. There were hacks that tried to copy new samples into RAM in real time to allow more than 64K of samples to be used at once, but it was not a solid solution. Also worth nothing that the DOC supported stereo audio, but Apple did not break it out to the headphone jack, so a very minimal card was needed to break out the sound to stereo. Go Apple...
Overall, having been an avid follower of the demo scene on the Amiga and IIgs (small though it was), I have heard more impressive sound from the Amiga. The Amiga has enough CPU horsepower to perform some degree of software mixing, so getting 8 quality channels playing (with CPU loaded) was possible.
They both kicked the ass of the Atari ST and the various Ad Lib-style FM soundcards and early Soundblasters of the PC world.
The experience of hearing sound like the Amiga could generate when it first came out in 1985 was mindblowing - it was unlike any other computer audio experience anyone had ever heard. It was the audio equivalent of the experience of seeing the seemingly impossibly realistic graphics in Defender of the Crown for the first time, back in its day. Jawdropping good times.
I've owned (or own) all of the computers I've mentioned in this article, so not operating on a bias - the days of Amiga vs. ST and Mac vs. PC are rather behind me.
(Tho I still hate the PC.)blakespot