SAC.HQSAC-ACMI@E.ISI.EDU (10/31/87)
BUSS number 146, announced a new video device for the Z-100 called PROSCAN. Proscan allows 640x480 hires video, on an NEC Multi-sync monitor. (Because of the higher scan rate, it will not work on a ZVM-135 or 136) The screen is *rock-steady* and will run any software that uses interlace mode (after easy modification). *Proscan will also allow DOS to display a 50-line text screen. Programs such as DEBUG and DIR, and word processors such as WordStar will display 50 lines of crisp text.* I talked with Hogware (maker of Showoff) which is one of the suppliers of Proscan. They said a version of the board is being worked on for those with the UCI PC emulator. The price is $65 and I would imagine that both Hogware and Paul F. Herman (the other company selling the device) will be modifying their software to take advantage of this higher resolution. It should be noted that Proscan will produce a flicker-free screen. Which is not the case with interlace mode unless you use a long persistent phosferous screen like the ZVM-136.
nelson@CLUTX.CLARKSON.EDU (Russell Nelson) (10/31/87)
(Proscan provides 640x480 flicker-free video on a Multisync). I saw a letter to the editor of a recent (1987) Remark in which the writer told of a hardware modification he had made to provide 64 colors PER PIXEL. Clearly he did this by duplicating the three banks of video memory and shift registers, and providing a paging bit to select between the two. Let me do a quick comparison: EGA 640 x 480 16 of 64 colors. Z-100 640 x 480 64 colors. Gee, the Z-100 sure sounds better to me... Too bad it doesn't have the same hardware support that the EGA has, but you can't have everything... -russ