🚀 go-pugleaf

Copyright, 1987, Jeffrey R. Harrow
(I think I'll write an article based on this...)

Well, It finally arrived, my new Mac ][.

I'll be  following  up  with  a more detailed article once things 
settle down, but  I  thought  I'd share some first impressions as 
well as pose a couple of questions:

It's significantly more effort  to  set  it up than the 'ol Macs.  
Not surprising, of course, but I did have to carefully follow the 
setup instructions so as not be  mess up unfamiliar hardware.  As 
usual, it goes together very well.   The  internal design is very 
clean and uncluttered.

As my Apple monitor (color) is still a  month  or  so away, I was 
able to borrow a NEC JC-1401P3A Multisync monitor and,  thanks to 
the help of Joel West and others on the net,  came  up  with  the 
pinouts for the Mac ][ video board's male DB15 connector so  that 
I could make the cable to the NEC monitor.  For all  of  you  who 
need this, the following worked just fine:

NEC male DB9    Mac ][ male DB15
-------------   ----------------
1       Red     2
2       Grn     5
3       Blue    9
6,7,8,9 Ground  1

That's all that's  required  (of  course  it  should  be shielded 
cable, with the shield tied to ground at each end.

Although the NEC monitor  specs.  a maximum vertical scan rate of 
62 Hz and the Mac  ][  uses  about  67 Hz, it synced up just fine 
with some range left over on  the  vertical  hold  control.   The 
picture is completely stable, although there is  some waviness in 
the    vertical   boarders  (stable,  but  not  quite  straight).  
Convergence  is just fine.  However, I do not  believe  that  the 
text is crisp enough to make me happy if I were looking at it for 
hours  on  end  (who  me?).   I've heard that Apple's monitor  is 
better in this department; we'll see.

My  Mac-Plus  has a non-SCSI HD20 on it, so I could not  directly 
connect it to the Mac ][ (no external drive port).  Hence, I used 
my HFS Backup set of floppys.    I was EXTREMELY impressed in how 
fast the Mac ][ ate those floppys;    about  one every 45 seconds 
while  restoring  them  to  the  internal 40 Megabyte  disk.    I 
couldn't even get into reading the manual it was so fast!

As advertised, Apple did NOT  blast  us  out  with color.  If the 
video card is set at 16 colors, the Apple symbol is in color, and 
the cute little  stylized  Mac on the startup screen IS in color, 
but  that's  about  it.     However,  if  you  have  CricketDraw, 
CricketGraph,  or one of a  few  other  programs  that  correctly 
implemented the Imagewriter 16-color stuff, you  WILL  get  to do 
some on-screen color drawing, and it looks GOOD, even in 16-color 
mode!  You can even put such into  the Scrapbook and it will show 
up in color.

Anyway,  a much more detailed list of what works and what doesn't 
in a day or so; I've filled up quite a few sheets on my pad.

Sound:
When you  boot,  you  get  a very pleasing "chime".  However, the 
sounds that the  control panel let you choose for your beep don't 
include that nice chime,  and  indeed sound a bit much (a monkey, 
funny sounds, etc.).  Anyone know how to make that boot-chime the 
"beep"?  (Note, Soundinit and BeepInit don't work on the Mac ][!)

Has anyone upgraded the memory on their Mac ][?  I've got 4 extra 
256K SIMs and it appears that I  have to remove the internal hard 
drive to mount them.  Is it as  easy  as pulling the 2 connectors 
and removing the 2 end screws, then tilting the drive up and out?  
Any special considerations while installing the extra memory?

Well, I could go on for hours, but perhaps tomorrow.    Of course 
as with all good serials, I should end on a cliff  hanger.   This 
thing is FAST!  How fast you ask?  Well, I sat  back  down  at my 
Plus  to  type  this  note  (it was connected to the modem) and I 
REALLY noticed the difference.  For example, return to the Finder 
is only about 2-3 seconds  on  a  half-full 40 megabyte disk, and 
this is without Keeper (which does not work, but isn't missed)!

Happy Macing.

Jeff Harrow

Work address:
ARPAnet:	HARROW%EXODUS.DEC@decwrl.ARPA
Usenet:		decwrl!exodus.dec.com!harrow        or
                {allegra,Shasta,decvax}!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-exodus!harrow
Easynet:	EXODUS::HARROW
Telephone:	(617)264-5128
USPS:		Digital Equipment Corp.
		Mail stop: BXB1-2/E02
		85 Swanson Road
		Boxboro, MA  01719