Re: Old arcade monitor neck connector question


"Tom MacIntyre" <tom__macintyre@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:5bfo3253einifl4ujcdorvq94k3kmqad7k@xxxxxxxxxx
On Mon, 10 Apr 2006 23:19:51 -0400, "monitorGUY"
<joust@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

those vector monitors are totally different animals that rasters.
the guys in rec.games.video.arcade.collecting are the experts there.
they been keeping those going for years.

In what ways are they different?

Tom



Vector monitors are line drawers, rather than raster scanned, where the beam
intensity is modulated to produce a line of pixels. A true circle, for
instance, can be drawn by applying the appropriate drives to the horizontal
and vertical deflection output stages. Think giant 'scope tube. A good
example of a game that used them, that you might remember, was Tank Battle.
A stroke monitor was used here to be able to get rapid manipulation of the
pseudo 3D image that the game produced. When the graphics system only has to
produce endpoint co-ordinates for the lines or vectors, much less processing
power and display memory is required. Downside is brightup points on the
vector ends at direction changes etc. I used to work on a colour 3D graphics
system for CAD work. Used another variation of the stroke writer display,
called a beam penetration tube. Final anode voltage was modulated to produce
the different colours of the strokes. AIR, it had three different phosphor
colours, laid on top of each other. When the final anode voltage was at its
lowest, only the phosphor closest to the gun was excited by the beam. Its
light shone through the outer two phosphor layers. When the voltage was
cranked up to the next level, the beam was accelerated harder, and
penetrated the first layer of phosphor, to excite the middle layer, which
then shone out through the outermost layer. When the voltage was at full,
the outer layer of phosphor was lit up. The colour differences were limited,
and not particularly spectacular, but for close up viewing by a CAD
operator, were good enough to enhance the visualisation of a 3D engineering
drawing of an aircraft part or whatever.

I also used to work on a true 3D visualisation unit called SpaceGraph. This
used a stroke writer mounted above a vibrating plexiglass mirror, and
produced true 3D wireframe images that floated in space above the mirror.
Interestingly, the monitor that was used, could be put into a raster scan
mode, where pixels were produced on multiple time divided rasters,
synchronised to the mirror movement, to produce solid rasterised 3D images.
There was a particularly impressive demo image of a skull in this format.
These volume related pixels, were called voxels. We once showed the machine
on a TV science programme, and I was amazed that the shoulder mounted 2D TV
camera that they used to show the effect, was actually able to look round
the image as it floated in space. I had assumed, prior to seeing that, that
the effect was generated by a combination of stereoscopic vision, and
brain-fooling.

Arfa


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