classiccmp-digest V1 #766

From: Craig Landrum <clandrum_at_monumental.com>
Date: Sun Nov 4 19:38:42 2001

Phil and Mac junkies;

The MicronEye was in production for a very short time as far as
I know. It claimed to use a "video RAM" - a light sensitive
RAM that they claim they discovered by accident. The MicronEye
was a bit larger than a 35MM film cannister and had a focusable
lens and iris at one end and a ribbon cable coming out the other
end, which plugged into a tan flat controller box. The controller
box connected to the printer or modem serial port on the Mac.
The camera came with a small foot-high tripod so you could aim it
and a diskette with the application sofware on it. The software
let you take black and white pictures and save them as either
PICT files or MacPaint files. If I recall correctly, the picture
that it took was half of an original Mac size screen and was
definitely black and white only.

Also FYI - the MicronEye was released and available when the
original 128K Mac was released, which was when I got mine.

I still have it all along with the software. It all worked last
time I fired it up.

I also have an interesting game call Chipwits for the 128K Mac.
It let you program a robot to navigate itself through various
environments. The programming language was innovative and was
call "IBOL", as it was all icon based.

I also have Musicworks - which let you write music and play it
back, etc.

And of course I have Macwrite and Macpaint in the original box.
Both work on the Mac OS system version 1.0.

I have an original IBM PC from the same era. I boot both of
them up side by side and wonder why in the hell the PC won.
(and yes, I know why, before you send your reasons)

As much as I love my Macs, real programming died the day
they invented the GUI. Give me an assembler and some silicon
and a mission, and I'm a happy guy.

> From: Phil Beesley <beesley_at_mandrake.demon.co.uk>
> Subject: MicronEye
>
> Please don't tease, Craig. Tell us a bit more about the MicronEye --
> Google doesn't throw up much more than "camera from 8 bit era".
>
> Phil
Received on Sun Nov 04 2001 - 19:38:42 GMT