[Simh] Rainbow100

[Johnny Billquist]

On 2017-07-20 20:06, Timothe Litt wrote:
> On 20-Jul-17 13:47, Hunter Goatley wrote:
>> On 7/20/2017 12:31 PM, Timothe Litt wrote:
>>>
>>> Gigi was sold - and used - primarily as a graphics terminal, though
>>> it does have a BASIC interpreter.  It was used on the DECSYSTEM-20
>>> and VAX.  There was some software support; Scribe had a driver for it.
>>
>> My graphics class in college used Gigi terminals connected to a PDP
>> 11/44. We were all amazed at what you could do with it. Which was a
>> lot, compared to the VT100s we had. That was in 1984 or 1985.
>>
> I didn't mean used EXCLUSIVELY with the the -20 & VAX.  They were sold
> there because of their price point, but would happily talk on any ASCII
> RS232 line.  Perhaps your college got a good deal - or a donation.
>
> By 84/85 there were a lot better options for graphics; the VT240(241),
> VT340, VAXstation I/II were available, and PCs and Macs all had better
> graphics.    The DEC items all spoke ReGis, so you could move your
> software painlessly.

Uh, the VT300 series were still a few years out in 1985.
And the VT240 was very slow. I never saw or used a VT125, so I don't 
know how it compared, but it didn't have color, right?

VAXstation was definitely cool, but the price tag compared to a GIGI 
would have been ridiculous, I suspect.

> GiGi's only unique feature was its BASIC interpreter, which was crippled
> by its lack of mass storage and limited (even for its time) memory.
> Given that, a VT125 was a better deal (and IIRC, the graphics was faster).
>
> Still, GiGi was a neat toy, and would have seemed impressive against a
> backdrop of VT100s...

Definitely a neat toy, which could be useful in some situations.

But I don't know if the GIGI was even being sold anymore by 1985.

	Johnny

-- 
Johnny Billquist                  || "I'm on a bus
                                   ||  on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt at softjar.se             ||  Reading murder books
pdp is alive!                     ||  tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol