Hi,
[I posted a similar message to the eab.abime.net forum a couple of weeks ago, so some of you might find this familiar.]
Over the Amiga's life, several devices were produced which connected to the 23-pin video port, and allowed more colours to be shown. I'm aware of at least eight:
* HAM-E from Black Belt Systems
* DCTV from Digital Creations (this also plugs into the parallel port and the hardware includes a video digitiser)
* ColorBurst from MAST
* Fun Color from Adept Development
* Graffiti from Individual Computers
* AVideo 12 and AVideo 24 from Archos
* Video DAC 18 from Newtronic Technologies
Pictures and info are on the
http://www.amiga-hardware.com/ site.
Technical info on the Graffiti is available from the Individual Computers web site, but I couldn't find detailed docs on any of the others. So, I would like to find:
* Technical details about how the hardware works for the others. There is a little info on the HAM-E in an old Usenet posting, but I couldn't find any details on the others.
* Pictures of the insides of any of the units, or just details of what is prited on each chip inside.
* Any software that came with the ColorBurst, Fun Color, Video DAC 18 and Archos AVideo 12/AVideo 24. (DCTV & HAM-E software is available on the web. The Archos software
was available at
http://amiga.resource.cx/, but that site seems to be down at the moment.)
* (This is a long shot because I've looked already.) Details of ay patents or patent applications relating to any of the units. Archos filed a French patent application relating to the AVideo 12/24 which, though I don't read French, doesn't look very detailed. If a French person wants to translate it for me, please contact me! If there are any patents covering any of the others, they may not list the company as assignee (just the inventor name, like the Video Toaster patents).
So if you have that or know where I might get it, please let me know.
I would also be interested in getting hold of any of that hardware, if it's cheap or free. The eventual aim is to figure out how they operate, so support can be added to Amiga emulators. I guess nowadays that would mostly be of historical interest, but there are quite a few DCTV format pictures and animations on Aminet for example. And it's always interesting to play with new "hardware".
