Message-ID: <22976@lanl.ARPA>
Date: Thu, 7-Mar-85 15:03:59 EST
Article-I.D.: lanl.22976
Posted: Thu Mar  7 15:03:59 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 9-Mar-85 08:40:27 EST
Sender: newsreader@lanl.ARPA
Distribution: net
Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory
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  Yesterday I almost bought the Blue Chip printer at LaBelle's.   The price
was $239.00.  When I asked for the interface for a C64 they said they didn't
have any an couldn't tell me when then would get any in stock.  I subsequently
did not buy the printer.
  I have since looked at other printers and have found that the Gemini 10x
has a successor, the Gemini SG 10.  Has anyone purchased one of these?
From what I read the new printer has a "near letter quality" mode plus a
2K print buffer.  It supposedly has all of the other features of the old
Gemini 10X.
  I also bought the Cardoco +G interface.  Are most people out there who have 
this interface happy with it?
  I will summarize replies to the net.
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Message-ID: <105@proper.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 10-Mar-85 19:32:42 EST
Article-I.D.: proper.105
Posted: Sun Mar 10 19:32:42 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 12-Mar-85 21:20:20 EST
Reply-To: mikevp@proper.UUCP (mikevp)
Distribution: net
Organization: Proper UNIX, San Leandro, CA
Lines: 15

> I also bought the Cardco +G interface.  Is everyone else who bought
> one of these happy with it?

I bought one of these, and I am very UNhappy with it.  I am using it with
an Epson MX80, so my experience may not be applicable to the Gemini.
Printing any kind of graphics takes *f*o*r*e*v*e*r* (that includes the
Comodore special characters, anything that is not standard ASCII) because
it does continuous forward-backward shuttling of the print head back and
forth.  This beats the print mechanism to death, and takes about 45-50
seconds for every single line of print.  Also, for all potential Epson/Cardco
users out there, you absolutely MUST have Graftrax+ to run this:  The original
Graftrax will not work for anything but straight ASCII text, though the
Cardco people will swear up and down that you don't need Graftrax+. 

Personally, if I knew now what I knew then, I would look for something else.