ScuzzBlog: Diaries January 2021 Entry 12th January 2021: Post 1: Amiga Monitor - Microvitec 1438. Amiga Monitor - Microvitec 1438. I have received a request for a copy of the utilities disk for the Microvitec 1438 Autoscan Monitor Series 3. So just a quick blog tonight explaining what that is. In 1993 I had placed a deposit of £50 down for a Commodore 1942 monitor. Sadly it never arrived and at the time of Commodore going bust I was faced with finding an alternative. Easier said than done. I do recall having a day off work and sitting at the bottom of the stairs with a copy of all the Amiga rags phoning all the various suppliers to get a monitor. I was not having any luck. For obvious reasons monitors for the Amiga were already becoming scarce. I was eventually offered a Microvitec from a company called WeServe. Which I promptly returned as I viewed it inferior to the 1942. If you have ever used a Microvitec you will appreciate that it has a couple of oddities that take some getting use to. A month zonked by and I was getting desperate. My local Amiga shop suggested I come in and muck around on the Microvitec and even have the thing for a trial. Had there been no alternatives I would not have bought the monitor. Anyhoo here I am some 27 years later and she still is being used on a daily basis. I have had cause to repair her once and paid for a power switch to be replaced. I very quickly acquired four others. I have a much older version plus a 17" which sadly is broken. It basically just stopped working one day. My original monitor is a little tired I have to say and once or twice has given me a blank screen. I simply switched her off and back on and she was fine. For the most part she is just wonderful. The best of the bunch sits up here hooked up to an Amiga 4000. I was using the computer last night to rebuild some Space Hulk disks and I was marvelling had how crisp the image was. The oldest sits in the Workshop and has a button that needs to be permanently in the on position. So that is what the sticker says. The games machine that I use for Sensi and Snooker has a habit of losing the red from the colour range. It is not the monitors fault it is the silly way the secondary connector you have to use has the screws in both meeting faces so you can't screw them together. And so every time I move the Amiga Computing magazines below the desk I snag the connector and cause it to separate slightly. I just push fit back and the red comes back. With all TVs and monitors they eventually lose their brightness and you find yourself turning the contrast and brightness on full. Either that or my eyes have finally packed in. And so I have four working Microvitecs, and I also do have a 1942. She is sitting within arms length here feeding off another Amiga 1200. The one in here I use for checking disks and copying stuff to put on the PC and the website. She has the Surf Squirrel at the moment and the ZIP drive. I don't mind the 108x.x range plus the Philips monitors, of which I have quite a few, but for all screen modes generally I like the Microvitec. There isn't anything I can't view on the monitor and she is just magic for games. I have tried flat screens but always return to the original monitors. The original monitor cost me £299 in April 1994. The Series 13 range is suitable for horizontal scan rates 15-40kHz, 30-40kHz and 30-50kHz plus45-100Hz vertical rate. The monitor utilises a 9 to 15 way connector. One joy of the monitor is the way the image clicks between differing scan range screen displays. So if you are in DOpus and fire up a healthy sized jpg expect the screen to click to accommodate the image. Click for the disk Amiga Monitor - Microvitec 1438. Just some arty pictures I put together. Arcade Snooker - Music by Allistair Brimble whose cassette is on the other bench just behind Clara Veiga if you look closely. That is a reflection of another monitor you can see in the screen DPaint animation of Madonna at the Brit Awards 1995 in her Versace dress. And there is more Infestation there on the Amiga keyboard. It's out of control. SimCity 2000 and my city named Flibble after the sock puppet used by Rimmer in the episode of Red Dwarf - Quarantine 1992. Red Dwarf was on the BBC .. But not that one. The monitor is ethereal and floats above the desk. The workshop images taken two days ago.

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Last updated 12th January 2021

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