To be clear, the printer hardware here isn’t a typical old e-waste consumer device, it is actually the powerful Agfa Compugraphic 9000PS. This box would interpret the complex resolution-independent PostScript files sent to it by pre-press operators and change them into raster images that could be printed on the next piece of hardware down the chain, usually an imagesetter that produced high-resolution printing plates. That’s why the Agfa’s motherboard packed a powerful-for-the-era 68020 CPU . Interpreting and outputting work like this was computationally and resource-heavy.
This is the 4 th video from Adrian using the Agfa RIP, as the unassuming beige box holds numerous interesting components. For example, not only does the main PCB feature a 16 MHz 68020, the I/O controller board it is paired with packs its own 68000 CPU .
You may like ‘200,000 living human neurons’ on a microchip demonstrated playing Doom DoomBuds ports the 1993 FPS classic to open-source earbuds by streaming JPGs at 18fps — runs on 300MHz CPU with less than 1MB of RAM Retro Apple Mac mod implements thermal printer floppy swap A significant part of this latest adventure with the Agfa concerned reverse engineering the ROM code for the now ancient and obscure Agfa hardware. A significant step forward was made after replacing the Adobe PostScript interpreter in ROM with custom firmware based on AGFA-MON (available from GitHub ) to establish a monitoring app, provide some OS boot stub options, and even add a BASIC interpreter to the system.
After about 1hr 6mins into the video we finally get some demos shown running on the repurposed Agfa RIP. Adrian started with CP/M stuff, but quickly moved to a Unix OS (Minix). The full shareware version of Doom 1.9 was run via this OS “on what was just a printer freakin’ controller,” underlines the TechTuber.
(Image credit: Adrian’s Digital Basement ) (Image credit: Adrian’s Digital Basement ) (Image credit: Adrian’s Digital Basement ) But for those with experience of a 68020 (like an Amiga 1200 ), Doom is unsurprisingly a slow performer on this hardware. That isn’t the worst playability issue anyway, as the game wasn’t really controllable due to lack of PS/2-compatible keyboard support, noted Adrian. The terrible FPS reminds us of the recent 4FPS Red Dead Redemption 2 gaming shenanigans.
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Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/retro-gaming/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/retro-gaming/tech-enthusiast-gets-doom-to-run-on-a-40-year-old-printer-controller-ancient-agfa-compugraphic-9000ps-came-with-a-motorola-68020-onboard-for-fast-processing#main
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