IN SEARCH OF THE PERFECT PRINTER

by Ben Briscoe

In 1949 when I started teaching 35 6th grade youngsters in the Bellflower CA school district, there was
just one family who owned a TV. My! How far we have come to not only have a TV in every
classroom and home, but also to have a computer in most homes and classrooms.

After 30 years of teaching, I retired, and with a mid life career shift, went into real estate sales. Soon I
wanted a computer for loan amortization and writing business letters and advertising copy.

So, in April, 1984, I sent off to Protecto Enterprises in Illinois for a Commodore 64, a 1541 drive, and
a printer. The printer was, on their advice, a Star Gemini 10X, which, with the aid of a Card?+G
interface by Cardco printed everything I attempted in graphics, numerical information, and word
processing.

This combination, with the later upgrade to a Commodore 128D, worked perfectly until about two
years ago, when the printer and interface simply gave up from old age and heavy usage.

About the same time I was able to purchase a Citizen 120D at a give-away price. This printer, in
combination with a Super Graphix interface by Xetec, was very successful. However, some of my early
software did not have printer drivers which would match this printers.

The Citizen 120D does have the advantages of an auto-sheet loading system when tractor feed is not
being used. I found it worked well with The Write Stuff, if I set the interfaced DIP switches to
TRANSPARENT, and GEOS set to 1525 emulation.

I then became the proud possessor of a Star Gemini II. Since this printer was made for use with
Commodore computers, it does not require an external interface. The real advantage of this printers is
that it prints in reduced sizes as well as Near Letter Quality, controlled by keys on the front panel.

Now, however, I wanted a printer which would give better looking copy than the dot matrix models
were able to produce. I had heard that the Canon BJ-200ex Bubble Jet printers would work well with
a Commodore computer if placed in the Epson LQ mode. This is a highly successful printer when used
with an Epson LQ1500 printer driver for graphic reproduction as well as word processing. This printer
is everything I had always wished for. Well almost--I wish it did COLOR PRINTING.

(Eventually Ben not only acquired a color printer but was seduced into the PC world and is now one of
those megahertz guys.)

(From The Interface, newsletter of Fresno Commodore User Group, via the Commodore Information
Center http://home.att.net/~rmestel/commodore.html)