What is Aaaps MicroTV?

In the late 80s, Nolan Bushnell, inventor of Pong and founder of Atari had a new company, Aapps, and its initial product was MicroTV. A $395 NuBus card for the Mac II that would let you watch black and white television on your Mac.

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One of the most interesting recent add-in products for the Mac is Aapps Corporation’s MicroTV, a board that puts a small black-and-white television window into your Mac’s display. MicroTV comes in versions for the SE and the Mac II series. It gets its video input from a cable system, VCR, video camera, laser disk, or other standard NTSC video source. You select the video source, channel, and volume through software. MicroTV can also capture any displayed video image in real time.

MicroTV also can work concurrently with applications, so you could use it to display a training tape next to instructional text, for example. Several of the devices can be used on a network for group instruction, according to Aapps.

The video window measures about 1.3 inches high by 1.7 inches wide and has 128 levels of gray scale and resolution of 128 by 96 pixels. An optional memory upgrade supports 192-by-256 pixel resolution. The board incorporates a 98-channel, cable-ready tuner. It is also available in PAL and SECAM formats for use outside the United States or in professional video applications.

MicroTV has a retail price of $395; the Mac II version was scheduled to begin shipping on November 1. Aapps hopes to ship the SE version by the end of the year. Aapps also announced MicroTV Professional, which is not expected to be available until after February. With four times the resolution and four times the window size, the MicroTV Professional board will add selectable screen sizes, developer’s toolkit extensions, Exposure-Pro software, and program filters. And MicroTV Professional will support HyperCard XCMDs, capture of full video resolution, and special effects. Its price had not been finally set at press time, but was expected to be $595. If so, an upgrade to MicroTV Professional from MicroTV will cost $200.

Moran, Tom. (December 1989). MicroTV Supports Soaps on a Mac. Macworld. (pgs. 121, 123).

Download Aaaps MicroTV for Mac

Architecture

Motorola 68K

System Requirements

From Mac OS 6.0 up to Mac OS 6.0

Compatibility notes

Emulating this? It could probably run under: Mini vMac