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Can anyone identify this dot matrix printer next to a Neo-Geo?

Zap! said:
Here's a much clearer scan:

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Almost looks like an old Epson but the colors are off. (The entire top and front are smoke)


What was the tractor and paper feed path like? (Bottom, top, )

Finding a printer with membrane controls top RH is moderately strange but also looks familiar. Might be one of the really off brand offerings

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rmay635703 said:
Almost looks like an old Epson but the colors are off. (The entire top and front are smoke)

What was the tractor and paper feed path like? (Bottom, top, )

Finding a printer with membrane controls top RH is moderately strange but also looks familiar. Might be one of the really off brand offerings
Click to expand...

I wish I could remember, but it's been gone since 1994/1995 when I got my first inkjet, the Epson Sylis Color II. What I remember though is the extreme uniqueness of the smoked plastic cover. It was smooth (it didn't have that ugly angle halfway up like most), and went almost all the way to the back. It was hands down the most beautiful dot matrix printer I've ever seen.

I have found two printers that aren't it, but have huge similarities. The first one is the Epson AP-80. The button scheme is identical, just on the wrong side. They are membrane, and it even has the top blue one. Unfortunately, it has the ugly, angled cover that I hate. Before anyone says my photo might be mirrored, it isn't. The Neo-Geo's reset button is on the left, just like in my pic.

The second one is a Blue Chip M150/10. The smoked glass is nearly the same with no angle halfway up. If they mated, they would produce my printer. :ROFLMAO:
 

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I wonder if anyone is nostalgic for their first inkjet printer?

I'm not.. Let it rot in the dump along with ALL inkjet printers.
 
VERAULT said:
I wonder if anyone is nostalgic for their first inkjet printer?

I'm not.. Let it rot in the dump along with ALL inkjet printers.
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You're not kidding my dude... I couldn't even remember my 1st inkjet. The only one left in the house is used only for scanning documents, it sits next to my nice laser printer that does everything else (Except for the occasional letter I type and print on the image writer II down the hall, of course).
 
Chuck(G) said:
Consumer inkjets are just a way to sell overpriced ink cartridges.
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Oh yes, its a complete scam. I remember when they started putting thick foam inside the carts to displace ink. The cartridges were see through early on. Then they realized the money was in consumables. I only owned two between 1993 and 2000.. After 2000 its been 100% laser printing and I couldnt be happier.

Inkjets are for Schmucks. They are disposable and un-serviceable and the ink which costs nothing to produce has gone up exponentially in price. I flat out refuse any all in one/inkjet printer as they are trash.
 
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Zap! said:
Epson AP-80
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Some Epson LX printers (Google “LX-800”) also have a blue button, and they have the control panel on the correct side. The LX *also* lacks the big Epson badge on the front, they decided to move it to the removable cover.

It’s *not* an LX-800 because that one has one fewer button and a white top instead of a smoked one, but… the thing is, Epson made *so many* different models and variants over the years, there remains a good chance its some rare-ish transitional model they sold for six months in three markets.
 
VERAULT said:
I wonder if anyone is nostalgic for their first inkjet printer?

I'm not.. Let it rot in the dump along with ALL inkjet printers.
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If I had the room, sure, I'd have a mint Epson Stylus Color II. I'm a pack-rat who happens to be extremely nostalgic and have a decent collection. The dot matrix printer I'm looking for is my first priority right now however. It would fit in nice here:
 

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DONT COLLECT INKJETS!!!!!

THERE CAN BE NO NOSTALGIA FOR THOSE EVIL THINGS!

Cheap dotmatrix printers were terrible.. but there was something charming about it going back and fourth line by line and making noise.. Inkjets symbolize the period computers went to cheap junk.
Its equivalent to being nostalgic for a Pentium 4... It was a class of rubbish.
My remark is "buddy you missed the boat..."
 
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I dunno, as a museum piece the original HP ThinkJet would deserve a square foot in a glass case as the first mass-produced inkjet printer. But don't put a cartridge in it unless you're planning to use it up within a week, obviously.
 
To be fair, there were some 24-wire multi-pass NLQ dot-matrix printers out there that could yield very fine quality. I've got a couple. There are the high-end Japanese brands from the likes of Okidata (got to have good resolution to print those 30-stroke Kanji characters. Another reason why the Japanese were early on the scene with hi-res video displays as well). Sanders had many of the patents on the multipass dot-matrix technology--an example is the Sanders Media 12/7.
 
I found two possible clues that I circled. The top circle appears to be an indent so that you can lift the smoked plastic cover without struggling too much. The bottom circle shows what could possibly be a company badge.
 

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Just for laughs, here's a chapter from a 1986 book about how to use an Epson printer with your Atari 800 computer; the reason I'm sticking it here is because it makes it clear how as early as then Epson has already f*rted out a positively amazing variety of hardly different printers with overlapping alphanumeric soup-based model numbers.

The shape is about right for an LX-series Epson, and it looks like Epson also started using membrane control panels like that by the mid-80's on several of their product lines, so lacking any further evidence I'm standing by, I dunno, 70% odds it's an obscure Epson model variant, probably made sometime between 1985 and 1989. (Unfortunately any attempt to find a scanned copy of an Epson catalog from that era turned up nothing.) The remaining 30% is it's a close clone made by an outfit like Star.

Zap! said:
the bottom circle shows what could possibly be a company badge.
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I don't see anything there other than an awkward negative space between the three items in the photo; the computer looks like it's an Atari ST and that circle is around the end of the "lump" that contains the weird function keys sloping up to the top of the wedge.
 
VERAULT said:
DONT COLLECT INKJETS!!!!!
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I have a Canon PJ-1080A, and I'm glad I have it. One of the first colour inkjets available, and the only colour printer option for the Apple Lisa (at least with drivers from Apple). Ink lives in separate cartridges and gets to the heads via plumbing. The tubes are clear: you can see the C, M, Y, and K ink inside.
 
stepleton said:
I have a Canon PJ-1080A, and I'm glad I have it. One of the first colour inkjets available, and the only colour printer option for the Apple Lisa (at least with drivers from Apple). Ink lives in separate cartridges and gets to the heads via plumbing. The tubes are clear: you can see the C, M, Y, and K ink inside.
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Can the imagewriter II not print on the Apple Lisa in color? I wasnt aware of that.
 
I also think this is an Epson printer of some kind. It may have been re-badged but made by Epson.

On the inkjet subject I remember having an Epson and a Canon where I could use special ink and special paper and produce some fabulous color originals that I would then take down to the service bureau and make color copies. It was like having a mini service bureau in my office. It allowed me to bypass the first step of going to the service bureau as I could produce my own original, but only at a maximum of legal size paper.

Yes, cheap inkjets can be frustrating but some good stuff was available that did not require the prices that a service bureau would pay for specialty printers.

Seaken
 
seaken said:
It may have been re-badged but made by Epson.
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This is certainly a thing Epson did. The HP printer that was mentioned earlier is just a rebadged MX, as was The IBM "Graphics" printer. It's definitely not outside the realm of possibility someone sold an LX/RX/EX/LQ chassis with a smoked cover instead of a clear one.

Gotta say, I'm actually kind of baffled by that "AP-80" printer. I've never seen/heard of those before, apparently it was an Epson printer tweaked to emulate the Apple Imagewriter for use with the Apple IIc and early Macintoshes. Why in the world did Epson build it in a special case with the control panel on the opposite side from pretty much every other printer they made?!
 
Does anyone remember the dye sublimation printers of the late nineties I think the one I'm thinking of in particular was Alps. You printed with these Special ribbons and they even had special ribbons which were metallic for metallic effects like gold silver and the printout is better than magazine quality back in 97 or 98 coworker of mine bought one and put on a demo for us
 
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