$52 on eBay

[Phipli]

Here's a picture of the box it came in, if you're interested. I had one at one time.

Did you buy it new? Were you pleased with it?

 

[mst3k]

I found this on a search in archive.org but the download didn't work for me.

Drivers

This page is more helpful

Number Nine Driver Updates - Imagine 128 and Rev IV for PowerMac

This sitemap is useful too

http://www.nine.com/sitemap.html

Thank you. I'll explore the links and grab those drivers to test. I appreciate the info.

Thanks - you confirmed that Hawkeye drivers do work with the Number Nine Imagine 128 II. I wasn't sure.

Here is Hawkeye 5.6.1. I went on a hunt for software yesterday.

I've also attached some older versions, but... Virus check the others because they're not from the official site.

Downloaded all. Thanks Phipli. I'll let you know how they work.
Also, the card has two video outs. One is VGA (that's the one I've been using to a Dell flat panel) and one looks like a DB-15 but I can't get a signal to any of my Apple monitors. I'm not sure if it's for Dual Monitors or 'either or..' or what. Any ideas?

Here's a picture of the box it came in, if you're interested. I had one at one time.

Cool stuff. I'm thinking 'Number Nine' is the best sci-fi name for a video card manufacturer I've ever seen.
The model on the cover looks kind of like the Borg '7 of 9' from Star Trek.

 

[Phipli]

Also, the card has two video outs. One is VGA (that's the one I've been using to a Dell flat panel) and one looks like a DB-15 but I can't get a signal to any of my Apple monitors. I'm not sure if it's for Dual Monitors or 'either or..' or what. Any ideas?

I anticipate it is either/or, not dual monitors. Dual headed cards were very rare until about 2000. First one I know of was a special variant of the ixMicro TwinTurbo (I've not seen one in real life), and it only really came common with the ATI Rage 128 and Radeon era cards (I didn't have similar era nVidia cards so can't say when they started doing it).

This said, you can easily add a second PCI card and run two monitors. Macs were always much happier to let you use two video cards from different manufacturers than Windows PCs were.

 

[Phipli]

Just found two more versions of HawkEye... cough... already on my hard disk.

 

[Powerbase]

Did you buy it new? Were you pleased with it?

Yeah, it was very noticeably faster with 2d than the Rage II in my Powerbase at the time. I do remember using the Hawkeye control panel too.

Plus, like has been mentioned, they did have some weird font cache thingie that sped up text (or something like that). I remember the drivers/control panel being able to do the stand screen-zooming and live dragging windows too, and colored cursors.

 

[Phipli]

and colored cursors

Yeah - we had a Proformance III, which used the same control panel but branded as Formac - I quite liked the coloured cursor thing! You could also make the cursor massive, but that was less useful.

 

[Powerbase]

Yeah - we had a Proformance III, which used the same control panel but branded as Formac - I quite liked the coloured cursor thing! You could also make the cursor massive, but that was less useful.

For those high resolutions it might be. I won't lie, though. As I've gotten older I sometimes 'lose' where the cursor is

 

[Powerbase]

I anticipate it is either/or, not dual monitors. Dual headed cards were very rare until about 2000. First one I know of was a special variant of the ixMicro TwinTurbo (I've not seen one in real life), and it only really came common with the ATI Rage 128 and Radeon era cards (I didn't have similar era nVidia cards so can't say when they started doing it).

This said, you can easily add a second PCI card and run two monitors. Macs were always much happier to let you use two video cards from different manufacturers than Windows PCs were.

Yeah, cards that could output two different display were still professional I think at the time (usually had two GPUs on them).

I actually saw the dual display ixMicro card on eBay once. I remember the vram packaging was different than the usual Twin Turbos.

 

[Phipli]

For those high resolutions it might be. I won't lie, though. As I've gotten older I sometimes 'lose' where the cursor is

Perhaps someone should make a flashing cursor! There used to be a program that made on screen visuals to show where the cursor was when you pressed a certain key... I forget what it was called. One of my dad's customers used it because they kept losing the cursor.

 

[Powerbase]

I just wiggle around the mouse. My eyes do catch that moving insect. Like a cat. I think you can set up macOS to 'shake' the cursor, about the same thing but I don't have to set an option that says I'm older.

 

[Phipli]

@Powerbase

My cat helps me find the mouse on my screen

 

[mst3k]

lol!

Number Nine:



Pro Graphics:



cursor thingy



Panels are nearly identical

 

[Powerbase]

You should do some benchmarks between the different drivers, Hawkeye versus Formac. I wonder if the Formac ones are more refined.

 

[Phipli]

You should do some benchmarks between the different drivers, Hawkeye versus Formac. I wonder if the Formac ones are more refined.

There isn't any reason to - performance will be identical. They are the same software rebranded.

I was looking in resedit and there is a hidden dialogue box for selecting a set of image files to rebrand the copy you're running.

 

[Powerbase]

There isn't any reason to - performance will be identical. They are the same software rebranded.

I was looking in resedit and there is a hidden dialogue box for selecting a set of image files to rebrand the copy you're running.

That's... strangely disappointing.

 

[Phipli]

That's... strangely disappointing.

Oh, only thing is, perhaps you could experiment with comparing the very newest Formac version, because they go further on than the Number Nine versions (Number Nine got bought out). But I suspect most of the code changes in later versions are for supporting newer cards that aren't the same as this one. Not sure though, perhaps there is a difference. Newest version I have is attached, along with another couple of versions that are slightly more likely to work.

Edit - Added one more I'd overlooked.

 

[mst3k]

Thanks again for the help, and the files.
I've tried most of them and am going with the GA 5.9.6.
I don't see any improved performance but there is a teensy bit more functionality in the control panel.

 

[Phipli]

Thanks again for the help, and the files.
I've tried most of them and am going with the GA 5.9.6.
I don't see any improved performance but there is a teensy bit more functionality in the control panel.

View attachment 71695

What does it add?

 

[mst3k]

What does it add?

Glad you asked! I posted the wrong pic.
I'm using the Hawk panel.
It has a different layout than the others and references the Imagine 128, not just Number Nine.
Most importantly, it is the only one that has a working Zoom feature.
Every other panel I tried, crashed the computer when I selected Zoom.

 

[Phipli]

Glad you asked! I posted the wrong pic.
I'm using the Hawk panel.
It has a different layout than the others and references the Imagine 128, not just Number Nine.
Most importantly, it is the only one that has a working Zoom feature.
Every other panel I tried, crashed the computer when I selected Zoom.

View attachment 71705View attachment 71706View attachment 71707

I meant to say, I might have some firmware updates for your card. That might help with zoom on the other drivers. I can see you have firmware version 1.1.0 in the photos, I'll have a look to see what I have on file.

That driver you're using is the oldest one I have, that is 4.5.0.