Marcel Krebs my HP printer from 2004 is still printing/scanning/copying perfectly and trust me : it has printed a huge amount of papers (more than a lot of home printers I think)
Marcel Krebs and I hate Canon printers, they are really bad compared to the others I think. Buy a Brother one instead I have one and it's working perfectly over wifi with every device
Dot Matrix Printers are built to operate in enviornments in which other printers would have already seize their operation. They might not be built with the Homeuser in mind, but logistic companies, and many doctors rely on it still (logistic because of the ability to use those neverending paper boxes....).
Marcel Krebs My Lexmark x544 is still going after 5 years, but the laser printing rolls have lines on them, and I have replacement ones on the way. Cartridges last like 2 years of home use.
You missed the point of how the greeting card printout is laid out. You're supposed to fold the paper in half and then in half again. Then the two images on the page become the front cover and inside of the greeting card.
Yes that was so hilarious to watch Druaga1 grabbing those scissors, like WTF! That damn thing is served you perfectly easy and convenient way. There's no need to do anything more than folding, dude! :D
the select button is necessary in this case because the amount of pixels being fed into the drum are causing sub pixels to separate and fill in the ribbon combobulator, counteracting with the head movement. 35 polarized neutrons later, and thats why you need to press select.
8bitguy or vwestlife maybe.... This linus guy is way to establishment for my taste. And he doesn't even reside close to druaga1 I guess (it was Canada for Linus right?)
my family had one of these. used it into the early 2000s to print checks for bills. once we found out the ribbons were stopping to be produced, and could just run them through the laserwriter IIg instead, we did that. then someone ran a glitter card through the laserwriter. I miss both these printers dearly.
"Dude, it's 2 in the morning, aren't you tired?" Tired? What's tired? "Tired is what happens when you don't go to sleep." Tired sound great! Let's be tired!
My best memory of these printers is the sound it makes when you first turn it on, the head moving to the left and then it adjusts the ribbon. The sound at 1:46. Yours sounds a little different than I remember. 4th grade my school had these apple machines the IIe and IIGS computers. We used the continuous sheet type paper the kind with the holes on the sides. I like how you never had to worry about ink, just having enough paper. Nowadays it's the other way around.
If I'm not mistaken, you can just push the select button as soon as the paper is in the printer, so that the printer just starts printing when you send something to it. Also, the card is made so you can fold it, instead of having to cut it all out. I know because I used to fiddle with a program quite identical to this, back in the days. Much love
Druaga1, There is a device made by Asante called the AsanteTalk, which will bridge LocalTalk/AppleTalk device to standard Cat5e ethernet. So that's one way to get this ImageWriter II networked. Another more difficult convoluted way would be to have a newer model Mac (say the Power Mac 7500, for example) connected to the ImageWriter II via AppleTalk and then connect the 7500 to Ethernet and either have Apple's LocalTalk to Ethernet Bridge 2.0.x software extension loaded in the System Folder or have Mac OS 8 or later installed. The Mac OS will take print traffic from Ethernet and send it to the ImageWriter II automatically. The only thing you'll need left to do is tell any other computer on your network (Mac, Windows or Linux) to send print traffic to the 7500's IP address and make sure those other computers have the ImageWriter II driver installed. So, either way you go, it will work.
The Dotmatrix Printers are still in use, cause most printer manufacturers seized production of new devices years ago, but in many countries due to legal restrictions (a real secound original is only achievable with such a Dotmatrix printer...). And dotmatrix printers are very good in operating at steady workloads or in tough (cold) conditions.
I hope you continue doing videos about this machine, the sound of it reminds me of my childhood, as my elementary school (a technology magnet school) never bothered to upgrade their computers and computer hardware from windows 95 machines and apple image writer 2s until well into 2008 after I moved on to middle school where they upgraded to windows vista machines, and they still have an image writer or two left in service (how they still have ribbon for them I will never know)
Druaga, I think the Select button is for selecting the active printer, if the serial port is an RS485 then there can be multiple devices attached to the same port and to choose which one is the active one you must use the select button, so no need to select each time, just power it on, press select and let it be selected all the time (if I'm not wrong, but I can be :P)
The "Select" button would tell the computer which printer you wanted to use, so back in the olden days of daisy-chaining printers for images and text, you could choose which one you wanted at that particular time. It could also be used to let you service the printer while it was still powered on so that the document you were trying to print wouldn't get lost. The printer ribbons were actually just plastic film with carbon coating, it's pretty easy to fix them if they're losing their color and they're not too overused or if you can't find another ribbon to put in. You *really* shouldn't turn the paper backwards, it's better to form feed the paper out, since that can damage the ribbon and even the print head in some cases. Line feed steps to the next line, while Form feed goes to the next form section. The lightness is because you've got it in draft mode, put it on any other setting and it'll look much darker. But... while I hate to admit it, Billy Mayes is finally done. Died of a heart attack. Anything Okidata is a tank of a printer, and anything Apple made before October 2011 is pretty high quality. A Raspberry Pi won't be able to print to it.
Both that printer and that mac reminds me of when I was little and in Elementary school in the 80s. We used some of these macs as well as Apple IIe computers. All of the macs as well as most of the apple IIs had these Image writer IIs hooked up to them. Ahhh the memories.
Honestly I know that a ton of people have already done the whole dot matrix on modern machine thing, but I would love to see your spin on it. You have an absurdly unique style with computing videos that keep me coming back. You are actually entertaining.
That was awesome. Couldn't afford that printer back in the day. I had an Apple Scribe printer that functioned similarly but used a thermal print head so it was a quasi dot matrix laser printer thing. Hated the sound of dot matrix printers back in the day and yet now it's strangely nostalgic.
if you examine a printout of something printed by this printer with a microscope, you'll notice a little serial number. This is a measure to catch people counterfeiting money with this printer.
The new MacBook Pro doesn't have parallel or serial ports (and the new Mac OS X doesn't even support them anymore), so that's a case where it's completely impossible. Windows and Linux could do it on an IBM-compatible PC, but a modern Mac has no support for Apple's own products from yesteryear.
They still sell continuous paper that you can use with this printer. I just got 2400 pages for my Image Writer II for ~$30. It's 9.5" x 11" which is a little odd. But it works good.
That greeting card... you were supposed to fold it along the breadth and then along the length. The outside would automatically be outside and the inside will fold itself inside. You then just use glue to paste the betweens. You cutting it did drive me up the wall.
There is a COM port even on modern Skylake motherboards. So it's probably possible to print modern Microsoft Word 2016 documents in this... Pixel art? Matrix art?..
That printer with a colour ribbon is able to print in colour. Quick look on Ebay and you can still buy the colour ribbons for them for $23ish (USD) from the US. So theres something else you can do with it Druaga.
Mac Plus 1MB, SCSI Everex external HDD the size of 4 VCR's, two external 3 1/4" FDD's, Original Image Writer, Image Writer II, So many software titles, as this whole package of Mac goodness came about 10 years after the computers release, second hand, by a local Mac enthusiast. I was also about ten at the time of obtaining the system, maybe less...Maybe neither the system nor myself was anymore than 7 or 8 years old... Hard to say, I wasn't old enough to care. Anyway, this was my first home computer. While the schools had Apple II's and LC III's, I had the Mac Plus... Something in between the two, far far far better than the Apple II, yet elusively not as capable as the LC III (or II, or I, which were also in schools peppered around)... First computer I went online with was an LC III with an external modem and some early variant of Netscape Navigator. But yeah, Image Writer II.... Awesome printer... You need the correlated paper with the holes on the edges ... that you need to rip off after.
+Druaga1 17:18 You were supposed to fold it twice here rather than cut it (that's why it printed that way)... but i guess cutting it and stapling it is OK too :)
My Dad claimed that new ribbons for dot matrix printers were ruinously expensive, so even though we *had* a printer we were never actually allowed to use it. Love the dot matrix sound! I'd say it reminds me of being a kids and printing shit pictures, but like i said, Dad never let us actually use it.
"Little Idiots" Ha. That is quite funny. Since this is a technology channel where a (pretty cool dude) toys with hardware. If anything, I don't believe you can classify anyone as an idiot.
SwizzleDude It's actually so embarrassing, they show it off as if it's some big deal that mommy and daddy have turned off their internet connections past bed time
Skylius Yes they are idiots, considering most just post "HEHE I HAVE SCHOOL SOON PUT A SSD INSIDE AN SSD LMAO DUDE WEED" instead of anything actually constructive or good ideas, gives people that thought that they're idiots
Matrix dot printers are the shit. Ribbons are (were) cheap, and making carbon copies is easy. Too bad they are slower than snails and louder than jets.
Canon ink printer from 2015: Broken already.
Apple dot matrix printer from 1986: Still printing.
Marcel Krebs my HP printer from 2004 is still printing/scanning/copying perfectly and trust me : it has printed a huge amount of papers (more than a lot of home printers I think)
Marcel Krebs and I hate Canon printers, they are really bad compared to the others I think. Buy a Brother one instead I have one and it's working perfectly over wifi with every device
Dot Matrix Printers are built to operate in enviornments in which other printers would have already seize their operation. They might not be built with the Homeuser in mind, but logistic companies, and many doctors rely on it still (logistic because of the ability to use those neverending paper boxes....).
Yep, but I am unsure regarding the actual noise emision of a dot-matrix printer...
Marcel Krebs My Lexmark x544 is still going after 5 years, but the laser printing rolls have lines on them, and I have replacement ones on the way. Cartridges last like 2 years of home use.
You missed the point of how the greeting card printout is laid out. You're supposed to fold the paper in half and then in half again. Then the two images on the page become the front cover and inside of the greeting card.
I was just saying that. XD
Oh, hey VWestlife, didn't expect to run into you here. :D
VWestlife OMG, I didn't thought that VWestlife would watch this!!!!!!
BTW, Hey!
(I know I'm late) Didn't expect to see you here! Also, you are very correct, that's what I was thinking in the back of my head.
Yes that was so hilarious to watch Druaga1 grabbing those scissors, like WTF! That damn thing is served you perfectly easy and convenient way. There's no need to do anything more than folding, dude! :D
Did you forget he’s a stoner?
I would have change it from "thank you for not smoking" to "why are you not smoking?"
Man.... That sound when it's Printing BRINGS BACK SO MANY MEMORIES from my childhood! 👍🙋♂️😬🤣
So 😎 cool!
I don't know why I watch this dude
No one does.
indeed
youre high.
sorry for bat english me to
For SSDs and dank kush mostly.
the select button is necessary in this case because the amount of pixels being fed into the drum are causing sub pixels to separate and fill in the ribbon combobulator, counteracting with the head movement. 35 polarized neutrons later, and thats why you need to press select.
my uncle works at apple and told me this.
Jon Mahashintina
"True Story"
put a SSD in that printer :3
Soumya Shaw Genius!
thats what i came here for
I was wondering if he'd attempt it even only for the joke
haha
Soumya Shaw god damn you beat me to it
Druaga, you realise the post card was printed that way so you can just fold it in half and then half again instead of cutting it right? xD
You know it prints out the way it does so you can fold it in half then fold it in half again... You don't have to cut it out and staple it...
SYNTHS!! glad someone else knew how it was done
SYNTHS!! Was just going to say the same
SYNTHS!! I was just about to say the same thing lol
Yeah, I remember doing this stuff exactly with Adobe Illustrator in one of my High School classes.
I remember MS Publisher did this too
would love to see druaga do a collaboration with linus or the8bitguy
cedmanotro me too
that would bee cool
8bitguy or vwestlife maybe....
This linus guy is way to establishment for my taste. And he doesn't even reside close to druaga1 I guess (it was Canada for Linus right?)
Not linus but maybe the 8 bit guy
tmkoeln yup he's in vancouver
Druaga and his fan base are amazing.
fuck you my wheat farm is huge
at least the aren't the cancerous ones
dude same Hahahahaha
DangerousToaster d. Z
my family had one of these. used it into the early 2000s to print checks for bills. once we found out the ribbons were stopping to be produced, and could just run them through the laserwriter IIg instead, we did that. then someone ran a glitter card through the laserwriter. I miss both these printers dearly.
I could watch Druaga peel a grapefruit and I'd be entertained.
The sound of it when it prints stuff is so office-like…reminds me of a typical office workload for some reason xD
"Dude, it's 2 in the morning, aren't you tired?"
Tired? What's tired?
"Tired is what happens when you don't go to sleep."
Tired sound great! Let's be tired!
Günther Tuben k
My best memory of these printers is the sound it makes when you first turn it on, the head moving to the left and then it adjusts the ribbon. The sound at 1:46.
Yours sounds a little different than I remember. 4th grade my school had these apple machines the IIe and IIGS computers. We used the continuous sheet type paper the kind with the holes on the sides.
I like how you never had to worry about ink, just having enough paper. Nowadays it's the other way around.
If I'm not mistaken, you can just push the select button as soon as the paper is in the printer, so that the printer just starts printing when you send something to it.
Also, the card is made so you can fold it, instead of having to cut it all out. I know because I used to fiddle with a program quite identical to this, back in the days.
Much love
17:17, cutting the gift card? Aren't you supposed to fold it? That way is has a frontside, backside and inside without any uneven cuts! ;)
Druaga1, There is a device made by Asante called the AsanteTalk, which will bridge LocalTalk/AppleTalk device to standard Cat5e ethernet. So that's one way to get this ImageWriter II networked. Another more difficult convoluted way would be to have a newer model Mac (say the Power Mac 7500, for example) connected to the ImageWriter II via AppleTalk and then connect the 7500 to Ethernet and either have Apple's LocalTalk to Ethernet Bridge 2.0.x software extension loaded in the System Folder or have Mac OS 8 or later installed. The Mac OS will take print traffic from Ethernet and send it to the ImageWriter II automatically. The only thing you'll need left to do is tell any other computer on your network (Mac, Windows or Linux) to send print traffic to the 7500's IP address and make sure those other computers have the ImageWriter II driver installed. So, either way you go, it will work.
MAKE IT WORK ON A MODERN PC!!!!!!!!!!
Amirul Aiman probably impossible
Amirul Aiman even tho it would be really low quality
The Randomchannel Everything is possible when there's Druaga1!
Amirul Aiman YEAH I FORGOT THIS IS DRUAGA HE CAN DO ANYTHING!
Amirul Aiman that's right
Pretty sure you are suppose to fold the greeting card.
That is what I thought lol its Drauga though it will be ok
best part clean up, garage sale, meeting, merit, no smoking and NO SMOKING EXCUSE ME!!!!! 19:20
The Dotmatrix Printers are still in use, cause most printer manufacturers seized production of new devices years ago, but in many countries due to legal restrictions (a real secound original is only achievable with such a Dotmatrix printer...).
And dotmatrix printers are very good in operating at steady workloads or in tough (cold) conditions.
tmkoeln oreilly auto parts
proofes my point, know from many of our customers (doctors that they still use this kind of printers), and from logistics companies
tmkoeln yup
You can still buy brand new dot matrix printers. They're used in a lot of industrial environments.
iI know that but only by one or 2 companies still produce them (I wrote most)...
I hope you continue doing videos about this machine, the sound of it reminds me of my childhood, as my elementary school (a technology magnet school) never bothered to upgrade their computers and computer hardware from windows 95 machines and apple image writer 2s until well into 2008 after I moved on to middle school where they upgraded to windows vista machines, and they still have an image writer or two left in service (how they still have ribbon for them I will never know)
"This is how you get inside of it. You just take parts of it off and nobody really cares." Story of my life.
What mouse pad did you use in this video?
A raw wood table? :D
Awesome video and it really awesome that this kind of printer is still printing pretty good
wielkus oreilly auto parts still use it for recipts
As someone who works in a print shop this video was oddly satisfying
Hi fellow print industry worker!
Protip: You can fold the page in half vertical, then horizontal to get a card that doesn't need tape/staples. :-P
To revive that ribbon apply a tiny layer of WD-4(2)0 on it. It's most likely just dry, not blank or empty.
"SMOKE THAT 420
INSANELY GREAT KUSH"
-Druaga1
Druaga, I think the Select button is for selecting the active printer, if the serial port is an RS485 then there can be multiple devices attached to the same port and to choose which one is the active one you must use the select button, so no need to select each time, just power it on, press select and let it be selected all the time (if I'm not wrong, but I can be :P)
geniwab It works like the online/offline button. when it’s lit up it’s online, when it’s not lit up it’s offline.
Line printers go offline when out of paper
The "Select" button would tell the computer which printer you wanted to use, so back in the olden days of daisy-chaining printers for images and text, you could choose which one you wanted at that particular time. It could also be used to let you service the printer while it was still powered on so that the document you were trying to print wouldn't get lost.
The printer ribbons were actually just plastic film with carbon coating, it's pretty easy to fix them if they're losing their color and they're not too overused or if you can't find another ribbon to put in.
You *really* shouldn't turn the paper backwards, it's better to form feed the paper out, since that can damage the ribbon and even the print head in some cases.
Line feed steps to the next line, while Form feed goes to the next form section.
The lightness is because you've got it in draft mode, put it on any other setting and it'll look much darker.
But... while I hate to admit it, Billy Mayes is finally done. Died of a heart attack.
Anything Okidata is a tank of a printer, and anything Apple made before October 2011 is pretty high quality.
A Raspberry Pi won't be able to print to it.
Both that printer and that mac reminds me of when I was little and in Elementary school in the 80s. We used some of these macs as well as Apple IIe computers. All of the macs as well as most of the apple IIs had these Image writer IIs hooked up to them. Ahhh the memories.
hell yeah my weekly dose of druaga1
I decided to check this channel and opened this video at 4:20 PM, and he types in 420 at the beginning of the video. Impeccable timing.
Druaga1 how dare you. I'm trying to have a shitty day and be miserable and you're making it better
Kyle Nokes one does not simply be miserable when druaga is around
That printer takes me back. My elementary school used those well into the late 90s.
Love that dot matrix printer sound.
I wonder if the ImageWriter II manual was printed with the ImageWriter II...
Honestly I know that a ton of people have already done the whole dot matrix on modern machine thing, but I would love to see your spin on it. You have an absurdly unique style with computing videos that keep me coming back. You are actually entertaining.
The greeting card was printed so you could fold it without cutting!!!
That was awesome. Couldn't afford that printer back in the day. I had an Apple Scribe printer that functioned similarly but used a thermal print head so it was a quasi dot matrix laser printer thing. Hated the sound of dot matrix printers back in the day and yet now it's strangely nostalgic.
i remember these things from elementary school. our computer lab only had apple computers. and one pretty old ibm.
The PC dot matrix equivalent of the Select button is the Online or Ready button. Its had a few names over the years. :-)
Classic Imagewriter sound at 1:45! :-D
Eh, I'd rather watch Druaga1 than eating. It can wait. EVERYTHING CAN WAIT.
if you examine a printout of something printed by this printer with a microscope, you'll notice a little serial number. This is a measure to catch people counterfeiting money with this printer.
Jon Mahashintina the real question is then : has someone already been fooled by fake money printed from this Apple black and white ribbon printer ? 🤔
I got school but I don't give a damn. I just want to watch Druaga
lol i said the same god damn thing!
Same!
Fun fact, we still sell those ribbon cartridges and pin-fed paper at OfficeMax.
Try this printer with the new MacBook pro.
exactly
good reason to do it
The new MacBook Pro doesn't have parallel or serial ports (and the new Mac OS X doesn't even support them anymore), so that's a case where it's completely impossible.
Windows and Linux could do it on an IBM-compatible PC, but a modern Mac has no support for Apple's own products from yesteryear.
I wonder how many adaptors it would take to go from USB C to old style apple serial.
***** More than is supported.
Mac OS X doesn't even support old printers like this anymore, even if you can find some way to connect them.
Apple ImageWriter II on Windows 10
... on a SSD
They still sell continuous paper that you can use with this printer. I just got 2400 pages for my Image Writer II for ~$30. It's 9.5" x 11" which is a little odd. But it works good.
I'd watch you eat a pack of biscuits
Mr. Liam did you watch him cooking a pack of taquitos. Or however you spell them.
i could listen to dot matrix printers all day man! Dat sound is timeless!
That greeting card... you were supposed to fold it along the breadth and then along the length. The outside would automatically be outside and the inside will fold itself inside. You then just use glue to paste the betweens. You cutting it did drive me up the wall.
There is a COM port even on modern Skylake motherboards. So it's probably possible to print modern Microsoft Word 2016 documents in this... Pixel art? Matrix art?..
If someone wants to break in your house to steal all of your computer things, he will probably faint because of the weed fumes
Can't wait for the SSD install episode
Really want to congratulate you on the success of your youtube channel! Keep doing what you're doing, love ya!
That printer with a colour ribbon is able to print in colour. Quick look on Ebay and you can still buy the colour ribbons for them for $23ish (USD) from the US. So theres something else you can do with it Druaga.
A druaga1 video where everything works? The weed gods must be happy.
Mac Plus 1MB, SCSI Everex external HDD the size of 4 VCR's, two external 3 1/4" FDD's, Original Image Writer, Image Writer II, So many software titles, as this whole package of Mac goodness came about 10 years after the computers release, second hand, by a local Mac enthusiast. I was also about ten at the time of obtaining the system, maybe less...Maybe neither the system nor myself was anymore than 7 or 8 years old... Hard to say, I wasn't old enough to care. Anyway, this was my first home computer. While the schools had Apple II's and LC III's, I had the Mac Plus... Something in between the two, far far far better than the Apple II, yet elusively not as capable as the LC III (or II, or I, which were also in schools peppered around)... First computer I went online with was an LC III with an external modem and some early variant of Netscape Navigator. But yeah, Image Writer II.... Awesome printer... You need the correlated paper with the holes on the edges ... that you need to rip off after.
+Druaga1 17:18 You were supposed to fold it twice here rather than cut it (that's why it printed that way)... but i guess cutting it and stapling it is OK too :)
Right when I need my dose of druaga here we are!
imagine how long it would take to print a banner over multiple pages, and the noise, ah good old dot matrix
4:20 is my favourite moment in this whole video.
I've got boxes and boxes of that old perforated paper, but no dot-matrix printer to use it.
Today I learned how to print with an Apple ImageWriter II on Mac and (quite possibly) PC.
If only Apple could have kept being this innovative. It's a shame.....
idk if you have figured out, but you could just fold the paper twice to make the greeting card...
My Dad claimed that new ribbons for dot matrix printers were ruinously expensive, so even though we *had* a printer we were never actually allowed to use it. Love the dot matrix sound! I'd say it reminds me of being a kids and printing shit pictures, but like i said, Dad never let us actually use it.
Literally every video you post is full of kids saying they have school soon lmao
that is what the dude weed lmao shtick gets you
that is so true and the little kids were why the discord got trashed when he sent an invite out
"Little Idiots" Ha. That is quite funny. Since this is a technology channel where a (pretty cool dude) toys with hardware. If anything, I don't believe you can classify anyone as an idiot.
SwizzleDude It's actually so embarrassing, they show it off as if it's some big deal that mommy and daddy have turned off their internet connections past bed time
Skylius Yes they are idiots, considering most just post "HEHE I HAVE SCHOOL SOON PUT A SSD INSIDE AN SSD LMAO DUDE WEED" instead of anything actually constructive or good ideas, gives people that thought that they're idiots
Good one. Made me LOL. I have one of these printers hooked up to an Apple IIe. love the sound it makes.
Surprised you didn't do anything with the StyleWriter 3. Have one sitting around, the noises bring back instant nostalgia
Printer "waaa eee waaa eee waaa eee waaa eee e e.. waaa eee waaa eee waaa eee"
just imagine the sound in your head makes it more funnier
still faster then modern printers
Please continue to mess with antiquated peripherals! I bet everyone started yelling at their computers when you cut out the greeting card. :) Awesome.
17:30 you're cutting it all up but it looks like it already printed it for you in a way that you can just told the paper in two twice!
The printer disables Select when an Error occurs. I think Epsons do the same thing.
I actually had one of these and a mac plus and I threw them both away last year! D:
that fancy mechanical keyboard sounds so nice!
You can still purchase dot matrix printer paper from Staples
Anybody else realize you can fold that greeting card a couple times to get it to orient properly? That's why it printed like that.
lol! pretty sure that was printed in a format where you fold the paper into a card
Why did you cut the paper? It prints like that so you can fold it twice to make the card :S
I want to see the printer works with weed cartridge
lol
what music is that at 4:20
WINDOWSG GAMING Smoke weed every day
Masterzz 57 thx
Snoop Dogg Ft Nate Dogg and Dr. Dre - The Next Episode
wow im really not funny, figured it out its darude sandstorm btw
I hear if you print out a picture of a printer on this, it catches fire.
What's that floppy emulator for the mac that you use?
Yea same, these videos are just, beyond me... idk why I watch him but it's entertaining for some reason
Happy Weedsmas Druga!
Druaga, it's 4:20 in the god damn morning. I am a true fan.
because who needs sleep
Anybody notice the pause sign at 1:09?
oh
GTAMasterPlayer haha, I thought it was a pause sign too (it technically is).
I think "select" is effectively "online." And probably not having paper in it is what takes it offline.
All those other videos you mentioned sound fun. Hope you do them.
Fuck me I used one for 4 years. Had the box of paper that sat on the floor behind it.
Please do another video on this but with the DOS Machine as well, but also with the monochrome ink and maybe some color ink in the future! ;)
Matrix dot printers are the shit. Ribbons are (were) cheap, and making carbon copies is easy. Too bad they are slower than snails and louder than jets.