100,000 units sold, software royalty of $7.50 a unit -- I make that a little over $2M in today's money. Not bad for what seems to have been about two months work.
I stumbled across the article about the ThunderScan in about 2012 when looking for info about ImageWriter II upgrades, and have been slightly obsessed ever since. It's such a brilliant idea - a higher resolution scanner, that was far lower in cost than its competitors, achieved by reusing the paper transport that most customers already had.
I'm lucky enough to own two working ThunderScans now (and one third one that I needed the software driver from). They work exactly as advertised, and it's a joy to see them zip across the page, digitising line by line.
The software by Hertzfeld is another joy to use. The scrolling, which Hertzfeld calls "inertial scrolling" in that article, is now familiar to us all who have used touchscreen devices. It's funny to think that the feature that wowed so many at the 2007 iPhone launch actually existed all the way back in 1984, designed by one of the key creators of the Macintosh.
I wish there were more creative hacks like this - I just know that if a company tried to do something similar today, the printer manufacturer would instantly roll out an update to break this functionality.
People today (or maybe just businesses) seem thoroughly uninterested in interoperability or upgradability.
It's a fantastic ideal for nerds who like to repair and upgrade and Frankenstein tech bits into new shapes, but I'm not sure I've ever met a normal person who was interested in adding a feature to an existing widget instead of buying a new widget.
I'm absolutely certain this is because it's less profitable for businesses to offer upgradable or interoperable parts.
Man, I love stuff like this! The hardware aspect of these things is always the most impressive to me. I make plenty of small software tools, as I’m sure many HN readers do, but designing and building bespoke hardware that interacts with said software is on another level entirely - especially considering they didn’t have 3D printers.
Neat! I remember this thing from when I was a kid. We didn't have an Imagewriter printer so it wasn't an option for me. Having a scanner back in those days would have been amazing.
My school had one, it wasn't perfect and there were occasionally gaps between scanned lines but it let us scan in photographs and newspaper clippings for local history projects.
Another oddity re. the ImageWriter. There was even a color ribbon for the printer as I recall. The early Mac, even though black and white, had some very primitive color attributes buried in the "Mac Toolbox" (ROM) that, while not allowing you to display color on those devices, could in fact send simple color to the ImageWriter with said ribbon.
I feel like MacDraw (or some other lesser-known app — not MacPaint) exposed this functionality.
Wow, this is a clever hack! Turning a printer into a scanner is such a simple yet elegant solution — reminds me how creative people can get with hardware limitations. Makes me wonder what other “hidden” functionalities old devices could have if we just experiment a bit.
IIRC, one of the 8-bit Atari magazines had an article describing a similar setup back in the mid/later 80s. Basically, put a photoresistor in a shroud (I used the cap from a Bic pen and some electrical tape), attach it to the dot matrix print head and wire it to the Atari joystick port's analog/paddle input. Place a bright light over the printer. Then the software told the printer to move the print head back and forth while it read the port value. The image quality was terrible but it was a fun project.
Loved the Thunderscan back in the day. In college I worked at a little computer store in Harvard Square that didn’t bother to stock real scanners — students who could afford them had better places to buy gear. One day this nice guy came in looking for a scanner and I did my absolute best to sell him on a Thunderscan based on the price point. “I’m not telling you the quality is as high as a flat bed scanner, but it’s so affordable!”
After he left and after the store owner stopped laughing, she explained that I’d been trying to sell Robin Williams on the basis of price. I like to think he enjoyed being treated like a guy off the street.
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[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 35.0 ms ] threadI'm lucky enough to own two working ThunderScans now (and one third one that I needed the software driver from). They work exactly as advertised, and it's a joy to see them zip across the page, digitising line by line.
The software by Hertzfeld is another joy to use. The scrolling, which Hertzfeld calls "inertial scrolling" in that article, is now familiar to us all who have used touchscreen devices. It's funny to think that the feature that wowed so many at the 2007 iPhone launch actually existed all the way back in 1984, designed by one of the key creators of the Macintosh.
I wish there were more creative hacks like this - I just know that if a company tried to do something similar today, the printer manufacturer would instantly roll out an update to break this functionality.
It's a fantastic ideal for nerds who like to repair and upgrade and Frankenstein tech bits into new shapes, but I'm not sure I've ever met a normal person who was interested in adding a feature to an existing widget instead of buying a new widget.
I'm absolutely certain this is because it's less profitable for businesses to offer upgradable or interoperable parts.
Early on I used it to make a picture of Madonna with a fish stuck through her head.
There is a nice reverse engineering of the Thunderscan here: https://beefchicken.com/retro/thunderscan/
Was that a feature of the software? Or did the person scanning add it to brag about their rig, I wonder.
I feel like MacDraw (or some other lesser-known app — not MacPaint) exposed this functionality.
While the Canon may be the first color-capable unit, it's interesting to see it wasn't the first ever!
After he left and after the store owner stopped laughing, she explained that I’d been trying to sell Robin Williams on the basis of price. I like to think he enjoyed being treated like a guy off the street.