First post, by Kahenraz
- Rank
- l33t
I no longer have it as this is coming from my memory, but some time back in the 90s my family owned what I remember as being a "massive" flat bed scanner. Our family wasn't wealthy and had no real need for anything specialized and I don't recall it needing anything more than a parallel cable.
One memory sticks in my mind is when I put a very large teddy bear on the bed and scanned it and was so surprised that it could fit (the fur was sticking out of the sides though).
My family had just bought a new computer that was some basic Pentium II machine by Compaq that was bought at a store. We got a scanner around the same time, possibly as a bundle from the same store or bought at the same time of purchase on an impulse for something might need or as a desire to scan documents. This adds support to the idea that we didn't spend a lot of money for an especially large scanner.
I've always wondered if the scanner was in fact as large as I remember or if it only seemed large because I was much smaller.
Most scanners of today that I find in a store all have fairly conservative bed sizes that are identical, regardless of the dimensions of the entire unit. This was to the point of my going into a store and being unable to find any listed dimensions on the box of a much larger scanner to compare with a smaller one. I wasn't allowed to open the box without purchasing it so I bought both, opened them up, found them to be exactly the same, and then returned them.
Was there a greater abundance of large flatbed scanners in the 90s? Possibly as they became an affordable consumer products in a bid by manufacturers to offer a better perceived value in a new market? Or is this just an oversized figment of my younger imagination.
And before anyone asks, no, I don't have the teddy bear anymore to compare.
Upon further thought, it's possible that the computer had a SCSI card with a port in the back. I think this is right.