Old Aquablue G3 iMac as a monitor?

Folks, I'm as dumb as a box of rocks, never more so than when it comes to computers. That established, I recently bought a Mac mini and hoped to use my old G3 iMac as a monitor. The 'poser' at Compuserve sent me home with all manner of expensive cables and adapters and thought, "in theory", that it could be done. Can it? If so, what do I need?
Thanks in advance,
Rick

Well theoretically this would be possible and it really depends on which iMac we're talking about.
On the iMac tray loader CPU speeds 233-333 the video comes out of the back of the mass store/logic sled. It's the old Mac standard connector and to make this work you'd need to feed the male plug that plugs into that sled. So you'd need a VGA to Mac female adapter. I actually think I have one of those. That would be easy to make work.
Now for the iMac Slot loaders CPU 350 - 700 that would be a much bigger problem. You could probably make it work but it would require extensive disassembly of the iMac. The feed to the video section of the iMac comes off the back of the logic board from underneath and feeds RGB Cable 992-4034 which is normally screwed to the divider panel. So to make that work a special cable would have to be made up. So probably not worth the trouble.
I'd just look for a regular VGA monitor. Around here Apple Studio monitors and the old large CRTs are going for nothing and even first generation LCD monitors are going for very cheap. That would be a great way to go. Otherwise go out and buy a Apple Cinema monitor like the 20" and really go in style.
Richard

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