Oh, in that case, ghostscript is a software PS RIP. Fair enough. I've done what you suggested. (GS can output things other than printer language files. For example, I use it to generate PDF from PS all the time. It can also just rasterize the whole thing.)

It's a good thing that Alps's software products are no longer available. I've seldom seen worse driver software. They couldn't just use the built-in Windows software, they had to pop up this probably 400x400 window that graphically showed you the progress of the print by simulating the paper going through the printer, which was even funnier, considering that it's a multipass printer, and it only ever showed single passes. Lousy. The fact that Microsoft included a driver for my printer with Windows 2000 was one of the major reasons I upgraded -- in order to get away from that thing.