Re: New IIgs owner.

[supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer)]

"Donald C. Lee" <coach41@pacbell.net> wrote:

>Hi!
>
>   My co-worker and I discussed this once:  An X-Box, PS2, Game Cube,
>etc, etc.....is economically a better choice.  If you have the latest and
>greatest PC, that is good.  If you're like me and running older systems at
>home, the latest games for the PC are not usable.
>
>   So you need a new PC and I'm sure if it's worth it to keep pumping
>money to get new PC hardware JUST for games.  I stick with my older PC's
>because they function and do what I need them to do.  Even for games,
>albeit older games.

This is not necessarily true.  PCs are dynamic.  If you choose to upgrade
your PC by replacing hardware in a timely manner, it will never become
obsolete.  On my box, I originally had an old 4MB video card.  Then when
the 3D revolution started, I upgraded to a Voodoo3 video card and in an
instant, my PC blew away any of the game consoles out there.  Even
after some two years had passed, a game like Deus Ex that came out
year 2000 still ran better on my Voodoo3 than on the console version.  In
2001, games were again pushing the envelope so I added a Kyro2
graphics card to keep pace.  I have also been upgrading processor and
memory to match video.

My next big leap in upgrading would probably be a motherboard level
swap to Athlon XP performance and DDR memory.

As Apple II owners, we know the value of upgrading.  Even after Apple
abandoned the IIGS, I was basically able to match anything Apple
threw out in the way of Macs for nearly a decade by upgrading.  In the
end, Apple's lock on the motherboard finally ended that ride.  But in
the PC world, even the motherboard can be upgraded.

So no, you definitely do NOT have to buy a new computer every year.
Would your computer be new in a couple of years anyway because
all the parts have been changed?  Probably.  But at each particular
point, you are not spending a lot of money to keep up.  For sure, my
upgrades cost less than buying the latest game consoles.