Re: So, what do you think? real IIgs or emulated IIgs?

[Blake Patterson <blake@blakespot.com>]

Supertimer wrote:
> 
> Blake Patterson <blake@blakespot.com> wrote:
> 
> >...Well, I don't really get this when using VirtualPC on the Mac, but
> >that's probably becuase I so dislike using a Windows PC that doing it on
> >my Mac _is_ a bonus.
> 
> Or because VirtualPC will forever be a more "tuned" emulator
> than any IIGS emulator.  I mean, it is a commercial product
> and has been tweaked so performance hit is about the same
> as running 68k Mac software on your G4.  VirtualPC on your
> G4 is quite a bit faster than a 233Mhz Pentium unit, which is
> what many people are still using.
> 
> Another thing is that there is PC software that you just can't
> find for the Mac, so using VirtualPC has a purpose.  For
> example, if you are a flight simulator person, you have many
> many more choices in the PC software isle.  VirtualPC lets
> you run them all.  There are also more games for the PC.
> 

	Thoguht VPC is quite a performer, it's not quite so swift that you'd
likely have a meaningful experience in front of a flight simulator on
the thing.  Not with today's processors, I believe.  I have a G3 400,
which wihout AltiVec tuning is pretty similar in speed to an equally
clocked G4 - and I've not had one game that I really considered playable
run on that emulator.  (And I've got 192MB RAM and an UltraWide SCSI
drive, so those bottlenecks aren't an issue here.)  BUT -- when I need
to fire up Useless Tool...err...Lotus Notes to do some LotusScript
development I didn't finish at the office, it's quite useful and really
necessary, and swift enough for that task to be sure.  (Having a 2nd 17"
screen to have VPC running on while MacOS is on the main screen makes it
particularly nice, I must say :-)


> But opening a IIGS emulator for anything more than novelty?
> I think not.  There is nothing to be accomplished.
> 
> On a real IIGS, it is the feel of the classic, much like driving
> a well kept classic car, that keeps us going.  Real hardware
> can be accessorized, just like cars can.  Customized.  This
> reality component is missing in emulators.
> 

	Well put.  I am glad to see that feeling put to words by another users.
 There is no one, really, with whom I've discussed my recent fixation
with maxing out a GS to who ta all understands.  I mean--there are old
"GS friends" from back in the day, and they think that it's a nice,
nostalgic thing to see the GS, etc. but when I told of the Focus drive
order, memory card order, 2 other GS' for spare parts order -- they get
a funny look in their eyes...


> The future of the Apple II?  For the near future, it is in the
> hardware.  The hardware is classic.  When all the hardware
> dies, there IS no future.  The end.  Emulators are ghosts.
> Shadows of the real thing.
> 
> But the near future can be a long time.  I sometimes see
> 1950s era cars speed down the highway.  Shining, lovingly
> kept.  These cars are also "dead" with no future, but
> individual units are kept alive.  I think that will be the future
> of the Apple II.  And no, they are not kept in closets or
> garages.  Like these cars get driven for the pleasure of
> driving them, an Apple II will get powered up for the fun
> of it.


	I feel like we'll be able to come up with parts for quite a while.  The
most critical parts would be floppy drives and GS monitors -- monitors
necessarily fade with time, and a mechanical device must fail (and I
can't fix a drive, I think).  But, I think that in looking hard enough
we'll be alright.  And I must say...looking IS part of the fun here.  I
mean, I've always got a "mission" on the web.  I'm kinda glad it's
likely to take a year to get ahold of an accelerator.  The journey will
only sweeten the reward.


bp
-- 
"Heisenberg may have slept here."