Re: USB input devices-- Second Sight

[Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net>]

Supertimer writes ...
> 
> Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net> wrote:
> 
> >     Agree; but, then, if Sequential were interested in selling
> >software, the first item should have been a patch for GS/OS.
 ....
> >
> >     Sequential's decision was to spring the board on us and expect
> >users to come up with games and other applications which would make
> >'everyone' want to own one.
> 
> I think it had to do with the late date in the life of the IIGS that the
> Second Sight was released.  Problem was, back in 1995, the
> Second Sight was the last BIG thing released for the IIGS.  At
> that point, it still seemed that the IIGS market had some life to it.
 ....
> You had Sequential, who had
> a huge BACKORDER (imagine that) of Second Sight pre-orders
> which, combined with the threat of the TurboRez getting released
> first, resulted in Sequential releasing the card without a QD2 patch
> and waiting for new software to support the card.  It seemed to
> Sequential to be the best move at the time. 
 ....
> Sequential had already delayed the Second Sight once, adding
> memory to the card to support 24-bit as well as 8-bit color (it was
> initially intended to be an 8-bit card).

     1989 was the last year a IIgs owner could bail out with a
reasonable shot of getting enough from the sale of his/her system to
cover the cost of a PC. Quite a few owners saw the handwriting on the
wall and bailed. An 8-bit VGA card as late as Spring of that year would
have been a big help in holding our user base.

     By 1995 we are at least four years past the end of Computer Wars I.
PC had won and the majority of remaining GS owners were also PC users.
Most were not interested in major non-PC investments in hardware.

     An expensive 24-bit card in 1995-- one which, even with a VGA
monitor, could not completely replace the existing display-- was not
much help to II computing. 

 ....
 
> Sadly, it was right after the release of the Second Sight that GS+
> Magazine, followed by Softdisk GS, died. Without a major
> support forum, development efforts dried up.

     This seems to be putting the cart before the horse. One of the
reasons Softdisk folded was the lack of material which could hold
subscribers. Take a look at the last couple of years of Softdisk-GS--
way too many fonts, songs, PrintShop files, and ClipArt sheets.


 ....
> 
> The lost of the publications was what really ended the Apple II
> market.

     Not really. It was the decline of the Apple II market which ended
the publications. Yes; to some extent we are talking about a spiral:
smaller market--> fewer/smaller publications--> smaller market--> ... .
However, if you went back to 1983 and wiped every existing Apple II mag
from the scene, you would have seen new Apple II magazines within the
next month. A strong market will always generate related information
resources. 


 ....
> 
> >     This approach used to work fine back in the pre-GS days.
> >Unfortunately for SS, the mass of users had long ago been cut out of
> >'serious' programming. Had the new GS BASIC been available, things may
> 
> I think it would have turned out fine had GS+ Magazine stayed
> viable for a few more years.

     Not likely. II Alive, even up through 1996, was much larger than
any of the mags you've mentioned and its presence did not turn SS into a
success.


> 
> >video board which did not seem to do much more than let
> >you hook up a VGA monitor.
> 
> This I disagree.  The Second Sight's SVGA modes are real as any
> Second Sight user who has .bmp, etc., true-color pictures linked
> (or registered in WindowSpeak) to ThirdView knows.  Double
> clicking on a true-color pic and seeing the image as it was meant
> to be seen on an SVGA monitor is pretty amazing and games like
> Second Sight aware Cogito vividly demonstrates the card's potential.
> Potential that remains largely untapped.  If Facelift succeeds, this
> will change instantly.

     The comment to which you responded relates to perceptions of the
board by potential buyers in 1995 or so. At that time, with no QD2
patches and no display of hires from old games and no decent GS BASIC
and no SS wares, the perception was essentially accurate. And, if you
move to 1999 and look back, you've got to figure that the payoff for
buying SS in 1995 has been very meager-- like, basically, you got to
connect a VGA monitor.

     Facelift should be a great help in getting SS back on track. And,
with the new GS BASIC modified as necessary to support the new modes,
many more users will have a way to create programs which take advantage
of SS features.

     Actually, there are quite a few factors favoring SS today which
were not present in 1995. To those already mentioned you can add ...

o- 4MB is the accepted standard size for Expansion Memory

o- hard disks, _finally_, are cheap and considered to be a standard
feature

o- many GS's have an accelerator board installed

o- dirt cheap 8-bit II's, A2 emulators, and on-line archives of popular
8-bit products mean that IIgs users need not insist that old hires and
double-hires wares be runnable on their GS's  


     In short, there are many more GS's with the size and speed needed
to utilize VGA-class graphics; and, the old-II display support
requirement no longer exists.

     Assuming Facelift arrives, this leaves SS's sale price as the major
barrier to getting the product off the ground and into thousands of
IIgs's.



Rubywand