Re: Why emulate?

[supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer)]

stuart <s.d.birchall@surveying.salford.ac.uk> wrote:

>Supertimer wrote:
>
>> I submit that a repackaged Apple IIGS with 4MB of memory, a faster
>> CPU (like ZipGS...ideal, but NOT necessary) and pacakaged with
>> AppleWorks GS plus Spectrum and SIS and an offer for a shell account
>> at crl.com being sold for $150 would have a market.
>>
>> The reason is simple...the market IS there.  The Brother GeoBook is
>> an IBM XT class computer that has been repackaged and sold with
>> GeoWorks and "BrotherWorks"...a GeoWorks based word processor,
>> spreadsheet, and database plus a lynx like web browser and subscription
>> to a shell account and is targeted squarely at the market the C64 left
>> behind.  The GeoBook runs slower than an unaccelerated IIGS.
>>
>> TYPEWRITERS are being sold to the former C64 market.
>>
>> The IIGS is much more functional than a typewriter or a GeoBook.
>>
>> Sell it at $150 and they will come.
>
>  A number of companies have tried this approach. Here in the UK, Amstrad
>re-released their PCW series as a basic spreadhseet/WP and printer
combination.
>If you re-packaged and beefed up the apple II, it could sell, although
something
>would have to be done on the user unterface front: More capable machines such
as
>the Atari ST and Amiga have the advantage of a GUI interface and 16 bit
>processors for what would be a marginally higher manufacturing cost - and
that's
>the snag; because of the massive economies of scale in the far east, the grey
PC
>market could easily match the manufacturing costs of Apple II machines,
supplying
>ore powerful equipment at a comparable cost.

Err...say what?  The Apple IIGS has a 16 bit processor and a GUI
that's superior to Workbench etc. on the Amiga.  The IIGS has
the equivalent of a 32 channel Ensoniq ESQ-1 or Mirage synthesizer
built in.  The IIGS in 1986 had superior sound to either the Atari
ST or the Amiga 1000.  The IIGS has a CPU with 24 bit addressing
and a 16MB memory space.  The IIGS GUI is derived from MacOS
and is much more functional to the Amigas.  An Apple IIGS with a
Zip processor runs faster than an Amiga 1000 (for comparison's
sake, a beefed up Zip processor pulls something similar to an A1200
in benchmarks).  The Apple IIGS has a 12-bit palette, graphics
similar to the pre-AGA Amigas....the Amiga has a blitter and
awesome animation capabilities that surpass the IIGS, but the IIGS
had much better sound.  The Apple IIGS always came with a mouse!
The Apple IIGS is much more powerful than that GeoBook that
they are selling.

You must be mistaking the Apple IIGS for earlier Apple II models.