Re: New Apple IIgs hardware? Maybe.

[sbehrens@bigfoot.com (Sönke Behrens)]

spec@vax2.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector) wrote:

>In article df@mech.mb.uni-dortmund.de (Dirk Froehling) writes...
>
>>In article <34aa6b56.2034623@netnews.msn.com>, sbehrens@bigfoot.com
>>(=?ISO-8859-1?Q?S=F6nke_Behrens?=) wrote:
>> 
>>>I have received a "teaser" e-mail about some new hardware that's to be
>>>released for the Apple IIgs. I got a picture (which tells me very
>> 
>>I think it looks like the chips just lie on the card. They don't seem to
>>be connected to each other or to the conductors. I guess this is a joke.

You've got a point there, Dirk. OTOH, it might just be a "visual" to
show the possible alignment of ICs on a yet-to-be-built card. I guess
we'll know soon enough whether it was a hoax. I sure hope it's not :)

>    That would be my guess, considering there is no Apple II market 
>to support just the development costs alone a of new hardware card.

Aha! Au contraire, mon capitan! <Conjures up a mexican band and gives
everyone cigars>

There have been new developments recently, the last one I know of was
the MicroIDE card by //SHH Systeme. Of course, if you calculate
development costs on a commercial scale, then development won't be
feasible. However, consider that we have the "Apple IIgs community",
i.e. people do things for the sheer fun and thrill of it. Otherwise,
we wouldn't have seen Spectrum 2.1 nor SIS nor Marinetti neither, for
that matter.

I know that there are few people left that can do hardware; therefore
there will be less new hardware than software. Contrary to what
everyone seems to believe, though, hardware is not magic: If you know
your stuff, it is no harder (or easier either) than writing software.

You may object that I am naive, carried-away by what will turn out to
be a pipe dream. To which I say: So what. Being negative is easy and
doesn't gain me anything. If I had that attitude, I'd have sold or
junked my GS long ago and not bothered with it anymore.

Do you think ORCA/C is commercially feasible? Or GNO/ME? Of course
not. Yet they continue to be developed and are strong, growing
products: By the joint effort of this our community and a sense of,
well, love for the machine, I guess. Though that sounds a lot like
some of us need a life bad :)

> However, even in the event any of these were to appear, it is unlikely I 
> would invest in them unless very affordable (under $50).

Well, I can just hope that there are still people out there willing to
invest in new goodies for the IIgs. Can't blame you, but it's a shame.
I don't regret shelling out $200+ for the Second Sight: It is flawed,
yes, but the SVGA monitor truly breathes new life into the machine.

Sönke
-- 
ORCA/C buglist and other stuff at: http://www.arrowweb.com/sbehrens/