Re: Apple II GS Question

[spec@vax2.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector)]

In article shack@deimos.frii.com (Randy Shackelford) writes...

>Edhel Iaur, Esq. <LOSETHECAPITALWORDSedhel@bigfoot.com> wrote:
>>Yes, but a IIgs differs in that instead of being good right out of the
>>box, you'll need more stuff to "bring it up to the standards of OK",
>>like a hard drive, and 2-4MB of RAM (everyone here seems to have an
>>accelerator, too).  You'll also "need" to get System 6, which is often
>>free.
> 
>Not everyone. I never saw any need for an accelerator so never got one. Got
>all the other stuff though, I'd consider memory and hard disk must haves.

    You certainly don't require an accelerator. There exists only _one_ 
program which refuses to run if an accelerator is not detected, and just 
a handful of recent games that are ridiculously slow without one, though 
can still be run (i.e. LemminGS, Wolfenstein 3D, Out of This World). I 
wouldn't be so quick to brush it off though, I personally find the IIgs 
almost to the point where it is unusable at it's stock 2.6 MHz speed, 
especially when dealing with anything in a GUI. 

    When I added an 8 MHz/16K cache ZipGS to my system, it suddenly became 
bearable. A few years later, when I replaced that Zip with a 15 MHz/64K 
cache board, the system became pleasure to use, to the point it even felt
_fast_ (somewhat of a rariety with the IIgs ;-). Not only do windows fly, 
menus and dialog boxes open in a flash, but even the performance of my 
hardrive is _greatly_ affected. I literally feel as if everything is going 
in slow-motion when I disable my Zip. If my accelerator died and I was
forced to run at stock speeds, I doubt I would still be using the machine
for anything serious or possibly at all (perhaps I've been spoiled by the 
speed though :) OTOH, I certainly agree that a hardrive and extra memory are 
absolutely musts, probably more so than an accelerator (despite my strong 
opinions on the preference to have acceleration).

Mitchell Spector
spec@vax2.concordia.ca