Re: The State of the Apple

[jamesb@ecst.csuchico.edu (James L. Brookes)]

In article <1993Aug20.144219.27518@apgea.army.mil>, Robert C. Merritt
<rcmerrit> <rcmerrit> wrote:
>I was just crusin' the net and decided to peek in here.
>I own lots of old computers (Atari 800xl, Adam, Aqurious, Sinclare, Ti 99/4a)
>and resently I an offer to sell me a Apple IIGS.
>I always heard that the Apple 2 had worst graphics than the Atari so
>I never even looked at one. However I do remember a niffty Conan game
>one one I played in my school many moons ago (well it was an Apple 2+)
>
>So, what are the specs on the GS?
>From what I understand it had 256k. Could do 320x200x16. had a processor
>of 5mhz and could have hard drives and things. 

The Rom 01 has 256k standard, the Rom 03 1.125mb.  With an expansion card
the GS can address up to 8mb of RAM.  Graphics are 320x200x16 per scan line
with 16 palattes available for up to 256 colors, and a special 320x200x3200
mode where palattes are dynamically swapped (eats lots of CPU, but gives
pretty nice pictures).  There is also a 640x200x16/4 mode available, which is
what most desktop programs are written in.  I say 16/4 because there are four
'true' colors available, but there are four palattes per scan line, so you
can mix palattes for a total of 16 dithered colors.  The stock processor runs
at ~2.5mhz, but accelerator cards are available to boost the speed to 7-14mhz
(highly reccomended -- the 7mhz model ZipGSs are pretty inexpensive).

There are two SCSI cards and one IDE card available which allow you to
put SCSI/IDE drives into the system.  The main filesystem, ProDOS, has
a limit of 32mb per partition but with the addition of the HFS filesystem
(same as used on the Macintosh) translator, you can have partitions of
up to 4gb.

>I'd like to know when it was in production (I think from 85 to 87??)

I believe it was '86 through '92, but I could be a bit off.

>And why it failed (beyond the though that maybe it didn't and just was
>canned to put efforts towards the mac)

Apple lacked direction for a long while; when they decided what direction
they were going in the Apple //gs was expendable.  For a machine designed
in 1985 and with roots back to the late 70s, it's amazing how capable the
machine is today.

>Also how does it compare to say a PCjr (The IBM of that time that had 16 color)

The PCjr isn't even close.  The IIgs is more in the class of the early model
Amiga and Atari ST computers like the 1040st and the 1000/500.

>Anything else anyone would like to add?

That should do for a start :)  I'm sure lots of other people will be happy
to make corrections or fill in the blanks.

>Rob Merritt
>email:rcmerrit@cbda9.apgea.army.mil**Disclaimer: My opinions are mine alone.
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|          James Brookes            | Inet: bb252@cleveland.freenet.edu |
|``What, me worry?'' - A. E. Neuman |   jamesb@cscihp.ecst.csuchico.edu |
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