a2aviator@gmail.com wrote:
There's been a 'Gumby' "prototype" IIgs on eBay that I've been watching .. A perfect example of bunk.
I'll cautiously agree with you. Some of you may be aware that I used to work under contract for Applied Engineering in the mid-to-late 80s. During a visit to their plant in August, 1986, I got a sneak preview of their pre-production IIgs machine in the lab. I clearly recall Steven Malechek (chief engineer) pointing that daughterboard out and referring to it as the "airplane". Unless senility has truly set in, I remember a "T" shape that came towards the front of the case from the ROM socket and spread in _both_ directions. Two of the EPROMS were on each side of the center line. It did not look like the unit on eBay. The eBay unit is an "L" and no one would call that shape an "airplane".
I will not go so far as to accuse the eBay system of being a forgery, but there is something very fishy about it. The system at AE was installed in a IIe case and ran from a IIe power supply, but it's possible that other pre-production units were in the final IIgs case.
The lack of the IIe power connector is rather damning on the eBay system, I'll admit. All IIgs ROM 1 motherboards that I've ever seen had the older connector mounted.
Steve