Re: What GSE-Reactive Really Needs to Make

["Michael J. Mahon" <mjmahon@aol.com>]

omashiroi@yahoo.com wrote:
> I think the lack of new add-ons is part of the reason the A2 enthusist
> market has died. Look at this newsgroup, it has basically been the same
> people for 5 or 6 years. VGA and ability to use modern keyboards are a
> must.

Nonsense.  The situation you describe is a simple result of the
passage of time.  Very few young people see a compelling reason
to devote time and money to a thirty year old platform, as one
could reasonably expect.

The keyboards and displays designed to work with the Apple II
were, and are, excellently suited to that purpose, and there is
no shortage of either.

I can just see it now..."Hey dude, now that I can plug in my USB
keyboard, I've just got to get one of those Apple II's and spend
my nights and weekends with it!"  Not.

New products of interest to the enthusiast community are always
welcome and generally supported by the community.  They are seldom
the reason that someone *joins* the community.  (Though the CFFA
and CiderPress certainly make life easier for Apple II's to live
in the modern world.  ;-)

If you really want to increase the size and vigor of the Apple II
community, generate publicity for it.  "Market" it to the younger
generations as cool, interesting, inexpensive, and fun!  (Which it
already is, without any new development.)

> Also the Second Sight would not be a dead end, it outputs regular
> GS video to VGA as well as it special modes and is already proven.

On the contrary, the Second Sight card is not compatible with all
existing IIgs graphics modes, and its new "VGA" modes are essentially
unsupported.  It was a commercial failure, and it remains so.  It is
primarily seen today as a collector's item.

A much simpler, better, adapter to translate IIgs video so that a
VGA display can be used would be much more useful and appropriate.

> Why is it that the C64 still has a huge following and the A2 does not?
> You can basically buy a brand new C64 with the joystick thing and hook
> up your original disk drives and keyboards too it. Why don't we have
> anything like that?

Because there were ten times as many of them sold?  Because they were
(and are) a great game platform?  Because they are cheaper to make than
a machine that has eight plug-in slots?

The C=64 "joystick" model requires some serious (soldering) hacking
to attach a keyboard and disk(s).  It was intended to sell for $30,
but was bombed out at $10-$15 when it failed miserably in the market
as a nostalgic game machine.

For $10-$15, you can buy a real Apple II, with all connectors and
expansion intact--and there is no shortage of them!  (And I'd be
willing to bet that it will be running long after the "epoxy blobbed"
chip on the C=64 joystick machine is dead.)

Don't confuse Geri's good technical work with market success, or
with changing the C=64 (or any other) world.  ;-(

-michael

Music synthesis for 8-bit Apple II's!
Home page:  http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/

"The wastebasket is our most important design
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