Re: A Challenge to all takers...

[email@DELETE_THIS.luddite.no-ip.com (Simon Williams)]

Ranando King <rk@magictouchcorp.com> wrote:

> Talking with Michael Mahon in the 65020 thread has dredged up what is for me
> some serious dislikes about the way systems are made these days. Now I've
> got a question and a challenge for all of you. Why can't we do it again? Why
> can't we bring back everything we love about our Apple II's in a new machine
> with enough power to compete with modern computers?

I think the main problem is that developing _anything_ by committee
(especially all-volunteer) is a pretty daunting task. If you look at any
current Apple II development you'll notice that just about everything is
being developed by individuals with a great deal of vision and little or
no outside help (CFFA, RAM-4-GS, NadaNet, Apple 1 Replica etc).
That's not to say the idea is without merit, just that I think the
"challenge" approach is unlikely to yield results. If a "modern"
implementation of the 8-bit computer is going to happen it would need to
happen in much the same way as the original Apple was developed -- from
the hard work and vision of someone hovering slightly above genius.

My personal take on this recurring theme is that improvements to the
Apple II might be better handled by taking advantage of the A2's
inherent expandability. A couple ideas that leap to mind are:

- 80column/RAM/VGA card: since nobody seems to be satisfied with
  their current monitor. 
 
- Accellerator: I've no idea what would be possible these days
  but even at 33MHz Applesoft would be pretty darned fast

Add to this a CFFA and LANceGS and you can pretty much toss your Mac/PC.

-s

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