Re: More Questions from a New IIgs User

[supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer)]

mfumu@alphalink.com.au (Bill Robbins) wrote:

>jonINTERNETrelayCHAT@napaVALLEYnet.CLARInet (Jon Bettencourt) wrote:
>
>>Can you use a Mac Plus mouse in the game port?
>
>Not sure about this, but I believe you are correct that the IIc and IIe
>mouse card mice are different than the IIgs mouse.  The IIgs mouse is an
>Apple Desktop Bus (ADB) device, and any such mouse for Mac or IIgs should
>work OK on the other machine AFAIK.  It may be that the early Macs did not
>have the Apple Desktop Bus, I don't know when that was introduced.

The first Apple mouse was a 9-pin serial mouse that came with the
Lisa and the original Mac.  Macs used this mouse up to the Mac
Plus model.  At the same time, Apple made the Apple Mouse card
to enable the IIe to use this mouse.  They built the equivalent of
the mouse card into the IIc, so it too could use this mouse.  The last
Apple computer, Mac or II, to use this mouse was the Apple IIc Plus.

The Apple Desktop Bus (ADB) was introduced (trumpets please)
with our favorite computer, the Apple IIGS!  Yes, the good old IIGS.
The IIGS was released right after the Mac Plus and at the time
the IIGS was much flashier.

Later, Apple basically remade the Mac in the IIGS' image.  They
separated the monitor, added color to the Mac GUI, and most
importantly they implemented ADB.

Actually, ADB was a development of the Mac division, but Steve
Jobs didn't like it so as long as he was at Apple, he kept the
Mac basically unchanged.  Look at the incremental differences
between the Mac 128 and the Mac Plus.  The ADB people at
Apple were so fed up, they went over to the Apple II division
and together implemented ADB on the IIGS.  Steve Jobs' head
blew up when he heard his Mac people had put mouse tools
into the IIGS.  Soon after, John Sculley fired Steve Jobs, had
the IIGS released on schedule, and allowed sweeping changes
to be made on the Mac.

Why do you think the Mac II was so big a departure from the
old black and white Mac?  ;-)

There was a down side to this radical improvement of the Mac.
The changes were good, so the Mac took off.  The Apple II
was sidelined by Apple, a remnant of the II-hatred Jobs had
imprinted on Apple management.  But if Jobs had stayed in
control, maybe the entire company would have went down.