Re: Photos of ROM 01 and ROM 3 motherboards and the "ROM 4"

[Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net>]

Herbert Fung wrote ...
> 
> As the subject line indicates I have photos of the 2 most popular IIGS boards at:
> 
> http://persweb.direct.ca/mystix/ROM_MB.htm
> 
> Take a peek if you want.
 ....

     Nice pics! Thanks for making them available.

     Regarding the blurb about the 'ROM 4 motherboard': Possibly, the firmware was
part of some experimentation at Apple after 1989. However, the motherboards which
show up in the "ROM 4" machines are, almost certainly, pre-ROM 3 and, possibly,
pre-ROM 1 boards.

     The "ROM 4" GS-- a.k.a. the "Mark Twain"-- continues to be an entertaining
source of speculation and debate. Did a "Mark Twain" project continue on into the
early 1990's before, finally being ended by Apple?

     Evidently, there was a "Mark Twain" project at Apple in the early 1990's. At
some point "an Apple spokesman" went so far as to make the project public at a
users group gathering; whereupon, the project was canceled. Twenty or so Mark
Twains wound up in Apple's dumpster; but, in the best X-Files tradition, a few
were saved!

     All of which spawned the notion that a super secret post-ROM 3 Apple, Inc.
project to develop a powerful new Super Apple IIgs had continued into the 1990's
before, alas, being quashed. Well, was Apple engaged in serious prototyping for an
new GS after release of the ROM 3 machine?

     Probably, not. There is a big difference between a high-priority project
backed by corporate management and some Apple II Group designers fiddling with
prototypes in an attempt to convince management that a new IIgs is viable. This
would explain the quick cancellation of the "project" once someone in the MT group
blew it and made the effort public.

     The clincher is the surviving Mark Twain machines. There is, simply, nothing
at all "super" about them. Today's ROM-01 with the usual mem enhancement and other
accessories is much superior to any of the 'Twains-- and, all of these accessories
are early 1990's technology.

     Does anyone seriously believe that Apple would consider releasing a 1990's
"Super GS" with no improvement in video display capabilities? or no built-in
acceleration? or no major memory expansion? The Mark Twain machines could not
possibly have competed against any 1990's machine.

     Actually, there is a time in the recent era when the Mark Twain's could have
been seen as new, exciting machines-- that time is the mid-1980's. It seems likely
that the 'Mark Twain Project' designers were working out their ideas on prototypes
for the original IIgs.



Rubywand