Re: WOLF3D fot A2 GS

[spec@vax2.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector)]

In article supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer) writes...

>spec@vax2.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector) wrote:
>>    The thing though is there is acceptable speed for a game,
>>and unacceptable speed for a game. When you have trouble
>>playing a game or can't get enjoyment out of it due to a
>>speed problem, that is when it becomes unacceptable. In the
>>real world, Wolf 3D has a poor frame rate on my 15 MHz IIgs
>>(lower than even a 25 MHz 386) BUT the game is still playable
>
>I don't have a 25Mhz 386 to compare, but that is also quite
>irrelevant because the 386 was not the IIgs contemporary.

    Bzzzt, wrong. The first 386 machines (i.e. the ALR Access
386 and Compaq Deskpro 386) were introduced in September 1986,
which coincidentally, is the very same month the Apple IIgs
was announced.

    Granted 386's were quite expensive and not mainstream at
this point in time, the very same was true of the Apple IIgs.
So in fact the 386 *was* the IIgs contemporary--and dead on
in terms of dates.

>I have two 1986 vintage IBM computers, one XT and one AT
>(the 8Mhz model).  Even at the stock 2.8Mhz speed, the
>IIgs unzips a file and converts a jpeg graphic FASTER than
>my XT.  It does most things similar to my AT in speed....and
>I'm talking about WITHOUT the accelerator.  Neither can run
>Wolf 3D AT ALL.

    Wrong again. Apogee's Wolfenstein 3D will run on an IBM AT
at minimum (by "AT" I'm referring to a 286 class machine). It
is recommended you use at least a 386 for enjoyable gameplay,
just as Sheppy recommends you use an accelerated IIgs for the
GS version to be playable.

    Technically, the stock IIgs is more similar to the 286--
which plays Wolfenstein 3D as well--but the first 286 class
machines started shipping 2 years prior to the IIgs (so they
are more comtemporary of the Apple IIc).

>THAT's the amazing thing about the IIgs being able to do it.

    Yes, I fully agree with you there. However my point was not
to directly compare it to the PC (if I did that, I would have
never played it, let alone taken any interest in its release!)
but how it plays ON ITS OWN, COMPARED TO NOTHING. When you do
that, you'll discover it is an enjoyable and playable game with
an accelerator. Without an accelerator, it is not. Forget about
the PC version, it is just too slow to be enjoyable without one.

    When I say it is too slow without an accelerator, that has
NOTHING to do with being biased or spoiled by the PC. If it was
released back in 1986 for the stock GS, before any real-time 3D
games existed, people even in that era would have complained
about it being too sluggish (again, on a stock IIgs) to have
been playable. Obviously they would have been impressed by the
concept, just not the speed. Gee, I thought "AAARGH!" and
Skate or Die were too slow to be playable back in 1988, and
I had _only_ seen the IIgs versions at that time. That is the
same thing really (I hadn't been exposed to anything to make
me biased, I just observed it was too slow to be enjoyable).

Mitchell Spector
spec@vax2.concordia.ca