Apple IIgs upgrade points to ponder

["Jason Whorton" <jason@microxl.com>]

Hello.  I looked at tws's page after reading the "know someone who will make
cards" part and came up with a few points that I hope will spur further
thought.

1.  Applied Engineering had the ability to make a PC Transporter for an
Apple II.  The Diamond Trackstar card for PC's is as best I can remember, is
a card that plugged into an ISA slot and allowed the use of Apple II
programs somehow.  From what I remember reading about the Apple IIgs, the
8-bit Apple II part was put on two chips that are on IIgs motherboards.  It
is now over 10 years later and the technology part of making hardware
advancements for the IIgs should be pretty much readily available.   This
does not take into account anything other than the technology question (i.e.
Is the technology out there to make a new IIgs hardware item?)

2.  A new hardware item such as tws is proposing would be pretty much a
replacemnet for whatever motherboard you had now.  I think that it would be
harder to create, manufacture, market, and sale a replacement instead of an
add-on.  I am a daily reader of the Atari 8-bit, Commodore, Texas
Instruments, and Tandy newsgroups.  The Commodore, Tandy, and TI groups have
new hardware items discussed often.  For example, I was on the TI list
server and several people stated they would be glad to pay $200 for an
80-column card for their machine.  I don't see that level of support in the
posts in comp.sys.apple2.

3.  I would like to see more information available to newbies as to what all
their Apple II computer can do.  Maybe a web site with a couple of screen
shots and a brief explanantion of some of the more widely used programs
would help.

4.  The person that posted about making more IIgs accelerators hit the nail
on the head.  I hope someone makes some accelerator cards.  I think they
would sell well.  With word of mouth and a little advertising on the
Internet or newsletters, I think it wouldn't be too hard to sell 100 IIgs
accelerator cards.  Dr. Buggie has sold 182 or so of his BUGG-POWER power
supplies.  Surely one must think 100 accelerator cards would sell for what
$100??? a pop?  Perhaps those of you with accelerator cards can provide some
information on which major programs it helps out on and how much.  Go ahead,
create some interest for a potential future builder.

5.  Name three enhancmenets you would like to see for the IIgs.

Myself, I would like to see an IDE card for hard disk drives.  I don't
recall anyone saying for sure whether or not the Focus hard drive is
basically an IDE card or not.  If a PC can have a 2 serial port, 1 parallel
port, 1 game port, and IDE support card for $15, surely we can have one with
regular old IDE support for hard drives.

I think an accelerator would come after a hard drive, but would be useful
from what I have read.

If more people had a system with a hard drive, 4MB RAM card, and
accelerator, more focus would be placed on making priograms to take
advantage of them.

These are some points that I cam e up with after reading recent posts on
IIgs upgrades.  Please feel free to e-mail me and/or post a message here
about your thoughts.  I think it would be helpful to the whole Apple II
community.

Sincerely,
Jason Whorton