Re: IIGS Mouse control panel

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

In article nathan@visi.com (Nathan Mates) writes...

>In article <6igct6$neu$1@leopard.it.wsu.edu>,
> <m.kelsey@spam.eecs.wsu.edu> wrote:
>>How does a guy go about upgrading a ROM 1 to ROM 3?  Is it as simple as
>>upgrading a WOZ to ROM 1?
>
>   Despite the name (chosen by Apple, masters of the intuitive and
>obvious... NOT) seeming to imply that, it is NOT a chip or few swapout
>to go from a GS ROM 01 to ROM 3. It's a motherboard swapout. This is
>noted in section 2.6 of the official csa2 Frequently Asked Questions
>(FAQ) at http://www.visi.com/~nathan/a2/faq/csa2.html and all official
>FAQ archives. It would have been better to call it the GS v1.1 or
>something, but that would tend to indicate they cared about the GS by
>then, something demonstratably false.

    Not to side with Apple, but to their credit "ROM 3" is not the
official name given to the 1989 revision of the Apple IIgs (it was
and always has been the easiest way to identify it though). It is
officially called "The Apple IIgs with 1 Megabyte of RAM". That is
similar to the "Macintosh 512K", though I just saw one at a thrift
shop and it _did_ have that on the name plate in back (the GS has
no specific name markings to indentify it as "Apple IIgs 1MB").

    I still call it the ROM 3 myself (and certainly not "ROM 03",
which never existed despite what some people seem to think). :)

>   If you already have a ROM 01, don't bother buying a ROM 3
>motherboard or system in my opinion-- the money would be far better
>spent on adding more RAM (2-4MB) or a HD: stuff Apple kinda left out
>from the system, and things that make it MUCH better overall.

    Well if you can find one free (not unlikely these days) or very,
very, cheap I'd recommend it. There's a lot more advantages to the
ROM 3 than just the official name Apple gave it. If OTOH, I had to
make a decision between a hardrive or ROM 3 board, then the choice
would be an obvious one. In order of importance and priority, I
would go: 1) Hardrive, 2) Memory, 3) Accelerator (mind you, if
you consider the difference between 2.6 MHz and 10-15 MHz, I'd
be tempted to put the accelerator as choice #1 :). After those
three things, I would worry about motherboard revisions, stereo
cards, speakers, modems, removable storage, etc.

Mitchell Spector
spec@vax2.concordia.ca