Re: Emus vs. the Real Thing

[Stavros Robert Karatsoridis <skaratso@oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu>]

Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net> wrote:
> Lim writes ...
>> 
>> Rubywand wrote:
>> 
>> >      No emulator is 100% compatible
>  ....
>> 
>> It is quite obvious that you have never tried Bernie II the Rescue.
>> For me, I have been using Apple IIGS since 1988 and build up a very
>> large
>> library for it, and have wrote software for it. It is VERY compatible.
>  ....


>> 
>> But for the rest of GS users that love the Finder and GS-specified
>> software (like me), 5.25" drive is irrelevant.
>  ....

>      See? No emulator is 100% compatible.

Are you guys forgetting that Bernie now has support for 5.25" disk images?
Sure, you can't run certain protected software, but for those of us that
don't have any protected software (and some longer have their real GS's) the
emulator is great.  And, they're always trying to bring it closer to "the
real thing."  Bernie 1.3 has direct serial port support (for registered
users), for example.


>> >      Is the new emu-Mac the way to go for most GS users? No. Whatever
>> > the nice features of the emu-Mac, it is not a standard GS and it has
>> > _no_ chance of ever becoming the 'standard GS'. It lets you run some
>> > software faster; but, there will never be much in the way of new GS
>> > games, etc. which are designed to utilize the setup's capabilities. The
>> > emu-Mac market will never be large enough to support emu-Mac product
>> > development.

What "capabilities?" An emulated IIgs does not have any special
capabilities that cannot be performed on a real IIgs, so developing
software especially for the emulator is not a viable option anyways, even
if there were a market for it.

>  ....
>> 
>> You misunderstand my point totally. Get the emulator and live with all
>> the software you own, runs them much better, and go own to enjoy the
>> new world with new software like Netscape Communicator.
>  ....

>      Yes. And, since you have Netscape 4.x on your Mac, you will never
> care about an emu-Mac "GS" browser and no browser will ever be developed
> for emu-Mac. The same goes for XGS. Net software, languages, music
> products, games, ... Why develop anything new for your emu-machine when
> everything is already available for the machine running the emu?

See above: the emulated GS does not have any special new abilities, so why
not develop new software for the real GS, which will then run on the
emulated GS anyways (assuming the emulator is compatible).  BTW, Mike
Westerfield of the Byteworks uses an emulated GS for all of his software
development now (can't remember if it's GUS or Bernie, though).

>      Your position boils down to the observation that a 1997-1998
> computer running at 100MHz-400MHz with 32MB-256MB RAM, XVGA Video ... is
> a more powerful computer than a 1986-1989 GS with 9MHz-15MHz
> accelerator, 8MB RAM, and super-res display. Actually, we are aware of
> this.

> Rubywand

Stavros