Re: Second Sight news??

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

In article guenter@student.uni-kl.de (Marvin) writes...

>Mitchell Spector (spec@vax2.concordia.ca) wrote:
>:     Doubtful, the only thing it would boost are spirits of those
>: existing Second Sight owners, at least for a short while (I would
>: stress _short while_, since any games would have to be quite simple
>: because the SS is fairly slow at moving graphics around. This is 
>: on TOP OF the GS itself already being slow, a double negative which 
>: at least could have been avoided with something like the TurboRez).
> 
>How do you estimate the chance to persuade RezTek to resurrect the
>TurboRez project?

    Honestly? Close to nill. While the TurboRez project had died and
been resurrected once or twice in the past, there was still enough of
an Apple IIgs market to make it profitable each time. When it was last 
cancelled (and almost certainly for good) was well over 2 years ago, 
and at _that_ point in time Bill St.Pierre thought the market had gotten 
too small. Then again, perhaps he used that excuse because he was having 
difficulty with the final design (functionality, stability, production 
cost, etc?). I would guess a little of each.

    It is now 1997, the Apple IIgs market is virtually non-existent.
I doubt RezTek would even break-even if they tried to redesign and
manufacture a TurboRez card now. Besides, most of their potential 
buyers have bought Second Sight boards (which presently have little
to no usefulness, and in most cases were a wasted investment to most).
Are these people going to want to now invest in another video card?
I admit the idea of a TurboRez interests me, but then what would be 
the point of buying one if no software was written for it?

>From all what I've heard, this card should be far more powerful than
>the Second Sight. 

    That is an understatement. Other than support of 800x600 and 1024x768
with higher color depth, the TurboRez out did the Second Sight in _every_
other imaginable way. To be blunt, the Second Sight is/was an utter piece
of junk. It's design was too rushed and it was made up out of left over
parts available at Sequential Systems (Z180 from the RamFAST, ZIP DRAMs
from RAM GS, etc. Not too mention the cheapest/lowest quality SVGA chip-
set they could find: the Oak).

>It has a hardware blitter built on it, so speed should be a smaller 
>problem. Of course, this card would cost more than the Second Sight, 
>but gold is always more expensive than dirt.

    It would have been fairly close in price to the Second Sight actually. 
Futhermore, you did not have to invest hundreds of dollars on a new SVGA
display, an almost requirement of the SS (while the TurboRez would have
worked quite well with the stock AppleColor RGB). Yup, "dirt" and "gold"
do well describe the Second Sight and TurboRez. :)

>I would like to know how many users would like to see the TurboRez
>project resurrected and how many developers would support it??

    All this is moot, really (including my complaining about the SS vs
TR, as it's well in the past now). You will not see the TurboRez project 
brought back, there is no market to sell it to nor profit to be made.
Most Apple IIgs users who wanted better resolution or color the SS may
have potentially offered, have opted to purchase a PC or Mac for the 
side. Those who wanted what the TurboRez would have offered have gotten
themselves a PC or Nintendo64/Playstation/etc. 

Mitchell Spector
spec@vax2.concordia.ca