Re: DOC-RAM swapping with MIDI seqs (was 2 questions...)

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

In article yoshi@CSOS.ORST.EDU (Yoshi) writes...
>
>: 1) Speed
>: 2) Graphics
>: 3) Limited Ensoniq DOC-RAM
> 
>	I'm sick of those exact three also.

	Well, at least 1 and 2 can be fixed with things like an accelerator,
FPE 68xxxx math, RamFAST, modern hardrive and Second Sight or TurboRez. Still
no option for fixing problem 3, which is annoying since the DOC can address
128k normally! :/ 

>	A Wolf-3D port? I do hope you're kidding. The fax proggy
>	sounds excellent, but it's taking way longer than it should:
>	I'm expecting it to be buggy anyways, so...

	A Wolfenstein 3-D port is already done, it should be shipping sometime
this month. It's written by BurgerBill, so I'm more optimistic than I'd 
normally be. What the graphics, frame-rate or music (back to above problem
#3) will be like, we'll just have to wait and see. If you think Wolf 3D is
an unrealistic, people have been debating whether DOOM could be ported for
the GS! ;-)

>	GNO utilities, IMHO, don't count. I was waiting to see a port
>	of csh or even ksh, but mainly, TCP/IP and a new kernal upgrade.
>	Of course, TCP/IP seems to be in the midst of working (good! This
>	is an excellent thing, IMHO), but Mr. Bazyar seems to be hindering
>	the process. This is not such a good thing, IMHO. The kernal up-
>	grade should be available, last I checked.

	Agreed. In fact, your average IIgs user doesn't even own GNO, let
alone know what it does (most have this misconception it's solely useful
to programmers).

>: 	Think of the analogy of a ship: The GS has started to sink and the
>: only other ships nearby and afloat are the SS IBM and SS Mac. The SS Mac 
>: looks
> 
>	The SS Mac will die because the company supporting it drops it's
>	own hardware faster than leaves in autumn.

	Well the 68000 version of the Mac is already doomed, Apple has made
it clear their future lies in the PowerPC. Personally, I'd never invest any
money in a Macintosh system, it'd be obsolite before I've even made the full
payment on it! Besides, it's too limited a system for me to enjoy anyway. If
I do get a Mac (dirt cheap), it'll be something to play with on the side like 
my massive collection of 8-bit Apple IIs. :)

>	Keep in mind one thing: by staying with the SS Apple II, by the
>	time you're ready to board, you won't have any $ left in your
>	wallet for a ticket. Get my drift? Sorry, but a SCSI card on the

	Not if you buy second-hand equippement of those "jumping overboard"! 
The only substantial system investment (with my setup) will be the purchase 
of a SCSI hardrive. Which isn't really a waste, it can always be used on any 
future platform I buy...

>	Well, I can get a NEW Trident SVGA 1024x768x256 card for around
>	$25-$30. Compare this to the SS, which is, what, $180? Come on.
>	You can't make a living off the undead, if you know what I mean.

	Actually it's $149 from QC, but the 1mb version will most likely
cost over $200. I agree, that _IS_ expensive for a card with questionable
support. However, with the size of the GS market what it is, higher costs
are necessary if you want to make any reasonable profit. :/

>	I owned my GS for 8 years (January 21st will make 8 years), so...

	That's very close to the date my GS arrived seven years ago,
in fact, I seem to remember a date like the 21 or 22nd of January!  
Let's just hope 8 years on the dot isn't the breaking point for GS 
owners. :)

>	It's not too hard, to tell you the truth. You'd have to write a
>	Z80 interpreter, which I already started. Not too difficult, but
>	it's a big lookup table, i'll tell you that much. Since the thing
>	is only 4 colours (and i'll flame anyone who says "but it's in
>	black-and-white!" - remember, gray IS a colour), the 16/s-line
>	limit wouldn't be a problem. Resolution may, but I doubt it.

	There's nothing very complex in terms of animation or sound in
a GameBoy, although I wonder how you could legally download game paks
onto disk (or for that matter, how?). If there's a speed problem emulating
a Z80, one could always plug in an old Apple II Z80 board.

>--
>|       Jeremy 'Yoshi' Chadwick        |  ______  ___   ___   ___  ______  |
>|         yoshi@CSOS.ORST.EDU          | |:     \|   | |:  | |:  |/      | |
>|                                      | |           | |   | |           | |
>|   HTTP://www.csos.orst.edu/~yoshi    | |___|\______| |___| |______/|___| |
>|          E22!C86YN;W0@;&5A=F4@=&AI<R!H871R960@8F5H:6YD+BXN"@`!           |

Mitchell Spector
m_spect@pavo.concordia.ca / spector@vax2.concordia.ca