Re: Second Sight SVGA Board Info (text only)

[irsman@drift.winternet.com (Ian Schmidt)]

In article <36n8kr$avi@blackice.winternet.com>,
Dave Roberts <daver@drift.winternet.com> wrote:
[a IIe with an SS]
>	Wunderbar. A 1mhz 6502/65C02 driving a 1024x768x256 display.
>Sounds like fun to program. And "only sound" makes up a major component
>of a game, you know =) Soundtracks and sound effects are a big part of
>almost every _successful_ IIgs game.

I seriously doubt there'll be any great support for this board, especially
something as large-scale as a game, and if there is you'd better believe
they'd want GS sound.  I really think that a board like this is an incredibly
bad idea at this point in the GS life cycle, for a couple of good reasons:

1) All the really good game programmers left years ago (Steve Chiang, 
Jason Andersen, John Brooks, Ryan Ridges, John Lund, the SpaceFox guys, etc)

2) We're finally getting some decent software that exploits the GS's built
in capabilities (the FLI and GL viewers, Prism, ImageQuant, MOD players, etc).
Is it such a good idea to fragment the remaining opportunities for programmers?

3) GNO/ME's been around several years and still has glaring holes in it's
capabilities despite a minor horde of talent (James Brookes, Robert Hill,
Soenke Behrens, Phillip Vandry, Jason Perez, Derek Taubert, and a lot more)
working on it.  Now imagine the support for a board which entails a minimum
investment (assuming you dont have a PC or are unwilling to swap cables
all day) in the $400 range (for a cheapo 14" no-brand or CTX that'll blow out
in 2 weeks anyway), when GNO/ME is only $89.

Now, I know the Pollyanna Patrol (consisting mainly of LTC and of course
Jawaid himself, who must rationalize this board lest GNO users become angry
about the lack of 2.0.5 or 2.1 this is causing) is gonna flame me good, but
I don't really see any factual refutation for the above 3 points.

-- 
Ian Schmidt - irsman@drift.winternet.com - SELECT() ON PTYS! - INSOC:
"If you've got to belong to something, belong to us and we'll make you PC"