Re: Apple Discontinued Products as of 6/13/94

[niteeyes@mary.iia.org (Neal Pitts)]

In article <21JUN199406585253@vax2.concordia.ca>,
Mitchell Spector <spector@vax2.concordia.ca> wrote:
>>APPLE PRODUCTS DISCONTINUED:
>>A0076LL/A Apple II SuperDrive Controller Card
>>A0027LL/B HyperCard IIGS
>>M0112LL/B Apple SuperDrive
>[various 6-month old Mac stuff, snipped ;-)]
>
>	Does someone know exactly what Apple II related products are
>*still* available from Apple Computer at this point, aside from the
>Apple //e card for the Macintosh LC? 
>
>What about:   - Video Overlay Card
>	      - Apple II High Speed SCSI card
>	      - Apple 5.25 drive
> 	      - Apple Joystick IIe/IIc
>	      - Apple IIe/IIc mouse and/or controller card
>		etc, etc..	      

Everything I've heard says that the only thing that IS still sold anymore 
out of that list is the SCSI card. :(  The Video Overlay card went out 
sometime ago, and is now a highly prized item in used Apple II equipment 
sales.  People were scrambling to get these during Apple's auctions.  The 
5.25" drive also went out around the same time.  This must of happened 
maybe 7 months ago or more. :(

>	Or perhaps the most important questions on our minds, what about
>System Software support for the 8-bit and 16-bit Apple IIs? Will we ever
>see another new version of ProDOS 8, or System 6.0.1 fixed or updated?
>For that matter, does the Apple II DTS or A2 Continuing Engineering Group
>still offically exist, or have they too been silently brushed aside with
>the few remaining Apple II hardware products at ACI?

The official word is supposed to be that the Apple II engineering group 
is gone, but I've never seen an official announcment, unless it was just 
put up on the online services.  Concerning system software, it seemed 
quite probable, and also seemed strongly hinted at, that even if the 
Apple II division were to stay alive, they were not going to do much for 
8-bit system software, unless there were bugs to fix.  The feeling seemed 
to be (that I got from various postings from the Apple programmers and 
others I've talked to) that GS development was much more worth the time.  
As for GS system software, I've heard and put together several rumors; 
that System 6.1 or some other version was done, or partly done, but not 
released because the division closed down; that 6.1 is still coming out; 
and that small updates would be done by the Apple programmers on their 
own time.  The only features I remember rumored, were bug fixes, and a 
write version of the MS-DOS FST.  Maybe even support for the Ethernet 
card would have been included - there are still some developers and lucky 
people that have Apple II Ethernet cards and don't have System 6 support 
to use them with.

>Mitchell Spector

NCP


-- 
niteeyes@iia.org
cpitts@cldc.howard.edu
ncp@gnh-starport.clark.net