My Apple IIGS - 20 years ago today

[Mitchell Spector <mitch2gs@hotmail.com>]

    I couldn't help but pause to stop and think, on this very 
day, 20 years ago, I received my (then) newly purchased 
Apple IIGS. What a day that was!

    I don't know what is more extraordinary, the fact that
I still hold great interest in it two full decades later (with it
still plugged in and sitting on my desk!) or the concept
of how much time has passed. I still can remember how 
excited I was about its state-of-the-art features and how
there was nothing else quite like it, and how I loved 
showing it off and seeing people's reactions! Yet now it 
is quite literally considered an antique today--it's mind 
boggling how it could have been THAT long ago.

    Nevertheless, its fun to look at it "now and then". On
that day in 1988 I had a completely stock system (512K
RAM with 3.5 floppy drive). Now in 2008 I have that
system pushed as far as it can go (8 MB RAM, internal
Pegasus hardisk with RamFAST, 15 MHz, Second Sight, 
Audio Animator, Visionary GS, SuperDrive, VOC, Apple
CD-ROM, 2 GB tape drive, Zip drive, 2.1 sound system,
Roland SC-55, to name a few things). I only wish people
were still writing software for it, like demos and games.

    It's still staying put on my desk, not only because its
still fun and entertaining to tinker with, but it reminds me
of a time when computers had actual sole and even
personality to them. Back when there was so much 
excitement seeing the machine pushed to do more than
it was designed to--seeing the hardware stretched to 
the very limit. Computers today are too appliance like
and dull to me. I suppose people who grew up with 
Pentiums and PowerPC Macs would probably have 
difficulty understanding that now. That special magic 
seems to have somehow disappeared--I can pretty
much confirm that what with having bought a whole
new computer recently and being so ho-hum about it.

...ah well, just couldn't let the day go by without 
marking it without some small commemoration. :)

Mitchell Spector