Re: holy grail of apple computing?

["Sean Fahey" <a2fan@hotmail.com>]

"brad" <mrbrad(remove)@ll.net> wrote in message
11bkf9v2mb8l7de@corp.supernews.com">news:11bkf9v2mb8l7de@corp.supernews.com...

> the catch is a mark twain is newer..could not a guy if he had one to look
at
> simply find said parts new unused in woholesale someplace and build an
> identical copy? ...it is not like anyone has seen them..as long as it was
> made like original mark twain...you could knock off some more...finding
new
> orig off the shelf parts might be a challenge..but heck you have the
eproms
> etc...

Yes and no - the Mark Twain is interesting in that it was "what could have
been" had Apple continued to sell and support the II. The Mark Twain's alure
is in it's place in Apple II History - it represents the last great effort
to keep the platform going, and Apple Management's decision to kill it off.
Bittersweet.

Prototypes in general are pretty cool to play with but from a technical
standpoint, the MT wasn't that different from a ROM 03 - the firmware,
toolbox - all of it nearly identical to the ROM 03. The MT's main
distinctions were it's built-in SCSI port and hard drive, additional RAM
capacity using SIMM memory and built-in floppy drive. All of these
integrations were in response to long held criticisms of the GS in the press
and from users. It's also been argued that the the MT is what the 03 should
have been. The fact is, a well equipped GS is just as good or better than a
MT.

Aside from Apple's waning support for the Apple II and their Mac-centric
vision, I think another reason MT didn't make it is because Apple could make
more money selling you a HS SCSI card and other accessories for their
established user base rather than eating margin on a new machine with SCSI
and other cool gadgets integrated in it. There was no sales/profit stimulus
to release it. The MT was too little, to late. There was no CPU speed
increase, so you still had to buy an accelerator. No new graphics modes. And
by current standards, you'd still need more RAM than what the stock MT
offered. If they would have bundled the Apple II Ethernet card with it
standard, it might have made more sense.