Re: ANN: Retiring from A2 world - Good Bye All!

[swmarks@telepak.net (Stan Marks)]

Wayne Stewart <waynes@intergate.ca> wrote:

> Hard disks were pretty expensive back then. 

Yes, indeed! And, remember that a "big" hard drive in those days was a
whopping 20-megger, probably with a 4-digit price tag! ;)

> I've wondered if Apple considered introducing the IIgs a mistake they wish
> they hadn't made. 

I've always suspected that Apple (particularly Steve Jobs) took A2 users
for granted and expected them to flock to the stores in droves to buy
the Macintosh when it came out in 1984. They didn't. In fact, I think
many A2 users were very miffed that Apple didn't make the Mac compatible
with their existing software and hardware, in which they had made
substantial investments. Furthermore, I think the A2 fans were used to
the "open architecture" of the A2, which allowed one to "pop the hood"
and tinker around inside. Those early Macs practically *required* the
trouble and expense of a trip back to the dealer just to install extra
RAM!? ;)

It has always been my impression that the IIgs was offered up to Apple
II users as a "peace offering", of sorts, for not having made the
Macintosh compatible with the Apple II platform. Unfortunately, for
Apple (and us?), it was too little too late.

> Once released they were committed to a minimum level of support. At least
> on the hardware side they didn't seem to do a lot with it. I don't feel
> the ROM 3 was really an upgrade. Things had reached the point where Apple
> was forced to include a memory with the ROM. So it was cheaper to just
> build it int the computer.

You have to remember, though, that a megabyte of RAM in those days was a
fairly substantial. :)

> Of course once an engineer has a chance to redo something, he is bound to
> fix and improve a few things. I've wondered if the ROM 4 was an official
> project or a personal project of the engineers that went on till someone
> higher up noticed?
> 
>       Wayne

I don't really know, but it seems obvious that *someone* realized that
the IIgs needed a serious overhaul in order to be competitive in the
marketplace. I don't remember exactly what all was planned for the "Mark
Twain" GS, but I seem to recall additional RAM on the motherboard and
built-in floppy and hard drives. (Built-in SCSI, too?)  Unfortunately, I
do think that by then Apple had made the decision to put everything into
the Macintosh line, and the IIgs was a de-facto dead end.

Stan Marks