[rescue] WANTED: Apple II cards

[Charles Shannon Hendrix]

Thu, 10 May 2007 @ 01:07 -0400, Kevin said:

> I've recently contemplated buying and equipping an Apple IIc (my first
> computer).  That would bring back many great memories from 1985/1986.
> 
> I was given a working Apple IIgs several years ago, might get off my ass
> and set it up next weekend.  If i come across any unused cards in the pile,
> i'll keep you in mind.

Appreciated.

Even if I can't use it, I might be able to find a home or preserve it if
you want to toss it. I'm very slowly finding old-school locals too. So
far I've found a grand total of 2. 

Don't toss it, recycle and rescue... :)

> Was much of the IIgs stuff backwards compatible with the IIe/IIc?

Not the software, no.  The IIgs had better graphics, 16-bit CPU, and
could address 8MB of RAM.  

However, going the other way generally works.  The IIgs ran almost
everything that the Apple II did, and even provided most of the same
software, including the BASIC and the ROM monitor.

The IIgs also used the Apple II expansion bus.

You could get cards for the Apple IIe that would let you use things like
3.5" hard drives so you could use the IIgs and IIe together quite a bit.

The IIgs had a lot nicer disk conversion software, so it is useful to
have around even if you use the Apple II more.

Likewise an older Mac is nice to have because it can do some conversion
of disks and data for you as well.

The IIgs was a nice little machine. It's really too bad that Apple
basically ignored it. The IIgs got too close to the Mac's abilities.
In the Mac's early years, the IIgs was nicer in some ways, and if you
did some of the CPU upgrades people came up with, it could be faster as
well.

It would have been easy for Apple to upgrade the IIgs to have better
graphics and CPU than the Mac, but that was never going to happen.

I think part of it might have been Apple divorcing itself from Steve
Wozniak too.

Still a fun machine, and fully capable of doing real work today.

Of course, like all Apple II machines, the IIgs is also a bit quirky
here and there.  

But then... all of those machines back then had their quirks.



-- 
shannon                      | javalin: 
                             | an unwieldy programming weapon used to stab a 
                             | software project through the heart until dead