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by Al Martin
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(Publisher's note: The following came from two different sources.)
Project Apple Storm
by E. Moore
In the first week of July, 1992, a cartel of Apple II users and developers,
represented by the Bay Area Apple II Users Group, (BAAUG), arranged a meeting
with members of the User Group Connection and the Apple II Engineering contingent
at Apple Computer, Inc. The intended purpose of this gathering was singular.
"To discuss the merits of the continued operation of BAAUG as an Apple
II User Group."
The initial meeting, set for August, 1992, was postponed by Apple because
of unforeseen developments preoccupying those expected to be in attendance.
Another scheduled for early September, was also postponed and rescheduled
to late September for the same reason. Yet again this meeting was postponed
and was rescheduled for November 18th, again for the same reason. On November
16th, the meeting was once more postponed once more, for the same reason,
and rescheduled for November 19th at 10:00AM.
Many of the BAAUG/A2 representatives had made prior arrangements and
were forced to readjust their schedules to accommodate the original 11/18
meeting. (From as far away as Colorado and San Diego). Others, who were
not contacted in time, made the long drive to the Campbell complex for the
11/18/92 meeting, and were at that time informed of the
rescheduled gathering. To conclude this poignant diatribe, three BAAUG members
were an hour late to this appointment as a result of inaccurate directions
volunteered by an Apple employee. Thus this author ends his "Harrumph!"
THE PLAYERS: Those in attendance were...
From Apple Computer, Inc.:
John Santoro, Apple II Engineering
Rye Livingston, Community Groups, User Group Connection
Ray Kaupp, Manager, User Groups and Associates
Representing the Apple II:
Tony Diaz, AllTech Electronics, San Diego
Mike Garvey, BAAUG Administrative Leader, GEnie Host
Kent Keltner, BAAUG Planning Leader
Joe Kohn, Contributing Editor, inCider/A+
Kent Keltner, BAAUG Planning Leader
Lunatic, GEnie Ambassador
Ernest Moore, BAAUG Leadership Coordinator
Joe Yandrofski, Sequential Systems, Lafayette, Colorado
Missing in action caused by the continual postponements:
Kenrick Mach, Paul Parkhurst, Margot Taylor and Ed Hernandez
Prodigiously Missing: Tim Swihart of ACI..!!!
This report was assembled from a 90-minute audio tape that recorded the
proceedings from the back of the room and the authors recollection of voices,
names and faces.
Although the wording may not be quotable, it is extremely accurate! When
the voice cannot be directly associated with the individual that spoke the
words, the speaker will be identified as either "APPLE" or "BAAUG".
Commentary notes by the author are indicated with "( )"
MEETING BEGINS: (Finally)
Santoro: What would you like to walk out of here with?
Moore: Basically, straight shoot-from-the-hip answers regarding the status
of the Apple II. We don't want to be subjected to the limitations of nondisclosure
statements and the like because we have an obligation to our users. We'd
also like to know what the Apple plans are for future and new Apple II users.
We aren't here to prosecute or to be cross examined, we just want straight
and honest answers.
Santoro: New Apple II Users or new Apple II Computers?
Moore: New Apple II Users!
Santoro: We're not coming out with a new Apple II cpu. (Being evasive
here and dodging the question!)
Moore: That doesn't relate to new Apple II users, but is there a specific
reason that Apple has for not releasing a new II cpu?
Santoro: We just can't rationalize it. This is a business decision that
was reached at a corporate level far above our heads here! It's been termed
as a high risk. Another Apple II would send a wrong message to consumers.
We don't want them to think that we have two platforms and it's obvious
that Apple supports the Macintosh. (Another of those critical statements!)
Moore: Let me guess. The office of the Apple CEO?
Lunatic: Is it true that there was a prototype of a new Apple II that
was going to be released?
Santoro: I won't deny it! (Quickly and nervously shifted, then dodged
the original again!) We get tons of letters from people that have had wonderful
experiences with their Apple II's from a variety of sources. However, last
month we sold 7 IIe's and 7 IIGS's nationwide. That's 14 Apple II's across
the country. (14 Apple II's sold without a lick of advertisement.. not bad!)
Diaz: We sold 20 used Apple II systems last month alone!
Santoro: Yeah, USED Apple II's. You haven't seen an Apple IIe or IIGS
in a dealership for a long time. This is a dealership decision. Apple can't
dictate to the dealerships what they should keep in stock. People were buying
Macs and weren't buying IIGS's. Also, it's expensive for us to make them.
We do want to keep the IIGS viable and we want to continue building the
bridge between the IIGS and the Mac. (Remember this statement later!)
Moore: There's an easy explanation for that. 18 months after the GS was
released, dealerships were telling people that Apple wasn't making them
anymore and that the Apple II had been discontinued.
Santoro: We can't tell dealerships what to say either!
Kohn: If Apple had a certain criteria that dealerships had to abide by,
like requiring them to have all of the Apple cpu line on display, these
false rumors wouldn't manifest themselves.
Santoro: I'll be the first to admit that the company hasn't done the
best job of policing each and every dealership. (Spoken with an air of sarcasm!)
Livingston: A lot of things happened back in '86-'87 that may have been
debatable, but this is '92 and almost '93 and we have to think of the future
of the company.
Moore: Yes, and we are obligated to think of the future of this huge
number of people that own Apple II's, who firmly believe Apple Computer,
Inc. is giving them the proverbial shaft.
Kaupp: Are these people going to buy new Apple II's?
Moore: I won't ask you to validate that question. They already own Apple
II's. Many of them more than one system. What the existing II user base
wants is a solid show of support by Apple, be it in the form of a new cpu
or a guy on tv with an Apple II as his choice for a home computer system.
Lunatic: A primary question that I have is, Apple has repeatedly professed
support for the Apple II. If Apple, Inc. is still supporting it, why can't
users get technical support and service from the Apple dealerships?
Santoro: What is support? What support are you looking for?
Moore: A user takes his II into a dealership to have it serviced and
the service personnel doesn't recognize the machine. They want to know if
the IIGS is a 286 or 386 compatible.
Santoro: So you're looking for service?
Moore: We're looking for support, from Apple, for the Apple II!
Garvey: I'm in a good position to elaborate more on this because I do
it for a living. Most people don't care about servicing, maintenance and
the like, they depend on me to do it for them. (Mike Garvey perpetually
assumes the role of the service department at the dealerships at this point.)
I must have a source from which to accommodate these things. (Reference
to service and maintenance.) We're currently in what you may refer to as
the third generation of computer users. The first consisted of semi-power
users. The hackers and the like. The next was the class that used computers
as a learning device and now, the average user has their computer as a tool.
They use it just as if it were a hammer or a screwdriver.
Kohn: What we need is somewhere, or someone, to turn to for sales, service
and support. Users need a definitive response when repairs to their systems
are necessary. User Groups aren't the answer because most aren't qualified
to provide service and/or repairs.
Diaz: At AllTech we're encountering even more of a problem. We have become
one of the places to find Apple II stuff, but the dealers don't want to
support us. They get paranoid when they look at their invoices and see all
of the purchases made by AllTech Electronics. They ask us if we're re-selling
things and they're afraid that Apple, Inc. will cut them off.
Garvey: There's a missing link between Apple and the end users that dealerships
used to fill that isn't being filled anymore.
Santoro: Again you have to put yourselves in the shoes of the other person.
Dealerships have to maintain a margin of profit. They want to sell the hottest
computer and the Apple II isn't it. I've made a proposal that would fall
under the PowerBook service type format but it has to be approved at a higher
level.
Moore: There are two ends of the spectrum here. Over the years, the end
user has come to look at the "Authorized Apple Dealership" as
the extension of Apple, Inc. and this was by Apple's own design. When an
end user wanted information about his computer, or wanted to buy a machine
or parts, or get service and he contacted Apple, Inc., he was very gruffly
told to go see his local authorized Apple Dealership. Now he takes his system
to this dealership and they haven't the slightest idea as to what the machine
is. The user is getting aggravated because his system has been in the shop
for a week while the highly trained service department tries to determine
if the problem with the IIGS is that it doesn't have an RLL/IDE card in
it or they can't locate a chip that has a *.86 suffix. Meanwhile the user
comes back muttering "What ta hell kind of company is this?"
Livingston: No, he comes back and thinks that the planet has changed
on him. Things aren't the same as they used to be.
Moore: Nope! Now he finally gets his system back, fixed or unfixed and
he's muttering to himself. He places an ad in the paper to sell his system
and when that's done he buys a DOS machine because he can get support, buy
software or have that system serviced anywhere.
Santoro: He comes back and thinks that this dealer doesn't do what he
used to do and that's absolutely true. We want to keep our Apple II customers
with the hopes that they continue to buy Apple machines. Dealerships don't
want to
spend $500 a day for Apple II technical training for the 2 or 3 Apple II
calls he's going to get in a month. So what's the most efficient way for
Apple to deal with this problem?
Moore: That's easy, via the user group.
Livingston: We already do that. When someone calls up for service, we
give them the name of the nearest dealership and also the name of the nearest
user group.
Garvey: What Ernie is driving at is an extension of something that I
wanted to get into a little bit later, but the reality of this is that the
user cannot rely upon service from the dealerships. Apple has always sent
their products to dealerships for distribution and now their also being
sent to super stores and resellers. I look at the Sears catalog and I don't
see any Apple II products there. Also, how do I get service for my system?
Santoro: We've just produced a new catalog that has all of the Apple
products in it, except for the cpu's, and they can be purchased directly
from us.
Moore: The catalog has Mac cpu's displayed in it and there's one page
at the back of it with Apple II peripherals only.
Garvey: Does this means that I can call up Apple, give them my resellers
license number and pick up my purchase?
Kohn: Why can't Apple II cpu's be distributed by these super stores along
with the Powerbooks and etc?
Apple: Everyone views the Apple II as a single market machine. Dealerships
regard it as strictly a K-12 computer. (Sound like brain washing?)
Moore: The K-12 crew doesn't even know what to do with their cpu's when
they malfunction. They call ComputerLand and get the same story. By the
way, how many Apple II's does Apple, Inc. recognize as being the computer
of choice in the end users home?
APPLE: Actually it's a legal problem regarding contractual agreements
with PowerBooks where the stores cannot do mail orders of Apple products.
The big legal question was that if we went mail order with our cpu's, would
that violate the contractual agreements with these retail outlets? (Evasive...eh!)
Kaupp: Wait! I thought we were talking about why the Apple II cpu wasn't
in the catalog? We don't want to sell people II's, we want to take the installed
base of II users and support them. (Critical statement there!)
Garvey: Along these lines of damage control, the dealership channel isn't
working. So where do people have to turn? Online services, user groups?
What I'd propose is to empower user groups as the go between to resell Apple
parts and peripherals!
Moore: Here's a case in point example. I received a call from an individual
that wanted to upgrade from an Apple IIe to a IIGS. Please bear in mind
that he did *NOT* want a Mac. I could not give him an answer!
Apple: How would we go about giving user groups authority to resell cpu's
and peripherals? Would we give user groups full dealer contracts? We'd have
to make certain that everyone was trained and certified. Then we'd have
to charge them the $5,000 to $10,000 startup fee required for dealerships.
BAAUG: It's hard to envision user groups selling cpu's, not so much peripherals
though. Apple could require that dealerships purchase II cpu's on order!
Livingston: What do you want now, sales or support?
Moore: What...??? We want both sales AND support! You mention making
certain that if user groups were given resell capability, they would have
to be certified and trained. Take me to any ComputerLand and show me a certified
and trained Apple II individual...! As for startup fees, why? The user group
would order cpu's directly from Apple as needed and pay for them in advance.
Santoro: The company, for right or for wrong, has made a decision to
not pursue a marketing scheme for selling the Apple II! (There we go again!)
Moore: That's what I can't understand. If Apple put the IIGS on tv and
showed people it's capabilities, they would sell tons of them. For the life
of me I don't understand it. There's this huge potential Apple II user base
eager for
something like the IIGS, and Apple is simply ignoring this magnificent market
and telling them we don't want to sell you an Apple II we want to sell you
a Macintosh!
Santoro: I know exactly what you're talking about and going mail order
is what has been proposed. Our competitive advantage is the Macintosh ease
of use. We've taken that and expanded it and that's why Apple continues
to grow. You
have to remember now that the gui was reverse engineered and ported over
to the GS! (This is the head of the Apple II team talking here remember!)
Moore: The gui reverse engineered from the Mac to the GS... NOT!
Santoro: We just don't want to go after the competition with a 6502 or
816 vs a 386 or 486. We want to take the Mac, with a large supplier like
Motorola and continue to grow. The choice was made and this was the business
decision. (Again, this is the head of the II Continued Engineering Group
speaking!)
Moore: Wait! We're getting blown out of proportion here. I'm not making
reference to 6502 or 65816 technology vs Mac technology. That's a mismatch.
If you compare Mac technology to Cray technology then you'd have a case
for discontinuing the Mac. What I'm making reference to is the attitude
that Apple has taken toward the Apple II. Apple has given the II user a
(loud hand clap) slap in the face instead of extending a corporate hand
and telling them, "We'll help you over the bridge!"
Santoro: I'll have to disagree with you on that. Do you know how many
engineers were put on the Hypercard GS project? There were 20 to 50 engineers
on that project over the life of it. It took three years to complete it
and how many copies were sold? A few thousand at most. System 6 was a parallel
project and cost us just as much. We've made the superdrive card, the ethernet
card and the video overlay card, all to show the Apple II users that we
still support them. (Hypercard was given away free with Macs and remains
a lousy GS program. It also was a direct competitor with HyperStudio which
was already established!)
Kohn: Something's wrong here and users are really confused. Apple is
making all of these wonderful cards and peripherals, but they aren't showing
it to anyone. No one knows that they exist. You need to tell people what
you're doing and why you're doing it.
Santoro: That's a point well taken. OK, let me summarize this. What you
deem as ongoing support from Apple is 3 things. 1 A source for cards and
peripherals, etc. should my system break down. 2 Get me some software. Let
me walk into Egghead and see Apple II software. 3 Service my program. Given
these things, let people know about them.
Moore: Number 4, actively promote and market items 1,2, and 3.
Santoro: Here's what we've done on each of these items. We have a new
Apple II software newsletter. We're doing the next version at this very
moment. Previously it was available only through user groups, but now we're
going to take an ad out in inCider/A+ and make it available to everyone,
free of charge. No sales are involved in this we're giving developers a
free plug. We're spending all this money just for the sake of letting Apple
II users know we're still behind them.
Moore: Ah ha..! Heh, how goes Mac third party development these days?
Actually John, that's exactly what we don't want. If Apple doesn't make
money off of the II, it only serves to act as nails in the coffin and hasten
the system's demise.
Santoro: Let me just finish telling you what we're doing. Service: Service
is a big problem. You can't get it. All I can do is propose a PowerBook
type of program. Especially for schools because they have 75% of all the
Apple II's sold. Here's what I'll propose. A mail order service for Apple
II's. You put your system in a box and sent it to Apple. Three days later
you have your system back. We want to make peripherals available to the
direct public. If we can manage to break even then that will make the company
happy.
Moore: If you do this it's definitely a step in the right direction.
Santoro: Not *if*, we're doing it!
Kohn: From the viewpoint of inCider/A+, you'll probably be able to get
the space for free. What about Apple dealers? Can the dealer be sent something
so that if a user brings his system in to them and they can send it to Apple?
They can also give a copy of the catalog to people that are interested.
Livingston: Yes, the catalog is working. We only sent about a million
copies out and we've had very good response so far. People are anxious to
get them.
Santoro: About 8 million Apple II's have been sold since 1977. Approximately
25% of those are in people's homes. So we now have an installed base of
roughly 2 million Apple II users and 11 million Mac users that we want to
get the catalog to.
Garvey: Could you take that to the next step and have a second printing?
Apple: (In unison) YES, yes yes!
Kaupp: We most assuredly will. We want the dealers especially to have
them in stock. It would make their customers happy and also benefit them
if they don't have to maintain low profit additional inventory stock. They
want to sell Macs.
Lunatic: What I'd like to see would be for dealers to have a bunch of
cards with an 800 number on it to give to Apple II people. When the user
calls, he'd be able to get three things immediately. The software guide,
the catalog and the Apple II guide, all from that one number. Then his call
for service or maintenance would be handled.
Moore: John, you may know this. Rye, Ray, you may not. There's one primary
reason for the Apple II enduring as long as it has. Throughout the history
of Apple, it's been know as the friendly company. The company that was willing
to touch base with the little people while IBM was the beast or the orge
of the industry. IBMs belonged in the subterrain of huge corporations and
were servers etc. Believe what you will, if Apple loses this image and tries
to compete nose to nose with IBM in the corporate level, it will signal
the end of Apple, Inc. as the home computer specialist. The current trend
places Apple in the "Novation" mode if you know what I mean.
Santoro: Well your point is well taken but I don't think you'll see IBM
taking in user group members for the PC Jr. and telling them about how they're
going to continue support. I don't think you'll see Ford have a user group
meeting about 1977 Ford Fairlane buyers. (PC Jr's run DOS 5.0 too!)
Moore: An Apple IIGS is not a Ford Fairlane and cannot be compared to
one. Don't underestimate IBM. They've already stated that they intend to
market the home computerist because there's a lot of "Dead Soldiers"
on the field and that statement is aimed directly at the Apple II users
and educators that Apple, Inc. has cast aside already. These people aren't
buying Macs, they're switching platforms.
Diaz: What I trying to drive at, is there are other people out there
in the market, affiliated with user groups or not, that would like to do
things such as sell video overlay cards or super drives and the like.
APPLE: There are two great experiments with the catalog. One is the availability
of cpu's in the catalog. Great experiment number two is third party products
in the catalog. There's a small, and very select few, third party items
in there.
Diaz: Apple did this third party thing with the Apple3 long ago also.
The same identical thing and they sold everything with THEIR label on it.
Then they discontinued the cpu. People want to look at the catalog and buy
things. The dealerships don't want to be bothered with the Apple II or any
of its peripherals. They would be happy to give II users an 800 number,a
catalog and get them out of their stores. However, since I work in the mail
order business, I know that the people who *answer* at the 800 number will
not be able to give responses to technical questions about these items.
Since the dealerships or superstore clerks can't do it either, this leaves
the user groups as the next level for handling this task. We have a dealer
that willing to sell us System6 and SCSI cards, but they get paranoid that
someone here will step on them!
Garvey: That's the exact position that I'm in on the PC/Mac side of things.
It's still a viable business and there's still a living that can be earned
by reselling parts and providing service, maintenance, recommendations and
consultation to end users; and then purchasing and installing these things.
In the user group environment, they are more visible.
Moore: OK, there's another issue that I'm concerned about. I'm not Apple
bashing and I don't want to appear as a critic, but there is another large
cross section of users that think the Apple front office is infested with
morons and dimwits.
APPLE: Yea Ernie, go ahead and tell us what you really think of us. (Jovial
atmosphere!)
Moore: What these users are concerned about is the number of cpu's that
Apple releases, praises, then abandons. Count the number of Macs over the
past two or three years that are no longer in production.
Diaz: That's true. When someone buys a Mac, in the next month or two
another is released and their system is obsolete.
Garvey: Are you getting negative feedback on the amount of new cpu's
being introduced? I mean like the not-so-old cx's and ci's are all obsolete
now.
Santoro: I don't think there's a company on the face of the planet that
has gone further out of the way to insure compatibility. We haven't received
any feedback to that effect. (Seems evasive again eh!)
Moore: Perhaps you haven't, believe me it exists and in appreciable quantity!
Kaupp: I'm in the best position to receive feedback like that, and the
greatest issue at hand now is system software licensing. All of the feedback
that I've received about products is "Keep Pushing!"
Garvey: With the Apple II, when did you start to get that kind of production
feedback... '86-'87?
Santoro: The greatest dissent that we've received is from the man on
the street with a family and he wants to get his kids into the computer
age. He asks his kids what kind of computer they use in school and hears
"Apple II." Next he goes to the dealer and asks for the best Apple
II available. He gets a IIGS, takes it home, then he discovers that there's
a limited software base because developers that are into that intricate
type of programming are doing it for the Mac. (Something's wrong with that
scenario. The man goes to the dealer and the dealer isn't selling Apple
IIs at all... What's gone awry with that story?)
Garvey: I have at home a IIe, IIGS, Mac+ and a Mac SE. Using the SE is
really digressing!
Santoro: I have to attend another meeting. Are there any final questions
that you'd like to ask?
Moore: There is one question that I have. If Apple isn't going to market
or promote the Apple II, why can't it be opted out to a third party developer
or inaugurated into an affiliate company ala Claris?
Santoro: That's a point well taken. This has already been proposed to
Sculley himself and the answer was that we don't want to let the Apple logo
out of the company!
Moore: There has never been a Macintosh made with the name Apple associated
with it!
Santoro: (Laughing) That's not a point of argument. (Entire room laughs)
Keltner: We're producing some archivial chronicles and I was wondering
if we could have access to the original IIGS commercials? They were very
impressive.
Santoro: I don't know where they are but if you find them and get them
digitized, you're welcome to do it.
BAAUG: I think they're on Quicktime!
Santoro: In closing, the demand is so low right now for the IIGS, that
it's going to be dropped from the price list very soon. The IIe is fine
and will be continued. (There's a lot of mumbling throughout the room)
Lunatic: After System 6.0.1 and the Ethernet Card, will that be the last
that we'll see from Apple for the GS and how long will it be before it's
taken off of the price list?
Santoro: Probably before the end of the year. The Apple II Continued
Engineering Group is going to remain intact through the next fiscal year
and that's about a year from now as the fiscal year just started. Beyond
that is up to the company. I don't see any hardware beyond the Ethernet
card.
Garvey: Will there be any revisions to the Ethernet card because in reality,
it's an EtherTalk card?
Santoro: We're looking at putting TCIP on it because we see the text
based IIe's and IIc's in schools as being perfect for going into the Internet!
(After insignificant further chatter, the meeting ended!)
In reviewing of the information provided by Apple at this meeting, there
are many items unveiled which prior to meeting were rumors only. Statements
like, " We don't want users to think that we have two platforms ",
made by the head of the Apple II Continued Engineering Team give cause for
this reporter to peek between the lines and see the real picture.
In retrospecting the Apple II's history for the last 5 years, there are
events that occurred which give cause for raised eyebrows.
a) Shortly after the IIGS was released, the IIc+ was released and it
boasted a 4.5 mhz cpu compared to the state of the art GS which had a native
speed of 2.5 mhz.
b) Approximately 10 months after the IIGS and IIc+ were released, dealers
began telling customers that the Apple II had been discontinued by Apple,
Inc. and was no longer in production. The IIc+ was dropped from the price
list less than 1 year after it was announced.
c) 18 months after the GS was released, mysteriously software developers
terminated GS projects they were working on. Many of them were near completion.
Is, WHY a question or an answer?
d) A User Group Connection coordinator stated at the meeting, "We
don't want to sell people Apple II's, we want to support the existing Apple
II user base!" When asked, "Why isn't Apple, Inc. pushing for
Apple II sales?", the Apple representatives never gave an answer either
directly or indirectly. The standard comment of, "The 65xxx cpu is
old technology!" was always offered as the response. Yet the 65xxx
cpu is thriving in other cpu's!
Apple would have us believe that only 25% of all Apple II's sold since
1977 are in homes and the 75% balance are in schools. Using those figures,
there have been approximately 1.37 million Apple II's sold to users as the
computer of choice in their homes since 1977. I recall reading an article
in the 1985 era, where 15 million Apple II's had been sold *then* and 40%
were in peoples home as the computer of choice.
This reporter would like to know why a major corporation such as Apple
Computer cannot support two product lines, being the Apple II and the Macintosh.
This reporter would also like to know why a major corporation such as Apple,
Inc., having a tremendous installed user base with the Apple II, would elect
to proceed with a poorly planned program of elimination of that massive
fertile market at the apex of it's popularity. Assuredly it was not done
for the financial welfare of the company as sales of the IIGS were far beyond
promising and the profit margin was lucrative.
Realizing that there is no logical answer to these many strange occurrences;
and that the advent of them all began with the changeover in the high office,
there is one solitary explanation that may be extracted. It may be summarized
with a single word... " EGOTISM!" This reporter charges that the
CEO of Apple Computer, Inc. has a fanatical craving to compete with the
legend of the past CEO of Chrysler Motors. (Can't touch Lee, you rascal!)
This twisted thinking mandates that the name *WOZNIAC* be expunged from
the minds of the masses as that name automatically invokes images of the
Apple II. (Can't touch Steve either, dude!) This twisted thinking also mandates
that the name Macintosh be established as *THE* Apple computer. Yet the
name Apple is never affiliated with the Macintosh, only the logo!
Now comes the anticipated closed chapter for the, umm, gentleman. At
the meeting the head of the Apple II Continued Engineering Group disclosed
that the IIGS would be taken off of the price list before the end of 1992,
and that the IIe would remain because of the K-12 commitment. The reasoning
for this action was that the assembly lines could be used to produce PowerBooks
which are apparently in high demand.
This reporter poses this question to all who read these lines: Why can't
a corporation as large as Apple Computer, Inc. think in terms of company
growth and expansion, improve the capability of the 65816, market it with
enthusiasm as other 65xxx based systems do and enjoy the success?
If you have not read the transcripts of the meeting, please do so. Read
it all as it's not that long. Pass it on. There's only one way to stop the
systematic murder of the Apple II, SUPPORT IT! Support it with testimonials;
support it with word of mouth praise for the system to prospective first
time buyers; support it by developing software and hardware for it; support
it by demanding to see II cpu's and peripherals in Apple dealerships; support
it by demanding that Apple, Inc. display Apple II's in their catalogs; support
it by demanding that Apple, Inc. market it with enthusiasm. This is the
only way to protect your investment. This is the only way to drive a stake
through the heart of the one that Bram Stoker REALLY wrote his novel about!
I encourage responses to the transcripts of Project Apple Storm. With
enough interest from the end user base, assuredly Project Apple Storm II
will take place and this time with the voice of the masses behind us. Please
spread the transcripts of PAS to each and every online service in existence.
As was once most eloquently stated, "the Apple II isn't dead yet, but
it appears that it's terminal." We're going to be the surgeons that
bring the near dead to glorious and blissful life.
Contacts:
Future Net: User #1@#9
Oggnet: User #8@Valhalla
AOL: EPM BAAUG
GEnie: Contact Mike Garvey or Lunatic and ask them to forward responses
to me.
o Apple wanted to do a IIGS Card for the Mac LC, and looked into it, but
found that they couldn't make one for less than the cost of the Mac itself.
o Apple will not license the Apple II ROMs to a third party for three major
reasons:
I. It is proprietary technology.
II. Apple is now has a competing product to the Apple II, the Mac LC.
III. The Apple logo must be licensed with the ROMs. Any action that
a third party takes while using the Apple logo reflects on Apple Computer,
Inc., whether good or bad. This is unacceptable.
o No new Apple II hardware is expected to be developed by Apple Computer,
Inc. after the Apple II Ethernet card is released.
o System software tweaks such as printer drivers for new Apple printers
are expected to continue. One large thrust will be continued network and
printer compatibility.
o HyperCard GS and Apple IIGS System Software 6.0 were done partially to
give Apple IIGS users "a taste of the Mac" in the hope that they
would eventually migrate to that platform.
o Apple is actively investigating a PowerBook-style mail-in service plan
for all Apple II users.
o The much-rumored "ROM 4" Apple IIGS was to have the following
features: Built-in 40MB hard drive, built-in SuperDrive, 2 Meg RAM, System
6.0 tools in ROM, DMA SCSI port, HyperCard GS bundled with the machine.
It would have retained the 2.8 Mhz processor speed of the previous versions
of the IIGS.
o Part of the delay in the development and release of System 6.0 was because
of the cancellation of the "ROM 4."
o A re-engineered Apple IIGS was investigated, solely to lower production
costs (continued production could be justified for a longer time with lower
costs) but it never even got past the idea stage.
Project Apple Storm - Apple Retaliates
I received a telephone call from an Apple employee (a few days ago),
the name will remain anonymous as he would probably deny it anyway.
I was told that I was really in trouble because I had broken the law
by releasing the transcripts of a private meeting. I was also told that
the legal staff at ACI was looking into what action to take at this point.
The caller felt that I had violated the sanctity of the hallowed halls of
the meeting room and using his own words, "Things are really going
on here as a result of your releasing that CRAP to the Internet and GEnie!"
The caller raved on about why didn't I let them, (Apple), review the
transcripts prior to releasing them and that having a tape recorder present
at the meeting was also a violation of the law. He continually stressed
my not knowing how much trouble I was really in! He stated that the transcripts
made it appear that the User Group Connection and John Santoro did not care
about the Apple end users.
My response to him was that:
a). I made my intentions known when the meeting began by stating that
we didn't want to be a part of non-disclosures as our intent was to make
our users aware of the status of the Apple II.
b). I told him that the contents of the transcripts were exactly what
took place at the meeting and that all remarks enclosed within the ()'s
were editorial comments.
c). I informed him that as I interpreted the transcripts, the User Group
Connection; and John Santoro; and Apple, Inc. in general, did not care about
APPLE II END USERS other than the those in the K-12 areas.
The caller went on to accuse me of being an idiot in making reference
to the egotism of the Apple CEO and that by my doing this, most people would
envision me as a stupid individual to publically make such a statement.
In the mind of this reporter, that catagory must have struck a nerve
somewhere in the Cupertino high office! I informed the caller that I felt
that I had done the correct thing in reporting the condition of the Apple
II to the public. I lashed him a little for making demeaning remarks about
my person and told him to let the general public make their own conclusions
about my intellectual level.
SUMMARY: It's somewhat gratifying to know that the transcripts produced
a response from Apple. What could prove interesting would be for them to
get their legal staff actively involved. Think of the glorious publicity
that the Apple II would receive.
Super BASIC
by Dennis McClain-Furmanski
In the early days of the GS, the development team at Apple came up with
a BASIC language based on AppleSoft, but designed to handle the extended
capabilities of the GS. This GS BASIC was welcomed, although severely criticized
for its limitations. As one would expect in a world where The Road Apple
exists, Apple chose to drop support of the language in favor of expensive
and arcane programming languages out of the reach and ability of most users.
After all, the age of the Hacker had come and gone; we were now to be forced
in the role of Users unless we could afford to pay for the privilege of
being Developers.
Instead, the development team came out with other enhancements like newer
System software, 640 mode graphics, etc. Those of us with long standing
backgrounds in running the ][, including any level of programming in AppleSoft,
were stuck with precisely the same capabilities we had with our IIe's and
IIc's. And so things remained for some time.
In recent years, several developers have produced extensions to and replacements
for Apple's BASIC, every one of them an improvement, and virtually all for
a reasonable price. I've sampled many of these, and have always been pleased.
But lately I've sampled yet another, and for the first time been truly excited.
Matt Wachowski of Holly, Michigan has released version 4.0 of his Super
BASIC. It is a set of extensions to AppleSoft, using many ampersand augmented
commands which call the various toolsets in the system to accomplish those
things which the tools make so much easier.. (AppleSoft was originally designed
so that the & sign could be used as a prefix to commands that one wished
to add to BASIC, by causing the program to jump to the place in memory that
the & referred to, this place holding the instructions that the command
represented.)
Matt's program gives you the capability to draw directly in 320 or 640
mode graphics, not only lines, but boxes, circles, arcs and such, and with
automatic fill-in for the solids. Colors can be either the normal pure colors
provided, or "dithered" colors, giving you the ability to use
up to 256 colors at a time.
There are commands for loading in super-hi-res pictures, using fades.
Also, sound capabilities are provided, allowing you to include digitized
sounds in your programs. Special graphics oriented commands allow you to
do many of the functions found in paint programs, have up to 26 independently
mobile shapes moving on the screen, and create powerful shape tables for
your animations.
With some of the other additions provided by this program, you can access
mouse control, GS system speed, the built in GS clock, and even mix text
and graphics on the super-hi-res screen.
Not as easily done, but still available and documented, is the ability
to create your own commands. These require the knowledge and use of 16 bit
machine language programming, but with this you can extend the capabilities
of BASIC to almost anything that you can write a program for the GS to run.
This program is surprisingly shareware. I say surprisingly because it
is as good as any of the commercial programs of this type which have been
or are now available. For $15.00, you get all the power I've covered here,
and more. The startup section of the language includes several demos and
games showing what can be done with the language. Just the games (one AND
two player, arcade and educational) would have been worth the money. When
you do send in your money, you receive even more extensions to the language,
as well as any newer versions.
The documentation is clear and filled with examples, although it tends
to sound a bit techie, and runs a total of 85 K when converted to AppleWorks
file format (it comes as text and as AppleWorks GS format). All pertinent
and useful, with no wasted space; one of those documents designed to be
used rather than read.
I heartily recommend this program to everyone interested in accessing
the capabilities of their GS under their own control. Although you might
currently be able to get more control out of one of the GS specific Pascal
or C packages, learning how would take much longer to learn. And if you
have experience with AppleSoft already, you have all the experience needed
to jump right into making this program work for you.
For this excellent piece of work, and for the support of the GS which
it represents, Puckey sends a tip of the Road Apple hat to:
Matt Wachowski
4153 Belford Road
Holly, Mi 48442
=====
Subscription Info
by Al Martin
Because of current banking regulations, I need to request that those
of you who are renewing your subscriptions to please make your checks out
to me personally. Do not write "The Road Apple" as the payee;
instead, write "Al Martin" as the payee. Sorry for any inconvenience,
but my local banker is insistent on the change.
Thank you for your cooperation.
Applied Engineering Fumbles
From the Apple Echo
Edited by Al Martin
(Ed. note: During the AppleFests of years gone by, Applied Engineering had
the most spectacular displays with lots of people, bells and whistles. The
company was also the largest advertiser Apple II magazines. For some reason,
I never bought one of their products and, as things have turned out, I'm
happy with that decision. I don't know; there was just something about the
company that bothered me at the time.)
From R.H. to E.H.
16-Jan-93 04:13PM
(quoting E.H.)
I'd be really interested in knowing what experience(s) you've had that
have made you so vigorously anti-AE.
(R.H. replies)
AE Products I have owned:
# AE power supplies. Made in Taiwan to be the best in the world.
# TransWarp. Worked until I sold it, but my Zip Chip was a better product.
# Phasor. Died of busted trace: partly my fault, partly a design flaw
(shouldn't put such thin wires so close to the card edge).
# RAMWorks 512K. Did work for me, but is currently causing strange problems
for the fellow I sold it to.
# DataLink 1200. Died for no apparent reason.
# Sonic Blaster. Blew a chip for no apparent reason, lost channel A.
This is not why I consider AE a dishonorable company. When I had a problem
with AE's ProDrive ramdisk software, my phone calls to tech support were
met with:
1) Unanswered phones for long periods of time.
2) Busy signals for long periods of time -- immediately after 1). They took
the phone off the hook.
3) Lies. They claimed that not only did I have the latest version of the
software but that they hadn't updated it in some time. I found later that
there were far later versions, which would explain why nobody else had reported
a problem with the preserve-the-RAMdisk option in Beagle's AW Companion
(it's a shame I didn't buy ProSel earlier; Glen Bredon's ramdisk driver
was compatible). This is not why I consider AE a dishonorable company.
AE now charges $1.50 a minute for "support" of the above variety.
This is not why I consider AE a dishonorable company.
AE is dishonorable for a combination of the above plus arrogance. The
arrogance to assert that the charges were to prevent the tech lines being
tied up by people calling up to chat about things other than AE product
problems. The arrogance to dismiss problems as unequivocally "user
related" when presented with direct evidence to the contrary (as recorded
in A2-Central). The arrogance to charge premium prices for products and
services that are no better than any others (and have short warranty periods
to boot), fail to provide premium support, and then say "But where
would you be without us?" to those who point this out.
AE is not getting any more of my money.
From H.T. to B.A.
22-Jan-93 08:56AM
(quoting B.A.)
If I were to exert my authority as emperor of the universe on AE I would
allow them to keep the AE number but with certain restrictions: They would
have to answer mail. They would be required to give quick and accurate responses
to the paying customer, and any calls that result in a
RMA for a piece of equipment under warranty would be refunded to the customer.
Until AE does do all the above I will have to agree that their degree of
honor is somewhere between Al Capone and Richard Nixon.
(H.T. replies)
Sorry I still think that a 900# for tech or any support, for that matter,
is a crock! If they intend to have a 900# then they should have it for all
products the make not JUST THE APPLE II stuff. Besides if the main complaint
is people calling to shoot the fat on AE's dime then just make it a plain
jane phone number and let people pay regular LD charges to the phone company.
But this charging me just because I own a Apple II and bought something
from them is crap.
From S.S. to B.A.
23-Jan-93 09:52PM
(quoting B.A.)
I had the same feeling you did when they first came out with the 900-number
policy until I spoke with Drew Vogan of CVTech and got the manufacturer's
side of the story. He told me how many people simply call him up to essentially
chew the fat or to ask questions that are easily read in the...
(S.S. replies)
That might happen with smaller companies like CVTech, but AE can't use
that as an excuse; nobody calls up a major company like AE just to chew
the fat! They call because they have a question and need support; whether
it's a question whose answer lies in the manual or a more complex one, a
company like AE is obligated to provide reasonable customer support. I could
see if their products were super-cheap, then I guess they could justify
having a 900 number, but their products have always been on the more expensive
side!
(quoting B.A.)
...manual. However, be that as it may, there are 900-numbers and there are
900-numbers. My own experience is that AE is using it strictly as a cash
cow. I...
(S.S. replies)
That's exactly what they're doing, and it is shameful! Take a company
like Sega of America... you can probably imagine how many people buy one
of their products, take it home, and due to lack of common knowledge of
electronics, they are unable to set their system up. I know this happens,
because Sega's tech support line is always flooded with calls (I had to
call several times this month because of problems I was having with my Sega
CD unit), and their line is an 800 number. And Sega's just one of hundreds
of companies--whose phone lines are just as busy, if not busier, than AE's--
that provide free support. AE is so cheap, even their SALES line is not
free, it's area code 214!! GOD, I hate AE!
Tech Stuff
by Dennis McClain-Furmanski
One of the more frequent problems to occur with the otherwise superbly
trouble-free Apple systems is in the monitor. The green saturation problem
I reported on earlier is one of the less frequent. More troublesome is a
general darkening of the screen over time, as well as chronic fuzziness.
Luckily, these are usually both easily solved. Both problems are related
to the high voltage transformer, that part which boosts the voltage to the
CRT (or picture tube, for us older users of electronic wundermachina) to
where it can toss the electrons from the "gun", all the way to
the phosphors on the screen. Keep in mind that since we are dealing with
this device, we are working with thousands of volts -- enough to seriously
fry the unwary. Please exercise due caution, such as plastic handled, if
not entirely plastic, tools. And for goodness sake, don't touch anything
you're not entirely sure what it's for.
With the back off of your monitor, follow the large wire from the "bellybutton"
on the top of the CRT, down to the large plastic device seated in the rear
right (as you look at the back of the CRT). This large device is the high
voltage transformer, also known as the "flyback".
Facing the rear, you'll see two stems. One is marked "focus".
This is the adjustment for those monitors with fuzzy pictures. Only adjust
this as much as necessary to bring the picture into sharp focus -- any more
puts undue strain on the rest of the system.
The other stem will be marked "HI-V" or "bright"
or something similar. This is the adjustment for pictures that have become
too dark. Again, only turn it up as much as necessary, and make sure you've
adjusted the brightness control on the side of the monitor to its center
setting first.
Obviously, both of these need to be done with the back off and the monitor
on. THIS IS A DANGEROUS SITUATION. I strongly urge you to prop a mirror
in front of the screen, so you can see your adjustments take effect without
having to stretch around to see the screen while your hands are out of sight
inside the guts.
Now, that wasn't so hard, was it?
Unhappily, there are going to be a few of those whose machines will not
give acceptable pictures no matter how much they're adjusted. If the full
range of both of these (and do try adjusting both if one doesn't finish
the job) doesn't help enough, you'll probably need a new flyback. As is
their usual custom, Apple dealers will only replace the entire insides,
not just the part that's defective. But, virtually any trained TV technician
can do the job, and you can help them find the part. Armed with the numbers
on the flyback, you can get a replacement from the following folks:
MCM Electronics
650 Congress Park Drive
Centerville, OH 45459-4072
(800) 543-4330
Flyback Mfg# Order # Price
--------------------------------------
Apple A9M308 FC1412E03 83-1035 $42.00
Apple MT 157-004B/C 83-1040 $22.50
Apple Mac 157-0026B 33-980 $33.80
Another frequent question encountered on the various online networks
involves connecting old but still serviceable Disk II drives to daisy-chained
drives such as the AppleDisk 3.5 or the newer AppleDisk 5.25. I've saved
and used the following adapter instructions. Much less dangerous than monitor
repairs, but also quite confusing to the casual wire-whacker. I suggest
you employ the help of a more experienced cable hacker if you're not comfortable
with the idea of twenty wires that must all be connected properly in a very
tiny space.
Parts needed:
1 IDP 20 plug
1 DB 19 pin male connector
A length of 20 conductor ribbon cable
To build the adapter cable, get one IDP-20 socket, one DB-19 plug, and
a piece of 20 conductor ribbon cable. The IDP 20 will have to be the female,
with the holes for the 20 pins, and the DB-19 will be the male, with the
pins protruding from inside the plug hood. Connect the connectors as shown.
IDP-20 pins DB-19 pins
1 GND-----------> 1 GND
2 PHASE 0-------> 11 PHASE A
3 GND-----------> 2 GND
4 PHASE 1-------> 12 PHASE B
5 GND-----------> 3 GND
6 PHASE 2-------> 13 PHASE C
7 GND-----------> 4 GND
8 PHASE 3-------> 14 PHASE D
9 -12 V---------> 5 -12V
10 WRITE REQ-----> 15 WRITE REQ
11 +5V-----------> 6 +5V
12 +5V-----------> 6 +5V
13 +12-----------> 7 +12V
14 DRIVE ENABLE--> 17 Drive 1 or 9 for drive 2 on GS
15 +12V----------> 7 +12V
16 READ DATA-----> 18 READ DATA
17 +12V----------> 8 +12V
18 WRITE DATA----> 19 WRITE DATA
19 +12V----------> 8 +12V
20 WRITE PROTECT-> 10 WRITE PROTECT
16 NOT CONNECTED
One reliable source I've found for male DB19 connectors is JDR Micro
Devices 800-538-5000 or 408-866-6200.
I find it's easiest to connect the IDP connector to the ribbon cable
first then soldering the various wires to the DB19. (Explains why I laid
out the list the way I did doesn't it?).
Once the cable is made, connect the IDP connector to the twenty pin connector
on your Disk II, taking care that pin 1 of the plug connects to pin 1 of
the drive connector.
!!!!Failure to do this will destroy your motherboard!!!!
These cables can be tricky and tedious to make. Be very careful and check
all connections thoroughly. It's easy to mix them up. It is usually best
to have someone else check the cable for the proper connections, since they
will usually catch mistakes you might miss. To be safe ohm out the connections
or use a continuity tester.
I can accept no responsibility for incorrectly made cables.
Layout of IDP 20
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17
_____________====_____________
| o o o o o o o o o o |
| o o o o o o o o o o |
|______________________________|
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 20
Pin one is marked with an arrow imprinted in the plastic on the side
of the connector..
Layout of DB19
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
_______________________________
\ . . . . . . . . . . /
\ . . . . . . . . . /
\ _________________________ /
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
The pins are numbered on the plastic matrix that holds the pins or holes
for the pins.
APPLE II HISTORY
Compiled and written by Steven Weyhrich
(C) Copyright 1991, Zonker Software
(PART 7 -- THE APPLE IIE)
PRELUDE: THE APPLE III PROJECT
As we continue our travels examining the history of the Apple II, let's
fine tune the time-machine card on our souped-up Apple II to concentrate
specifically on the next version of the II, the IIe. As before, just accelerate
the microprocessor speed to 88 MHz, and watch out for the digital fire-trails!
Destination: 1982.
Between the years 1979 and 1983, although no new versions of the Apple
II were released, it enjoyed a broad popularity and annually increasing
sales. The open architecture of the computer, with its fully described hardware
and firmware function via the Reference Manual, made it appealing both to
hardware and software hackers. Third-party companies designed cards to plug
into the internal slots, and their function varied from making it possible
to display and use 80-column text, to clocks and cards allowing the Apple
II to control a variety of external devices. During this time there was
also an explosion of new software written for this easily expandable machine,
from the realm of business (VisiCalc and other spreadsheet clones), to utilities,
to games of all types. Each month a host of new products would be available
for those who wanted to find more things to do with their computer, and
the Apple II was finding a place in the home, the classroom, and the office.
At Apple Computer, Inc., however, the Apple II was not viewed with the
same degree of loyalty. By September 1979 the Apple II had continued to
be a sales leader. However, few at Apple believed that the II could continue
to be a best seller for more than another year or two. Since Apple Computer,
Inc. was a business, and not just a vehicle for selling the Apple II computer,
they began to enlarge the engineering department to begin designing new
products.<1> These new design efforts had begun as far back as late
1978. Their first effort was an enhanced Apple II that used some custom
chips, but that project was never finished. They also began work on a different,
more powerful computer that would use several identical microprocessor chips
sharing tasks. The main advantage would be speed, and the ability to do
high precision calculations. This computer was code-named Lisa, and because
it was such a revolutionary type of design, they knew it would take many
years to come to actual production. Because of the power it was to have,
Apple executives felt that Lisa was the future of the company.<2>,<14>
Because they knew that the Lisa project would take a long time to complete,
and because the Apple II was perceived to have only a short remaining useful
life as a product, they began a new computer project called the Apple III.
Instead of building upon the Apple II as a basis for this new computer,
they decided to start from scratch. Also, although Wozniak made most of
the design decisions for the II, a committee at Apple decided what capabilities
the Apple III should have. They decided that the Apple III was to be a business
machine, and not have the home or arcade-game reputation that the II had.
It was to have a full upper/lowercase keyboard and display, 80-column text,
and a more comprehensive operating system. They also decided that since
it would be a while before many application programs would be available
for this new computer, it should be capable of running existing Apple II
software. In some ways this handicapped the project, since it was then necessary
to use the same microprocessor and disk drive hardware as was use in the
Apple II.<3>
Apple executives also decided that with the introduction of the Apple
III they wanted a clear separation between it and the Apple II in regards
to marketing. They did not want ANY overlap between the two. The III would
be an 80-column business machine and was predicted to have ninety percent
of the market, while the Apple II would be a 40-column home and school machine
and would have ten percent of the market. Apple's executives were confident
that after the release of the Apple III, the Apple II would quickly lose
its appeal.<4>
Because of their desire for a strong and distinct product separation,
the Apple II emulation mode designed into the Apple III was very limited.
The engineers actually ADDED hardware chips that prevented access to the
III's more advanced features from Apple II emulation mode. Apple II emulation
couldn't use 80 columns, and had access to only 48K memory and none of the
better graphics modes. As a result, it wouldn't run some of the better Apple
II business software, during a time when there wasn't much NEW business
software for the Apple III.
The Apple III engineers were given a one year target date for completion.
It was ready for release in the spring of 1980, but there were problems
with both design and manufacturing. (It was the first time that Apple as
a company tried to come out with a new product; the Apple II had been designed
and built by Wozniak when he WAS the engineering department). The first
Apple III computers were plagued with nearly 100% defects and had to be
recalled for fixes. Although Apple took the unprecedented step of repairing
all of the defective computers at no charge, they never recovered the momentum
they lost with that first misstep, and the III did not become the success
Apple needed it to be.<3>
Although all of the bugs and limitations of the Apple III were eventually
overcome, and it became the computer of choice within Apple, it did not
capture the market as they had hoped. At that point, they weren't sure exactly
what to do with the II. They had purposely ignored and downplayed it for
the four years since the II Plus was released, although without its continued
strong sales they would not have lasted as a company. In a 1985 interview
in Byte magazine, Steve Wozniak stated:
"When we came out with the Apple III, the engineering staff cancelled
every Apple II engineering program that was ongoing, in expectation of the
Apple III's success. Every single one was cancelled. We really perceived
that the Apple II would not last six months. So the company was almost all
Apple III people, and we worked for years after that to try and tell the
world how good the Apple III was, because we KNEW [how good it was] ...
If you looked at our advertising and R&D dollars, everything we did
here was done first on the III, if it was business related. Then maybe we'd
consider doing a sub-version on the II. To make sure there was a good boundary
between the two machines, anything done on the II had to be done at a lower
level than on the III. Only now are we discovering that good solutions can
be implemented on the II ... We made sure the Apple II was not allowed to
have a hard disk or more than 128K of memory. At a time when outside companies
had very usable schemes for adding up to a megabyte of memory, we came out
with a method of adding 64K to an Apple IIe, which was more difficult to
use and somewhat limited. We refused to acknowledge any of the good 80-column
cards that were in the outside world--only ours, which had a lot of problems."<4>
Wozniak went on in that interview to say that at one time he had written
some fast disk routines for the Pascal system on the Apple II, and was criticized
by the Apple III engineers. They didn't think that anything on the II should
be allowed to run faster than on a III. That was the mindset of the entire
company at the time.
Apple has been much maligned for the attention they gave the Apple III
project, while suspending all further development on the Apple II. They
pegged their chances for the business market in 1980 on the Apple III. Even
Steve Wozniak had stated in another interview, "We'd have sold tons
of [computers in the business market] if we'd have let the II evolve ...
to become a business machine called the III instead of developing a separate,
incompatible computer. We could have added the accessories to make it do
the business functions that the outside world is going to IBM for."<3>
Part of the problem was the immaturity of the entire microcomputer industry
at the time. There had NEVER been a microcomputer that had sold well for
more than a couple of years before it was replaced by a more powerful model,
usually from another company. The Altair 8800 and IMSAI had fallen to the
more popular and easier to use Apple II and TRS-80 and Commodore PET, as
well as other new machines based on the Intel 8080 and 8088 processors.
It is entirely understandable that Apple's attitude between 1978 and 1980
would be of panic and fear that they wouldn't get a new computer out in
time to keep their market share and survive as a company. However, during
the entire time when Apple was working on the III as a computer to carry
the company through until Lisa would be ready, and during the entire time
that the Apple II was ignored by its own company, it continued to quietly
climb in sales. It is a credit to both the ingenuity of Wozniak in his original
design, and to the users of the Apple II in THEIR ingenuity at finding new
uses for the II, that its value increased and stimulated yet more new sales.
The Apple II "beat" the odds of survival that historically were
against it.
THE APPLE IIE: BEGINNINGS
When Apple saw that the sales on the Apple II were NOT going to dwindle
away, they finally decided to take another look at it. The first new look
at advancing the design of the II was with a project called "Diana"
in 1980. Diana was intended primarily to be an Apple II that had fewer internal
components, and would be less expensive to build. The project was later
known as "LCA", which stood for "Low Cost Apple". Inside
Apple this meant a lower cost of manufacturing, but outsiders who got wind
of the project thought it meant a $350 Apple II. Because of that misconception,
the final code name for the updated Apple II was "Super II", and
lasted until its release.<5>
THE APPLE IIE: HARDWARE
Part of the IIe project grew out of the earlier work on custom integrated
circuits for the Apple II. When they finally decided to go ahead and improve
the design by adding new features, one of the original plans was to give
the Apple II an 80-column text display and a full upper/lowercase keyboard.
Walt Broedner at Apple did much of the original hardware planning, and was
one of those at Apple who pushed for the upgrade in the first place. To
help maintain compatibility with older 40-column software (which often addressed
the screen directly for speed), he decided to make 80-columns work by mirroring
the older 40 column text screen onto a 1K memory space parallel to it, with
the even columns in main memory and the odd columns in this new "auxiliary"
memory. To display 80-column text would require switching between the two
memory banks. Broedner realized that with little extra effort he could do
the same for the entire 64K memory space and get 128K of bank-switchable
memory. They put this extra memory (the 1K "80-column card, or a 64K
"extended 80-column card") in a special slot called the "auxiliary"
slot that replaced slot 0 (the 16K Language Card was going to be a built-in
feature). The 80-column firmware routines were mapped to slot 3, since that
was a location commonly used by people who bought 80-column cards for their
Apple II's, and was also the place where the Apple Pascal system expected
to find an external terminal. The auxiliary slot also supplied some special
video signals, and was used during manufacture for testing on the motherboard.
The engineers that worked on the IIe tried hard to make sure that cards
designed for the II and II Plus would work properly in the new computer.
They even had to "tune" the timing on the IIe to be slightly OFF
(to act more like the II Plus) because the Microsoft CP/M Softcard refused
to function properly with the new hardware. A socket was included on the
motherboard for attaching a numeric keypad, a feature that many business
users had been adding (with difficulty) to the II Plus for years. The full
keyboard they designed was very similar to the one found on the Apple III,
including two unique keys that had first appeared with the III--one with
a picture of an hollow apple ("open-apple") and the other with
the same apple picture filled in ("solid-apple"). These keys were
electrically connected to buttons 0 and 1 on the Apple paddles or joystick.
They were available to software designers as modifier keys when pressed
with another key; for example, open-apple-H could be programmed to call
up a "help" screen. The newer electronics of the keyboard also
made it easier to manufacture foreign language versions of the Apple IIe.<6>
Overall, Broedner and Peter Quinn (the design manager for the IIe and
later the IIc projects) and their team managed to decrease the number of
components on the motherboard from over one hundred to thirty-one, while
adding to the capabilities of the computer by the equivalent of another
hundred components.
THE APPLE IIE: FIRMWARE
Peter Quinn had to beg for someone to help write the firmware revisions
to the Monitor and Applesoft for the IIe. He finally got Rich Auricchio,
who had been a hacker on the Apple II almost from the beginning. Quinn said
in a later interview, "You cannot get someone to write firmware for
this machine unless he's been around for three or four years. You have to
know how to get through the mine field [of unofficial but commonly used
entry points]. He [Rick] was extremely good. He added in all the 80-column
and Escape-key stuff." Quinn also got Bryan Stearns to work on the
new Monitor.<6>,<7>
Changes were made in the ROMs to support the new bank-switching modes
made necessary by having two parallel 64K banks of RAM memory. To have enough
firmware space for these extra features, the engineers increased the size
of the available ROM by making IT bank-switched. This space was taken from
a location that had previously not been duplicated before--the memory locations
used by cards in the slots on the motherboard. Ordinarily, if you use the
Monitor to look at the slot 1 memory locations from $C100 through $C1FF,
you get either random numbers (if the slot is empty), or the bytes that
made up the controller program on that card. Any card could also have the
space from $C800 through $CFFF available for extra ROM code if they needed
it. If a card in a slot did a read or write to memory location $CFFF, the
$C800-$CFFF ROM that belonged to that card would appear in that space in
the Apple II memory. When another card was working, then ITS version of
that space would appear. On the IIe, they made a special soft-switch that
would switch OUT all the peripheral cards from the memory, and switch IN
the new expanded ROM on the motherboard. The firmware in the new bank-switched
ROM space was designed to avoid being needed by any card in a slot (to avoid
conflicts), and much of it was dedicated to making the 80-column display
(mapped to slot 3) work properly.
Also added were enhancements to the ESC routines used to do screen editing.
In addition to the original ESC A, B, C, and D, and the ESC I, J, K, and
M added with the Apple II Plus, Auricchio added the ability to make the
ESC cursor moves work with the left and right arrow keys, and the new up
and down arrow keys. The new IIe ROM also included a self-test that was
activated by pressing both apple keys, the control key, and RESET simultaneously.<5>
THE APPLE IIE: SUCCESS
The new Apple IIe turned out to be quite profitable for Apple. Not only
was it more functional than the II Plus for a similar price, but the cost
to the dealers selling it was about three times the cost of manufacture.
They had gotten their "Low Cost Apple", and by May of 1983 the
Apple IIe was selling sixty to seventy thousand units a month, over twice
the average sales of the II Plus. Christmas of 1983 saw the IIe continue
to sell extremely well, partly resulting from the delayed availability of
the new IBM PCjr. Even after the Apple IIc was released in 1984, IIe sales
continued beyond those of the IIc, despite the IIc's built-in features.<8>
THE APPLE IIE: MODIFICATIONS
Early Apple IIe motherboard's were labelled as "Revision A".
Engineers determined soon after its introduction that if the same use of
parallel memory was applied to the hi-res graphics display as was done with
the text display, they could create higher density graphics. These graphics,
which they called "double hi-res", also had the capability of
displaying a wider range of colors, similar to those available with the
original Apple II lo-res graphics. The IIe motherboards with the necessary
modifications to display these double hi-res graphics were labelled "Revision
B", and a softswitch was assigned to turning on and off the new graphics
mode.
Later versions of the IIe motherboards were again called "Revision
A" (for some reason), although they HAD been modified for double hi-res
graphics. The difference between the two "Revision A" boards was
that the latter had most of the chips soldered to the motherboard. An original
"Revision A" board that had been changed to an Enhanced IIe was
not necessarily able to handle double hi-res, since the change to the Enhanced
version involved only a four-chip change to the motherboard, but not the
changes to make double hi-res possible.<9>
THE APPLE IIE: THE ENHANCED IIE
This version of the Apple IIe was introduced in March of 1985. It involved
changes to make the IIe more closely compatible with the Apple IIc and II
Plus. The upgrade consisted of four chips that were swapped in the motherboard:
The 65c02 processor, with more assembly language opcodes, replaced the 6502;
two more chips with Applesoft and Monitor ROM changes; and the fourth a
character generator ROM that included graphics characters (first introduced
on the IIc) called "MouseText". The Enhanced IIe ROM changes fixed
most of the known problems with the IIe 80-column firmware, and made it
possible to enter Applesoft and Monitor commands in lower-case. The older
80-column routines were slower than most software developers wanted, they
disabled interrupts for too long a time, and there were problems in making
Applesoft work properly with the 80-column routines. These problems were
solved with the newer ROMs.
Monitor changes also included a return of the mini-assembler, absent
since the days of Integer BASIC. It was activated by entering a "!"
command in the Monitor, instead of a jump to a memory location as in the
older Apple ][. Also added were an "S" command was added to make
it possible to search memory for a byte sequence, and the ability to enter
ASCII characters directly into memory. However, the "L" command
to disassemble 6502 code still did not handle the new 65c02 opcodes as did
the IIc disassembler. Interrupt handling was also improved. Applesoft
was fixed to let commands such as GET, HTAB, TAB, SPC, and comma tabbing
work properly in 80-column mode. The new MouseText characters caused a
problem for some older programs at first, until they were upgraded; characters
previously displayed as inverse upper-case would sometimes display as MouseText
instead.<10>,<11>
THE APPLE IIE: THE PLATINUM IIE
This version of the IIe, introduced in January 1987, had a keyboard that
was the same as the IIGS keyboard, but the RESET key was moved above the
ESC and "1" keys (as on the IIc), and the power light was above
the "/" on the included numeric keypad (the internal numeric keypad
connector was left in place). The CLEAR key on the keypad generated the
same character as the ESC key, but with a hardware modification it could
generate a Ctrl-X as it did on the IIGS. The motherboard had 64K RAM in
only two chips (instead of the previous eight), and one ROM chip instead
of two. An "extended 80-column card" with 64K extra memory was
included in all units sold, and was smaller than previous versions of that
memory card.
No ROM changes were made. The old shift-key modification was installed,
making it possible for programs to determine if the shift-key was being
pressed. However, if using a game controller that actually used the third
push-button (where the shift-key mod was internally connected), pressing
shift and the third push-button simultaneously causes a short circuit that
shuts down the power supply.<12>
THE APPLE IIE: EMULATION CARD ON MACINTOSH LC
In early 1991, Apple introduced a new version of the Apple IIe. This
one was designed to be exactly like the 128K Platinum IIe, with the modification
that it had a color Macintosh attached to it. This Apple IIe cost only $199,
but the required Macintosh peripheral went for about $2,495, which makes
the combination the most expensive Apple II ever made. Apple engineers managed
to put the function of an entire IIe onto a card smaller than the old Disk
II controller card. With version 2.0 of the Apple II interface software,
more of the memory allocated to the Macintosh can be used by the IIe (strange
way of designing an Apple II!). However, unlike all previous versions of
the IIe, there are no hardware-based slots on the IIe card; instead, there
are software-based slots that are allocated by moving icons that represent
various peripherals into "slots" on the Mac screen. (Oh, yes;
it runs some Mac software, too). To use 5.25 disks with this Apple IIe,
there is a cable that attaches to the card. The cable splits into a game
connector (for paddles or joystick operation) and a connector that accepts
IIc and IIGS style 5.25 drives. The IIe card runs at a "normal"
(1 MHz) speed and a "fast" (2 MHz) speed.<13> It has limitations,
however. For a 1991 Apple II, it is limited in being unable to be accelerated
beyond 2 MHz (a Zip Chip can run a standard IIe at 8 MHz), and the screen
response seems slow, since it is using a software-based Mac text display
instead of the hardware-based Apple II character ROM. As a Macintosh it
lacks the power and speed of the newer Macintosh II models (which also run
in color). But if having a Apple II and a Mac in one machine is important,
this is the best way to do it.
NOTES
<1> Freiberger, Paul, and Swaine, Michael. "Fire In The Valley,
Part I (Book Excerpt)", A+ Magazine, Jan 1985, p. 45-48.
<2> Freiberger, Paul, and Swaine, Michael. "Fire In The Valley,
Part II (Book Excerpt)", A+ Magazine, Jan 1985, p. 46,51.
<3> Rubin, Charles. "The Life & Death & Life Of The
Apple II", Personal Computing, Feb 1985, p. 72.
<4> Williams, Gregg, and Moore, Rob. "The Apple Story, Part
2: More History And The Apple III", Byte, Jan 1985, pp. 177-178.
<5> Tommervik, Al. "Apple IIe: The Difference", Softalk,
Feb 1983, pp. 118-127, 142.
<6> Williams, Gregg. "'C' Is For Crunch", Byte, Dec 1984,
pp. A75-A78, A121.
<7> Little, Gary. Inside The Apple //c, 1985, pp. 1-7.
<8> Rose, Frank. West Of Eden: The End Of Innocence At Apple Computer,
1989, pp. 98-99.
<9> Weishaar, Tom. "Ask Uncle DOS", Open-Apple, Dec 1986,
p. 2.86.
<10> Weishaar, Tom. "A Song Continued", Open-Apple, Mar
1985, pp. 1.20-1.21.
<11> Weishaar, Tom. "Demoralized Apple II Division Announces
Enhanced IIe...", Open-Apple, Apr 1985, pp. 1.25-1.27.
<12> Weishaar, Tom. "Apple Introduces An Updated IIe",
Open-Apple, Jan 1987, p. 3.1.
<13> Doms, Dennis. "The Apple II as Mac peripheral",
Open-Apple, Jul 1991, pp. 7.43-7.44.
<14> This was an early version of the Lisa project. When the 68000
microprocessor became available from Motorola, it was decided to use that
as a single processor for the Lisa. Also, after Steve Jobs paid a visit
to the Xerox lab and saw the Xerox Star computer with its icon interface
and mouse pointing device, he pushed strongly for the Lisa to work in that
way.
=====
Subscription Info
by Al Martin
Because of current banking regulations, I need to request that those
of you who are renewing your subscriptions to please make your checks out
to me personally. Do not write "The Road Apple" as the payee;
instead, write "Al Martin" as the payee. Sorry for any inconvenience,
but my local banker is insistent on the change.
Thank you for your cooperation.
From the Apple Echo
by Al Martin
InTrec Software announces an upgrade for ProTerm users. ProTerm 3.1
is now being shipped and owners can upgrade for prices varying from $30.00
to $40.00 depending upon which version they currently own.
The new version has many improvements and features much too numerous
to print here. The point is, if you are currently using ProTerm, the upgrade
should be of great interest to you.
You may call, write or contact InTrec at:
InTrec Software, Inc.
3035 E Topaz Cir
Phoenix, AZ 85028-4423
(Formerly InSync Software, Inc.)
Voice 602/992-1345
BBS 602/992-9789
FAX 602/992-0232
CIS 75300,735
Delphi InTrec
GEnie InTrec
AOL InTrec
AppleLink InTrec
AW 3.0 Patch
by Robert Hardman
The AppleWorks 3.0 textfile reader has two problems.
First, it converts all control characters except Tab and Return to "#"s.
"#" is a common character and so cannot be globally replaced
without checking that it doesn't occur except as a control-character flag.
Second, AW 3.0 accepts the Del character.
This means you can get a file full of Del blotches. You'll have no way
to get rid of them except by hand, since AppleWorks won't accept the Delete
key as a character.
Lo! I have created an AppleWorks patch that deals neatly with both problems.
My code differs from the original in that it will IGNORE all Del characters
and all control characters other than Tab and Return.
Get into BASIC, set the appropriate prefix (to your NON-ORIGINAL copy
of AW 3.0) and type:
]BLOAD SEG.AW,A$300,L$21,B$68D3
This loads the section of AppleWorks that interprets textfiles.
Type:
]MTR
*300L
to get into the monitor and list the relevant code. You should see something
like this:
00/0300: 29 7F AND #7F
00/0302: C9 20 CMP #20
00/0304: B0 15 BCS 031B {+15}
00/0306: C9 0D CMP #0D
00/0308: D0 03 BNE 030D {+03}
00/030A: 4C 5A 48 JMP 485A
00/030D: C9 09 CMP #09
00/030F: F0 04 BEQ 0315 {+04}
00/0311: A9 23 LDA #23
00/0313: D0 06 BNE 031B {+06}
00/0315: A9 80 LDA #80
00/0317: 85 B7 STA B7
00/0319: A9 16 LDA #16
00/031B: AE 18 47 LDX 4718
00/031E: 9D 01 7B STA 7B01,X
...followed by a few more lines that aren't part of what you loaded.
The code at 300 to 314 strips the high bit of the character, checks for
Tabs and Returns, and tells AppleWorks to call all other control characters
a "#". The code at 315 to 31A handles Tabs. 31B to 320 is the
bit that actually stores the character to some internal buffer or other.
If the code you see doesn't match the code listed above, in the hex section
at least, you can't continue because your AppleWorks doesn't work the way
mine does.
If it DOES match, type [note the 302]:
*302:C9 0D D0 03 4C 5A 48 C9 7F F0 E5 C9 20 B0 0A C9 09 D0 DD
*300L
this lists my new code and should look like this:
00/0300: 29 7F AND #7F
00/0302: C9 0D CMP #0D
00/0304: D0 03 BNE 0309 {+03}
00/0306: 4C 5A 48 JMP 485A
00/0309: C9 7F CMP #7F
00/030B: F0 E5 BEQ 02F2 {-1B}
00/030D: C9 20 CMP #20
00/030F: B0 0A BCS 031B {+0A}
00/0311: C9 09 CMP #09
00/0313: D0 DD BNE 02F2 {-23}
00/0315: A9 80 LDA #80
00/0317: 85 B7 STA B7
00/0319: A9 16 LDA #16
00/031B: AE 18 47 LDX 4718
00/031E: 9D 01 7B STA 7B01,X
If it doesn't, at least in the hex department, you can't continue. Maybe
you mistyped or my listing is garbled.
If it does, AND you feel secure -- remember, this is a PROCEED AT YOUR
OWN RISK situation -- type:
*BSAVE SEG.AW,A$300,L$21,B$68D3
Your AppleWorks is now updated.
Naturally I deny any responsibility in the event your hard drive implodes
or anything else.
Incidentally, if you happen to have a IIgs you can perform this patch
on the fly. Install the Visit Monitor CDA and run AW. When you are ready
to press return to load the textfile, drop into the monitor. The code hangs
out at $47AA, but ONLY when you're performing this operation; the
rest of the time it's something else (dynamic segment swapping, whee!).
You'll have to repeat it every time you do
it of course, since it won't be saved to disk, but if you just want to see
if it works...
APPLE II HISTORY
Compiled and written by Steven Weyhrich (C) Copyright
1991, Zonker Software
(Part 8 -- The Apple IIc)
Prelude: Steve Jobs and Macintosh
Rewind back to 1982, before the Apple IIe was introduced, and adjust
the tuning on our Flux Capacitor-enhanced peripheral card. Before dealing
specifically with the smallest Apple II, the IIc, it would help to take
an aside and look at some other events happening at Apple Computers, Inc.
at this time that affected its development.
If you recall, the Lisa project was designated as the computer that was
considered to be the future of Apple. From a series of parallel processors
and a "bit slicing" architecture, to a focus on the Motorola 68000
microprocessor as the controller of this advanced computer, the project
had been progressing very slowly. It was begun back in 1979 with the same
focus as any other Apple product: "Both [Apple III and Lisa] had been
conceived of as nifty pieces of hardware rather than as products to appeal
to a specific market: At Apple you designed a box and people bought it because
it was neat, not because any thought had been given to what it would do
for them."<1> However, a significant change occurred in 1979
when Xerox bought a large chunk of Apple stock. In return for being allowed
this stock purchase, Xerox allowed some of their research ideas to be used
in designing an office computer. After Steve Jobs visited the Xerox Palo
Alto Research Center in 1979 and saw the user-interface on their Alto computer--icons,
graphics-based text characters, overlapping windows, and a pointing device
called a "mouse"--the Lisa took on a distinct personality that
made it possible to become the ultra-computer Apple needed. This was important,
since by 1981 Apple executives were getting sweaty palms worrying about
the future. The Apple III was clearly NOT taking the business world by storm.
Unfortunately for Jobs, who was excited about using the Xerox technology
in designing a new computer, he was excluded from the Lisa project. After
the problems associated with the introduction of the Apple III, a reorganization
in 1980 moved the Apple II and III into one division, and the Lisa into
another. Lisa was put under the control of John Couch, and Jobs was not
allowed to participate. Since Lisa had been taken away, Jobs in 1981 began
to assemble a team to "out-Lisa the Lisa" by creating a smaller,
less expensive computer that would do the same thing. Jef Raskin, the engineer
who helped design it, called it Macintosh.
While the Macintosh developed as a pirate project with a smaller team
and less money than Lisa, the concept of an "appliance" computer
also emerged. Instead of those messy slots and a lid that popped off (which
made the Apple II so popular with the hacker community), Jobs' team was
sold on the idea that all necessary features should simply be built-in and
the case sealed. It would be something that you just plugged in, turned
on, and started using. With the Xerox Alto mouse/icon/window interface it
would not only be easy to set up and turn on, but also easy to use.
The Apple IIc: Beginnings
What was happening with the Apple II during this time? The efforts to
make it less expensive to build were progressing, and the Apple IIe was
in the formative stages. In the summer of 1981 someone proposed a portable
Apple II, a book-sized computer. It wasn't until Steve Jobs became interested
in it as engineering challenge, well after Macintosh was under way, that
anything came of the idea:
"...one day late in '82, Paul Dali showed him (Jobs) a photograph
of a Toshiba portable and they started fooling around with the idea of an
Apple II that would look like the Toshiba but come with a built-in disk
drive. They took out a IIe circuit board and a disk drive and a keyboard
and played with them until they arrived at a promising configuration ---
keyboard in front, disk drive in back, circuit board in between. What got
Jobs excited about this idea was the engineering difficulty of squeezing
it all into a package not much bigger than a notebook. And a machine so
small wouldn't have the expandability that characterized all the other II's.
Like Macintosh, it could be taken out of the box, plugged in, and put to
work --- no extra parts to buy, no cables to figure out. It was the II reinvented
as an appliance."<2>
As with all Apple projects, the IIc went by various code names during
its development, for the sake of internal communications and to keep outsiders
from knowing what was going on. The various names used included VLC (Very
Low Cost), Yoda, ET, IIb (for "Book"), and Teddy (which stood
for "Testing Every Day"). Also, following a long standing tradition
at Apple, some of the code names assigned to the project at various times
were names of children of people at Apple: Chels, Jason, Lolly, Sherry,
and Zelda. These names persist in the source code for the firmware for the
IIc as later printed in the technical reference manual; the serial port
driver is called a "Lolly" driver.<3>
During the time the IIc was under development, Apple was working on a
change in the look of their products. They planned a more European styling,
and a color scheme called "Snow White". The IIc would be the first
product with the new appearance and color.
The Apple IIc: Hardware
As mentioned earlier, the IIc had its origins while the IIe project was
going on. When Steve Jobs became involved, he felt they should continue
with the open IIe as they had planned, but do this other Apple II as a product
"focused" to a specific group of customers, primarily new users.
Originally he had planned a closed Apple II that had a built-in mouse port,
one serial port, and some other features. What they ended up with at that
point was just a computer and a keyboard. Walt Broedner, the engineer who
pushed for the Apple IIe to be produced, used some of their previous work
with custom IC's for the disk controller and combined both projects together
to make the IIc.<4>
Although he was told it was not be possible, Jobs strongly pushed for
the mouse in this closed Apple II to be compatible with the Macintosh mouse--and
they managed to make it work.<2> Regarding the plans for a single
serial port, however, Apple's marketing people pointed out to Jobs that
many people were going to want both a printer AND a modem, so they added
a second port to the original design. They decided to use serial ports on
the IIc instead of parallel ports for a couple of reasons. First, the socket
for a serial port is smaller than a parallel port, and it would fit better
onto a small box like the IIc. Also, Apple's general direction at the time
was to get consistency in its hardware, and they had decided to make everything
they made use a serial interface.<4>
They began work on the Apple IIc in earnest right after the IIe was finished.
Because they were trying to squeeze an Apple IIe with 128K, 80 column routines,
two serial cards, disk controller, and a mouse card into an 11 by 12-inch
case, the design challenges were greater than with the IIe (recall that
this was what appealed to Steve Jobs). The size of the case was determined
by the decision to make it able to fit into a standard-sized briefcase.<4>
Apple also had the international market in mind when they designed the
IIc. A special chip containing the keyboard map could easily be changed
depending on the country where the computer would be sold, to make it consistent
with regional keyboard differences. The external pushbutton would switch
between the two different keyboards, between a UK and German layout, for
example. In the U.S. version of the IIc it switched from a standard Sholes
keyboard (also known as "QWERTY") to a Dvorak keyboard (which
allows faster touch typing). The decision for the foreign keyboards came
first; the added bonus for American versions of getting Dvorak came as an
extra bonus, to save having two different cases (one for US and one for
foreign versions).<4>
One problem in creating such a compact computer was dealing with heat
production. Apple engineers wanted it to be able to function in environmental
temperatures up to 40 degrees Celsius (about 104 degrees Fahrenheit). One
article published at the time of its introduction mentioned jokingly that
the designers wanted to make the IIc capable of doing a long disk sort (sorting
data in a disk file) while on the beach in Florida in the summer! Their
major obstacle was the heat generated by the internal 5.25 disk drive. They
tried some special low power drives (which would have been much more expensive),
but they didn't overcome the heat problem even with them. Eventually they
tried a complicated venting scheme that was designed by drilling holes into
a case and putting it into an oven to let them measure internal temperatures.
The engineers were surprised when they found that the normal power disk
drive worked and generated less overall heat within the case than the special
low power drive did. The only explanation they could come up with was that
the normal power drive generated enough heat to cause it to rise, which
pulled cool air in through the vents by convection.<4>
The Apple IIc: Firmware
Since they used the newer 65c02 chip, which ran cooler and had 27 additional
commands that could be used by assembly language programs, Apple's programmers
had some new power to use in firmware design. Such power was needed to squeeze
in all the firmware code for the IIe, plus code for the disk controller,
serial cards, mouse card, and 80 column card into 16K of ROM space.
The firmware for the IIc was written by Ernie Beernink, Rich Williams,
and James Huston. They designed it to look (to a software application program)
exactly like a IIe with an Apple Super Serial Card in slots 1 and 2, an
80-column card in slot 3, a mouse in slot 4, and a Disk II in slot 6 (though
there were NO slots in hardware). Since these first IIc's had nothing emulated
in slot 5, the firmware authors immortalized themselves by making a "ghost"
peripheral appear to be present in that slot. Entering this Applesoft program:
100 IN#5 : INPUT A$ : PRINT A$
and running it would print the names of the authors. (They used a decoding
scheme to extract the names, character by character, so a simple ASCII scan
of the ROM would not show their little trick). This "feature"
had to be removed in later revisions of the IIc ROM, because an actual disk
device was added then to slot 5.<4>,<5>
What about the unassigned slot 7? Here they put a small piece of code
to allow booting from the external 5.25 drive by typing "PR#7"
from Applesoft.
The programmers fixed some known bugs in the IIe ROMs, and added 32 graphics
characters they called MouseText. To make MouseText fit they removed the
ability to use flashing characters (when in 80 column mode) and replaced
those characters with MouseText. Apple veteran Bruce Tognazzini designed
the MouseText characters, which included a picture of a running man (perhaps
to suggest "running" a program). He later sent a letter to Call-A.P.P.L.E.
magazine to warn programmers that the Running Man characters (assigned to
"F" and "G") had been determined to be unnecessary and
would probably be replaced eventually. (This did eventually happen, but
not with the IIc).
Beernick, Williams, and Huston also made some minor changes to the Applesoft
part of the ROM. They fixed things so Applesoft commands could be entered
in lowercase (and translated into uppercase). They removed the Applesoft
commands that were specific to the obsolete cassette interface (which was
absent in the IIc) and made Applesoft more compatible with 80 columns.<4>,<6>
They did NOT go so far as to make any major changes in Applesoft to use
the newer 65c02 commands and therefore fix known bugs or add features to
this seven year old language. Their reluctance stemmed from the fact that
historically many BASIC programs had made use of undocumented assembly language
entry points in Applesoft, and any changes they would make here made it
more likely that older programs would crash unexpectedly.<4>
The Apple IIc: Product Introduction
Apple's introduction of the new IIc came at an "event" at the
Moscone Center in downtown San Francisco on April 24th, 1984. It was entitled
"Apple II Forever", and was described as "part revival meeting,
part sermon, part roundtable discussion, part pagan rite, and part county
fair". Apple's objectives here were to introduce the Apple IIc, describe
how it fit into the company's marketing strategy, show off new software
that was made to work with the new computer, and emphasize that Apple was
still firmly behind the Apple II line of computers. (Steve Jobs also took
some of the time to report on the sales of the Macintosh in its first 100
days).<7>
One of the interesting things they did at the "Apple II Forever"
event was the actual introduction of the IIc. Giant video screens were used
to show previews of Apple's TV commercials for the IIc, as well as slides
and images of the speakers, including Wozniak, Jobs, and Apple's new president,
John Sculley. Sculley spoke of "sharing power", and then demonstrated
that in a unique way: "After holding up the tiny IIc for everyone to
see and eliciting a response that they'd like to see it better, Sculley
ordered the house lights on. As the light burst forth, nearly every fifth
person in the audience stood up, waving high a IIc. As startled dealers
cheered uproariously, the Apple plants passed the IIcs to them. Within seconds
of its introduction, more than a thousand Apple dealers had a production-line
IIc in their hands."<7>
When Jobs gave his report on the Mac, it revealed some interesting statistics.
He told them that the first industry standard was the Apple II, which sold
fifty thousand machines in two and a half years. The second standard was
the IBM PC, which sold the same amount in eight months. Macintosh had done
sold its fifty thousand machines only 74 days after its introduction. Although
sales would not be nearly as good, Apple took orders that day for fifty
thousand Apple IIc's in just over seven HOURS.
At the "Apple II Forever" event, they also had a general software
exhibition and a setup called the Apple II Museum. This contained Apple
memorabilia, and included Woz's original Apple I, and a reproduction of
Steve Jobs' garage where it was built. Although not on the schedule, "Apple
II Forever" included an early-afternoon earthquake centered south of
San Jose that measured 6.2 on the Richter scale.
The Apple IIc: Success?
Their original goal had been to sell the IIc for $995. As productions
costs turned out, they found that they couldn't hit that price, so they
came up with $1,295, balancing the decision with the number of people who
were predicted to buy the optional Monitor IIc or an external Disk IIc drive.
The only problem was that although the IIc was a technological breakthrough
in miniaturization, customers at that time didn't value smallness. They
viewed something that was too small as also being cheap and lacking power.
Although the Apple IIc was equivalent to a IIe loaded with extra memory,
a disk drive, two serial cards, and a mouse card, most customers seemed
to want the more expandable IIe. Apple marketing went to much effort to
make the IIc attractive, but it didn't sell as well as the IIe. Just as
IBM overestimated the market when producing its PCjr (which eventually failed
and was discontinued), so did Apple when producing the IIc (and the original
Macintosh).<7>
The Apple IIc: Overcoming Limitations
Although the IIc did not have any slots for plugging in peripheral cards
that had traditionally been used in the Apple II, the ports that were built-in
had the capability to do much of what the slots had often been used for.
The serial ports were compatible with any serial device; this included common
ones such as printers and modems, and uncommon ones like security controllers,
clocks, and speech synthesizers. Some third party companies also supplied
serial-to-parallel converters for IIc owners who wanted to use parallel
printers made by Epson, Okidata, and C. Itoh that were popular elsewhere
in the computer world.
There was, of course, the AppleMouse IIc sold by Apple. It plugged into
the game port on the IIc. Also available were two types of touch tablets:
The Power Pad (Chalkboard) and Koala Pad (Koala Technologies), though the
latter sold best. The Koala pad would appear to a program to be the same
as a joystick, but could not emulate the mouse.<8>
The disk port on the original IIc was only designed to control an external
5.25 disk drive. Apple sold the Disk IIc for $329, and other companies later
sold similar drives for less. Despite this firmware limitation, Quark Engineering
released a 10 MB Winchester hard drive called the QC10 that would work with
this disk port, and was the first hard disk available for the IIc.<8>
The video port worked with a standard monitor, but had access to all
video signals. Included with the original IIc was an RF modulator that allowed
it to be connected to a standard television (for color games). An RGB adapter
box attached to the video port would allow a true RGB monitor to be attached,
giving color and sharp, readable 80 column text on the same monitor. Apple
also sold a flat-panel liquid crystal display for the IIc that attached
to this video port. It was capable of 80 columns by 24 lines, as well as
double hi-res graphics. Apple's price was about $600, but it looked somewhat
"squashed" vertically, and did not sell well. Another company
marketed a better flat panel liquid crystal display called the C-Vue.
With a battery attached to the 12V input, and a liquid crystal display,
the IIc could be made into a truly portable computer.<8>
The Apple IIc: Enhancements
The earliest change made available for the IIc was a motherboard swap
that fixed a hardware bug causing some non-Apple modems to fail if used
at 1200 baud. This modification was made only if the owner could show they
needed the change (that is, they owned a 1200 baud modem that wouldn't work).
The first significant upgrade available for Apple IIc owners was also
available as a free upgrade for previous owners. Changes were made to the
disk port firmware to accommodate the new 800K UniDisk 3.5. Using Apple's
Protocol Converter scheme (later called "Smartport"), this new
IIc could handle four 3.5 disk drives, or three 3.5 disk drives and one
5.25 drive.
With the UniDisk 3.5 upgrade, the internal 16K ROM was increased in size
to a 32K ROM that was bank-switched to make space for the extra code necessary
to implement the Smartport. Also added were additional serial port commands
to improve compatibility with the older Super Serial Card. The Mini-Assembler,
absent from the Apple II ROMs since the days of the original Integer BASIC
Apple II, was added back in, with support for the extra commands provided
by the newer 65c02 processor (the disassembler had always supported those
new commands). The STEP and TRACE Monitor commands made a comeback, having
also been a casualty of the 1979 Autostart ROM for the Apple II Plus. Lastly,
the new IIc ROMs included a built-in diagnostic program to do limited testing
of the computer for internal failures, and had improved handling of interrupts.<9>
The next Apple IIc upgrade was known as the Memory Expansion Apple IIc.
This came as a response to requests for the ability to add extra memory
to the IIc. Applied Engineering had already produced a Z-80 coprocessor
for the IIc (to allow access to CP/M software), and an expanded memory card,
up to 1 MB, which would either act as a RAMdisk for ordinary ProDOS applications,
or as extra memory for the AppleWorks desktop (through a special patching
program). Seeing the popularity of this, Apple released this third version
of the IIc ROMs and motherboard, this time with a RAM expansion slot included.
The Apple IIc Memory Expansion Card could take up to 1 MB of RAM, in 256K
increments. The firmware in the new ROMs made it work as a RAMdisk automatically
recognized by ProDOS and following the Smartport protocol that had been
designed for the UniDisk 3.5. Apple even included code in the new ROM to
patch DOS 3.3 so it could be used as a RAMdisk with that system (400K maximum
size), and did the same with Pascal v1.3. Also, because this firmware was
in the motherboard ROM, ANY company could make memory cards to attach to
this version of the IIc.
Other changes made in this version of the IIc ROM included moving the
mouse firmware from slot 4 to slot 7, and putting the RAMdisk firmware into
slot 4. Also fixed was a bug that caused a write-protected 3.5 disk to be
incorrectly identified with early versions of the UniDisk 3.5.<9>,<10>
Since code as complex as ROM firmware rarely makes it out the door without
at least one bug, Apple had to make one final improvement to the IIc ROM.
The Revised Memory Expansion Apple IIc (ROM version 4) included changes
which made it easier to identify if no RAM chips had been installed on the
memory card. A problem with keyboard buffering was also fixed. Lastly, this
version of the ROM resolved an obscure bug in the slot 2 firmware that was
supposed to allow the IIc to function as a simple terminal (with a modem
attached to that port). The previous version of the IIc ROM had been assembled
with a couple of wrong addresses in the code, and the terminal mode produced
garbage. Few people used this feature, so it was not noticeable to most
users, and the corrected ROM chip was therefore not as quickly available
as the original Memory Expansion upgrade.
Notes
<1> Rose, Frank. West of Eden: The End of Innocence at Apple Computer,
1989, p. 48.
<2> Rose, Frank. ibid, pp. 110-112.
<3> Hogan, Thom. "Apple: The First Ten Years", A+ magizine,
Jan 1987, p. 45.
<4> Williams, Gregg. "'C' Is For Crunch", Byte, Dec 1984,
pp. A75-A78, A121.
<5> Little, Gary. Inside the Apple IIc, 1985, pp. 1-7.
<6> Weishaar, Tom. "Miscellanea", Open-Apple, Aug 1985,
pp. 1.61.
<7> Durkee, David. "Marketalk Reviews", Softtalk, Jun
1984, p. 120.
<8> Baum, Peter. "Expanding The Unexpandable IIc", SOFTALK,
Jun 1984, pp. 95-97.
<9> -----. "Preface: The Apple IIc Family", Apple IIc
Technical Reference Manual, 1984, 1986, pp. xxiii-xxv.
<10> -----. Apple IIc Memory Expansion Card Owner's Guide, 1986,
pp. 2-4.
Tales from the underground, or I am an Apple II Freedom Fighter
by Tony Gonzalez
Today, being an Apple II user takes work. Heavy work. There are many
reasons. But there is great joy in being an Apple II user, joys which no
other computer can give you.
Having an Apple II is like being in a hated minority; kind of like being
in the military and wearing earrings. Ever tried to go into a computer store
and ask for software, only to have the employees laugh in your face? That
has happened to me many times, with friends. And not tiny mom and pop stores.
I'm talking the big and bloated chains like Crud-USA and Orbhead. We're
talking a serious attitude problem on the part of the owners and employees.
If you want to see an example of how people can be brainwashed into rudeness
and stupidity, try and reason with these misguided lemmings.
Lemmings is the word for that type. They have no clue as to the ease
and joy a computer can be for them, the fun they miss. They prattle on endlessly
with large numbers, thinking they are actually having an advantage. They
look down their nose at anything that can work better with lower number
stats. Most of them have never seen an Apple II in action. One of my sadistic
joys in life is to show these bozos my 7 MHz GS with 4 megs and a whole
slew of peripherals, and watch them freak out. They start asking how fast
is my 486, what kind of SVGA card I'm using, and I get this wolfish little
smile and tell them it's all built into my Apple II GS! Now, that is a bit
of fun you can have that no IBM or Mac can offer.
Do you get mailers from Mac or IBM companies that have inferior databse
programs that actually THINK you have one of the garbage machines? Take
a tip from me and some friends: If they have one of those free mailer envelopes
inside, tear up all the garbage they sent, and stuff it in there. Write
freedom fighter messages all over the envelope. (Apple II forever! IBM sucks!
Apple II version or nothing!) This technique is guaranteed to brighten up
your day.
Record some Synthlab music, or any GS music. go into a pinhead store.
Ask them for a music demo on one of their machines. Laugh in their face.
Play the tape. Show them the REAL glory of the Apple II. Leave them with
their jaws on the floor. Ah, sweet revenge. Use these patented techniques
and many more to brighten your day, and let them know that you are a proud
and happy Apple II user, something which they cannot attain.
In terms of marketplace, the Apple II does not exist. Our new market
is by mailorder and through the loyal efforts of loving Apple II users banded
together to support the best computers on earth. We create our own support.
Remember that line, dear friends. To take on the spirit of JFK: "Ask
not what your Apple II can do for you. Ask what you can do for your Apple
II." Our support is only as strong as what WE put into it. Write a
song. compose a story. Draw a picture. Program that silly and mindless game
idea you thought of in a fit of serious giggles that one night. The Apple
II lets your creativity go free and fly over the world, showering happiness
to other Apple II users. What other computer can you find such ridiculously
fun games, such as Smurf BarBCue, One Armed Battle, Plunder, Space Whiskey,
and The Flip Side of Karateka? (if you never heard of THAT game, get out
the classic Karateka on your Apple II. Now, stick the disk in upside down.
You will be playing Karateka, but the picture will be upside down!)
Your Apple II can be your trusted companion in business. Lots of good
business databases and programs. AppleWorks is one program which has proven
itself over the years, for example. And it won't let you down. If you get
an IBM, you will be wandering into a jungle of mismatched everything. Discover
how much fun it is to call a computer store, just to install a disk drive.
How when you run one program, 3 others begin to become non-compatible. The
key word is productivity here. The silly morons actually THINK they are
being productive by endlessly tinkering with their CONFIG.SYS, AUTOEXEC.BAT,
all in the name of making the stupid thing run flawlessly. Who needs that
hassle? Not me, that's for sure.
Please don't think I'm in a vacuum about these high ended moronic devices.
A friend gave me a 386 for free. When I can get the stupid thing running
right, I will be using it to feed MIDI song files and things over serial
cable. The more I try and get it running right, the more I love my GS. (and
no, I cannot sell or give it away, that's part of the #%^$& deal, but
I CAN and WILL make it serve my GS. I can tolerate it in that mode). My
brother has a CX with Rocket and a bunch of things. I'm still getting far
more mileage out of my GS than any Mac abuser or IBM pinhead I can think
of.
I was tickled pink a month ago when I heard of a startling and wonderful
use of the Apple II. I am a rollercoaster fanatic, and I talk with designers.
I had discovered that one rollercoaster, which is considered one of the
best rides ever made, was designed on an Apple II... in BASIC, no less!
(The complex mathematics required for designing rollercoasters is so much
that the designer switched to the Apple II after wearing out a calculator.
The Apple II did not wear out. Make a note of it). And no, I won't keep
you in the dark. The name of the rollercoaster is Thunder Run in Kentucky
Kingdom, Kentucky. The employees may not know the name of the designer.
And I don't want him to get a flood of hate or love mail, since he's busy
working on a ride for this summer. But ride Thunder Run, knowing that the
great design of the ride was accomplished using an Apple II.
How about arcade games? anyone remember Defender, Sinistar, Robotron,
Joust? Absolutely classic arcade games which packed more fun to the square
pixel than the digitized over-bloated memory hogs of today? I had been inside
the program chips to Sinistar, and was tickled pink to find DOS3.3 inside
the ROMs!. (and Sinistar was no ordinary game, since it used some innovative
artificial intelligence routines on a primitive scale). There were probably
many other good games done using the Apple II, but TRY and find a company
to admit to it anymore. They must be afraid of a machine which has a heart
and soul...
Today, most of the pinheaded lemmings claim the Apple II is a dinosaur
and belongs in the past. WHY? The Apple II is still a fantastic workhorse,
still capable of getting the job done. and it does it more reliably. Would
these brainless wonders claim that a restored antique car in great running
condition is a piece of crap? They used to build them better in those days,
people. and the workmanship shows. They go "oooh" and "aaah"
and wish in their heart they had one. Well, we have a classic antique, guys.
It runs beautifully in today's day and age of cheap brainless clones. And
if the lemmings would realize the great craftsmanship and get out of their
snotty mode, they would appreciate the true value of the Apple II.
Anyhow, back again. How can you contribute to your Apple II pool of software?
port gifs over from lower platforms? transfer sound sample? rewrite programs
on your Apple II? Design hardware cards and license them? Anything you CAN
do contributes to the WHOLE Apple II world. We are your brothers. We will
work together to make the whole brainwashed world realize that the best
computer system in the world has been right under their noses all the time...
Product Review
TrueType Font Information Center
by Al Martin
Copyrighted by L. R. "Doc" Reineke and marketed by M. D. Hunt
Co. of Anaheim, California, TrueType Font Information Center is a notebook
binder with the descriptions and samples of more than 600 font styles available
for the Apple II line of computers. For those of you who are "font
happy" types, (pun intended) this would be of great interest. The index
alone sells for $17.95, including the binder, $13.95 without.
Each font is named as it would appear as a file on disk and also given
the full name of the individual fonts spelled out. There is a general information
field which will indicate if the font is available in caps, caps only, caps
and numbers, caps only extended keyboard, full keyboard, symbols, upper
and lower case, etc.
The fonts described are available in a series of 39 disks and the particular
disk in which a certain font is located is noted. There is an example of
each font printed in 26-point type. It is a very complete catalog.
Each disk of fonts is priced at $3.50 and the more disks you order, the
cheaper each one is. The full set of 39 3.5" disks with all 600+ fonts
is 97.50 plus $4.00 shipping and handling. Each disk has over a dozen different
fonts and they are not packed, but ready for immediate use.
For further information or ordering, contact:
M. D. Hunt Company
1006 S. Philadelphia
Anaheim, CA 92805
(714) 956-5363
=====
Subscription Info
by Al Martin
Because of current banking regulations, I need to request that those
of you who are renewing your subscriptions to please make your checks out
to me personally. Do not write "The Road Apple" as the payee;
instead, write "Al Martin" as the payee. Sorry for any inconvenience,
but my local banker is insistent on the change.
Thank you for your cooperation.
inCider Quits
by Al Martin
inCider/A+ is no more. The 1993 July issue was the last one and its subscription
list has been sold to Quality Computers and it is said that inCider/A+ subscribers
will receive II Alive until their subscriptions run out.
The obituary list of Apple II publications grows longer --- Call A.P.P.L.E.,
A+, Nibble and now inCider/A+ not to mention the club newsletters and others.
The day after the announcement came in over the Apple II Echo, I called
Cindy Field, Contributing Editor to inCider/A+ and a good Apple II friend
to The Road Apple. We chatted a good while about the situation and she said
it was interesting that in that last issue she had written an article about
new Apple II products. Her article was cut by a page and a half. With that
attitude at the front office, it's little wonder that inCider/A+ is gone.
More's the pity.
As an aside, if and when The Road Apple publishes its final copy, rest
assured that the subscription list, past and present, will not be sold,
period. You loyal readers have been good to The Road Apple and I shall never
prostitute your good names.
Sculley Gone as CEO
by Al Martin
John Sculley has been replaced by company president and chief operating
officer Michael Spindler as CEO of Apple, Inc. This follows the second quarter
report that profits were down by 17% from last year. Sculley still keeps
his position of Board Chairman and stated that he "...plans to focus
on new business opportunities for Apple (Inc.)."
Hambrecht & Guist analyst Bruce Lupatkin stated that Sculley "...has
been detached and 'does not show any interest in being involved in the day-to-day
business.'" to which The Road Apple responds, "What's new?"
We also speculate that Sculley may be in a funk since he was not appointed
to a desired ambassadorship from the Clinton administration after publicly
sucking up to Hillary during the State of the Union speech. Fear not, John,
we understand that the Bosnia job is still vacant.
Upon reflection none of this was unpredicted; Sculley has shown detachment
and almost down right contempt for the core group that financed Apple, Inc.
in the 80s --- the owners of Apple II and GS computers and thereby lost
the support of 5 million+ loyal consumers. Dropping the Apple II line will
most likely go down as one of the stupidest decisions in modern corporate
history. It would make about as much sense as General Motors dropping the
Chevrolet and other lines and offering only Buicks. Dumb, dumb, dumb.
In addition to Spindler being the new CEO, The Road Apple understands
that Puette and J. C. Gasse are out, period. That's some comfort to II owners
as neither did us any favors. This all most likely is too little, too late.
Speculation among the II owners centers around the dim flicker that maybe
Apple, Inc. will turn back to the II and breathe life into the comatose
line. We don't think so for the following reasons:
- The II owners have been burned once and that is enough; Apple, Inc. is
just not trusted. Trust is hard won, easily lost and almost impossible to
restore.
- The heavy hitters in software development have moved on to other areas.
- Apple, Inc. has thrown all its eggs into the Macintosh basket and a reversal
of direction would be a public relations mess equal to the Watergate whitewash.
Corporations do not like to dine upon crow nor wipe egg from its collective
face no matter the justification.
- A good number of II owners have moved to the MS-DOS world with its heavy
investment in new software and many have sold off their II hardware and
software. To begin again with the II line is more than they could afford.
So where does this leave the average die-hard Apple II owner? Right where
he is now --- still having a ball with his "obsolete" equipment
and churning out productive work day in and day out and getting by with
a little help from his friends.
Another muse has been that Apple, Inc. might consider selling off its
Apple II rights to another company. Not bloody likely. It's much better
in Apple, Inc.'s view to bury the Macintosh competition, not dust if off
and send it into the world. Speculation was raised that perhaps Quality
Computers could do the job.
It is the position of The Road Apple that any one or any company would
be in line ahead of Quality Computers for the Apple II rights, even Applied
Engineering. It is the personal experience of myself and a number of close
Apple II friends who draw a lot of water in the Apple II pond that association
with that company through a top officer has been less than satisfactory,
much less. 'Nuff said.
In any event, now that Sculley is no longer in the spotlight, The Road
Apple still would like to have some specific questions answered directly
and honestly. These questions have been posed many times in the past have
been dodged, side-stepped, obfuscated, ignored, confused and smothered in,
well, road apples. Those who would or could give straight answers were either
under a gag order or threatened with their job. The top officers, including
Sculley, danced around the answer like the slickest politician ever to come
down the line.
The Road Apple hereby issues a public challenge to John Sculley to now
answer the following questions fully, completely, honestly and in clear,
straight forward language that we can all understand without the usual mealy-mouthed
legal corporate doublespeak which translates into "shut up and sit
down." John, for once, do the right thing and be honest with us, please.
1. What is the real reason why the IIGS was (a) underdeveloped with low
initial RAM and slow speed, (b) dropped from the national marketing campaign,
and (c) never displayed and promoted by local Apple dealers?
2. Why did Apple, Inc. refuse to develop a true portable II or GS?
3. Why did Apple, Inc. turn its back on the 5 million+ Apple II owners
in terms of product development, support and upgrades?
4. Why did Apple, Inc. produce a Mac that would run Apple II software
but not GS software?
5. Why did Apple, Inc. not develop a GS with Duet (Mac software comptatability)
ability?
6. If Apple, Inc. was making a profit with the three lines of the IIe,
the IIc and the GS, then why abandon them in favor of just the Mac? And,
why not follow the lead of other successful multi-line self-competiting
corporations and offer the public more than one computer? (Note: Four of
my family members drive four different competiting autos from the same company
--- General Motors. What's the matter with that?)
Finally, what John Sculley and Apple, Inc. forgot were the 5 principles
in the economics of the computer world as stated in the June 14th, 1993
issue of Fortune magazine. And they didn't forget just one or two of them.
They have managed to forget all five of them.
"You can't say it often enough: Don't lose touch with the customer.
"Even in the high-tech industry, management skills are more important
than technology.
"Today's successes often obscure the first signs of tomorrow's failure.
"The company with the highest unit volume almost always wins.
"The place to find unit volume is the bottom of the market, where
low prices create new customers."
APPLE II HISTORY
Compiled and written by Steven Weyhrich
(C) Copyright 1991, Zonker Software
(Part 9 -- Disk Evolution / The Apple IIc Plus)
Advances in Apple II Disk Storage
Since Steve Wozniak's Disk II floppy drive changed the Apple II from
a hobbyist toy to a serious home and business computer in the late 1970's,
the progress of disk storage has been slow for the Apple II series. In 1978,
the year the Disk II was released, Mike Scott (Apple's president) and Randy
Wigginton were asked at a user group meeting whether they were going to
go to the larger capacity eight-inch floppy drives (which had been around
before the 5.25 floppy drives). They answered that no, the Apple II was
not going in that direction, but felt it might get a hard disk by 1979 or
1980, and possibly earlier than that a double sided, double density 5.25
disk with 500K per disk.<1> Of course, this never did happen; as we
saw in part 7 of this historical overview, the Apple III project began to
overtake the hearts and minds of Apple executives by 1979, and anything
newer, bigger, or better was reserved for that machine. As a result, DOS
3.2 and 3.3 was hard-coded to work specifically with the Disk II and its
143K of available storage, and never enhanced to easily access larger capacity
drives. (Later, when we examine the evolution of Apple II DOS, we will see
that it was possible from the beginning for DOS 3.2 and 3.3 to access up
to 400K per disk in its catalog structure; however, the low-level disk access
routines built-in to DOS were ONLY for the Disk II).
So what changes DID occur in Apple II disk storage? Between 1978, when
Apple released their original Shugart 5.25 inch floppy drives, and 1984,
nothing much changed. Third party company produced patches that modified
DOS 3.2 (and later DOS 3.3) to work with larger drives; from eight-inch
floppy drives to hard disks (a whole 10 megabytes for only $5,350 from Corvus!<2>)
to other various short-lived innovations, all made to try to end the "floppy
shuffle". (One of the more interesting ones put five floppy disks into
a cartridge, and through software made them appear to the computer as one
large disk drive). Eventually Apple decided that the aging Disk II mechanism
needed a face lift, and they introduced in the DuoDisk in May of 1984. This
was essentially two Disk II drives in a single cabinet, with a special controller
card. The drive mechanism was improved to better read half-tracks on disks
(which some copy-protected software used), and at $795 was priced to be
less expensive than buying two of the older Disk II drives with a controller
card.<3> The most important advantage of this new design was an elimination
of the "fried disk drive" problem that happened constantly with
the older design. The old Disk II controller had two connectors, one for
each Disk II drive that could be connected. The problem was the in the design
of the connector; like the game paddle plugs for the original Apple II and
II Plus, the plugs for the Disk II drives were simply a series of pins that
had to be properly aligned for the drive to function (similar to the delicate
pins on a computer chip). If you tried to attach the plug in such a way
as to accidentally shift the pins over by one, it would burn out the motor
on the disk drive, requiring a trip for repairs to the local Apple dealer.
The new DuoDisk design made connection of the disk mechanism to the controller
fool-proof.
With the release of the Apple IIc in April 1984 came an external Disk
II drive that was designed to plug into the new disk port in the back of
the IIc, and was the same color and design as the IIc case. The Disk IIc
was specific to the Apple IIc and could not be used with any older version
Apple II, since it used a new, unique connector. However, since it was more
expensive than a used Disk II drive, many users found out how to make a
conversion cable to connect the older drive to the disk port; some even
went the other direction and found ways to connect the new drive to the
older Disk II controller cards for the II Plus and IIe.
The next small evolutionary step in disk storage technology for the Apple
II was introduced in June 1985, with the release of the UniDisk 5.25. This
drive was designed with the same appearance as the DuoDisk, but was a single
5.25 drive. It was also designed to allow one drive to be "daisy-chained"
to another (one disk could plug into the back of another, forming a "chain"),
instead of the older method of connecting each drive separately to the disk
controller card. Its beige color was designed to match the original Apple
IIe.<4>,<5>
The last version of the Disk II was called the Apple 5.25 drive. It was
identical to the UniDisk 5.25 drive, except for its case, which was designed
in the platinum color to match the Apple IIGS and the platinum IIe. The
connector it used allowed it to also be connected in a daisy-chain fashion.<5>
Now a Word from our Sponsor: Basics of Disk Storage
Let's diverge for a moment from discussing specific Apple disk products
and turn to a description on how the data are stored on a disk. There are
two important concepts that you need to understand to see why some methods
of data storage are "faster" than other methods. The first concept
is the physical data layout on the disk, and the second concept is
the "logical" data layout.
The physical layout of data on a disk is important to the hardware of
the disk drive. If the computer tells the disk drive to retrieve data from
the disk, it has to be able to tell the drive exactly WHERE on the disk
surface that data are stored. Most disk drives in use today (and when Steve
Wozniak designed the original Disk II) store data on disks that are round,
magnetically coated pieces of plastic that spin within a protective sleeve.
The older 5.25 inch and 8 inch disks were "floppy" disks because
they used a flexible protective sleeve (unlike the older yet but larger
capacity "hard" or fixed disks, which usually could not be removed).
The newer 3.5 inch disks are also made of the same magnetically coated plastic,
but their protective sleeve is a hard shell. Within its sleeve the thin
plastic disk spins around rapidly while the disk drive motor is on.
When a disk is formatted, certain addresses are written to the disk surface
in a pattern that is known to the program (the disk operating system) used
by the computer controlling the disk drive. Most computers divide the disk
surface up into concentric rings (called "tracks"), and each track
is divided up into segments called sectors or blocks. Each segment holds
a specific number of bytes of data; for the Apple II, this has been either
256 bytes (sectors on 5.25 disks) or 512 bytes (blocks on newer disk devices).
The number of sectors or blocks per track differs, depending on the device
in question; what is important is that the disk operating system knows how
to get to the right block when a request is made of it.
The second concept, that of the "logical" layout of the disk,
has to do with the way in which the disk operating system organizes the
physical blocks on each track. Imagine a phonograph record on a turntable
(some of you still own those, don't you?) It physically resembles a floppy
disk; it is just larger in size and is not "floppy". Mentally
take a white marking pen and draw lines through the center of the record,
across the entire surface from side to side, making the record resemble
a pizza that has been cut up into wedges.
Now draw a series of concentric circles, from the outside of the record
down to the center. Each ring will, of course, be smaller than the previous
ring. The rings you have drawn represent "tracks" on our simulated
floppy disk, and the lines running through the center of the record represent
the division of each track into blocks. Suppose we drew enough lines to
divide the record up into twelve "pieces" (of pizza). That means
that each "track" has twelve "blocks".
Now that you have your disk divided up (you just "formatted"
it!), let's store some data on it. Numbering each "block" from
one to twelve (like the numbers on a clock), let's put a checker into each
block on the first (outermost) "track" (yes, a checker. You know--from
the game?) Repeat the process on the second track, then the third, and so
on, as far as you can go. Eventually you won't be able to fit checkers into
the blocks, because they will get too small. (This points out one of the
limits of floppy disks; at some point the available space on the disk becomes
so small it is unusable. A standard 5.25 disk for the Apple II can have
anywhere from 35 to 40 tracks (Apple has always supported only 35 tracks),
while the 3.5 disk has 80 tracks. The checkers we have put in the "blocks"
on this disk have also been labelled, but with the letters "A"
through "L" for the first track, and "M" through "X"
for the second track, and so on.
Turn on the record player. If you hold your hand over one spot on the
first track on the record, you can see the lettered checkers as they move
past. As it goes by, grab the "A" checker, then the "B"
checker, and so on. Likely, after picking up checker "A" (on block
1), you had to wait for an entire rotation of the record before "B"
comes by on block 2. The same goes for "C", "D", and
so on. In computer terms, the "interleave" on this disk is 1 to
1 (written as 1:1). If you were EXTREMELY fast, you could pick up "A",
"B", "C", etc. as quickly as they went by, without having
to wait for the next revolution of the record. While few of us would be
that fast, many of us could pick up a checker after about four went by that
we didn't need. "Reload" your data on this disk, this time putting
checker "A" on block 1, then checker "B" on block 5,
checker "C" on block 9, checker "D" on block 2, check
"E" on block 6, and so on. Now, as the record spins, you might
be able to pick up "A", "B", "C", and so on
without having to wait for the next revolution of the record. This would
be (approximately) a 4:1 interleave. With this "logical" layout,
you can pickup (load) checkers from the disk, and replace (store) checkers
on the disk more efficiently. If your hands are still not fast enough, you
may need to increase the interleave to 6:1 or even 8:1. If your hands are
faster, you could possibly use a 3:1 or 2:1 interleave.
This is roughly what happens with disk access. A disk device and operating
system that is extremely quick about processing the data it reads off a
disk can have a short interleave (1:1 or 2:1). A slower disk device or operating
system may need to use a 4:1 or higher interleave to work most efficiently.
One last note: Because a track on a disk contains a continuous stream
of data bits, Apple drives were designed from the beginning to use "self-synchronization"
to be able to tell one byte from the next. This continuous series of
bits would be similar to having a paragraph of text with no spaces between
words. If a sentence read "GODISNOWHERE", does it mean "GOD
IS NOWHERE" or "GOD IS NOW HERE"? Some method is needed to
let the computer doing the reading know where the "spaces" between
bytes exists. I won't go into detail on exactly how this is carried out,
but suffice it to say that some bytes on the disk are reserved for this
decoding process, and so the true data bytes are specially encoded to not
be mistaken for the self-sync bytes. The process of decoding these "raw"
data bytes is called de-nibblization, and translates about 700 of the raw
bytes read directly from the disk into 512 true data bytes. This is another
part of the overhead necessary when reading from or writing to the disk;
it would be similar to having to draw something on each checker with a marker
as it was removed from the spinning record described above.
The UniDisk 3.5 and Apple 3.5
The first new disk drive that Apple released after the original Disk
II was a 400K, single-sided 3.5 inch drive for the original Macintosh. Then,
in September 1985 Apple finally released a similar drive for the Apple II
series, one that was not simply a cosmetic improvement of the original Disk
II drive. The UniDisk 3.5 drive was a double-sided version of the Mac drive,
and could hold 800K of data. The only connection that this new drive had
with the original 5.25 drives was a chip used on its controller card; this
IWM chip (for "Integrated Woz Machine") put the function of the
original Disk II controller onto a single chip, plus the enhancements needed
to operate this higher density drive.<4> Apple's design for the UniDisk
3.5 was unique, in that it used a modification to Sony's design that varied
the speed of disk rotation, depending on which concentric track was being
accessed. This change made it possible for data to be packed compactly enough
in the smaller inner tracks to gain an extra 80K beyond the 720K that was
originally possible.
The UniDisk was directly supported by the newer Apple IIc motherboards
(as mentioned in the previous part of this History), but for the older Apple
II's a special controller card was required. The UniDisk 3.5 was designed
as an "intelligent" drive, and had a self-contained 65c02 processor
and memory to temporarily store ("buffer") data being read from
or written to the disk. This was necessary because of the slow 1 MHz speed
of the 6502 processors in the Apple II; they could not keep up with the
faster data transfer rates possible with the 3.5 disk mechanism, plus the
overhead of de-nibblization. This extra processing did cut down the speed
in the UniDisk data transfer rate, but compared to the older Disk II drives
it seemed MUCH faster.
With the release of the Apple IIGS in September 1986 came a new version
of the 800K 3.5 drive called the Apple 3.5. This mechanism could be used
on either a Mac or Apple II, fitting into the trend at Apple at making peripherals
compatible between the two computers. The major difference between this
drive and the original UniDisk 3.5 was that it had been lobotomized to be
a "dumb" drive. Gone was the internal 65c02 processor chip used
in the UniDisk 3.5 (which made it an "intelligent" drive) and
the ability of the drive to buffer its own read and write operations. The
newer Apple 3.5 drive did away with the extra circuitry, leaving it to the
computer to handle direct control of the drive. This could be done in the
IIGS because of its faster 65816 microprocessor, which could keep up with
the higher rate of data transfer. Recall the above discussion of interleave?
The original UniDisk 3.5 worked best with an interleave of 4:1, but the
Apple 3.5 used 2:1 interleave and could do disk reads and writes faster.
Disks formatted with either drive were usable with the other one, but would
be slower on the "foreign" drive.<5>
Overall, Apple released four versions of 3.5 drives between 1984 and
1986. First was the 400K drive used on the original Macintosh, then the
800K UniDisk 3.5 (which wouldn't work on the Mac), then an 800K drive for
the Mac (which wouldn't work on the Apple II), and finally the Apple 3.5
drive, which worked on the Apple IIGS and the Mac, but not the IIe and original
IIc.<5>
The Apple IIc Plus: Hardware
Recalibrating our special time-travel card to focus on the final 8-bit
version of the Apple II, let's travel to mid-1987. It was at this time that
someone at Apple decided that the IIc needed to be upgraded. Shortly before
July, three years after its original 1984 introduction, it was felt that
the Apple IIc would benefit from the larger capacity Apple 3.5 drive as
its internal drive. The primary intent was to make only this change, while
leaving the rest of the IIc as it was.
Trying to use the Apple 3.5 drive in the Apple IIc was certainly an engineering
problem. As mentioned above, the 1 MHz 65c02 was simply not fast enough
to take raw data off the Apple 3.5 drive, de-nibblize it into usable data,
and pass it to the operating system. The "intelligent" 3.5 drive
was designed in the first place for that very reason. To solve the problem,
Apple contracted with an outside firm to design a special digital gate array
that made it possible for the 1 MHz 65c02 to just barely keep up with the
data
transfer rate from the Apple 3.5 drive. In accomplishing this, it needed
an extra 2K of static RAM space to de-nibblize the raw data from the 3.5
drive. This extra memory had to be available OUTSIDE the standard Apple
IIe/IIc 128K RAM space, since there was simply not enough free memory available
to spare even that little bit of space. The code Apple engineers wrote to
use the drive was SO tight that there were EXACTLY enough clock cycles to
properly time things while controlling the drive. (Each assembly language
instruction takes a certain number of clock cycles; these cycles have to
be taken into account for timing-sensitive operations such as disk and serial
port drivers).
To support older Apple II software that came only on 5.25 disks, the
disk port on the back was now changed to handle not only external 3.5 drives
(either UniDisk 3.5 or Apple 3.5), but also up to TWO Apple 5.25 drives
which could be chained together (the same drives used with the Apple IIGS).
These could be chained together as could the 3.5 drives. The IIc Plus, then,
could have three additional drives attached, in any mixture of Apple 3.5,
UniDisk 3.5, or Apple 5.25 drives.<6>
The IIc Plus design was not thought out completely from start to finish,
however. After they did the work with the special gate array to make the
original IIc architecture work properly, someone decided that it was not
a good idea to release a 1 MHz computer in 1987. People want speed, they
reasoned; look at the world of the IBM PC and its clones, where each year
faster and faster models are released. They decided then to retrofit the
new IIc with a faster 4 MHz version of the 65c02. That change, had it been
done from the start, would have made engineering the internal 3.5 drive
simpler; they could have just used the processor at 4 MHz for 3.5 drive
access, and then used the true system speed (as selected by the user) for
all other functions. The complicated gate array would not have been necessary.
But, since the faster speed was added as an afterthought, and the project
was under a tight schedule, the gate array design was not changed.
To accomplish the faster processor speed for the IIc Plus, Apple went
to another outside firm, Zip Technologies. This company had already marketed
an accelerator, the Zip Chip, that was popular as an add-on product for
existing Apple II computers. Users could simply remove the 6502 or 65c02
chip in their computer, replace it with the special Zip Chip, and suddenly
they had a computer that ran up to four times as fast. Apple licensed this
technology from Zip, but engineers balked at actually using the Zip Chip
itself for the IIc Plus. Part of this was because of the size of the Zip
Chip. The chip was shaped like a standard integrated circuit, but was thicker
vertically than a basic 65c02. Inside the extra space was a fast 65c02 processor,
plus some caching RAM, all squeezed into a space that would fit even into
the original Apple IIc (where space was at a premium). (The Zip Chip "cache"
is a piece of RAM memory that is used to hold copies of system memory that
the processor is frequently accessing. For instance, if a lot of graphics
manipulation is being done by a program, the caching RAM would hold a copy
of part of the graphics RAM, and could access it much faster than the standard
RAM. This is part of what makes an after-market accelerator work).
Zip had wanted Apple to buy their Zip Chip and simply use that product
in the IIc Plus. Obviously, this would have been to Zip's advantage financially.
However, the thicker vertical size of the Chip made testing the completed
computer more difficult, and it would be a problem to isolate product failures
to the Zip Chip, instead of something else on the motherboard. By using
a 4 MHz 65c02 and two 8K static RAM chips as separate components in the
IIc Plus, Apple engineers could ensure that it would work and be available
in a large enough volume for production. When they were designing the IIc
Plus, Zip Technologies could not guarantee they could provide reliable products
in the volume Apple needed.
The IIc Plus did not have the 12 VDC input on the back panel as did the
earlier IIc's; instead, the power supply was built-in. This was not because
it was necessarily a better design, as an internal power supply was actually
less reliable ultimately than the external power supply. (It exposes the
internal components to higher levels of heat over the lifetime of the product).
But because many people had criticized Apple about the IIc external power
supply (called a "brick on a leash" at Apple), that they had decided
to make it internal on the IIc Plus as it was on all their other products.
This change apparently did not cause any significant problems, as few people
were actually trying to use the IIc as a "portable" computer (with
a battery pack).
The memory expansion slot on the IIc Plus was not compatible with the
memory cards that Apple had produced for the older IIc. This was primarily
a timing problem; it was not because the RAM chips in the memory card were
not fast enough to keep up with the 4 MHz speed of the IIc Plus. (Older
IIc users can use an Apple Memory Expansion card with an 8 MHz Zip Chip
with no problems). The IIc Plus also had an additional connector at the
opposite end of a memory card plugged into the expansion slot. Signals from
port 2 were made available at that end, so third party companies could make
a card that was a combination RAM card and internal
modem. However, this never did come about (see below).
Other changes in the IIc Plus included a slightly redesigned keyboard
and mini-DIN-8 connectors on the back panel for its serial ports (to be
more compatible with Apple's new Macintosh and IIGS keyboards).
One interesting note: John Arkley, one of the engineers working on the
project and a long-time Apple employee, campaigned long and hard to take
things a step further. He wanted them to take an Apple IIGS motherboard,
remove the slots, change the ROM to support only the internal "slots",
and release a IIGS in a IIc case. He felt it would have made a great portable,
non-expandable IIGS, but could not get anyone who could approve the plan
to get interested in the idea.
Teh Apple IIc Plus: Firmware
The IIc Plus ROM was called revision 5 (the previous Revised Memory Expansion
IIc was labelled as revision 4). The main changes present were the ones
that supported the internal Apple 3.5 drive. Firmware on the new IIc was
not any larger than the 32K on the previous models, but it did use the entire
space (the previous IIc didn't use the last 8K available in the ROM).
One minor bug that slipped by in the IIc Plus firmware was an inability
to deal with 400K (single-sided) 3.5 disks. There were few commercial software
packages that came on such disks, however.<7>,<8>
The Apple IIc Plus: Introduction
In September 1988 the Apple IIc Plus was introduced to considerably less
fanfare than the original IIc was in April 1984. There were no promises
of "Apple II Forever" this time; instead, it warranted little
more than a press release in various Apple II magazines of the time. Its
selling price was $675 (or $1,099 with a color monitor). This was remarkable,
considering that the original Apple IIc WITHOUT a monitor sold for nearly
double the price ($1,295) and had far less capacity and power than this
new version. Some models of the IIc Plus were even shipped with 256K of
extra memory already added. It was faster than any other Apple II ever produced
(including the 2.8 MHz IIGS), and was probably the finest 8-bit computer
Apple ever produced.
The Apple IIc Plus: Less than a Success
Early on, the Apple IIc Plus was a big seller, and by January 1989 it
was above forecasted sales levels. However, the biggest hurdle that the
IIc Plus had to overcome was not the external marketplace, but rather the
internal market opinions at Apple Computer, Inc. Since Macintosh-mania was
still in full swing at Apple, and that younger brother of the Apple II was
getting most of the attention from management, the IIc Plus (as well as
the IIGS) suffered. It was not because of a lack of capability, but primarily
from failure to thrive due to inadequate home nutrition, so to speak. Also,
the IIc Plus had the same problem as the original Apple IIc; customers seemed
to want the IIe with its slots, or the greater power of the IIGS.
With inadequate support by Apple marketing, third party hardware and
software developers had little in designing any new products for the IIc
Plus. Therefore, no internal modem ever emerged for this computer, nor any
other unique products to take advantage of its features. Finally, in September
of 1990 the IIc Plus was discontinued by Apple, leaving the platinum Apple
IIe and the Apple IIGS as the remaining bearers of Wozniak's legacy.
NOTES
<1> Thyng, Mike. "Apple Source", PEEKING AT CALL-A.P.P.L.E.,
VOL. 1, 1978, pp. 7-8.
<2> -----. -----, APPLE ORCHARD, VOL. 1, NO. 1., Mar-Apr. 1980,
various.
<3> -----. "Tomorrow's Apples Today", CALL-A.P.P.L.E.,
May 1984, p. 78.
<4> -----. "The Marketplace", CALL-A.P.P.L.E., July 1985,
p. 49.
<5> Baum, Peter and Allen. "Speaking Of Hardware", CALL-A.P.P.L.E.,
Oct. 1987, pp. 30-34, 51.
<6> Weishaar, Tom. "Apple rediscovers the Apple II",
OPEN-APPLE, Nov. 1988, p. 4.73.
<7> Weishaar, Tom. "Ask Uncle DOS", OPEN-APPLE, Jan.
1989, p. 4.91.
<8> Weishaar, Tom. "Miscellanea", OPEN-APPLE, May 1989,
p. 5.27.
From the Echo
ProDOS 8 v2.0.2
by Don Bruder
Since I just happen to have gotten a copy of the official ProDOS update,
I figured it'd be a good idea to answer the questions that someone asked
regarding the new ProDOS 8 v2.0.2. Here's the text of the info sheet that
came with the
update:
Here's the info on ProDOS 8 v2.0.2 from the specsheet that came with
it:
What changed:
ProDOS
o New version number (2.0.2).
o KVERSION ($BFFF) is now $22 for version 2.0.2.
o Slot 3, Drive 2 is ALWAYS reserved for the /RAM volume. The SmartPort
remapping routine in ProDOS wil not map any device to Slot 3, Drive 2.
o The message "RELOCATION/CONFIGURATION ERROR" has been changed
back to uppercase like it was in version 1.9 so it will be legible on an
Apple II+. After displaying the message, it now hangs with a BMI instruction,
rather than BRA for compatibility with pre-65C02 processor equipped machines.
Considering the note at the end of this, I don't understand why they bothered
changing the BRA to BMI.
o Changed the copyright message at $BF40 to start with a $00, to prevent
crashes when applications use the code presented in the ProDOS 8 Technical
Reference manual to remove the /RAM volume. This code assumed that there
was a $00 after the last device number, which was previously not true if
14 devices were present.
o Changed page-3-init table to initialize $03FB-$03FD (NMI) to $00 $40
$00 instead of JMP $FF59 ($4C $59 $FF).
BASIC.SYSTEM
o Version 1.5 (Unchanged from Apple IIGS System Software 6.0).
LAUNCHER.SYSTEM
o Version 4.0. The only change is the version number and copyright date.
FASTCOPY.SYSTEM
===============
o Version 1.0.1.
o FastCopy now correctly determines the capacity of source and destination
disks before copying. Attempting to copy between varying sizes results in
the message "Disk must be the same type..." and the destination
disk being ejected and the user prompted for another disk.
o ROM 03 Apple IIGS users using FastCopy 1.0 were forced to have disks
in any drives they wished to use for copying at the time they launched version
1.0. Any drives without disks in them were ignored and not available for
copying. 1.0.1 now allows any available drive to be used for ROM 01 and
ROM 03 machines.
o The number of blocks copied from a source disk was not the actual number
of blocks on the source disk, but the number of blocks on the disk in the
drive when version 1.0 was launched. If a 400K disk was in the drive when
FastCopy 1.0 was launched, then an 800K disk copied, only 400K of the disk
was actually copied. Now it reads the number of blocks on the disk at the
actual time of the copy.
CLOCK.PATCH
o Updated to patch v2.0.2 as well as v1.9 and v 2.0.1. The year table in
v2.0.2 is in the same place as in v 2.0.1.
SYSUTIL.SYSTEM
UTIL.0
UTIL.1
UTIL.2
SETTINGS
o System utilities version 3.1. Unchanged from Apple II System Software
3.2.
Notes for IIGS users:
DO NOT TRY TO UPDATE A IIGS SYSTEM DISK WITH THIS VERSION OF PRODOS! When
GS/OS 6.0.1 is released, it will come with ProDOS 8 v2.0.2. Until then,
Stay with ProDOS 8 v2.0.1.
Notes for users with straight 6502 processors:
ProDOS 8 v2.0.1 and v2.0.2 use instructions available only with 65C02 processors.
If you have a II+ with a 6502, or an unenhanced //e, you need to use ProDOS
8 v1.9 (Resource Central product number DA-902).
There ya go... the word according to Apple, Inc. in regards to the newest
version of ProDOS. Judging by the fact that they are officially using 65C02
instructions, I'd say that it's going to be a long time before we see a
new version of ProDOS 8. Looks like they think that this version is going
to be stable for a long time to come.
I've sent E-mail to Matt Deatherage of Apple, asking about incorporating
the patch that Tom Larson and I worked on developing (allows MS-DOS style
filenames, doing away with the goofy "Gotta have a letter as the first
character of your filename" restriction).
=====
Subscription Info
by Al Martin
Because of current banking regulations, I need to request
that those of you who are renewing your subscriptions to
please make your checks out to me personally. Do not write
"The Road Apple" as the payee; instead, write "Al Martin"
as
the payee. Sorry for any inconvience, but my local banker is
insistant on the change.
Thank you for your cooperation.
(Publisher's note: The following came from two different
sources.)
Project Apple Storm
by E. Moore
In the first week of July, 1992, a cartel of Apple II
users and developers, represented by the Bay Area Apple II
Users Group, (BAAUG), arranged a meeting with members of the
User Group Connection and the Apple II Engineering
contingent at Apple Computer, Inc. The intended purpose of
this gathering was singular. "To discuss the merits of the
continued operation of BAAUG as an Apple II User Group."
The initial meeting, set for August, 1992, was postponed
by Apple because of unforeseen developments preoccupying
those expected to be in attendance. Another scheduled for
early September, was also postponed and rescheduled to late
September for the same reason. Yet again this meeting was
postponed and was rescheduled for November 18th, again for
the same reason. On November 16th, the meeting was once more
postponed once more, for the same reason, and rescheduled
for November 19th at 10:00AM.
Many of the BAAUG/A2 representatives had made prior
arrangements and were forced to readjust their schedules to
accommodate the original 11/18 meeting. (From as far away as
Colorado and San Diego). Others, who were not contacted in
time, made the long drive to the Campbell complex for the
11/18/92 meeting, and were at that time informed of the
rescheduled gathering. To conclude this poignant diatribe,
three BAAUG members were an hour late to this appointment as
a result of inaccurate directions volunteered by an Apple
employee. Thus this author ends his "Harrumph!"
THE PLAYERS: Those in attendance were...
From Apple Computer, Inc.:
John Santoro, Apple II Engineering
Rye Livingston, Community Groups, User Group Connection
Ray Kaupp, Manager, User Groups and Associates
Representing the Apple II:
Tony Diaz, AllTech Electronics, San Diego
Mike Garvey, BAAUG Administrative Leader, GEnie Host
Kent Keltner, BAAUG Planning Leader
Joe Kohn, Contributing Editor, inCider/A+
Kent Keltner, BAAUG Planning Leader
Lunatic, GEnie Ambassador
Ernest Moore, BAAUG Leadership Coordinator
Joe Yandrofski, Sequential Systems, Lafayette, Colorado
Missing in action caused by the continual postponements:
Kenrick Mach, Paul Parkhurst, Margot Taylor and Ed Hernandez
Prodigiously Missing: Tim Swihart of ACI..!!!
This report was assembled from a 90-minute audio tape
that recorded the proceedings from the back of the room and
the authors recollection of voices, names and faces.
Although the wording may not be quotable, it is extremely
accurate! When the voice cannot be directly associated with
the individual that spoke the words, the speaker will be
identified as either "APPLE" or "BAAUG". Commentary
notes by
the author are indicated with "( )"
MEETING BEGINS: (Finally)
Santoro: What would you like to walk out of here with?
Moore: Basically, straight shoot-from-the-hip answers
regarding the status of the Apple II. We don't want to be
subjected to the limitations of nondisclosure statements and
the like because we have an obligation to our users. We'd
also like to know what the Apple plans are for future and
new Apple II users. We aren't here to prosecute or to be
cross examined, we just want straight and honest answers.
Santoro: New Apple II Users or new Apple II Computers?
Moore: New Apple II Users!
Santoro: We're not coming out with a new Apple II cpu.
(Being evasive here and dodging the question!)
Moore: That doesn't relate to new Apple II users, but is
there a specific reason that Apple has for not releasing a
new II cpu?
Santoro: We just can't rationalize it. This is a business
decision that was reached at a corporate level far above our
heads here! It's been termed as a high risk. Another Apple
II would send a wrong message to consumers. We don't want
them to think that we have two platforms and it's obvious
that Apple supports the Macintosh. (Another of those
critical statements!)
Moore: Let me guess. The office of the Apple CEO?
Lunatic: Is it true that there was a prototype of a new
Apple II that was going to be released?
Santoro: I won't deny it! (Quickly and nervously shifted,
then dodged the original again!) We get tons of letters from
people that have had wonderful experiences with their Apple
II's from a variety of sources. However, last month we sold
7 IIe's and 7 IIGS's nationwide. That's 14 Apple II's across
the country. (14 Apple II's sold without a lick of
advertisement.. not bad!)
Diaz: We sold 20 used Apple II systems last month alone!
Santoro: Yeah, USED Apple II's. You haven't seen an Apple
IIe or IIGS in a dealership for a long time. This is a
dealership decision. Apple can't dictate to the dealerships
what they should keep in stock. People were buying Macs and
weren't buying IIGS's. Also, it's expensive for us to make
them. We do want to keep the IIGS viable and we want to
continue building the bridge between the IIGS and the Mac.
(Remember this statement later!)
Moore: There's an easy explanation for that. 18 months
after the GS was released, dealerships were telling people
that Apple wasn't making them anymore and that the Apple II
had been discontinued.
Santoro: We can't tell dealerships what to say either!
Kohn: If Apple had a certain criteria that dealerships
had to abide by, like requiring them to have all of the
Apple cpu line on display, these false rumors wouldn't
manifest themselves.
Santoro: I'll be the first to admit that the company
hasn't done the best job of policing each and every
dealership. (Spoken with an air of sarcasm!)
Livingston: A lot of things happened back in '86-'87 that
may have been debatable, but this is '92 and almost '93 and
we have to think of the future of the company.
Moore: Yes, and we are obligated to think of the future
of this huge number of people that own Apple II's, who
firmly believe Apple Computer, Inc. is giving them the
proverbial shaft.
Kaupp: Are these people going to buy new Apple II's?
Moore: I won't ask you to validate that question. They
already own Apple II's. Many of them more than one system.
What the existing II user base wants is a solid show of
support by Apple, be it in the form of a new cpu or a guy on
tv with an Apple II as his choice for a home computer
system.
Lunatic: A primary question that I have is, Apple has
repeatedly professed support for the Apple II. If Apple,
Inc. is still supporting it, why can't users get technical
support and service from the Apple dealerships?
Santoro: What is support? What support are you looking
for?
Moore: A user takes his II into a dealership to have it
serviced and the service personnel doesn't recognize the
machine. They want to know if the IIGS is a 286 or 386
compatible.
Santoro: So you're looking for service?
Moore: We're looking for support, from Apple, for the
Apple II!
Garvey: I'm in a good position to elaborate more on this
because I do it for a living. Most people don't care about
servicing, maintenance and the like, they depend on me to do
it for them. (Mike Garvey perpetually assumes the role of
the service department at the dealerships at this point.) I
must have a source from which to accommodate these things.
(Reference to service and maintenance.) We're currently in
what you may refer to as the third generation of computer
users. The first consisted of semi-power users. The hackers
and the like. The next was the class that used computers as
a learning device and now, the average user has their
computer as a tool. They use it just as if it were a hammer
or a screwdriver.
Kohn: What we need is somewhere, or someone, to turn to
for sales, service and support. Users need a definitive
response when repairs to their systems are necessary. User
Groups aren't the answer because most aren't qualified to
provide service and/or repairs.
Diaz: At AllTech we're encountering even more of a
problem. We have become one of the places to find Apple II
stuff, but the dealers don't want to support us. They get
paranoid when they look at their invoices and see all of the
purchases made by AllTech Electronics. They ask us if we're
re-selling things and they're afraid that Apple, Inc. will
cut them off.
Garvey: There's a missing link between Apple and the end
users that dealerships used to fill that isn't being filled
anymore.
Santoro: Again you have to put yourselves in the shoes of
the other person. Dealerships have to maintain a margin of
profit. They want to sell the hottest computer and the Apple
II isn't it. I've made a proposal that would fall under the
PowerBook service type format but it has to be approved at a
higher level.
Moore: There are two ends of the spectrum here. Over the
years, the end user has come to look at the "Authorized
Apple Dealership" as the extension of Apple, Inc. and this
was by Apple's own design. When an end user wanted
information about his computer, or wanted to buy a machine
or parts, or get service and he contacted Apple, Inc., he
was very gruffly told to go see his local authorized Apple
Dealership. Now he takes his system to this dealership and
they haven't the slightest idea as to what the machine is.
The user is getting aggravated because his system has been
in the shop for a week while the highly trained service
department tries to determine if the problem with the IIGS
is that it doesn't have an RLL/IDE card in it or they can't
locate a chip that has a *.86 suffix. Meanwhile the user
comes back muttering "What ta hell kind of company is this?"
Livingston: No, he comes back and thinks that the planet
has changed on him. Things aren't the same as they used to
be.
Moore: Nope! Now he finally gets his system back, fixed
or unfixed and he's muttering to himself. He places an ad in
the paper to sell his system and when that's done he buys a
DOS machine because he can get support, buy software or have
that system serviced anywhere.
Santoro: He comes back and thinks that this dealer
doesn't do what he used to do and that's absolutely true. We
want to keep our Apple II customers with the hopes that they
continue to buy Apple machines. Dealerships don't want to
spend $500 a day for Apple II technical training for the 2
or 3 Apple II calls he's going to get in a month. So what's
the most efficient way for Apple to deal with this problem?
Moore: That's easy, via the user group.
Livingston: We already do that. When someone calls up for
service, we give them the name of the nearest dealership and
also the name of the nearest user group.
Garvey: What Ernie is driving at is an extension of
something that I wanted to get into a little bit later, but
the reality of this is that the user cannot rely upon
service from the dealerships. Apple has always sent their
products to dealerships for distribution and now their also
being sent to super stores and resellers. I look at the
Sears catalog and I don't see any Apple II products there.
Also, how do I get service for my system?
Santoro: We've just produced a new catalog that has all
of the Apple products in it, except for the cpu's, and they
can be purchased directly from us.
Moore: The catalog has Mac cpu's displayed in it and
there's one page at the back of it with Apple II peripherals
only.
Garvey: Does this means that I can call up Apple, give
them my resellers license number and pick up my purchase?
Kohn: Why can't Apple II cpu's be distributed by these
super stores along with the Powerbooks and etc?
Apple: Everyone views the Apple II as a single market
machine. Dealerships regard it as strictly a K-12 computer.
(Sound like brain washing?)
Moore: The K-12 crew doesn't even know what to do with
their cpu's when they malfunction. They call ComputerLand
and get the same story. By the way, how many Apple II's does
Apple, Inc. recognize as being the computer of choice in the
end users home?
APPLE: Actually it's a legal problem regarding
contractual agreements with PowerBooks where the stores
cannot do mail orders of Apple products. The big legal
question was that if we went mail order with our cpu's,
would that violate the contractual agreements with these
retail outlets? (Evasive...eh!)
Kaupp: Wait! I thought we were talking about why the
Apple II cpu wasn't in the catalog? We don't want to sell
people II's, we want to take the installed base of II users
and support them. (Critical statement there!)
Garvey: Along these lines of damage control, the
dealership channel isn't working. So where do people have to
turn? Online services, user groups? What I'd propose is to
empower user groups as the go between to resell Apple parts
and peripherals!
Moore: Here's a case in point example. I received a call
from an individual that wanted to upgrade from an Apple IIe
to a IIGS. Please bear in mind that he did *NOT* want a Mac.
I could not give him an answer!
Apple: How would we go about giving user groups authority
to resell cpu's and peripherals? Would we give user groups
full dealer contracts? We'd have to make certain that
everyone was trained and certified. Then we'd have to charge
them the $5,000 to $10,000 startup fee required for
dealerships.
BAAUG: It's hard to envision user groups selling cpu's,
not so much peripherals though. Apple could require that
dealerships purchase II cpu's on order!
Livingston: What do you want now, sales or support?
Moore: What...??? We want both sales AND support! You
mention making certain that if user groups were given resell
capability, they would have to be certified and trained.
Take me to any ComputerLand and show me a certified and
trained Apple II individual...! As for startup fees, why?
The user group would order cpu's directly from Apple as
needed and pay for them in advance.
Santoro: The company, for right or for wrong, has made a
decision to not pursue a marketing scheme for selling the
Apple II! (There we go again!)
Moore: That's what I can't understand. If Apple put the
IIGS on tv and showed people it's capabilities, they would
sell tons of them. For the life of me I don't understand it.
There's this huge potential Apple II user base eager for
something like the IIGS, and Apple is simply ignoring this
magnificent market and telling them we don't want to sell
you an Apple II we want to sell you a Macintosh!
Santoro: I know exactly what you're talking about and
going mail order is what has been proposed. Our competitive
advantage is the Macintosh ease of use. We've taken that and
expanded it and that's why Apple continues to grow. You
have to remember now that the gui was reverse engineered and
ported over to the GS! (This is the head of the Apple II
team talking here remember!)
Moore: The gui reverse engineered from the Mac to the
GS... NOT!
Santoro: We just don't want to go after the competition
with a 6502 or 816 vs a 386 or 486. We want to take the Mac,
with a large supplier like Motorola and continue to grow.
The choice was made and this was the business decision.
(Again, this is the head of the II Continued Engineering
Group speaking!)
Moore: Wait! We're getting blown out of proportion here.
I'm not making reference to 6502 or 65816 technology vs Mac
technology. That's a mismatch. If you compare Mac technology
to Cray technology then you'd have a case for discontinuing
the Mac. What I'm making reference to is the attitude that
Apple has taken toward the Apple II. Apple has given the II
user a (loud hand clap) slap in the face instead of
extending a corporate hand and telling them, "We'll help you
over the bridge!"
Santoro: I'll have to disagree with you on that. Do you
know how many engineers were put on the Hypercard GS
project? There were 20 to 50 engineers on that project over
the life of it. It took three years to complete it and how
many copies were sold? A few thousand at most. System 6 was
a parallel project and cost us just as much. We've made the
superdrive card, the ethernet card and the video overlay
card, all to show the Apple II users that we still support
them. (Hypercard was given away free with Macs and remains a
lousy GS program. It also was a direct competitor with
HyperStudio which was already established!)
Kohn: Something's wrong here and users are really
confused. Apple is making all of these wonderful cards and
peripherals, but they aren't showing it to anyone. No one
knows that they exist. You need to tell people what you're
doing and why you're doing it.
Santoro: That's a point well taken. OK, let me summarize
this. What you deem as ongoing support from Apple is 3
things. 1 A source for cards and peripherals, etc. should my
system break down. 2 Get me some software. Let me walk into
Egghead and see Apple II software. 3 Service my program.
Given these things, let people know about them.
Moore: Number 4, actively promote and market items 1,2,
and 3.
Santoro: Here's what we've done on each of these items.
We have a new Apple II software newsletter. We're doing the
next version at this very moment. Previously it was
available only through user groups, but now we're going to
take an ad out in inCider/A+ and make it available to
everyone, free of charge. No sales are involved in this
we're giving developers a free plug. We're spending all this
money just for the sake of letting Apple II users know we're
still behind them.
Moore: Ah ha..! Heh, how goes Mac third party development
these days? Actually John, that's exactly what we don't
want. If Apple doesn't make money off of the II, it only
serves to act as nails in the coffin and hasten the system's
demise.
Santoro: Let me just finish telling you what we're doing.
Service: Service is a big problem. You can't get it. All I
can do is propose a PowerBook type of program. Especially
for schools because they have 75% of all the Apple II's
sold. Here's what I'll propose. A mail order service for
Apple II's. You put your system in a box and sent it to
Apple. Three days later you have your system back. We want
to make peripherals available to the direct public. If we
can manage to break even then that will make the company
happy.
Moore: If you do this it's definitely a step in the right
direction.
Santoro: Not *if*, we're doing it!
Kohn: From the viewpoint of inCider/A+, you'll probably
be able to get the space for free. What about Apple dealers?
Can the dealer be sent something so that if a user brings
his system in to them and they can send it to Apple? They
can also give a copy of the catalog to people that are
interested.
Livingston: Yes, the catalog is working. We only sent
about a million copies out and we've had very good response
so far. People are anxious to get them.
Santoro: About 8 million Apple II's have been sold since
1977. Approximately 25% of those are in people's homes. So
we now have an installed base of roughly 2 million Apple II
users and 11 million Mac users that we want to get the
catalog to.
Garvey: Could you take that to the next step and have a
second printing?
Apple: (In unison) YES, yes yes!
Kaupp: We most assuredly will. We want the dealers
especially to have them in stock. It would make their
customers happy and also benefit them if they don't have to
maintain low profit additional inventory stock. They want to
sell Macs.
Lunatic: What I'd like to see would be for dealers to
have a bunch of cards with an 800 number on it to give to
Apple II people. When the user calls, he'd be able to get
three things immediately. The software guide, the catalog
and the Apple II guide, all from that one number. Then his
call for service or maintenance would be handled.
Moore: John, you may know this. Rye, Ray, you may not.
There's one primary reason for the Apple II enduring as long
as it has. Throughout the history of Apple, it's been know
as the friendly company. The company that was willing to
touch base with the little people while IBM was the beast or
the orge of the industry. IBMs belonged in the subterrain of
huge corporations and were servers etc. Believe what you
will, if Apple loses this image and tries to compete nose to
nose with IBM in the corporate level, it will signal the end
of Apple, Inc. as the home computer specialist. The current
trend places Apple in the "Novation" mode if you know what I
mean.
Santoro: Well your point is well taken but I don't think
you'll see IBM taking in user group members for the PC Jr.
and telling them about how they're going to continue
support. I don't think you'll see Ford have a user group
meeting about 1977 Ford Fairlane buyers. (PC Jr's run DOS
5.0 too!)
Moore: An Apple IIGS is not a Ford Fairlane and cannot be
compared to one. Don't underestimate IBM. They've already
stated that they intend to market the home computerist
because there's a lot of "Dead Soldiers" on the field and
that statement is aimed directly at the Apple II users and
educators that Apple, Inc. has cast aside already. These
people aren't buying Macs, they're switching platforms.
Diaz: What I trying to drive at, is there are other
people out there in the market, affiliated with user groups
or not, that would like to do things such as sell video
overlay cards or super drives and the like.
APPLE: There are two great experiments with the catalog.
One is the availability of cpu's in the catalog. Great
experiment number two is third party products in the
catalog. There's a small, and very select few, third party
items in there.
Diaz: Apple did this third party thing with the Apple3
long ago also. The same identical thing and they sold
everything with THEIR label on it. Then they discontinued
the cpu. People want to look at the catalog and buy things.
The dealerships don't want to be bothered with the Apple II
or any of its peripherals. They would be happy to give II
users an 800 number,a catalog and get them out of their
stores. However, since I work in the mail order business, I
know that the people who *answer* at the 800 number will not
be able to give responses to technical questions about these
items. Since the dealerships or superstore clerks can't do
it either, this leaves the user groups as the next level for
handling this task. We have a dealer that willing to sell us
System6 and SCSI cards, but they get paranoid that someone
here will step on them!
Garvey: That's the exact position that I'm in on the
PC/Mac side of things. It's still a viable business and
there's still a living that can be earned by reselling parts
and providing service, maintenance, recommendations and
consultation to end users; and then purchasing and
installing these things. In the user group environment, they
are more visible.
Moore: OK, there's another issue that I'm concerned
about. I'm not Apple bashing and I don't want to appear as a
critic, but there is another large cross section of users
that think the Apple front office is infested with morons
and dimwits.
APPLE: Yea Ernie, go ahead and tell us what you really
think of us. (Jovial atmosphere!)
Moore: What these users are concerned about is the number
of cpu's that Apple releases, praises, then abandons. Count
the number of Macs over the past two or three years that are
no longer in production.
Diaz: That's true. When someone buys a Mac, in the next
month or two another is released and their system is
obsolete.
Garvey: Are you getting negative feedback on the amount
of new cpu's being introduced? I mean like the not-so-old
cx's and ci's are all obsolete now.
Santoro: I don't think there's a company on the face of
the planet that has gone further out of the way to insure
compatibility. We haven't received any feedback to that
effect. (Seems evasive again eh!)
Moore: Perhaps you haven't, believe me it exists and in
appreciable quantity!
Kaupp: I'm in the best position to receive feedback like
that, and the greatest issue at hand now is system software
licensing. All of the feedback that I've received about
products is "Keep Pushing!"
Garvey: With the Apple II, when did you start to get that
kind of production feedback... '86-'87?
Santoro: The greatest dissent that we've received is from
the man on the street with a family and he wants to get his
kids into the computer age. He asks his kids what kind of
computer they use in school and hears "Apple II." Next he
goes to the dealer and asks for the best Apple II available.
He gets a IIGS, takes it home, then he discovers that
there's a limited software base because developers that are
into that intricate type of programming are doing it for the
Mac. (Something's wrong with that scenario. The man goes to
the dealer and the dealer isn't selling Apple IIs at all...
What's gone awry with that story?)
Garvey: I have at home a IIe, IIGS, Mac+ and a Mac SE.
Using the SE is really digressing!
Santoro: I have to attend another meeting. Are there any
final questions that you'd like to ask?
Moore: There is one question that I have. If Apple isn't
going to market or promote the Apple II, why can't it be
opted out to a third party developer or inaugurated into an
affiliate company ala Claris?
Santoro: That's a point well taken. This has already been
proposed to Sculley himself and the answer was that we don't
want to let the Apple logo out of the company!
Moore: There has never been a Macintosh made with the
name Apple associated with it!
Santoro: (Laughing) That's not a point of argument.
(Entire room laughs)
Keltner: We're producing some archivial chronicles and I
was wondering if we could have access to the original IIGS
commercials? They were very impressive.
Santoro: I don't know where they are but if you find them
and get them digitized, you're welcome to do it.
BAAUG: I think they're on Quicktime!
Santoro: In closing, the demand is so low right now for
the IIGS, that it's going to be dropped from the price list
very soon. The IIe is fine and will be continued. (There's a
lot of mumbling throughout the room)
Lunatic: After System 6.0.1 and the Ethernet Card, will
that be the last that we'll see from Apple for the GS and
how long will it be before it's taken off of the price list?
Santoro: Probably before the end of the year. The Apple
II Continued Engineering Group is going to remain intact
through the next fiscal year and that's about a year from
now as the fiscal year just started. Beyond that is up to
the company. I don't see any hardware beyond the Ethernet
card.
Garvey: Will there be any revisions to the Ethernet card
because in reality, it's an EtherTalk card?
Santoro: We're looking at putting TCIP on it because we
see the text based IIe's and IIc's in schools as being
perfect for going into the Internet!
(After insignificant further chatter, the meeting ended!)
In reviewing of the information provided by Apple at this
meeting, there are many items unveiled which prior to
meeting were rumors only. Statements like, " We don't want
users to think that we have two platforms ", made by the
head of the Apple II Continued Engineering Team give cause
for this reporter to peek between the lines and see the real
picture.
In retrospecting the Apple II's history for the last 5
years, there are events that occurred which give cause for
raised eyebrows.
a) Shortly after the IIGS was released, the IIc+ was
released and it boasted a 4.5 mhz cpu compared to the state
of the art GS which had a native speed of 2.5 mhz.
b) Approximately 10 months after the IIGS and IIc+ were
released, dealers began telling customers that the Apple II
had been discontinued by Apple, Inc. and was no longer in
production. The IIc+ was dropped from the price list less
than 1 year after it was announced.
c) 18 months after the GS was released, mysteriously
software developers terminated GS projects they were working
on. Many of them were near completion. Is, WHY a question or
an answer?
d) A User Group Connection coordinator stated at the
meeting, "We don't want to sell people Apple II's, we want
to support the existing Apple II user base!" When asked,
"Why isn't Apple, Inc. pushing for Apple II sales?", the
Apple representatives never gave an answer either directly
or indirectly. The standard comment of, "The 65xxx cpu is
old technology!" was always offered as the response. Yet the
65xxx cpu is thriving in other cpu's!
Apple would have us believe that only 25% of all Apple
II's sold since 1977 are in homes and the 75% balance are in
schools. Using those figures, there have been approximately
1.37 million Apple II's sold to users as the computer of
choice in their homes since 1977. I recall reading an
article in the 1985 era, where 15 million Apple II's had
been sold *then* and 40% were in peoples home as the
computer of choice.
This reporter would like to know why a major corporation
such as Apple Computer cannot support two product lines,
being the Apple II and the Macintosh. This reporter would
also like to know why a major corporation such as Apple,
Inc., having a tremendous installed user base with the Apple
II, would elect to proceed with a poorly planned program of
elimination of that massive fertile market at the apex of
it's popularity. Assuredly it was not done for the financial
welfare of the company as sales of the IIGS were far beyond
promising and the profit margin was lucrative.
Realizing that there is no logical answer to these many
strange occurrences; and that the advent of them all began
with the changeover in the high office, there is one
solitary explanation that may be extracted. It may be
summarized with a single word... " EGOTISM!" This reporter
charges that the CEO of Apple Computer, Inc. has a fanatical
craving to compete with the legend of the past CEO of
Chrysler Motors. (Can't touch Lee, you rascal!) This twisted
thinking mandates that the name *WOZNIAC* be expunged from
the minds of the masses as that name automatically invokes
images of the Apple II. (Can't touch Steve either, dude!)
This twisted thinking also mandates that the name Macintosh
be established as *THE* Apple computer. Yet the name Apple
is never affiliated with the Macintosh, only the logo!
Now comes the anticipated closed chapter for the, umm,
gentleman. At the meeting the head of the Apple II Continued
Engineering Group disclosed that the IIGS would be taken off
of the price list before the end of 1992, and that the IIe
would remain because of the K-12 commitment. The reasoning
for this action was that the assembly lines could be used to
produce PowerBooks which are apparently in high demand.
This reporter poses this question to all who read these
lines: Why can't a corporation as large as Apple Computer,
Inc. think in terms of company growth and expansion, improve
the capability of the 65816, market it with enthusiasm as
other 65xxx based systems do and enjoy the success?
If you have not read the transcripts of the meeting,
please do so. Read it all as it's not that long. Pass it on.
There's only one way to stop the systematic murder of the
Apple II, SUPPORT IT! Support it with testimonials; support
it with word of mouth praise for the system to prospective
first time buyers; support it by developing software and
hardware for it; support it by demanding to see II cpu's and
peripherals in Apple dealerships; support it by demanding
that Apple, Inc. display Apple II's in their catalogs;
support it by demanding that Apple, Inc. market it with
enthusiasm. This is the only way to protect your investment.
This is the only way to drive a stake through the heart of
the one that Bram Stoker REALLY wrote his novel about!
I encourage responses to the transcripts of Project Apple
Storm. With enough interest from the end user base,
assuredly Project Apple Storm II will take place and this
time with the voice of the masses behind us. Please spread
the transcripts of PAS to each and every online service in
existence. As was once most eloquently stated, "the Apple II
isn't dead yet, but it appears that it's terminal." We're
going to be the surgeons that bring the near dead to
glorious and blissful life.
Contacts:
Future Net: User #1@#9
Oggnet: User #8@Valhalla
AOL: EPM BAAUG
GEnie: Contact Mike Garvey or Lunatic and ask them to
forward responses to me.
o Apple wanted to do a IIGS Card for the Mac LC, and looked
into it, but found that they couldn't make one for less than
the cost of the Mac itself.
o Apple will not license the Apple II ROMs to a third party
for three major reasons:
I. It is proprietary technology.
II. Apple is now has a competing product to the Apple
II, the Mac LC.
III. The Apple logo must be licensed with the ROMs. Any
action that a third party takes while using the Apple logo
reflects on Apple Computer, Inc., whether good or bad. This
is unacceptable.
o No new Apple II hardware is expected to be developed by
Apple Computer, Inc. after the Apple II Ethernet card is
released.
o System software tweaks such as printer drivers for new
Apple printers are expected to continue. One large thrust
will be continued network and printer compatibility.
o HyperCard GS and Apple IIGS System Software 6.0 were done
partially to give Apple IIGS users "a taste of the Mac" in
the hope that they would eventually migrate to that
platform.
o Apple is actively investigating a PowerBook-style mail-in
service plan for all Apple II users.
o The much-rumored "ROM 4" Apple IIGS was to have the
following features: Built-in 40MB hard drive, built-in
SuperDrive, 2 Meg RAM, System 6.0 tools in ROM, DMA SCSI
port, HyperCard GS bundled with the machine. It would have
retained the 2.8 Mhz processor speed of the previous
versions of the IIGS.
o Part of the delay in the development and release of
System 6.0 was because of the cancellation of the "ROM 4."
o A re-engineered Apple IIGS was investigated, solely to
lower production costs (continued production could be
justified for a longer time with lower costs) but it never
even got past the idea stage.
Project Apple Storm - Apple Retaliates
I received a telephone call from an Apple employee (a few
days ago), the name will remain anonymous as he would
probably deny it anyway.
I was told that I was really in trouble because I had
broken the law by releasing the transcripts of a private
meeting. I was also told that the legal staff at ACI was
looking into what action to take at this point. The caller
felt that I had violated the sanctity of the hallowed halls
of the meeting room and using his own words, "Things are
really going on here as a result of your releasing that CRAP
to the Internet and GEnie!"
The caller raved on about why didn't I let them, (Apple),
review the transcripts prior to releasing them and that
having a tape recorder present at the meeting was also a
violation of the law. He continually stressed my not knowing
how much trouble I was really in! He stated that the
transcripts made it appear that the User Group Connection
and John Santoro did not care about the Apple end users.
My response to him was that:
a). I made my intentions known when the meeting began by
stating that we didn't want to be a part of non-disclosures
as our intent was to make our users aware of the status of
the Apple II.
b). I told him that the contents of the transcripts were
exactly what took place at the meeting and that all remarks
enclosed within the ()'s were editorial comments.
c). I informed him that as I interpreted the transcripts,
the User Group Connection; and John Santoro; and Apple, Inc.
in general, did not care about APPLE II END USERS other than
the those in the K-12 areas.
The caller went on to accuse me of being an idiot in
making reference to the egotism of the Apple CEO and that by
my doing this, most people would envision me as a stupid
individual to publically make such a statement.
In the mind of this reporter, that catagory must have
struck a nerve somewhere in the Cupertino high office! I
informed the caller that I felt that I had done the correct
thing in reporting the condition of the Apple II to the
public. I lashed him a little for making demeaning remarks
about my person and told him to let the general public make
their own conclusions about my intellectual level.
SUMMARY: It's somewhat gratifying to know that the
transcripts produced a response from Apple. What could prove
interesting would be for them to get their legal staff
actively involved. Think of the glorious publicity that the
Apple II would receive.
=====
Editorial
NAFTA and Apple, Inc.
by Al Martin
Which ever side you are on as far as NAFTA is concerned, there is an
unmistakable truth to the agreement and it's something that Apple, Inc.
forgot long ago. That is, it's the consumer that drives trade and to the
extent that unrestricted competition is part of the activity, the consumer
benefits. In the automobile industry, the consumer benefitted by the introduction
of Japanese cars. That introduction and the resulting competition, spurred
the big 3 in America to get on the stick and increase the quality and features
on our cars produced here. I'm sure that the American automobile manufacturers
wanted a restricted market and product line, but it didn't happen. What
happened was that the market drove the industry, not the other way around.
What does this have to do with Apple, Inc.? Plenty. Apple, Inc. took
away a competitive computer, the IIGS, and limited the market to the Macintosh
and a few old IIe and IIc models. The loss of the best and most versatile
personal computer dealt a blow that Apple, Inc., despite best its deep thinkers
could come up with, is now dealing with. The MS-DOS machines now have real
control of the market and Apple, Inc. frittered it away by not letting the
market buy from a wide-range of choices. It was a stupid move. Apple, Inc.
forgot that what's good for the consumers is good for business.
"New" hardware
by Al Martin
For the past couple of months I've been working on my first novel. And
no, it's not about computers, Apple, Inc. or our buddy Sculley. It's an
entirely different theme.
Anyway, I had a need for some kind of portable computer so I could do
some writing at the sources or while on the road in my travel trailer. In
the last issue of The Road Apple I advertised that I was looking to buy
an Apple IIc+ with a flat screen. Well, I got the system through a posting
a friend made on my behalf on a BBS.
I got the computer with the flat screen plus the IIc+ was beefed up with
increased memory and a no-slot clock. The hardware now frees me to work
with AppleWorks just about anywhere I want as long as there is a 110-volt
outlet nearby. The whole shebang easily fits into a briefcase and is light
enough to pack around.
I suppose I could have opted for a truly portable one, but I found that
there were (a) too limited in memory, (b) did not have a disk drive, (c)
was a different system that would need some sort of transporter software,
or (d) were much too expensive. As I have said here before, the true tragedy
is that (1) Apple, Inc. never went ahead with a truly portable Apple II
computer, and (2) that Laser did not market the portable IIGS prototype
I saw at KansasFest a few years ago.
As an aside, I have found that the process of writing a novel for me
has created an interesting realization. The project has taken on a life
of its own and is more fun that I could have possibly imagined.
AppleWorks 4.0
by Al Martin
Well, it's finally here and ready for sale. Quality Computers has just
sent out a mailing and you most likely already have one. In case you don't,
the upgrade, yes, AppleWorks 4.0 is one huge patch, is advertised on sale
at $79.95 with a regular listing at $99.00. You can call Quality at 1-800-777-3642
and order it using your credit card or send a check to Quality at PO Box
349, St. Clair Shores, MI 48080. Add $7.00 for shipping and handling.
Please don't consider this a free plug for Quality Computers; I'm doing
this as a personal favor to AppleWorks 4.0 author Randy Brandt.
Going, going...gone
by Al Martin
I see in the paper that John Sculley has left Apple, Inc. permanently
to head up Spectrum Information Technologies. Now I know how the Europeans
must of felt like in the 13th century when the Mongol hordes pulled back
to Asia. The treasures of the then western world were destroyed as that
is what the Mongols did to that which they did not understand and certainly
John Sculley did not understand the Apple II and IIGS computers. Good riddance,
John.
I have to admit the very first thing, and in fact the main thing, that
attracted me to the Apple was the story of its beginning. Two guys in a
garage build the first mass produced commercial brain amplifier, and get
rich and famous doing it. They got so rich and so famous so fast that they
didn't even have to cut their hair.
Besides the hacker stories which tickled me - literally raised in an
atmosphere of technology - I was particularly taken by the nature of the
stories of the two Steves.
Woz, the quiet artist who created was my particular hero. His sole drive
was to make things which embodied the concept of neatism. This creative
direction, almost free of human subjectivity, held both cutting edge technology
and aesthetic elegance as equal virtues. His later seclusion and final withdrawal
from the company only reinforced this image of saintly monasticism.
But it's not Woz, but Jobs, who now holds my attention. Although he was
brash and rude, and quite clearly a jerk, his own story more closely parallels
the progression of the Apple II community I think. And I think it holds
some important lessons for the present and future.
Jobs began as a searcher. For whatever his personal reasons, he wandered
from concept to concept looking for direction. Like many from his (and my)
generation, he sought that which would offer meaning, whether or not it
held any material value.
A brief experimentation with drugs, a trip to join a pilgrimage in India,
and some time spent as a vegetarian and fructarian all left him older but
no wiser. Enter Woz. Or reenter, as they had known each other in school.
While Woz sought his nirvana in beautiful circuitry, Jobs realized the possibilities
present in Woz's dream machine, and chose for his personal mission the ultimate
expression of such a device - distribution to the masses.
The unparalleled rise of the Apple II defies the 'great idea at the right
time' hypothesis. I believe the secret of the success was in spiritual connection
that both of them, but more so Jobs, had with the machine's success.
Along with the machine there rose a legion of faithful and inspired followers.
Within a few short years they numbered in the millions. Common among them,
master hacker and initiate alike, was a devotion not to the machine, nor
to the company, but to the very concept and the virtual life that their
devotion gave it.
Woz's part in the evolution ended after his near fatal accident and his
subsequent reevaluation of his role during the design of the GS. Jobs continued
his drive with the design and production of the Mac, until Sculley worked
him out of the company. Still, the faithful persisted in their own culture.
Woz finally left the scene to pursue a teaching career, but Jobs continued
in his search by starting NExT.
A movement as powerful as the Apple II users holds a great deal of momentum.
It persists even to this day. But due to the success of marketoids, their
numbers wither as they become convinced that their needs are met only by
other machines. And perhaps so it is, if in fact their needs require those
functions never implemented on the Apple (few as that may be). More left
due to an irrational belief that the manufacturer must continue to create
a constant influx of new believers by promoting the machine, in order that
it remain commercially viable.
Of those believers that remain, a few continue to carry a banner of renewed
commercial vigor. The majority though are those who keep the dream alive
individually and in groups by their continued belief in the concept which
brought them together. That concept is nothing more or less than the Apple
II itself; it defies definition in less abstract terms. Even those who do
insist that the Apple II is still commercially viable do so almost as a
rationalization, subsequent to their primary motivation which is their belief.
Even though Jobs left - less than voluntarily - his own journey continued.
Without Apple, he continued to carry on his own dream. Herein lies a lesson.
His book, "The Journey Is The Reward" outlines his chosen path,
which he follows still. The key phrase 'without Apple' should be noted here.
His belief in what he was doing has been sufficient. To many of us who still
believe in the Apple II dream, this belief can be sufficient to us.
If we require results, we are going to be disappointed. Results will
continue to come at a lesser pace every year. If, however, we are sustained
by that which is before us, our Apple IIs and the concept they embody, we
can continue undiminished. If we require company, we are again going to
lose hope. More will leave the ranks of Apple users for whatever reasons
they choose to hold. If we instead rely on the strength of our relationship
with our machines, and then seek out those others who also maintain their
relationships with their machines, our belief will be reinforced.
If we set out with the idea that we must arrive at a goal, we miss the
point. These machines before us are for our daily use, to augment our minds.
Without this realization, the possibilities fly by us as we wait, arms folded,
waiting to arrive at our imagined destination. We each participate in the
journey each time we hit the power switch. It's a shame that so many of
us seem to blind ourselves to the landscape while we wait to arrive. You
see, the journey IS the reward, and it sits before me now. Since the first
Apple I kit, it has been a journey of partaking. So it is now, and will
always be. Losing sight of this is not to give up on the destination, because
no destination ever really existed, it is to quit the journey. This is of
course a viable option, but the fault for it lies with no one but each individual
in his or her own case.
Now more than ever it requires a certain faith to be an Apple II user.
But there's no trouble there, for even when the Apple II was the greatest
machine in the minds of the general population, that faith was a large part
of the reality. And even if I end up to be the last Apple II user on Earth,
that faith in the concept, that glow that reflects from the landscape as
I observe my journey progress, that faith will remain.
Apple II History
Compiled and written by Steven Weyhrich
(C) Copyright 1991, Zonker Software
(Part 11 -- The Apple IIGS, Cont.)
The Apple IIGS: Miscellaneous hardware
Other features Apple engineers added to make the Apple IIGS a next generation
computer included a built-in clock, slot space for internal expansion cards,
and the electronic equivalents of seven more expansion cards.<1> Taking
the cue from their experience with the Apple IIc, they included as built-in
features the peripherals that most users would want to use. They allocated
serial ports to slots 1 and 2, the classic 80-column firmware to slot 3,
the mouse controller to slot 4, a Smartport controller to slot 5, a 5.25
inch disk controller to slot 6, and AppleTalk capability to slot 7. (AppleTalk
was Apple's network protocol that had been designed originally for use with
the Macintosh).
Because the engineers wanted to make the IIGS capable of connecting to
the AppleTalk network, the serial ports they planned were based on a different
communications controller chip than was used in the older Super Serial Card
and the Apple IIc serial controller. Although the new controller chips were
more capable than the older ones used on the 8-bit Apple II's, telecommunications
programs written for those older Apple's wouldn't work. This was because
most terminal programs, for the sake of speed, were written to directly
control the old Super Serial Card (rather than going through the slower,
built-in firmware commands). The controlling commands necessary to manage
the newer chip were very different, and so caused such software to "break".<2>
The case and motherboard used in the Apple IIGS was made smaller than
that found in the IIe, both in order to make a smaller "footprint"
on a desktop, and also to make it easier to make an upgrade available for
IIe owners. They had wanted to make it possible even for Apple II and II
Plus owners to upgrade, but in the end it turned out to be just too expensive
and difficult to execute.<2>
The Macintosh engineering group was at this time designing a protocol
for interfacing standard input devices, such as keyboards, mice, and graphics
tablets. This protocol, called the "Apple Desktop Bus", was first
implemented on the Apple IIGS. It made possible the interchangability of
hardware devices between the Macintosh and Apple II lines, allowing Apple
to sell a common set of peripherals that both computers could use.<2>
The Apple IIGS: Firmware
Firmware, you may recall, is that layer of controlling programs in ROM
on a computer that sits between an application program and the hardware
it is trying to control. On the IIGS, the firmware was designed after the
hardware was finalized. Unlike the older ROM that Wozniak included with
the original Apple II, the IIGS software engineers tried to make it more
than just a set of addresses to call to carry out a function (such as clearing
the screen). Rather, they wanted to make a more comprehensive system (called
a "toolbox") which could be more flexible for future enhancements
of the hardware and firmware. In particular, they didn't want to have the
addresses for carrying out certain functions to be fixed in a single location
as on the older Apples. This toolbox would have a single address to call,
and a specific command would be passed on through that address. Set up like
this, it would allow Apple's firmware programmers to modify the ROM in the
future without having to take trouble to make multiple addresses in the
ROM "line up" properly. Additionally, they made it easy to "patch"
the toolbox code in the ROM using code loaded from disk, allowing programmers
to fix errors that were later found without having to replace the physical
ROM chips.
At first, they were given 64K of space for the ROM, over four times as
much as was available on the original Apple II. Later, they had to go back
and ask for 128K of ROM, because of the many things that they needed and
wanted to do. Of course, Applesoft had to be present in ROM in order to
maintain compatibility with the older Apple II software. Additionally, they
also put all of the mouse-handling tools into the ROM (unlike the II, II
Plus, and IIe, which had to have the mouse firmware on a card in a peripheral
slot).<1>
A boost to the firmware design of the IIGS came, unexpectedly, as a result
of the merger between the Apple II and Macintosh divisions. This merger
came as part of the reorganization that coincided with the departure of
Steve Jobs from Apple. Since the Macintosh team was now working in the same
place as the IIGS designers, they were available to offer help and ideas.
Bill Atkinson, the programming wizard who wrote MacPaint and many of the
mouse tools for the Macintosh, helped in the creation of the mouse tools
and QuickDraw II for the IIGS. (This was the name given to the ROM tools
used to draw on the super hi-res screen, and was borrowed from the older
QuickDraw routines on the original Macintosh).<1>
To allow the user to easily configure certain features of the IIGS to
their own tastes, a "control panel" was designed (another idea
borrowed from the Macintosh). It was used to set the clock, the system speed
(between a "normal" 1 MHz and a "fast" 2.8 MHz), change
the standard text display from 40 to 80 columns, set colors for the text
screen, set sensitivity of the mouse and keyboard, and make the standard
settings for the printer and modem ports. These preferences were saved in
a special battery-powered RAM that would survive even when the system power
was turned off.<1>
The Apple IIGS: System software
ProDOS needed to be updated to better take advantage of the additional
memory on the IIGS, as well as the larger storage devices that were not
very available when ProDOS was originally written. Back then, five megabytes
was felt to be quite a large disk size. By the time the IIGS was designed,
40 megabytes was becoming a common standard. The new IIGS-specific version,
called "ProDOS 16", would also be able to handle any number of
open files at the same time (the older version of ProDOS was limited to
eight files open simultaneously).<1>
The first version of ProDOS 16 was more limited than Apple's designers
wanted it to be, but they didn't want to hold up the new IIGS until a better
version was ready. The version of ProDOS that would run 8-bit Apple II software
(on the IIGS or older Apple II's) was renamed "ProDOS 8". That
version was modified to handle system interrupts better, which was important
on the IIGS because of the control panel feature and the way in which the
Apple Desktop Bus worked. (An interrupt refers to a special signal that
is sent to the microprocessor by a hardware device. This signal "interrupts"
what the processor is doing, redirects it to do something else, and then
returns the processor to what it was previously doing. The mouse on the
IIc and the mouse card for the other Apple II's use interrupts to handle
movements of the mouse).<2>
IIGS project code names and team members
The earliest name used internally at Apple for the IIGS project was Phoenix
(as mentioned earlier). It was also known as "Rambo" (when the
design team was fighting for final approval from the executive staff), "Gumby"
(from an impersonation done at Apple's Halloween-day parade), and "Cortland".<1>,<3>
Some of the members of the design team not yet mentioned here include
Nancy Stark (an early and energetic champion for the IIGS project); Curtis
Sasaki (IIGS product manager); Ed Colby (CPU product manager); Jim Jatczynski
(Operating System group manager); Fern Bachman (who worked to ensure compatibility
with existing Apple II software); Gus Andrate (who developed the sound tools
and the unified drive firmware); and Peter Baum, Rich Williams, Eagle I.
Berns, John Worthington, and Steven Glass, who each developed part of the
IIGS system software and firmware.<4>
The Apple IIGS: Product introduction
In September of 1986, Apple introduced the new Apple IIGS, bundled with
an Apple 3.5 drive, for $999 (not including a monitor). Apple management,
somewhat surprised by the response that occurred in their "Apple II
Forever" event two years earlier, made the decision to heavily promote
this new Apple II. Why they came to this change of heart was unclear. Although
they showed no slowing in their plans for the Macintosh (which was making
steady progress in gaining acceptability in the business world), a multi-million
dollar marketing and media blitz was arranged to promote the new IIGS as
the ultimate home and recreational use computer. Even employees at Apple
who had worked on the IIGS project were startled (but pleased) at the marketing
intensity that was begun, and the order for this came directly from the
top. John Sculley himself had insisted that the Apple IIGS be given highest
priority. (Apple's CEO since 1983, he had just a year earlier ousted founder
Steve Jobs from day to day responsibilities at Apple). Rumors flew, but
were never confirmed, about a shaken Sculley who had come to an executive
staff meeting in July of 1986 with stories of strange things he had experienced.
He had supposedly received a frightening nighttime visit from a yellow-garbed
alien who called himself "Darth Vader" from the planet Vulcan.
"He told me that he would meld my brain if I didn't put all I could
into marketing the Apple IIGS! I have to do it!!", he was reported
to have said, white-fisted and pale, at that meeting. Despite the obvious
references to science-fiction movies and television of the 1960's and late
1970's, the executive staff bowed to his requests (which were no less firm
after Sculley had taken a Valium and had a couple of Diet Pepsi's. After
all, he WAS the boss).
Of course, the IIGS was received by the Apple II community with enthusiasm.
After initial sales broke all previous records, including those for the
Macintosh, Apple re-doubled its efforts to promote this as the computer
for nearly everyone. After all, it had ties into the past (compatible with
Steve Wozniak's 4K Integer BASIC Apple II at its core), and ties into the
future (with the 16-bit technology and expanded memory). Within a year it
was outselling the Macintosh (which had also received a boost in sales,
thought to be benefiting from the wave of IIGS sales).
By 1988, a significantly enhanced Apple IIGS was released, with more
advanced system software (which worked more like the easy-to-use Macintosh
interface) and higher density graphics (the cost of better color monitors
had come down considerably since the initial design of the IIGS back in
1985). Apple even decided to take the unprecedented move of licensing the
Apple II technology to a couple of other companies, who worked on producing
IIGS emulators for other computers, including IBM and its clones! Software
and hardware sales hit a spiraling upward curve, which stimulated more sales
of computers from Apple, which increased software and hardware sales further.
Apple even produced a IIGS emulator of its own for the Macintosh and Macintosh
II series of computers. Eventually...
(Hold it. Something just doesn't seem right. I don't recall things going
NEARLY that well for the IIGS. Computer!
APPLE IIC: [ Tweedlesquirge ] State request, please.
AUTHOR: Compare time events just outlined in previous section with known
events in database notes.
APPLE IIC: Working... [ Blinkitydinkitydinkityzeerp ] Events just described
are from a parallel timeline, which diverged from our own timeline in July
1986.
AUTHOR: Hmmm. Any way of moving into that timeline?
APPLE IIC: Negative. Insufficient energy available in my power supply
brick to actually make changes necessary to alter the events in our timeline
to allow the above scenario to actually occur.
AUTHOR: Then HOW did we come across that information in the first place?
APPLE IIC: Flux capacitor was affected by a momentary surge in power
lines due to a nearby thunderstorm.
AUTHOR: Interesting. Well, maybe someday I'll have to beef up this power
supply a bit and have a talk with Mr. Sculley if I can find my yellow radiation
suit...So how do we get back to the correct information?
APPLE IIC: You could effect a complete shutdown and memory purge, then
reload correct data from protected archives.
AUTHOR: Very well. Make it so.
APPLE IIC: Working... [ Blinkitydinkitydinkityzeerpity... ]
PROOFREADER: Your Apple TALKS???
AUTHOR: What? Yes, well I had a CPU conversion done in the early 24th
century...
APPLE IIC: Data reload completed. You may proceed when ready.
AUTHOR: Now, let's see if we can get it right this time...)
The Apple IIGS: Product introduction (Take 2)
In September of 1986, Apple introduced the new Apple IIGS, bundled with
an Apple 3.5 drive, for $999 (not including a monitor). The Apple II community
was excited about the new computer, and inCider magazine featured a exuberant
Steve Wozniak on the cover of its October 1986 issue with the caption, "It's
Amazing!"
Apple, for its part, did do some advertising for the new computer in
the pages of current Apple II publications of the time. However, there was
no major push for the new computer, and again it seemed destined to be dwarfed
by Apple's preoccupation with the Macintosh.
Though announced in September, the IIGS was not widely available until
November. Early production models of the IIGS had some problems; one of
the new chips did not work properly, and necessary changes to fix them caused
a delay. The upgrade that would turn an Apple IIe into a IIGS was also delayed
until early 1987.<5>
The Apple IIGS: Enhancements
In September 1987 Apple made an incremental improvement to the IIGS with
the release of a new ROM. The ROM 01 revision made a few changes in the
original IIGS ROMs and included an improved video controller chip. Bugs
in the ROM code were fixed, and a problem with a "pink fringe"
effect with certain graphics displays was fixed. The new ROMs were not compatible
with any IIGS System Disks earlier than version 2.0. The new ROM was identified
by a message at the bottom of the screen when booting the IIGS that said
"ROM Version 01". The original IIGS had no message in this location.<6>
The next change came with the release of the ROM 03 version of the IIGS
in August of 1989. This new IIGS computer came standard with 1 meg of RAM
on the motherboard, and twice as much ROM (256K versus 128K on the older
IIGS). This allowed more of the operating system to be in ROM, rather than
having to be loaded from disk when booting. Additionally, fixes were made
to known bugs in the ROM 01 firmware. (The latest version of the IIGS system
software made patches to ROM 01 to fix those bugs, but these patches still
had to be loaded from disk, which slowed startup time. Having the latest
new tools and fixed new ones already in ROM made booting the version 03
IIGS a bit quicker). The new Apple IIGS also had the capability of using
both the internal slot firmware as well as using a peripheral card plugged
into a slot. The ROM 01 IIGS could, of course, use cards plugged into the
slots, but only at the expense of being unable to use the internal firmware
for that slot. With so much useful system firmware built-in, a ROM 01 user
who wanted, for example, to add a controller card for a hard disk would
have to give up either AppleTalk in slot 7 or use of 5.25 disks in slot
6. Almost everything else had to be set in the control panel to the internal
firmware.
The ROM 03 IIGS also included enhancements for disabled users. A feature
called "sticky keys" made it possible to do multiple keypresses.
(To execute an "Option-Control-X" sequence, for example, required
pressing three keys at once. This was something that a paralyzed user with
a mouth-stick to press keys could not previously do). Also, more things
that had required a mouse now had keyboard equivalents (using the keypad).
The new IIGS also had somewhat "cleaner" sound and graphics. However,
because the improvements made were minimal compared to the cost of providing
upgrades to previous owners, no upgrade program was announced by Apple.
In any case, many of the new features could be obtained on older IIGS's
by upgrading the memory to at least one megabyte and using GS/OS System
Software 5.0.2 or greater.<7>
A feature that was added to the ROM 03 firmware that was entirely fun,
instead of functional, was accessed by a specific key-sequence. If the computer
was booted with no disk in the drive, a message that said "Check startup
device" appeared, with an apple symbol sliding back and forth. At that
point, if the user pressed the keys "Ctrl", "Open Apple",
"Option", and "N" simultaneously, the digitized voices
of the Apple IIGS design team could be heard shouting "Apple II!"
Also, the names of those people would be displayed on the screen. If running
GS/OS System 5.0 or greater, the user would have to hold down the "Option"
and "Shift" keys, then pull down the "About" menu in
the Finder. It would then say "About the System". Using the mouse
to click on that title would cause the names to be displayed and the audio
message to be heard.
Notes
<1> Duprau, Jeanne, and Tyson, Molly. "The Making Of The Apple
IIGS", A+ magazine, Nov 1986, pp. 57-74.
<2> Pinella, Paul. "In The Beginning: An Interview With Harvey
Lehtman", Apple IIGS: Graphics and Sound, Fall/Winter 1986, pp. 38-44.
<3> Hogan, Thom. "Apple: The First Ten Years", A+ magazine,
Jan 1987, p. 45.
<4> Szetela, David. "The New II", Nibble, Oct 1986, pp.
5-6.
<5> Weishaar, Tom. "Miscellanea", Open-Apple, Nov 1986,
p. 2.74.
<6> Platt, Robert, and Field, Bruce. "A.P.P.L.E. Doctor",
Call-A.P.P.L.E., Nov 1987, p. 58.
<7> Doms, Dennis. "Apple upgrades IIGS hardware", Open-Apple,
Sept. 1989, p. 5.57.
30
by Al Martin
Well gang, this is it. The final edition of The Road Apple. When I started
this little venture six years ago, I had no idea where it, or I, would go.
It's been a wonderful ride and now it's over. The market for Apple II computers,
software and future development is shrinking day by day. I've seen many
publications devoted to the market die along the way --- Call A.P.P.L.E.,
A+, Nibble, A2-Central, inCider and many others --- all a reflection of
the market.
I started The Road Apple as a response to Apple, Inc.'s decision to drop
the GS in favor of the Macintosh. It was a losing effort from the beginning
but I wanted to make a statement and provide a forum for those of you who
felt jilted as a loyal customer and supporter of the corporation in its
formative years. We knew what the Apple II series of computers could do
and we were firmly convinced that the GS was the best computer, period.
In fact, it still is.
One of the most exciting developments along the way was AppleWorks from
Beagle Bros. To this day it remains as the standard by which other interrelated
software programs are judged and still is chugging along. For my money,
Randy Brandt was and is the main man in Apple II software development and
his work on AppleWorks and the TimeOut enhancements. To him I give a personal
tip of the hat as "Mr. AppleWorks" and as one of the finest people
you could ever hope to meet. I'm gonna miss him.
And of course there was the Woz, Steve Wozniak, whose signature still
graces my GS here. This man was the heart, soul and brains of early Apple,
Inc. He projected a warmth and honesty that is so rare. I would venture
to state that if he had remained at Apple, Inc., the GS would be the dominate
personal computer today.
The real appreciation goes to you, the subscribers who have supported
this effort over all the years. I can't print the names of all of you, but
there are some who stand out.
There's Cindy Field who wrote for inCider and who encouraged me to charge
a subscription fee for the newsletter. She had a faith in the effort that
sustained me which I appreciate. And there's Glen Bredon who developed ProSel,
the best disk management system ever. Maybe someday I'll be able to understand
it. (grin)
A nod to Tony Gonzalez who calls from time to time with the latest news
and tips. Kim Primmer and Cy Schill who have been around for a long time.
There's Mollie Matlaf who opened the world of graphics to me. And the nutty
Jay Wilbur and Lee Golden who know how to have a good time at KansasFests.
Speaking of Kansasfest, the work of Tom Weishaar and Tom Vanderpool added
greatly to the Apple II line. The help of Cecil Fretwell is still important
to me.
These last two were really prime movers in The Road Apple. First there
is Wade Spafford, my guru who showed me how to start up a computer based
home business. I've had the honor of meeting Wade and his lovely and gracious
wife personally. They have become dear friends and I treasure that relationship.
And then there's my main man, Dennis McClain-Furmanski. Without him and
his technical expertise, there would have been no Road Apple after the first
couple of issues. He's another good friend whom I treasure. There is no
way I can thank him enough, but maybe I can double his bonus. (grin) Twice
nothing is still nothing.
Rest assured that I will not sell or give away my address list of Road
Apple subscribers. For those of you who have not used your full subscription,
if the balance is in excess of one dollar (two dollars for foreign), you
will get a refund check after I make all the necessary calculations. If
you don't get a check and think you have a refund, send an SASE and I'll
respond.
It's been a wonderful and thrilling ride --- there's been some bumps
in the road and I've run out of gas a time or two. However, the friends
I met along the way and the adventure I will treasure always. May God bless
each and everyone of you.
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