Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!udel!haven!adm!smoke!gwyn
From: gwyn@smoke.BRL.MIL (Doug Gwyn)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Re:  Ultima VI...sigh...
Message-ID: <13698@smoke.BRL.MIL>
Date: 29 Aug 90 21:23:06 GMT
References: <9008290116.AA27800@sunhkd.Asia.Sun.Com>
Organization: U.S. Army Ballistic Research Laboratory, APG, MD.
Lines: 41

In article <9008290116.AA27800@sunhkd.Asia.Sun.Com> ysk@Asia.Sun.COM (Yong Su Kim) writes:
>I don't really see why Origin shouldn't make the game.

Origin's problem is that they're convinced that the investment would be
worthwhile only if an 8-bit Apple II product resulted, not a IIGS-specific
product.  This has to do with perceptions of the Apple II software market
that are widespread in the software publishing industry; I don't say they
are correct.

Obviously it would be painful to cram Ultima VI into an 8-bit Apple II,
and the result would not be up to modern customer expectations (especially
those of IIGS users!).  I fully agree with Origin's reluctance to work on
an 8-bit Apple II version of Ultima VI, but I would like to see a IIGS
version.

The two classes of competitive computers are:
	{ Commodore 64/128, 8-bit Apple II, Atari 400/800 }
and
	{ Amiga, Apple IIGS, Atari ST, IBM PC }
Macintoshes are essentially in a class by themselves, since the affordable
ones have only monochrome graphics.

I note that a local Electronics Boutique has dropped ALL Macintosh software,
although they still have some Apple II and Commodore software.  Does that
mean the Macintosh is officially dead?  :-)

>If they make it as good as the IBM version, it's definitely going to sell
>many many copies.

That means a IIGS version, not an 8-bit Apple II one.

>There are a lot of GS users out there, but there aren't many good games for
>people to spend their money on. 

That's for sure.  I actually have trouble finding IIGS software to spend my
limited software budget on.  This implies to me that there is a sizeable
untapped market if only the software publishers and distributors knew how
to reach it.  (Software stores in malls around here seldom have any new IIGS
software that I want, and when both 8-bit Apple II and IIGS versions of a
product are released, they tend to stock just the 8-bit one, since "it says
on the box that it will run on a IIGS".  No wonder sales have slumped!)