Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!yale!cmcl2!adm!smoke!gwyn
From: gwyn@smoke.brl.mil (Doug Gwyn)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Re: Stellar 7 re-release
Message-ID: <14702@smoke.brl.mil>
Date: 10 Dec 90 22:03:38 GMT
References: <6203@crash.cts.com>
Organization: U.S. Army Ballistic Research Laboratory, APG, MD.
Lines: 35

In article <6203@crash.cts.com> tg.exc@pro-harvest.cts.com (Terry Guelfo) writes:
>In-Reply-To: message from unknown@ucscb.UCSC.EDU
>>Have they ever said they're never gonna make GS programs again?
>YES, they have.  They said the GS is too damn slow.  Well, that's their
>problem if they don't want a transwarp or a ZipGSX.

Please don't post incorrect information.

I've discussed this matter with Sierra, and have posted the actual story
here before.

Briefly, Sierra's SCI implementation for the IIGS was not fast enough.
Sierra studied the issue of offering discounts on TWGS to purchasers
of SCI-based IIGS games, also simply warning "TWGS recommended" on the
box.  They determined that neither approach would be economically viable,
thus no SCI products are being released for the IIGS.  (This includes
all their recent animated adventure games, such as King's Quest V.)
If a fast-enough implementation of IIGS SCI were available, several
Sierra animated adventure games would probably be ported to the IIGS.

This has nothing to do with games like Stellar 7 that are not based on
SCI, however.  The only consideration there is whether enough GS games
would be sold to justify the development expense.  Since it is much more
expensive to port non-SCI/AGI games, it is unlikely that Sierra would
determine that that is economically viable either.  If they happened to
acquire a IIGS implementation of something like Thexder, I imagine they
would market it, but if resources had to be committed to producing a
IIGS port of such a game, odds are against it happening.

Given Apple's perceived lack of support for the IIGS, made if anything
worse by the recent announcement of an Apple //e emulator for the Mac,
and the software industry perception of low expected sales for Apple II
and IIGS software (other than in the educational market), it would be
pretty stupid of Sierra to put much additional effort into IIGS
development.