Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ns-mx!iowasp!ceres!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!aplcen!haven!adm!smoke!gwyn
From: gwyn@smoke.BRL.MIL (Doug Gwyn)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: ROM 04 GS
Message-ID: <12092@smoke.BRL.MIL>
Date: 8 Feb 90 03:34:13 GMT
References: <10073.net.apple@pro-lep>
Reply-To: gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn)
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab (BRL), APG, MD.
Lines: 40

In article <10073.net.apple@pro-lep> orcus@pro-lep.cts.com (Brian Greenstone) writes:
>How many publishers are still doing IIgs products?  Almost none.  The only
>ones doing it are small companies who learned, and are not going to do IIgs
>stuff again.  Ive spoken with them all, and none of the publishers will even
>return your messages if you say IIgs.  Apple doesnt care.  They're letting the
>IIgs die by not supporting it.  ROM 03 was a total joke.  GS/OS is a travesty.
> The availability of software is NIL.  Need I say more?

I think Brian was disillusioned by his experiences in trying to market
IIGS-specific games.  Eventually, he found a small publisher (Micro
Revelations?  I forget) for Xenocide, which is a nifty game that I think
is worth the $50 or so that is charged for it.

While the IIGS software picture isn't rosy, I think Brian's comments are
exaggerated.  I still see software for the IIGS that is either adapted
from other computers' versions, or was written to be readily portable
to a wide range of 16-bit personal computers (typically in C).  It does
seem to be true that major software publishers have almost no interest
in products that run ONLY on the IIGS.  Sierra (On-Line) claims that
their current top-of-the-line game system ported to the IIGS runs too
slowly and requires more memory than they can count on; consequently
only a few of their recent products have been available in IIGS versions.
Note that it was not due to lack of interest, since after all they tried
to produce a IIGS port, but rather was a decision based on the relative
inadequacy of the installed IIGS hardware base.  Sierra has been looking
into offering TWGS discounts etc. to expand the performance of their IIGS
customers' hardware sufficiently to justify releasing IIGS versions.

ROM 03 was a reasonable evolutionary step for the IIGS, but not a major
breakthrough.  The slot mapping feature was sorely needed, as were more
tools in ROM and an expanded base amount of RAM.  The only lossage was
that ROM 01 IIGS owners are not likely to upgrade to ROM 03, unlike the
case with ROM 00->01, so software houses cannot reasonably make it a
requirement for their IIGS products.  The good news is that so long as
System Disk 5.0 or later is used, older IIGS toolkits will function like
ROM 03 versions.

GS/OS seems okay to me (not great, but okay).  It basically provides
file management services, and it supports mutiple kinds of file system.
What problem do you have with it?