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From: toddpw@tybalt.caltech.edu (Todd P. Whitesel)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: GS (What you want _requires_ moving closer to the Amiga...)
Message-ID: <1990Mar9.205605.2836@spectre.ccsf.caltech.edu>
Date: 9 Mar 90 20:56:05 GMT
References: <90030820242943@masnet.uucp>
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philip.mcdunnough@canremote.uucp (PHILIP MCDUNNOUGH) writes:

>Many people would appear to want the GS to move in the direction of the
>Amiga. There seems to be quite a few people upset over the lack of a
>large selection of arcade games.There is another side to all of this.

Not really. Read on.

>The GS, in my opinion, should not move in this direction. I, for one, do
>not want my children spending hours playing Nintendo type games. I would 
>prefer to have the GS(as it currently is) regarded as a family computer
>with the ability to access good games(it needn't be an enormous
>selection-just a good selection), have non-copyprotected software, have
>a nice selection of educational and music oriented programs,and have a
>640x400 video mode so that the computer can better function as a
>graphics terminal(a tektronics emulator would be very nice).The recent
>description of the ROM04 rumoured GS seems great.I see no need to keep
>up with the arcade skills of the Amiga. I do see a need for a faster
>cpu,video,640x400 and improvements on the Mac-GS connectivity side.

Let me state simply that by 'moving in the direction of the Amiga' we would be
creating exactly the computer that you and everyone else here want the GS to
be.

A lot of people don't realize that many 'Amiga features' are really cost
effective performance improvements which have only been used for games because
that is where the majority of the Amiga market is. The GS desktop and its
associated software would be the ultimate in low end productivity if Quickdraw
had a blitter at its disposal.

Quickdraw with a blitter would actually deserve the name 'Quickdraw'. Since
the O/S and all productivity/educational/music software on the GS already uses
Quickdraw, every desktop application gets instant speed improvement. Imagine
windows as fast as a Mac IIci for a fraction of the price.

This is what a cheap blitter brings, and I know Apple has the resources and
the talent to produce one... Their 'low cost mac' depends on it even more than
a GS does (a GS with a fast 65816 would be acceptable but not as cheap as a
blitter if all you care about is 'adequate' desktop speed).

The Amiga is a serious threat to the market you (and I) desire for the GS,
because if they ever get any decent productivity software for it then we
will be in deep trouble. But Appleworks GS with a blitter-enhanced desktop
would knock your socks off. So would your dot matrix output, because the GS
Print Manager already uses quickdraw to draw each page in memory for dumping
to the printer; if that quickdraw used a blitter then your printer would
be slower than the computer again.

Other 'Amiga features' many of us want to see (DMA everywhere, programmable
video, and a streamlined architecture) are the key to the Amiga's excellent
price/performance ratio and are good additions to ANY computer, especially
one for the home. These features can all be used for much more than just games
and this is a largely ingnored fact which is what keeps the Amiga from being
more than just a 'game' machine. It is also the ideal desktop video machine,
and the current offerings on the GS can't compete with the video workstations
that one can create around an Amiga. This may not be your market, but it fits
Apple's grand scheme and the Mac is not the answer when it comes to NTSC video
applications.

We don't want to follow the Amiga at all... we want to leap frog its technology
and nuke the little bugger while remaining true to our own heritage... And it
_can_ be done. See my //f paper for details. (I'll email it if you like)

Todd Whitesel
toddpw @ tybalt.caltech.edu