Apple & SGI keyboards (Re: NEC ProSpeed 386)

[Liam Proven]

On 1 June 2016 at 20:57, Swift Griggs <swiftgriggs at gmail.com> wrote:
> Cool. I didn't know about those early mechanical models. I didn't wake up
> to macs until about the Mac II days. I did have a friend with a IIGS. I
> remember playing the Bards' Tale series on there. So, I must have used it
> before.

Yeah, I think all Apple keyboards /up until/ the Extended II had
keyswitches -- then they switched to cheaper ones, like most of the
industry.

> I was disappointed that they didn't take the IIGS further as a hardware
> platform, but that's only because I loved my SNES (and yes, also my
> Genesis). IIRC, the IIGS has the same processor as a SNES with a 16bit
> bus, no? I like the design of the GS, too.

Interesting -- I didn't know the SNES had a 65816!

I've not touched a //GS since they were new, but yes, they were lovely
machines. Even if somewhat crippled -- they ran the 65816 at about
2.something MHz, when even the early ones could do circa 10-12 MHz and
later ones 20-30MHz, AIUI.

There are alleged technical reasons, but the main one, I think, and
the reason for the machine's demise, is that it just competed with the
Mac too much.

The IIgs came out in 1986, the Mac II in 1987. So when the IIgs
shipped, there were no colour-capable Macs (and their sound wasn't
that impressive either). The IIgs looked like a plausible rival, and
could have been expanded into an Amiga-alike fairly readily -- and
thus threaten the still-new Macintosh.

Damned shame, really.



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