dseah@wpi.wpi.edu (David I Seah) (05/07/89)
Here follows a first day impression of My First AppleFest, for those of you who couldn't come. I didn't see any significant new releases. Word Perfect has version 2.0D out, and GS/OS System 5.0 was announced...it isn't expected to be availiable for quite some time. They were quite pleased (as I was) with the QuickDraw II performance increase. It's roughly double the speed of the old routines. AppleTalk support is also in System 5.0. Zip Chip announced their Zip Chip GS and a new Zip Chip for the Apple II+/e/c. Both chips run at 8MHz. They didn't have a prototype of either one availiable to peer at. The Video Overlay card was shown at Apple's huge booth...there was an emphasis on education and merging of the II and Mac Applications. The booth looked like a big 'ole nuclear reactor made of surplus Rubik's cube parts dipped in Apple platinum. Applied Engineering had the Vulcan internal hard drive prototypes on display...It looks quite a bit like the Inner Drive from Applied Ingenuity, except it cost approximately $150 more. Applied Ingenuity was on hand with a suitcase and a GS with the OLDEST, yellowed monitor I've ever seen. They unfortunately were not selling anything. They had a prototype 3.5" Smartport drive that is awaiting FCC certification...price will be around $170. The Inner Drive itself was quoted at $450 or so. Bill Basham (at least, I think it was Bill Basham) was there hyping DiversiTune. Roger Wagner Publishing had HyperStudio and another interesting looking program, of which I forget the name. The Byte Works had Orca/C (not quite ready) for half price: $75. I didn't have the bucks...oh well. That Spectragraphics 256 program was also on display, and it appears to be a GS Toolbox/SHR graphics interface from Applesoft via the Ampersand hook. It can display 256 colors. The demos were OK. A+/Incider was there throwing red sponge balls and giving away prizes. This was probably the focal point of the whole show. There were several software mail order places selling stuff. One chain, L&R something, had about five separate booths scattered over the center. AppleLink PE had a booth, but I didn't get to see any Apple Forum leaders...There were some pretty customer relations ladies there :) As far as I could tell, no new games were announced. Maybe some educational software, but who cares? Taito was not there. Br0derbund was on hand with Carmen Sandiego GS. Sierra On-Line had no new announcements. I think I missed seeing PBI...I am not even sure if they were there. Electronic Arts was not there. Sierra online had this pretty good-looking spokeslady who said Silpheed was not being developed for the GS because of "interpreter speed problems". Spokesperson ignorance? I hope so. Accolade had that tennis game of theirs, but no Test Drive II. They say "5 weeks". I didn't see Sword of Sodan. I don't think Discovery was there. Overall, there wasn't anything really interesting. It was like going to an Apple Mall. The best part was probably seeing the AppleLink spokesladies and grabbing the neat-o pins (the AppleFest one is pretty spiffy!). I also have the dubious honor of buying the most tickets of any single person: 8 (2 group rates of 4 each). Too bad a bunch of my "buddies" chickened out and didn't come. Comment: There were a lot of over 40 people there. The show was really kind of application oriented, and despite InCider's commendable attempts at rallying enthusiasm, the atmosphere was rather subdued. Nothing new. Nothing we haven't seen before. The only interesting sounds came from AE's Sonic Blaster and Audio Animator demos. DiversiTune was sort of "old", if you know what I mean. Nothing catchy or percussive. Lots of folksy-dolksy music, some nastily performed classical stuff, and the usual bouncing ball things. This is Kermit D Frog reporting live from Boston! Dave Seah (so I'm not Kermit D Frog) dseah@wpi.wpi.edu dseah@wpi.bitnet
dseah@wpi.wpi.edu (David I Seah) (05/07/89)
Let me add that GS/OS 5.0 sounds like two buckets of fun! However significant the announcement is, ya still can't get a hold of it until summer. *sigh* That's why I put GS/OS 5.0 under "Not a Significant Release"! Dave Seah (dseah@wpi.wpi.edu, dseah@wpi.bitnet);