Technical information
'-
January 1991
At
the
Apple
Fiesta
In
June
of
1989
,
Tom
Weishaar
and
I
saw
Roger
running
a
demo
designed
around
a
Campaign
'88
laserdisc
similar
to
a demo
Apple
was
running
in
their
own
booth.
Apple
had
relegated
their
IIW;
to
showing
a paint
program
and
a
IIc
Plus
to
demonstrating
a
K-6
educational
program;
their 'dog
and
pony
show
'
used
a
Mac
II
(including monitor), a second expensive video monitor, laserdisc,
HyperCard,
and
stereo
speakers.
Roger
had
pretty
much
the
same
Idea
, except
he
used
a
single
IIW;
monitor
and
an
Apple
Video
Over-
lay
Card
to
display
the
laserdisc output
on
a
IIW;
with
HyperStudio
as
the
driving
software.
Subtract
the
cost of a
IIW;
from
a
Mac
II, count
up
the
difference,
and
you
'll
see
why
Roger's
demonstration
was
drawing
more
people
than
the
Apple
booth.
At
the
AppleFest
this
spring
,
Roger
showed
up
with
an
information
kiosk
(the
' touch a button,
see
information
on
the
video
screen
'
type
of
system
you
see
used
in
some
shopping
malls)
built around a simi-
lar
system,
A
touch
window
was
used;
by
touching
an
i
con
on
the
IIgs
screen,
you
selected
the
items
(by
topic, or
map
location)
you
wanted
information
on.
Most
of
the
information
was
displayed
in
IIgs
graphi
cs
kept
on
the
hard
disk, but just
to
keep
interest
up
Roger
had
a
few
options to demonstrate
IIgs
(
and
HyperStudio)
capabilities,
Tom
Weishaar
attended,
and
told
me
he
watched
several
Mac
enthusiasts
walk
away
mumbling about
the
impossibly
great
IIgs
graphics,
He
later
realized
that
they
had
actually
been
confused
by
a
laserdisc
image
displayed
on
the
IIW;
screen
using
the
Video
Overlay
Card
fea-
tures
in
HyperSludio,
Roger
had
put
IIgs
capabilities together
in
a
manner
that
the
Mac
people
apparently couldn 't
envision
,
At
the
Apple
Fiesta
this
past
summer,
Roger
had
set
up
a similar
kiosk
in
the
center
of
the
exhibition
area,
Meanwhile
,
Roger
was
draw-
ing
Mac
users
into
his
booth
by
showing
the
IIgs
properties off
with
HyperStudio,
At
one
point,
he
showed
a
preview
of
an
Xcmd
that
allowed
recording a
sound
at
the
press
of a
HyperStudio
button
on
screen
and
then
playing
it
back;
previously,
you
needed
something
like
Farallon
's
MacRecorder
(at
about
$300)
to
do that with
Hyper-
Card
on
the
Mac.
Maybe
that's
why
Apple
felt compelled
to
add
sound
input to
the
Mac
i.C
and
IIsi.
Al
long
Beach
, I'm
sure
Roger
had
an
unusual
feeling,
competing
with
Apple
's
roll-<Jut
of
HyperCard
IIgs,
But
again
Roger
came
pre-
pared
; this time
he
had
collected
an
army
of
evangelists,
For
two
solid
days
he
had
other people doing demonstrations for him
to
booths
full of future converts.
One
of
the
high
points
was
an
imple-
mentation of
Dragon's
Lair
(the
laserdisc,
based
arcade
game)
using
only
HyperStudio
as
the
controlling
program
and
a
Dragon's
Lair
disc
rescued
from
a broken
arcade
machine,
Roger
didn't
use
the
opportu-
mty
to
relax,
however;
most of
the
convention I
saw
him collaring
anyone
faintly interested
in
the
IIgs
and
working
them
into a
fever
pitch
regarding
it's untapped potential.
l1e
of
course
used
HyperStudio
as
an
illustrative
example
of
how
to
tap
that potential.
l1e
would point out applicable distinctions
in
it
and
HyperCard
IIgs
, but I never
heard
any
disparaging
words,
Evel)1hing
I've
seen
about
Roger
indicates that
he
prefers
to
accentuate
the
pos-
itive
aspects
of his products rather
than
railing
on
flaws
he
perceives
in
the
competition. (
Though
he
has
been
known
to
demurely point
out a competitor's
weaknesses
where
appropriate,)
When
you
think about
how
the
IIgs
will
suc
c
eed,
it
is
obviously
the
people
who
put their
nose
to
the
grindstone
and
deliver tools to
make
the
system
uniquely
usable
that ultimately determine
whether
the
machine
will
sUlvive,
As
Apple
revises
its marketing
aims
for
the
IIgs,
Roger's
'tireless
evangelism
'
may
emerge
to
a broader
audience
;
despite
the
current low profile of
the
IIgs,
Roger
packs
in
interested
Observers
at
education
and
Irade
shows,
and
says
he
has
more
peo-
ple
in
the
field demonstrating
HyperStudio
on
the
IIgs
than
Apple
has
sales
representatives.
Ne
's not
the
only
Apple
II
champion out
there
,
but
he
has
the
products
and
the
will
to
convince
the
mass
market
that
the
IIgs
is
a superior
com
puler
10
its competitors
in
at
least
the
emerging
technology
or interactive multimedia.
Roger
will
even
have
a rebuttal
10
Ihe editorial
regarding
the
Mac
i.C
in
Ihe
February
issue
of
A+/inCider;
Roger
's
whimsy
shows
In
his
inversion of
the
original
titie
to
read
"The
IIgs:
Whal
the
Mac
i.C
Should
Have
Been
". Bul
his
words
are
sober;
Roger's
love
affair
with
the
IIgs
recognizes
no
con-
queror
and
lakes
no
·
prisoners.
Roger
continues
10
find
new
ways
to
convin
ce
people
to
buy
IIgs
systems
(
and
, of
course,
his
products).
He
has
put together a
10-disk
A2-Centra/ 6.93
demonstration
set
of
HyperStudio
applicalions (Including a
run-time
version
of
HyperStudio)
that
he
distributes for $10, including a
40-
page
Hypermedia
Resource
Guide.
Roger
has
also
instituted a 'Hyper-
media
Test
Drive
" kit for
loan
to
any
school
;
the
kit includes
15-20
complete
copies
of
HyperStudio,
a
touch
window
,
scanner,
digitizer,
laserdisc
, other
hardware
related
to
multimedia,
and
a
manual
that
can
be
used
to
conduct a short (
lor
2
hour)
workshop
(contact
edu-
cational coordinator
Della
Smith
at
Roger
Wagner
Publishing,
800-
421-6526
),
Of
course
,
Roger's
motives
aren
't completely selfless;
he
wants
to
sell
his
software,
But
he
has
not
chosen
to follow
on
the
coattails of
Apple's
strong
marketing
emphasis
for
Mac
hypermedia,
Instead
,
Roger
has
followed
what
he
believes
to
be
the
technical
lead
of
the
IIgs
in
the
multimedia field,
and
do
what
the
Fortune
500
company
has
failed to
do:
find a
way
to sell
the
IIgs
in
a competitive
mar·
ket.-DJD
Miscellanea
Apple has formed two AppieLink address groups
wilb
an
Apple n focus.
Group
addresses
allow a
large
number of
App/eUnk
pariicipants
to
recei
ve
an
item mailed
to
the
group's
name,
The
new
AppJeLink
group
addresses
are
intended
to
facilitate
the
eXchange
of
technical information
and
solutions, announcement of
new
products
and
programs,
feedback
to
Apple
II
engine
e
ring,
promotion of
trade
shows
and
other
gatherings
of interest
to
Ihe
Apple
II
community,
and
to
just
share
common
interests,
Using
AppJeLink
will allow
th
e
dis
c
us-
sions
to
be
conducled
in
a
more
interactive
way,
since
Apple
employ,
ees
and
many
other
AppJeLink
members
usually
gather
their
AppleUnk mail
at
least
daily (if not
more
often).
AILTECN$
will
be
used
for
the
discussion of technical
issues,
AII.NEWS$
will
be
used
for
the
discussion of items of
general
interest,
including
new
products,
general
news,
and
so
on,
If
you
are
on
AppJ
eUnk,
you
can
have
your account
name
added
to
one
or
both
group
addresses
by
sending your
request
to
'subscribe"
to
AppJeUnk
address
AIL
ADMIN.
l'IIDlsynth Is DOW avaHable Ibrough
APDA.
The
MlDlsynth
tool
provides integrated
access
to
several
of
the
distinct
Apple
IIW;
sound
toolset functions
(MIDI
toolset,
sequencer
,
sound
synthesizer,
and
so
on)
to simplify
the
programmer's
use
of
these
varied
tools.
The
APDA
disk includes
synthLab,
an
application for experimenting
with
the
fea-
tures
of
the
toolset.
MIDlsynth
is
also
available
to
license for
IIgs
software
products;
the
first third-party application that
we
'
ve
heard
of that
uses
MIDlsynth
is
the
IIgs
version
of
InterPlay's
Dragon
Wars
game,
Apple's
tools
may
make
It possible for
the
IIgs
to
blow
away
the
competition's inferior
sound capabilities.
Now
Apple
needs
to
put
a better
speaker
into
the
IIgs
, like
they
do for
the
Mac
systems.-DJD
Running
with
the
enemy
Assume
that you're considering buying a computer other
than
an
Apple
II
(or
compatible),
Also
assume
that
you
feel
a
strong
desire
to
access
the
vast
software
base
for
the
lie
and
its
cousins.
What
would
you
say
to
an
Apple
II
peripheral
card
that
emulated
a
128K
enhanced
Apple
lie al normal
(I
megahertz)
and
twice
normal
(2
megahertz)
speed
with all lext
and
graphics
modes,
that supports
up
to
four disk volumes (including
hard
disk
and
network
volumes
),
and
Includes
one
parallel
and
one
serial
port,
an
Apple
IIc-style
game
port,
an
Apple
II-compatible disk drive port,
and
a
ProDOS-compatible
clock.
And
thai Installs
in
more
than
one
specific
model
of host
com-
puter,
The
last provision is
the
clue
that
this
card
is
not
the
Apple
lie
Emulator
card
that
operates
(only)
in
the
new
Ma
c i.e.
Instead
, it's
the
TracKstar
from
Diamond
Computer
Systems,
Inc
"
470
Lakeside
Drive,
Sunnyvale
, calif. 94086,
408-736-2000)
,
and
it installs
in
one
of
many
MS-DOS
hosts
with
IBM
PC/XT-style
slots.
The
Trackstar comes in
two
flavors: Ibe Trackstar e and Ibe