Apple IIGS - Upgrading From An Apple IIe

Upgrading From An Apple IIe

Upon its release in September 1986, Apple announced it would be making a kit that would upgrade an Apple IIe to an IIGS available for purchase. The upgrade replaced the Apple IIe motherboard with a 16-bit Apple IIGS motherboard. Users would bring their Apple IIe machines into an authorized Apple dealership, where the IIe motherboard and lower baseboard of the case were swapped for an Apple IIGS motherboard with a new baseboard (with matching cut-outs for the new built-in ports). New metal sticker ID badges replaced those on the front of the Apple IIe, rebranding the machine. Retained were the upper half of the IIe case, the keyboard, speaker and power supply. Original IIGS motherboards (those produced between 1986 to mid-1989) had electrical connections for the IIe power supply and keyboard present, although only about half produced had the physical plug connectors factory pre-soldered in, which were mostly reserved for the upgrade kits.

The upgrade cost US$500, plus the trade-in of the user's existing Apple IIe motherboard.

It proved unpopular as it did not include a mouse (which was an essential part of the new machine, much like the Macintosh); the keyboard, although functional, did not mimic all the features and functions of the Apple Desktop Bus keyboard, as well as lacking a numeric keypad. Some cards designed for the new 16-bit machine did not fit in the Apple IIe's slanted case, either. In the end, most users found they were not saving much, once they had to purchase a 3.5-inch floppy drive, analog RGB monitor and mouse. Although it could use some IIe peripherals, most of them became obsolete in the upgrade due to their functionality being already built-in. It did, however, make an attractive upgrade for Apple IIe users wanting to use the machine strictly in IIe-emulation mode (ignoring the native part of the machine), which provided faster CPU operation, 256 KB RAM, a clock, and many built-in peripherals via the back ports.