RISCBoy

I joined Apple on October 21, 1990.  At that time Apple was just about ready to release the Mac IIfx with its powerful Motorola 040 CPU.  But Apple feared that they would be blown out of the water, eclipsed by Intel delivering a RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computing) CPU.  The same technology that Apple would introduce years later as PowerPC.

On  my second day at work, amused by the angst, I concocted the fanciful press release below and sent it out to our small group of product managers on Apple's internal mail system Applelink.

What you have to know about Applelink is that it showed who had forwarded your message and to whom it had been forwarded; a feature impractical today, but something I've often wished I still had.

When I arrived the next morning my phone message light was blinking. I picked up the phone and listened to the message.  It was from CEO John Sculley's office wanting more info on RISCBoy immediately.

I checked Applelink and to my horror I saw that the message had been forwarded to a veritable who's-who of Apple at the time (you can see who in the "to addresses" of my terse reply)

I called my boss, Mark Orr, over.  I think he felt somewhat responsible having forwarded the message up the chain.  To his credit he suggested the reply, which I sent immediately and never mentioned it again.

But my reputation at Apple was instantly set.

And so, for the first time I am posting the RISCBoy press release of October 1990.

           

Item forwarded by	MARK.ORR	to MANSER2	FRIEDMAN 3	CHEUNG.HL
Item forwarded by	MARK ORR	to HARSLEM	MCHENRY1	J. STAIR

Item 7502546	24-Oct-90	09:58PDT
From:	AUERBACH.M	Auerbach, Marc
	BARNETT.T	Barnett, Ted
	CASANOVA	Casanova, Frank
	B.COOPER	Cooper, Brian
	DYER1	Dyer, Wayne
	EBERT1	Ebert, Karen
	GOINS	Goins, Bill
	KEAST.B	Keast, Brodie
	LOUCKS1	Loucks, Brian
	MARK.ORR	Orr, Mark
	VITO	Salvaggio, Vito
	SMILEY	Smiley, Brian
	DARLING	Darling, Scott

Sub: Nintendo Press Release

Torrance, CA -(UPI)- In its quest to bring ever increasing levels of realism to the world of video games and broaden its product line, Nintendo of America, Inc. today announce RISCBoy. Set for delivery to retailers by November 14, 1990, RISCBoy promises to bring a whole new world of graphic display and audio capability to the video game market.

RISCBoy follows closely on the heals of Gameboy, which was targeted at both the traditional video game market of 10 to 17 year olds, and in a series of TV commercials to a new market segment of young adult males between the ages of 17 to 28.

Product manager for RISCBoy, Peter Bergstrom, explains, "the successful marketing of Gameboy to a non-traditional base in a slightly older demographic encourage us to extend our reach to an even more powerful game system using a RISC based architecture.

RISCBoy, based on the 16MHz Motorola 88100 chip includes 40MB of DRAM and dedicated 4 MB of VRAM. The unit will be available with a choice of two monitors - 16" and 21" color displays. Each will support up to 1 billion colors on screen, more than 1 color per pixel and use a 112 MHz refresh rate.

The new system will support all existing Nintendo and Nintendo compatible game cartridges but is designed primarily to function with a generation of video games announced for simultaneous release. Titles include:

Super Einstein Brothers - A video game based on the quantum effect of gravity on the space-time continuum.

Genetic Engineer - In which players pit themselves against invading DNA splicers and mutant viruses to protect their double-helix. The fabulous double helix 3D rendering includes the complete genetic map of a glow worm. Additional genetic maps sold separately.

CADman- Challenges up to 4000 players to compete in building any of the world's most difficult engineering structures. Scalable to any level of detail form the mortar in any of the bricks in the Great Wall of China to the wind tunnel simulations of the titanium blades of SCRAMjet hyperspace planes.

The unit comes with 12 joystick ports, a wireless PowerGlove(TM) accessory port. One UltraSCSI(TM) port and game cartridge slot.

Additional accessories include an optional CD-ROM 100 disc changer.

RISCBoy is set to retail at $499 including 16" monitor and 2 wired game control modules.

Nintendo is a worldwide leader in the development and manufacture of video game hardware and software.

---

Item 9193218	23-Oct-90	10:12PDT
From:	AUERBACH.M	Auerbach, Marc
	SCULLEY	Sculley, John
	GRAZ	Graziano, Joseph
	EISENSTAT	Eisenstat, Al
	SULLIVAN6	Sullivan, Kevin
	TESLER	Tesler, Larry
	SPINDLER	Spindler, Michael
	CAMPBELL3	Campbell, Bill, CLA
	HOLLYWOOD	Paul, Daniel
	NAGEL	Nagel, David
	BIRSS	Birss, Ed
	SELL.J	Sell, John
	YAMAMURA2	Yamamura, Mike
	PERLMAN	Perlman, Steve
	ENEA1	Enea, Horsce
	EILERS	Eilers, Dan
	FARRAND1	Farrand, Toby
	DAVIS	Davis, Jim
	MARTIN	Martin, Hugh
	GABLE	Gable, Jim
	LOUCKS1	Loucks, Brian
	TCHAO1	Tchoa, Michael
	MANSER2	Manser, Steve
	FRIEDMAN2	Friedman, Josef
	CHEUNG.HL	Cheung, Holeung
	HARSLEM	Harslem, Eric
	MCHENRY2	McHenry, Jack
cc:	BARNETT.T	Barnett, Ted
	CASANOVA	Casanova, Frank
	DYER1	Dyer, Wayne
	EBERT1	Ebert, Karen
	GOINS	Goins, Bill
	KEAST.B	Keast, Brodie
	LOUCKS1	Loucks, Brian
	MARK.ORR	Orr, Mark
	VITO	Salvaggio, Vito
	SMILEY	Smiley, Brian
	DARLING	Darling, Scott
	B.COOPER	Cooper, Brian
	J.STAIR	Stair, James

Sub: Nintendo Follow up 

It appears that the Nintendo press release attributed to UPI was a hoax. I am investigating further.

Regards,

Marc