Could the Lisa run Apple II software?

[Mac128]

Did Apple ever create an emulator to allow the Lisa to run Apple II software, or had they already written off the II line by the time the Mac came along?

 

[david__schmidt]

I don't think the Lisa ever had enough focus to connect it back to the II line. The Mac, though, got an IIe-on-a-card functionality added later.

 

[Mac128]

I don't think the Lisa ever had enough focus to connect it back to the II line. The Mac, though, got an IIe-on-a-card functionality added later.

Specifically the LC 680x0 non-PCI models only. So, no Apple II card for the Lisa (which makes sense since the IIGS' emulation chip didn't turn up until around 86. But the Lisa could emulate Macintosh software pretty soon after the Mac debuted. I sort of expected that like the Apple III, the Lisa would have been backwards compatible to provide for a smooth transition from Apple's previous business customers who were using Apple IIIs and IIs. I guess Apple assumed the the Lisa was so revolutionary that people wouldn't ever want to use an Apple II command line interface again – unlike the LC which was intentionally designed to transition the Apple II customers to Mac.

Though with similar parallel interfaces, so much RAM, and a 5 MHz 68000 chip, I would think emulating a II would not have been a problem.