cosmetic, many owners of new were able to "convert" to the Limited Edition by merely swapping the case lid from an older (and likely nonfunctional) machine. Upgrading an Apple IIe Upon its release in September 1986, Apple announced it would be making a kit that would upgrade an Apple IIe to a IIGS available for purchase. This followed an Apple practice of making logic board upgrades available that dated from the earliest days of the Apple II until Steve Jobs' return to Apple in 1997. The IIe-to-IIGS upgrade replaced the IIe motherboard with a 16-bit IIGS motherboard. Users would take 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 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 and mid-1989) have electrical connections for the IIe power supply and keyboard present, although only about half of those produced have the physical plug connectors factory-presoldered 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 did not include a mouse, and the keyboard, although functional, lacked a numeric keypad and did not mimic all the features and functions of the Apple Desktop Bus keyboard. Some cards designed for the GS did not fit in the Apple IIe's slanted case. In the end, most users found that the upgrade did not save them much money once they purchased a 3.5-inch floppy drive, analog RGB monitor, and mouse. Software features Software that runs on the Apple IIGS can be divided into two major categories: 8-bit software compatible with earlier Apple II systems such as the IIe and IIc, and 16-bit IIGS software, which takes advantage of its advanced features, including a near-clone of the Macintosh graphical user interface. 8-bit Apple II compatibility Apple claimed that the IIGS was 95% compatible with contemporary Apple II software. One reviewer, for example, successfully ran demo programs that came on cassette with his 1977 Apple II. The IIGS can run all of Apple's earlier Apple II operating systems: Apple DOS, ProDOS 8, and Apple Pascal.