Re: New to the IIgs, help would be good

[a_specto@alcor.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector)]

"Mr. Carp" <mr_carp@hotmail.com> wrote:

>I just bought 2 Apple IIgs-es off of Ebay. They come with nothing but 
>the internals (no extra cards) and a power cord. I have an ADB keyboard 
>& mouse and I can get my hads on some free floppy drives. I am new to 
>the world of in-depth Apple II use (we played educational games in 
>elementary school--that is the limit of my knowledge). I was wondering 
>if the IIgs came standard with a hard drive and if not,

    Hardrives never came standard on the IIgs, though Apple and many
third parties sold internal and external hardisk options. All these
required a specialized slot based controller card however.

>what options do I have for connecting one (SCSI, IDE, other)?

    Both SCSI and IDE. No one is manufacturing or selling Apple II
SCSI controllers these days, and due to their relative rarity they're
generally not very affordable second hand. A DMA SCSI controller
does make for a very speedy setup though, and allows you to add 
other devices (CD-ROM, Zip drive, tape backup, etc).

    Alltech and SHH Systemes are the last companies still producing
Apple II hardisk solutions, both are IDE. The Alltech "Focus" is a
HardCard with a mounted 2.5" IDE drive that plugs into any slot.
SHH makes a similar card, but it also supports EIDE 3.5 drives with
DMA (albeit at a more costly price).

> Also, what kind of moniter connection do they have (RGB, RCA)?

    Analog RGB, using NTSC/TV frequency (15.75 kHz). The standard
display is the 12" AppleColor RGB (A2M6014) though you can use any
compatible monitor. Examples include the Amiga 1084, Atari ST RGBs
and some early NEC MultiSync VGA displays that did low frequencies.

    Composite video is also supported, but _not_ usable for native
IIgs color video modes (monochrome is acceptable however). It
requires a special video card Apple made to output color composite
video properly.

>What kind of RAM do they use...

    Memory expansion requires a plug-in board for the 44-pin 
slot at the front end of the motherboard. You then insert
DRAM (chips or SIMMs) into empty sockets on the card 
that are at least 150ns or faster.

    The maximum amount of RAM depends on the card. Older
cards may hold only 1 or 2 MB, while newer ones often allow
4 or 8 MB total. The only expansion card still being sold today
is the Alltech Sirius which utilizes 1 MB SIMMs (up to 8 MB).

>I have several 72-pin SIMS laying around, 
>can I use them, if not, where do I get RAM for the IIgs? 

    No, you can't use 32-bit SIMMs. Those memory boards that
support SIMMs only work with 8-bit SIMMs (30-pin), and they
must be of the variety to use 8 or 9 chips per SIMM. You can
use non-parity or parity, it makes no difference. Of use to the
IIgs are 256K and 1 MB SIMMs.

    If your using a IIgs memory board that accepts DIP or ZIP 
DRAM chips, generally you'll be looking for 256Kx1, 256Kx4 
or 1MBx1. Whatever the situation, plug-in memory for the
IIgs is dirt cheap or free; it's the IIgs-specific expansion card 
that will cost you.

    The cheapest solution is to find an old Apple IIgs Memory
Expansion Card and fully populate it with 256Kx1 chips for a
total of 1 MB. These cards are often given away, or sold for
as little as $5-$10 fully populated on places like eBay.
 
>Thank you so much for your help!

    One last bit of important advice. If your looking to set up 
a IIgs system, the bare minimum requirements would be as
follows: Having the ROM 01 or 3 firmware, 1.25 MB RAM
(512K-768K may be enough for older games), a 3.5 floppy
drive, ADB keyboard and mouse, and  RGB color monitor.
This will allow you to run 99% of the software available for
the machine, especially in the case of a ROM 01 w/1.25MB.

    If you want to see the machine do more than simply play
games and tinker with it, you would have to add the following
to the above: Accelerator card (10-12 MHz optimal), at least
4 MB of RAM, 4500 RPM hardrive with DMA controller card,
and stereo output card with speakers.

Mitchell Spector
a_specto@alcor.concordia.ca