Re: Converting Apple II files to Mac

["Roger Johnstone" <bhmhome@es.co.nz>]

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In article <19990804233609.10004.00008106@ng-fa1.aol.com>,
supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer) wrote:


>"Roger Johnstone" <bhmhome@es.co.nz> wrote:
>
>>The Apple high density floppy drives (included with all Macs after about
>>1989, including the Centris) can read double density 720KB PC, 800KB Apple
>>and 1.44MB Apple/PC formats. With the right controller card you can also add
>>one of these drives to a IIgs, but the vast majority of IIgs drives are
>>800KB only. The problem is with the latest floppyless Macs. All of the third
>>party drives available so far (and probably ever) can do 720KB PC or 1.44MB
>>Apple/PC formats only.
>
>Well, not all third party drives.  The old high density SuperDrive clones
>from AMR, Applied Engineering, and Sprite can do 800k, 720k, and
>1.44MB.  In fact, I have an AE high density drive connected to a
>SuperDrive controller card on my IIGS.

Yup. I meant the new USB floppy drives that are coming out now that Apple no
longer includes them in their computers. And by ever, I meant "from now till
ever". None of the old drives can be used on the new Macs. I have a
SuperDisk drive, 720KB/1.44MB/120MB. I would gladly swap the 720KB for
800KB! (ha, like I'm going to use that format anytime soon!)

>The funny thing about AE's drive...with the right driver, it can do 1.6MB
>high density without any extra card.  In fact, it can ONLY do this when
>connected directly to the IIGS SmartPort.  Of course that's not as
>useful anymore since you need 1.44MB to transfer data with PCs.

I remember those being advertised in Nibble. Shortly after they replaced
them with the (more) standard 1.44MB version (but which needed a
controller). So why the heck didn't Apple include an HD controller chip on
the ROM 3 motherboard? It would have made our lives so much simpler at this
point.

Roger Johnstone