Re: trying to get an Apple II GS going for fun...

[supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer)]

wizard@direct.ca (R. Priestley) wrote:

>PROJECT: Getting an "old" Apple II GS going for fun and science.
>
>SUBJECT: Apple II GS [ROM Build 01]: with 1 meg RAM card, no expansion
>ports filled, no hard drive, colour monitor, external 3.5" floppy
>drive, mouse, standard keyboard.
>
>INITIAL PERSPECTIVE AND INTENTIONS: 
>
>1] Get it running.
>2] Collect and utilize some software.
>
>LONG TERM: Hardware Expansions.
>
>MY INITIAL MAJOR DISCOVERIES: 
>
>3] OS: To quote Rubywand from a text document found on an FTP site
>called 'AAA__Help_for_NEW_A2_Users': "With the old Apple, Inc. 1MB
>card plugged into your Mem Expansion
>Slot, you can boot and run many old "ProDOS-16" (an early GS System)
>and System 5.0.4 games and utilities. You can, also, run most ProDOS-8
>and DOS 3.3 software designed for the IIe and II+." However, with a
>4meg RAM memory expansion card, a user is capable of running the
>current OS for the Apple II GS, System 6.0.1. A hard drive would be of
>utmost use with this setup. [At this stage and due to serious lack of
>major funding for my Apple II GS research project, I am going to have
>to start with basic system-building-blocks: System 5.0.4, and go from
>there...]

I agree with Rubywand's assessment.  System 5.0.4 is preferable
to System 6.0.1 if you only have 1MB.  This limits you to older
software, however, as most of the software written in the '90s for
the IIGS requires System 6.0 or System 6.0.1 (6.0 and 6.0.1 are
virtually identical in memory requirements, but 6.0.1 has more
features).  The glaring omission in System 5.0.4 is the missing
HFS FST (file system translator).  Without the HFS FST, the IIGS
cannot read Macintosh HFS 800k disks.  There IS a way around
this.  Get BOTH System 5.0.4 (2 disk set) and System 6.0.1
(6 disk set).  Copy the HFS FST from System 6.0.1 to the System
5.0.4 boot disk.  Doing this will allow you to read HFS disks from
System 5.0.4.

Now I know that when System 6.0 came out and people were
transplanting the HFS FST to System 5.0.4, there were some
warnings that the system might crash if you try to format an HFS
disk, but I say just format the disk on the Mac normally.  You
just want to read (and maybe write) the Mac disk on the IIGS.

>4] Expandability. The system would be made far more capable and ideal
>with hardware upgrades like: memory expansion, plug and play hard
>drives [with preloaded OS, tools and extras], modem, SCSI interface
>for zip drives, or a nifty floppy drive controller card. Heheh, budget
>allowing!!! Wow. I dont have this kind of "disposable" cash. [A floppy
>drive controller card from ///SHH Systeme called the "BlueDisk
>Universal Floppy Disk Controller Card"
>http://www.wbwip.com/shh/bluedisk.html looks SUPER cool to me as a PC
>user because it controls a standard format drive which reads and
>writes 3.5" 1.44 meg floppies, EVEN MS-DOS FORMAT! aMaZiNg!!! Their
>URL is listed below in the "Links" section.]

Yup, the BlueDisk controller is ideal because the 1.44MB format
is the current standard.

There is an alternative controller card, although less capable.  It
is only available used out there, but you might find one for little
money.  This alternate controller is called the PC Transporter.
The strength is that it can let a REGULAR 800K APPLE 3.5"
DRIVE read and write 720k PC double density 3.5" disks.  The
main weakness is that it does not support the 1.44MB format
using this setup.  This can acually be a problem.  For example,
my Windows 95 unit will absolutely not read, write, or format a
720k disks either in Windows 95 or in an MS-DOS session.  I
need to boot an old copy of MS-DOS 5.0 to be able to do this.
Trivia: the PC Transporter also has a V30 on board so with one
installed, the IIGS can run software designed for a turbo speed
IBM XT...not very useful, but interesting.

>5] Features: Even without a boot disk, a user may access 2 ROM
>features... when there is no disk in the drive, a startup screen
>demands "Check Startup Device" then from there... 
>***pressing CTRL-COMMAND-ESC together brings up the system control
>panel [user sets options such as colour, sound volume and modem
>baud... and can check the RAM size.]

I recommend goint into the control panel and changing the
display setting to 80 columns.  Once you reboot, the IIGS
startup screen is a much easier on the eye 80 columns.

Some more trivia about the control panel.  The text based
control panel access is augmented by a "Mac" style Control
Panel that can be accessed under the Apple menu once you
launch GS/OS and arrive at the GUI desktop.  On the
ROM 3 (not sure about the ROM 01), there is a jumper on the
motherboard that can be set to disable the text based control
panel access.  It is a security feature to prevent students
messing up the settings.  With the jumper in place, the key
sequence Command-Control-Esc no longer works.  Then the
only way to get into the Control Panel is to boot GS/OS and
once Finder is loaded to access the control panel under the
Apple menu.  Some third party extensions allowed teachers
to put up a password menu to the OS.  Thus, the teacher's
IIGS was safe from students.

>PROBLEM: How to get files off the internet and onto 800k floppy disk
>for use with the II GS...
>[My] SOLUTION: 
>1] Locate [!difficult locally in Vancouver] and purchase a bunch of
>800k floppies.
>2] Considering, as it seems likely to contributors to this newsgroup,
>a Power Mac can read and write 3.5" 800k floppies, I can at the very
>least download files off the net to a Power Mac I happen to know, and
>load 'em up to disks from there. This may require a little extended
>experimentation, and I must confess a wild and crazy desire to do the
>following: download files at my leisure to my PC, transfer them to the
>Power Mac, then write them to the 800k floppies... we'll see if it can
>be done.

Vancouver, British Columbia, is a hotbed of IIGS activity.  There
are a couple of very dedicated IIGS users in your area and a
users group that is still alive and well, ApplesBC.  See this URL:

http://www.applesbc.bc.ca

Herbert Fung (mystix@direct.ca), is a long time Apple IIGS user.
Gareth Jones of ApplesBC users group is also worth contancting
for the latest IIGS development.  You can probably get some
excellent demo disks from ApplesBC.  I recommend something
like NoiseTracker (a music program), Bouncin' Ferno (a game),
and the 3200 color graphics slide show from Digital Youth Alliance
(DYA).  These are all self-booting 800k freeware or PD disks that
are great because they show off the 32-channel Ensoniq sound
chip and the most colorful IIGS standard graphics mode without
the need to boot the standard OS first.

>USEFUL LINKS [so far]:
>http://www.syndicomm.com/a2web/a2hrdware.html
>http://machardware.miningco.com/msubap

Don't forget http://www.sequential.com/ Sequential Systems
(the makers of the Second Sight SVGA card for the IIGS,
CD-ROM software, and an SCSI card).

http://www.concentric.net/~joko Shareware Solutions II.  Basically,
this place sells shareware, freeware, and PD on disk for price of
disk and shipping.

http://www.nettally.com/shss/IIGS/INDEX.HTML Seven Hills
has lots of neat software for the IIGS.

>SOFTWARE:
>Apple Corp. System 6.0.1
>http://asu.info.apple.com/swupdates.nsf/artnum/n10078

HyperCard for the IIGS can also be found at Apple.  Good
luck in getting the IIGS up and running!