Re: New Mystery Boards

[supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer)]

labelas@hotmail.com (Labelas Enoreth) wrote:

>Hm. I found the external TransDrive (with dual 5.25s if there was more
>than one model) for the card as well...Does anyone out there have specs,
>schematics, documentation...for the card and such?

Well, the TransDrives are not absolutely necessary as you can
use disk images of MS-DOS software.  It will make transfers
easier, though, because you don't then need to resort to modem
or null-modem transfer to get your MS-DOS stuff to the IIe from
your real DOS PC.

>I'd like to know about adding to it, like memory or the external monitor.
>As for the adaptors, it came with the passthrough cable for the keyboard
>and cables for the speaker and modulator from the card.

That should be all you need.  The video gets piped through the
IIe's monitor through the IIe motherboard.

>Hoping the SW on that link is the required software to boot it...haven't
>checked it out yet.

Right click on that link.  The software CAN boot the PCT.  It
has the software plus a disk image of a bootable MS-DOS disk
containing utilities (such as for making more disk images and
transferring files).

>And out of curiousity, is either the Sandwich II or especially the PCT
>card especially rare or valuable or something? I've gotten quite a few
>emails about people wanting one or the other or both.

Not really.  However, the Sandwich II is one of the better
(IMO, the best) SCSI card for the IIGS.

>And does anyone think I should go out of my way to get a DuoDisk
>controller card or Apple Parallel interface card, or a Laser 128? This
>place I found a lot of stuff at has tons of Apple II stuff cheaply (IIe
>beige and Dot-matrix printers out the wazoo), but only one or two of
>those...

Look carefully at the Laser 128.  Is it the Laser 128EX/2 model
that has the 3.5" drive?  If it is, grab it.  It has features no other
8-bit Apple II (IIGS does not count because it is 16-bit) has and
is worth having.  If it is any other Laser, forget it.