Re: Help!

[Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net>]

Darren Whaley writes ...
> 
> I am trying to find the original disks for Alternate Reality. Anyone have
> any ideas where?
>

     These could be hard to find. Though featuring break-through solid
3-D forward-view graphics, AR did not attract much attention until the
second scenario (The Dungeon) and, even then, never seemed to rival the
Ultimas, Wizardries, etc.. One explanation may be that The Dungeon is a
very Long Play adventure. It's hard to interest players in sequals
(supposedly six scenarios were planned) when nobody finishes the
prequals!

     Owners of original Apple II AR disks are likely to be rare. You
might try advertising on comp.sys.apple2.marketplace.
 
> Also, how can I use A2 software downloaded on a PC?

     If the software is in standard .SHK form, you can NULL-modem it to
your Apple II and unShrink it. For II+/IIe/IIc wares, the program called
"ShrinkIt" (or "8-bit ShrinkIt") will do the job. For IIgs wares, use
GS-ShrinkIt in order to be sure of correctly unShrinking files with
resource forks. If the file is a .SDK (shrunk disk) of a 5.25" diskette,
use 8-bit ShrinkIt.

     If the software is a .gz compressed disk image (DSK) file, use
WinZip to un-ZIP the file to obtain the 143kB uncompressed DSK file. You
can use this DSK file on your PC as a kind of virtual diskette via an
Apple II emmulator program such as AppleWin. You can, also, NULL-modem a
DSK file to your Apple II and use DSK2FILE or (GS-only) ASIMOV to
transfer the DSK file to a 5.25" diskette.

     In fact, unless you have a special desire for the original
diskettes, getting the AR DSK files from Asimov and moving them to
diskettes should get you into Alternate Reality fairly easily. 

 
Rubywand