Re: System Software needed! (NOT 6.x)

[spec@vax2.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector)]

In article slam@home.com writes...

>I really need to find a source for the Apple IIGS System Disk Version
>3.1. I only have 1.256 megs of ram (oh yes, I need chips for my Apple
>Ram expansion card). So I was thinking this version would use the least
>amount of ram, thereby allowing me to play any old game that has been
>created.

    The lowest System System version that should be used is 5.0.2, that
will still run with as little as 512K of memory and _much_ faster and
useful than any previous releases.

    Most old games that require System 3 or 4 will have a bare system
setup already on the same disk, booting itself by simply inserting the
disk and turning on (or rebooting) the computer. If you ever get a
hardrive though, those older System release may come in handy, you can 
set up partitions for those older releases or use TaiFunBoot from 
Ninjaforce to select the OS at startup. There are a handful of older 
games that only work with System 3 or 4 (though a lot of them won't
even work off a hardrive without heavy patching).

>My disk is spit out by the drive whenever I try to use it, so I
>need to download it now...All I've been seeing is the System 6.0.1
>7-disk install set, which I really don't want since I do not have a hard
>drive as of yet.

    Spit out? Are you sure the disk isn't corrupted or something wrong
with your 3.5 drive? System 6.0.1 comes on 6 disks, but only two of 
them are directly bootable, the rest contain file drivers or special
applications (e.g. synthLAB, Archiver, Advanced Disk Utilities, etc).
You can use it with as little as 1.125 MB but you won't be able to
use all its features and there is a lot of disk swapping if you don't
have a hardrive.

    You can download System 6.0.1 and 6.0 from Apple's FTP site, older
versions like System 5, 4, 3 (or even obscure releases like 2 and 1)
you'll probably have to find through usersgroups. They should be able
to make you free copies of any System Software, versions 1 through 6.
I still have archives of all major System Software releases.

>By the way, will a Mac ADB keyboard work on a IIGS?

    Yep, Macintosh ADB keyboards and mice will work just fine on the 
IIgs, even extended versions. There are only a few rare exceptions, 
like the keyboard that splits in half that Apple made.

Mitchell Spector
spec@vax2.concordia.ca