Re: FS: MS-DOS Emulator Card for AppleIIGS

[dempson@actrix.gen.nz (David Empson)]

[Note: this is no longer relevant in comp.emulators.apple2, so I've set
followups to comp.sys.apple2.]

Edhel Iaur, Esq. <drsmooth@relex.com> wrote:

> On Sat, 04 Jan 1997 10:51:36 -0500, Justin Luzier
> <jlluzier@mailbox.syr.edu> wrote:
> 
> ...
> >--| Applied Engineering (AE): PC Transporter Card |--
> ...

Firstly, let me emphasize that $300 is _way_ too much to pay for a PC
Transporter.  I paid NZ$500 (about US$250 at the time) for a second-hand
one around 1988.  Nowadays, it isn't worth more than about US$50, unless
there is a lot of software thrown in, or some disk drives.

> If this includes the IIgs installation kit, how hard would it be to
> put it in a //e?

Impossible (assuming you want to use the card as a PC Transporter, not
just a memory card).  You must have the appropriate installation kit.
It may be possible to buy it from somewhere.

The IIgs kit contains the disk drive cable and "ColorSwitch" RGB monitor
adaptor.

The IIe kit contains the disk drive cable, IIe speaker cable, IIe video
cable and IIe keyboard adaptor board.  The speaker cable and video cable
would be reasonably easy to make from loose parts, but the keyboard
adaptor would be harder.

My PC Transporter was originally in a IIe, and I bought the ColorSwitch
card to use it in my IIgs.

> And how does it let you use its memory in Apple // programs? (Does it
> emulate a "slinky" card in hardware, or what?)

Yes, it acts like an Apple II Memory Expansion Card (or equivalent) with
about 720K of RAM installed (assuming it has the full 768K).  You can
use it as a ProDOS or Pascal RAM disk (but not DOS 3.3), and AppleWorks
(and similar programs) should be able to use it for desktop space.

There is one catch: the PC Transporter contains no ROM.  You cannot boot
from it, and must boot (from floppy or hard drive) via a specially
patched copy of ProDOS after turning on the computer - this loads the
driver firmware into the PC Transporter.  You can subsequently boot
(from floppy or hard drive) via a normal version of ProDOS, or via the
patched version again (it won't bother loading the driver if it is
already there).

The PC Transporter will also act as a disk controller for an Apple 3.5
Drive, or for a 5.25" or 3.5" TransDrive (PC-compatible 360K and 720K
respectively).  Note that the Apple 3.5 Drive is very slow when used
with a PC Transporter (even compared to a UniDisk 3.5).

-- 
David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz
Snail Mail: P.O. Box 27-103, Wellington, New Zealand