Re: PC Transporter uses

[mkheintz@vela.acs.oakland.edu (Michael Heintz)]

In article <1993May13.035250.29985@nuscc.nus.sg> ltchean@iss.nus.sg (Lim Thye Chean) writes:
>Hi, I just bought a PC Transporter for my GS. And I wish to know the opinion
>of other PCT, IBM or GS users.
>
>I wish to know that:
>
>* What games that are worth playing work on PCT? Are there Space Invaders?
>  Galaxian? Will Xenon II work?

Well, the PCT runs at about 7MHz, which isn't too impressive.  I have SimCity
running on it and it works fine in monochrome only (CGA is not that great), but
if I don't turn off the sound the game is really, really slow (as opposed to
just really slow).

>* What new software works on PCT? Stacker 3.0? MS-DOS 6.0? Any suggestions?

I'm running MS-DOS 5.0, I don't know about Stacker but I think it requires
a 286.  Either way, Stacker will probably slow down your system significantly,
and I have crashed my MS-DOS hard drive partition twice due to buggy programs.
You are probably better off making 2 30MB hard drive paritions as drive c: and
d: instead of introducing a program like Stacker to your PCT.  Also, since
the PCT is limited to 640K (conventional memory) you will find that if you
install a program like Stacker, you might not have enough conventional memory
to run some of your programs.

I am running WordPerfect 5.1, SimCity, and dBASE IV 1.5.

>* What software is needed if I am interested in getting sharewares/PD etc
>  from the ftp sites?

Most of the software can be downloaded to your GS and then transfered to the
PCT using the transfer program.  I have found that this method works great!

More ftp sites support IBM/PC software, and you will probably need extracting
programs like zoo, pkzip, and lharc, to name just a few.

>* What is the suggested hard disk space I should put aside for my PCT?
>  I am not asking for a answer like "as much as possible", because my harddisk
>  has limited space, and wish to know the minimum I can survive with.

I made my c: drive the maximum size.  Two partitions of 15767 K that are
linked together using the "continuation" feature from the PCT control panel.
The PCT manual instructions are actually quite good when it comes to making a
MS-DOS partiton.

>* What is the latest system software for PCT?

2.0.4 or 2.0.5 I think

>* What special thing I should take note of?

The PCT is not very fast and it only has an 8086 processor, but it still will
run a significant number of PC programs.  I see it as an excellent bridge
between the PC world and the Apple II world.  I plan to buy a 486 (or higher)
as soon as I have money, but I will always keep my GS.  The PCT has allowed
me to do homework at home (dBASE) that I would have had to do in the crowded
and loud PC lab at school.  So far, it has been a life-saver!


	Hope this helped!
		...Mike
-- 
Michael Heintz
InterNet: mkheintz@vela.acs.oakland.edu         BITNET: mkheintz@oakland.BITNET
                                 ** Oakland University -- Rochester Michigan **