Re: Apple //gs questions.

[Rob Greene <nospam-greener@charter.net>]

doffo_898@hotmail.com wrote in news:1116082881.249766.309020
@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com:

> Recently I have aquired an Apple //gs system, but the problem is that 
> I dont even have any kind of software for it or anything.  No disks to
> even boot off of.
> 
> I also did purchase a modem cable for the apple which uses the modem
> port, and converts it into a 25pin male adapter to attach external
> modems for it.
> 
> 1.)What externam modems will work and with what kind of terminal
> software?
> 
> I was also wondering if someone could help me out on doing this? Like
> if someone can make a bootable system disk, and maybe some good term
> software which works very well, and heck, maybe even some software to
> transfer stuff between the pc<-->//gs via serial.
> Shrinkit program would be good too so that I can write back to real
> disks from disk images.
> 
> If someone can help me out, that would be awsome! =) I would like to
> get my //gs fully running.

You're almost there.  I did it the hardway and you don't want to do
that.  I had to pick up a USB to Serial for my laptop as well as a null
modem cable (taken from work has DB-9 and DB-25 on both ends).  I think
it was $20 for the USB to DB-9 Serial adapter, and $10 for the "Mac
modem cable" (which you already have).  The null modem cable was free,
of course!  (-: 

[Stage 0]
Get the computers talking at 300bps.  You'll be able to type on your PC
and it'll show up on the GS. 

[Stage 1]
Someone has a DOS dump which you can send from your PC to the GS.  If
you have a 5.25" disk, you should be able to connect the two computers
and transmit the file as a text file - you'll probably need to put
delays between characters and/or lines (I did) to get DOS put in.  After
the DOS is loaded you can INIT a disk. 

[Stage 2]
Get ADT_2004.zip which has a IIGS-specific program (written by Rubywand,
I think) for receiving disk images written in DOS order (can be ProDOS
disks).  It has instructions to get the application over to your DOS 3.3
environment.  Once it's been loaded and running, you'll be nearly set. 

[Stage 3]
Put together some ProDOS 140K images to transfer - such as Z-Link or
whatever terminal software you like. 

[Stage 4]
Switch to your terminal software and start using X/Y/Z-modem to send
files (looks like I'll be using Y modem).  

* You may need to use something like AppleCommander or CiderPress to
work with disk images on the PC. 

** What's a good and cheap terminal program for Windows?  Hyperterm only
sends one file at a time unfortunately.  I'm going to see if I can find
my copy of DOS Telix and see if it still works... 

Hope that gets you going.  Better than going through a Mac and messing
with the resource forks manually!!! 
-Rob