Re: XGS/32, KEGS and IIgs emulation on various platform(s)

[mportune@hotmail.com (Matt Portune)]

Awesome idea.  What would be even cooler would to make it network
based, taking advantage of marinetti and a lance card.  But I guess
one thing at a time.  :)

- Matt

"Steve Mentzer" <dropthistext.smentzer@pacbell.net> wrote in message news:<ZFiZ8.77$MR3.42990@news.uswest.net>...
> I have an idea.
> 
> We all know that the PC is totally incapable of reading/writing apple II
> diskettes in any reasonable fashion. Hardware devices are scarce, software
> only solutions are impossible. We also know that our existing IIgs hardware
> is getting.... shall we say... long in the tooth? Power supplies are fading,
> accelerators are few and far between. The 12" IIgs monitor was barely
> adequate in 1989, let alone 2002.
> 
> I have several old/bare IIgs boxes sitting in a garage with 3.5" and 5.25"
> drives connected to them. I also have a spare CMS scsi controller lying
> around and a few old 120MB SCSI hard disks. I was getting ready to toss
> them...  until now.
> 
> I believe that the IIgs can be a perfect host for the exact functions that
> are missing from our PC's..... native file i/o. Here is my idea:
> 
> Have a small team of apple II developers write a simple piece of software
> that can run off of a standard 3.5" diskette. It will communicate via the
> IIgs serial port to provide I/O (diskette/hard disk) to another host
> operating system.
> 
> Think about it this way. XGS/32 or KEGS will communicate via a serial port
> to request diskette and hard-disk data from a host IIgs that has no
> keyboard/monitor/etc connected. Basically, the IIgs will sit alone, acting
> as an I/O arbitrator, with all CPU activity being hosted on your PC.
> 
> What I am asking is simple. Are there any apple II developers that would be
> interested in developing this simple piece of software to arbitrate file i/o
> over a serial port? I would like to begin defining the serial protocol(s)
> for communication within the next couple of weeks.
> 
> If this were to succeed, folks would be able to purchase a $25 "complete"
> IIgs system on ebay, plug it into their local PC and be able to read and
> write 3.5 and 5.25" floppies just like the old days.
> 
> Anyone interested?