Re: Purchasing Apple IIGS ROM files?

[apple2pd@garp3.icaen.uiowa.edu (ground.ecn AppleII Librarian)]

In article <8ttm7j$kr1$1@nnrp1.deja.com>,  <sacredring@my-deja.com> wrote:
>Hi all,
>
>I've heard of this product called "Amiga Forever" by Cloanto Computing
>which offers all the legacy Amiga Kickstart ROMs and operating systems
>on CD-ROM for use with emulators.
>
>Does such a beast exist for the Apple IIGS? Is there a way I can
>purchase legal, licensed copies of the Apple IIGS ROM 01 or ROM 03?
>

Legal, licensed ROMs exist on the actual IIGS computers.  Buy a used one.
Copies of the ROM can easily be made using ProDOS, basic.system, and a
disk drive.  Even a 5.25 drive, but those disks are next to impossible to
read on today's hardware-limited computers.  Better to use a 3.5 800k disk
but even those are unreadable on a lot of newer CPU's.  Use an older
pre-GS Mac computer to convert 800k disk files to a 1440k disk.  Strict
interpretation of patent/copyright law infers these ROM copies are
illegal, but most adapt to reasoning that the copy is OK if you own an
original machine.

Second option may be the Bernie ... Starter Kit, a CD-ROM which claims to
include everything you need to setup Bernie ... on a PowerPC Mac.  This
implies that ROM copies are on the CD, but I do not know that for a fact.
The distributor sells many software items that could be useful to you
even on an emulated IIGS.  The ROM images can not be considered legal,
licensed, however; especially when used with an emulator.

Ignoring legalities, the possibilities are endless.  That is why IIGS
emulation is possible and getting so popular.

Good luck!

  --Steve

-- 

 --Steve  (apple2pd@ground.ecn.uiowa.edu)