Re: CDROM on a IIe?

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

Ernest <ernestls@home.com> wrote:

> Is it possible, with the right hardware, to use a CD-ROM with an Apple IIe?

Yes, sort of.  There is a major issue: lack of software.

The hardware requirements are the same as for a IIgs: a SCSI card which
supports a CD-ROM drive, and a compatible drive.

For the SCSI card: if you have the original Apple card, it requires
firmware revision C (341-0437-A).  Earlier revisions didn't support a
CD-ROM drive.

The Apple High-Speed SCSI card and RamFast SCSI card will also support
CD-ROM drives.  I don't know whether other cards support a CD-ROM drive,
but I'd be inclined to distrust the CMS one.

As far as the drive is concerned: if you want to play audio under
software control, and you have an Apple SCSI card, you must get an Apple
CDSC, CDSC Plus or CD-150, all of which are single speed drives.  Later
models (CD-300, etc.) use a different audio command set which is not
supported by the SCSI card firmware.

I don't know what the situation is with a RamFast and control of an
audio CD from 8-bit software.

If you aren't interested in audio CD control, then you probably have a
wider selection of drives.  There are compatibility issues with old
third party drives - I've encountered a couple that weren't recognised
at all by my Apple High-Speed SCSI card (or the GS/OS drivers).  More
recent ones are likely to be a better bet.


Now for the software issues.

Assuming the drive is recognised, you will be able to access ProDOS
formatted CDs.

Without special software, that is all you will be able to access.  There
is no general purpose ISO-9660 or High Sierra support for 8-bit machines
(or for 8-bit operating systems running on the IIgs), though Apple did
have an 8-bit ISO-9660 library which was available for licensing; some
applications might use this to access specific data CDs.

You _might_ be able to read an HFS CD using either of the existing
applications which support floppies (HFSLink and the other one whose
name escapes me).

There is no such thing as an "MS-DOS formatted CD" (the PC uses ISO-9660
on a CD), so MS-DOS reading utilities are useless.

A PC Transporter _might_ be able to read an ISO-9660 CD if you have
appropriate drivers, but it is probably a stretch.

I'm not aware of any audio CD controlling applications for the IIe, but
this would be reasonably easy to support (using the SmartPort driver in
the case of the Apple cards; I don't know about the RamFast).

Supporting an ISO-9660 CD would probably be feasible if someone wanted
to write an application for this.

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