Re: //e, //c, //gs Questions

[nparker@ssil.uoregon.edu (Neil Parker)]

In article <362DA9CE.26B6@nyetcom.com>,
Chad Choi Lin  <chadlin@nyetcom.com> wrote:
>Maynard Lilac wrote:
>[...]
>> Another is called an Apple Monitor ///.
>
>That would have been the unit that Apple Computer marketted for its
>first big flop, the Apple /// (if you never heard of that system, it is
>precisely because it was a failure). I have no idea if it is compatible
>with any of the //-series computers.

The Monitor /// is compatible with every Apple II model.  Just plug it into
the RCA video jack.  There are at least two varieties of Monitor ///--a
black-and-white model, and a green screen model.

>1.)  Apple DOS 3.3
>     Usually referred to simply as "DOS 3.3" or just "DOS", this is the
>last version of the original Disk Operating System written by Apple
>before it made the move to ProDOS. Anything earlier than version 3.3
>will not run on a //c or IIGS (though I believe you can still run such
>versions of DOS on a //e) so you'll probably want to focus only on DOS
>3.3, if anything.

Actually, you CAN run DOS 3.2 and earlier on a IIc or IIGS.  But unless you
have an old 13-sector disk interface card, you'll need a special pre-boot
program to boot a DOS 3.2 disk.  The DOS 3.3 system master disk includes a
program called "BOOT13" that does the trick, and way back in the Olden Days
Apple distributed a disk called "BASICS" that also did it.

>5.)  CP/M  ;-)
>     Now this is *really* obscure, and might even seem like a silly
>joke. But I distinctly remember seeing an advertisement in an Apple II
>magazine (back in the 1980s, of course) for a Z80 processor upgrade that
>Applied Engineering sold for the //c. It was actually part of a memory
>expansion kit, but it supposedly would allow the user to run CP/M on an
>Apple! Seeing that CP/M has pretty much become one with the dust of
>history, however, this is probably a moot point to bring up.

True, you don't hear much about CP/M these days, but back in its heyday,
there were several different CP/M cards for the Apple II.  Unfortunately,
each brand requires its own special boot disk, which isn't compatible with
any other CP/M card.  (At least their data disks are interchangeable.)

I have Microsoft CP/M card in my IIGS.  I don't it very often, but
sometimes it's fun to play with.

>> Can the smallish RGB monitor which came with the //gs
>> be used on a Mac?
>
>Yes, but with such inferior results that you probably shouldn't bother
>trying.

And only with one particular Mac video card.  Most Macs can't generate a
video signal that the GS monitor can handle.

               - Neil Parker
-- 
Neil Parker, nparker@ssil.uoregon.edu, nparker@axis.llx.com,
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