Re: Varied IIgs Q's

[spec@vax2.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector)]

In article edhel@bigfoot.com (Edhel Iaur, Esq.) writes...

>spec@vax2.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector) wrote:
>
>>    It would probably be less noisy inside a ROM 3, but I don't see
>>why anyone would want to waste a GS slot with a Phasor card
>
>Mockingboard emulation, mostly.  I do also have a few Phasor-format
>creations, and I can make some sound effects easily with the Phasor.

    There are some software Mockingboard emulators, but besides not
sounding quite the same, they only play separate song files (forget
about using it to play music from a bootable game like Ultima V or
Skyfox, unless someone out there rewrites the emulator).

    My point though was there are only a hanful of titles that ever
supported the Mockingboard (and I think only two that ever supported
the Phasor, one being the AE demo disk and the other Ultima V). Of
course if you want to tinker with something that sounds similar to
C64 synthesis, it might be worthwhile (mind you, the SID chip could
do fairly more than the AY-8913 though, even though they had the
same number voices plus a white-noise generator. And of course, the
Ensoniq inside the GS blew away most every kind of computer synthesis
around, up until about 1992 :)

>>(it's pretty redundant, like adding a disk
>
>Number of 19-pin drives I own:2
>Number of 20-pin drives I own:4 :)

    It is still wasting a slot, all you need an IDC20 to DB19 adapter
and that floppy drive will function off the Smartport. Besides which,
no one uses more than one 5.25 drive on an Apple IIgs unless they're
using it as a glorified Apple IIe.

>>or serial controller in a GS).
>
>ADT likes real SSC's :)

    Why on earth would you want to use ADT on a IIgs? Convert the 5.25
disk into a 140K image file, then use the built-in serial port on the
GS to null-modem it over to the IBM. In fact, I would convert several
disks at once, then send them over in one batch at 57.6K. You could
even SHK compress them to save more time, and then decompress with
Nulib once on the PC.

>>The Ensoniq chip is capable of far better sound, music and even
>>speech synthesis (and there is even an ALF/Mockingboard software
>>emulator if you want to hear some music files).
>
>Where is it? I'd love to have this!  I've already searched Liquefy for
>"mock" and "alf", but no luck.

    Good question, I'm still waiting for someone on this group to
mention where they can be found (Hi, Tony and Scott ;).

    In the meantime, there is MDIdeas Christmas Jubebox player demo.
It was written in 1986 as a dealer-demo for their stereo output card,
but it is actually a Mockingboard/ALF emulator. I discovered this a
few years ago (surprisingly, no one else had all these years) and if
you replace the XMas songs with others, it will play them.

    This isn't the same one Tony wrote about, that one will apparently
play music to a real hardware based ALF, or by changing a setting, use
the Ensoniq chip in the GS to emulate one. It also uses a Hi-Res based
display to show music playing.

>>    If your talking about using the built-in Smartport, usually no
>>more than 4 drives. That breaks down to (at maximum) two 5.25 drives
>>and two 3.5 drives, although I believe it is possible to connect
>>several UniDisk 3.5 drives (unlike platinum Apple 3.5 drives).
>>Adding any more drives would require a controller card, but you'll
>>be adding drain on the powersupply.
>
>What I'm planning is maximum storage on the drives I have available:
>I may soon have 2 Apple 3.5's, a UniDisk 3.5, and an AE 1.6MB drive.
>If I started using my Disk ][ controller again, would I be able to use
>all 4 of these 3.5" drives, or would I have to lose an Apple 3.5?

    The AE drive is merely a SuperDrive clone, which when used on the
GS's Smartport, is seen as a regular Apple 3.5 (you can use a special
driver to format 1.6 MB GCR, but as far as the GS is concerned, it is
still counted as an Apple 3.5 drive).

    So, you can only use three of those drives: either both Apple 3.5
drives and the UniDisk 3.5, or one Apple 3.5, the AE SuperDrive clone
and the UniDisk 3.5.

>>    Personally, I tend to avoid floppy drives on the GS and stick
>>mainly with a hardrive.
>
>Well, I would too, but...when your hard drive is an 8.4 MB Sider (I
>once clocked it going, on average, twice as fast as my Disk ][s),
>which takes up about as much room as 4 Disk ]['s...and couple that
>with my moving to 1/2 of a dorm room...

    This is 1997, not 1987. You can purchase a used, fair sized SCSI
mechanism for a couple of dollars (an 80 MB Quantum drive can be
purchased for as little as $10-$15, 240 MB for as little as $25).
You need an external enclosure of course, and a SCSI controller,
but those aren't that expensive either.

>>On my own system I have an Apple SuperDrive
>>(connected through a controller card, so I can take advantage of
>>it's MFM capabilities)
>
>*catching drool* ;)

    It's even nicer than the null-modem cable solution I pointed out
above, read/write to MS-DOS diskettes, high density Macintosh disks
and even create MFM ProDOS disks which can be shared with an IBM PC
(much like 800K GCR disks can be shared with a Macintosh).

    Really too bad Apple never released the Mark Twain with SuperDrive
built-in, or made more of those Apple II 3.5 Disk Controller Cards, it
makes the IIgs so much more flexible when sharing data with PCs/Macs.
No fussing with null-modem cables or being forced to use a Macintosh.

Mitchell Spector
spec@vax2.concordia.ca