Re: What's the deal with HyperCard IIGS at apple.com?

[hexman@shellx.best.com (Tony Morales)]

> I've been trying to download HyperCard IIGS from ftp.support.apple.com
> since yesterday.  At first I tried to grab the .bxy versions, but after
> downloading them to my GS, no utility would recognize the file format.
> Eventually I went to the Mac lab here at UM and downloaded the Mac .hqx
> versions, decoded them, unshrunk them, and used the DiskCopy program to
> put the images onto ProDOS disks.  When I was done, the Mac I was using
> recognized the disks as ProDOS disks, and they all seemed to contain the
> right files; but I just tried them at home, and the Finder can't recognize
> the disk format.  I have the HFS FST installed, so I'd know if the disks
> got turned into HFS disks somehow, but that's not the case.
> 
> Yes, I did use binary mode when downloading the .bxy versions.
> 
> This is very frustrating.  Does anyone know why these archives are so
> obstinate?

I once examined one of the .bxy archives on ftp.support.apple.com and found
what appeared to be a 512-byte header preceding the normal .bxy header.  If
you can get a hold of a utility to strip off the 512 bytes at the beginning of
the file, GSHK should be able to process the files.  I'm not sure what these
512 bytes are for, and it is very annoying that they even exist.

As for your troubles with the .hqx files, it sounds as though you are
downloading the files correctly, and DiskCopy is able to make disks out of the
.image files.  The reason the IIgs isn't recognizing the disks could have
something to do with the 3.5 drives on the IIgs and Mac not being exactly
in sync with one another.

Tony

http://www.best.com/~hexman