Re: A2 Newbie

[dalloff@freenet.columbus.oh.us (Dave Althoff)]

Jason Bonnough (esparcs@ionet.net) wrote:
: Greetings,
: 	I have just "found" an old Apple ][e in the hallways of my school. 
: (Actually, one of my teachers THREW it out of his classroom.)  I hooked it up 
: and it still works, but all I have is the CPU. No drives, or anything. There 
: were 2 expansion cards in it (Disk I/O and Printer expansion) but no cables. 
:  I am not new to computer hardware, but I am new to the A2e system.  If 
: anyone has any advice on commands, hardware I should buy, etc. PLEASE E-Mail 
: back.  I am about to start Majoring in Computer Science in about 7 months, so 
: I thought I could use this experience to enrichen my knowledge of OLD 
: computers.

Congratulations!  8-)

First of all, if you just want to get going, yank out the disk controller
card, grab a power cord, and find yourself a composite monitor (color or
monochrome).  That's an NTSC video output...if you have a VCR or
late-model TV set, you can hook it right up to the video output port.

Now, you've got a display, you've got power, and you've pulled the disk
controller, right?  Great.  Now, turn on the system.  You should get one
of the following:

                Apple ][
]

or, possibly...
                Apple //e
]

At this point, you're in good shape.  You can start right away writing
programs in BASIC (which is what the "]" prompt is all about).  You can
even jump back to the stone age with a cassette recorder and cables to
plug into the 1/8" phono jacks on the back of the machine to save your
programs...the commands are SAVE to save, and LOAD to load.  The first
beep from the computer means that data transfer has started; at the second
beep the prompt and cursor should return.  It does work.

That is, of course, a most unsatisfying way to store programs, but you can
do it without any real effort at all.  What you really need is a disk
drive.  Your disk controller will be one of two flavors.  If the
controller card has two 20-pin right-angle connectors on it, then you need
a Disk ][ or equivalent.  It MUST be an Apple compatible drive.  If the
controller card has a short ribbon cable with a DB-19 connector on it,
then you need one of  the newer 5.25" disk drives.  If you're really
desperate, I think Apple may still be selling these for use with the //e
card in the Mac LC.  But you ought to be able to pick up a used one. 
Again, it needs to be an Apple type drive, and I'm guessing that it needs
to be a 5.25" drive.  3.5" drives need a different type of controller,
which is not as common for the ][e as you might think.

If you've got a disk drive, then you need a boot disk, either DOS 3.3 or
ProDOS.  See if you can track down a local Apple user's group.  If you've
got a computer dealer that has been in business for a long time...y'know,
a place that used to sell mostly Apple ]['s...you might be able to find
information about a local users group.  Or, there are a few other things
you can try.

Take a look at your printer I/O card.  If it is a "Super Serial Card" with
two sets of DIP switches, and a short ribbon cable ending in a DB-25
connector, then you're really in luck since you can hook up to serial
printers like the Apple ImageWriter, but more important, you can make some
minor changes to the card and use it as a modem card instead.

If it is a parallel interface card, then you're in even more luck if you
want to print.  That card would have a long ribbon cable with a Centronics
type connector.  Just plug that into any DOS-compatible parallel printer,
and you're set and ready to go.  When I say "DOS-compatible" I mean if you
can hook it up to your MS-DOS based machine and type "copy c:\config.sys
lpt1:" at your C> prompt and get meaningful output, then it will work. 
We've got a Panasonic KX-P1180 here and it works great.

That's just a little stuff to get you out of the box, so to speak.  If I
were in your position, the first thing I'd do is get hold of a disk drive
and a boot disk.  Then start playing with the thing.

Have fun, and welcome to the wonderful world of the Apple ][!

--Dave Althoff, Jr.
-- 
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