Re: Vintage Computing Advice

["atfphotography@gmail.com" <atfphotography@gmail.com>]

On Apr 28, 1:10 am, Jason <jasonb1...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> I've been lurking on this group for a bit thinking about getting into
> "vintage" computing.  Joining the swelling ranks of the nation's
> unemployed, I now find myself with a whole lot of extra time on my
> hands, so it seems like an opportune moment.
>
> I don't have a lot of room in the study I share with my wife, so I was
> thinking of picking up an Apple IIc which seem to go for under $40 on
> eBay in good condition.  My first Apple was a //+, so I'm hoping it
> will be an easy adjustment.
>
> My questions relate to the following:
>
> Video:  I'd like to use an existing LCD panel display I have (with VGA
> input).  I note that several companies manufacture composite video to
> VGA converter boxes for $40-$60.  Can anyone comment whether this
> produces an acceptable display?  I'd prefer to avoid dealing with an
> older CRT if I can avoid it.
>
> Program storage:  I understand some people may enjoy the swishing sound
> the Disk ][ drive makes when loading programs, but I can live just fine
> without managing a large stack of floppies and worrying about keeping
> them away from magnetic fields and wondering when they may go bad on
> me.  I see there is a CFFA adapter for the larger Apple // computers,
> and there has been some talk of creating one for the //c, but it is
> still presumably vaporware and some time off, no?  Are there any
> alternatives?  I see the 8-bit Atari platform has a nice adapter
> (SIO2PC I belive it's called) that allows the Atari to connect to a
> modern PC with the PC emulating many different peripherals
> simultaneously.  Is there anything analagous that will work on a //c?
>
> //c revisions:  There are two revisions of the //c (not including the
> //c+ which doesn't particularly interest me at the moment anyway) --
> the A2S4000 and the A2S4100.  I presume the newer model is more
> desirable because it has memory expansion capability?  Hopefully this
> does not limit any potential hardware upgrades along the lines of a
> SDFA/CFFA card for it?
>
> TIA for any comments.
>
> --
> Jason

Howdy,

I've been on and off for years with my vintage stuff. Usually sticking
to things I used in my youth, Apple II series, with one exception
being NeXT machines because I worked for them in college.

The Apple IIc/+ are really cool, but I have much more fun trying to
track down the odd expansion card for the Apple IIe or IIgs systems.

My main machine for doing stuff at the moment is an Apple IIgs ROM 3
with the following;

LittlePower Adapter IIgs for the Power Supply - Lets the Apple use
miniATX power supplies. Very cool!
Transwarp GS - This is the accelerator - You can purchase upgrades to
crank it up beyond its initial speeds. If you find one cheap, grab it!
They seem to always hold their value and are terribly useful.
Fingerprint GS+ - A screen capturing card that can grab screens from
any DOS or ProDOS program and dump the contents to DOS or ProDOS -
regardless of what you are booted into.
AE GSRAM+ - Memory card with 6 megabytes of space (or is it 5 - ack).
Microdrive Turbo GS - A CF card solution. I use it with Ciderpress so
you can pop Apple II disk images back and forth from Windows based
machines. Very speedy too!
Computereyes GS - A still capture card that lets you input video and
capture a single frame (but both seem unhappy with the Transwarp).
Uther Apple II - Ethernet Port for the IIe/IIgs - Just got two of them
the other day and haven't had a moment to set them up yet. Weekend
project.

I also use the Vulcan GS w/ 105mb hard drives for fun. Much slower
than a CF card but fun to play around with.  The upgrades, CF drive
and some other parts were purchased from Henry over at www.reactivemicro.com.
Don't work for him or anything. Just a happy customer.

One recent project I've been working is going through and replacing
all the electrolytic capacitors on _everything_ from power supplies,
motherboards, cards, etc. A fellow sold me a ROM 3 replacement
motherboard "new in the box" which turned out to be the motherboard
THAT the replacement motherboard had replaced. So I got the bad one!
Haha.. however after replacing all the caps, it's like new! The
condition of the board is very good too. The memory card slot is nice
and solid while my other boards are all fairly flimsy. Very clean
board.

Finding the capacitors can be an interesting challenge because of the
differences in sizes and such. Digikey and Jameco have good on-line
catalogs so you can track down things.

My Fingerprint GS+ card, which I really wanted to pull a bunch of
images I had made in The Newsroom, was dead on arrival. It was brought
back to life when I noticed the only capacitor was corroding. After a
suitable replacement was found it came back life.

Lots of fun.

The secondary machine I'm working on is a Apple IIe Platinum with;

LittlePower Adapter IIe - Power Supply
Zip 4000 II chip or Transwarp I (accelerators)
Microdrive IIe - CF Card solution for the IIe (still waiting on back
order)
Echo II sound card
Apple 3.5" Adapter card (which seems to have problems - it's also rare
- agh)
Apple 5.25" Adapter card
Video-7 Taxan RGB / 80 column card - Lets you use the Apple IIgs RGB
color monitors.
Apple IIe Mouse Card w/ Apple IIe Mouse
Apple 1 megabyte RAM expansion card
Uther Apple II - Ethernet port for IIe

Before I moved over to a Mac II in college I still had my IIe and was
using it to run GEOS by Berkley Softworks (http://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/GEOS_(8-bit_operating_system)). It was pretty amazing using GEOS
with it's funky GUI on a non-accelerated 8-bit Apple IIe in 1989/1990.
Pretty darn slow but very cool at the same time.

Amazingly enough I found what I really wanted on eBay last week. Some
fellow had the Apple IIe/IIgs version of GEOS original in the box,
manuals, disks, etc. for $3.00. I guess I'm the only one after it
because I won the auction and just got it the other day. HAH! So very
very cool. Can't wait to see what garbage is on my data disks from
high school. GEOS for the Apple IIe used to come with this little card
for slot 7 that you would use if you didn't have a mouse. I always
thought it was a copy protection card or something. Duh on me. I found
my original card a few months ago in a box and was stunned that I
actually remembered what it was used for.

That's half the fun. Finding weird cards and software in the box for
very very reasonable rates. You can get GEOS on-line, but it's still
cool to have all the original manuals and box.

Check out the retrobright process too! I've been running through all
my cases, printers, keyboards, etc and it's been working like a charm.
Basically a few fellows got together and figured out a way to reverse
the process of nasty aging that happens as the machine cases get
older. I'm using a pure liquid bath version for my stuff. Still
putting together "before and after" photographs and I'll post a link
here when I'm done with everything.  You can check out the wiki over
at http://retr0bright.wikispaces.com/Retr0Bright+Gel

Good luck with your vintage collection!

ATF