Re: Apple /// software

[Mitchell Spector <mitch2gs@hotmail.com>]

dempson@actrix.gen.nz (David Empson) wrote:

>> On 2008-01-24 00:57:45 -0700, rob <rob@nospam.net> said:
>> > 
>> > ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.net/pub/apple_II/unsorted/
>> > .
>> > Business Basic
>> > Apple /// Confidence Tester
>> > Apple /// Diagnostics
>> > Three EZ Pieces Disk 1
>> > Three EZ Pieces Disk 2
>> > SOS 1.1 System Utilities
>> > SOS 1.3 System Utilities
>> > Apple /// System Demo
>> > SOS System Utilities Data
>> > Apple ][ Emulation Disk

    Pulled out my (rather small) collection of Apple III 5.25 disks and 
found I have a few other titles on hand, not in the above list:

- PFS
- QuickFile
- Apple /// Pascal
- /// Backup
- Disk Edit
- Draw-on-Three
- Acess III
- Profile Hardisk Utilties
- Apple Presents...Apple: An Introduction to the Apple III Plus
- Apple III CP/M Master and WordStar (Z80 co-processor required)
- Various additional SOS drivers
- Viscalc samples disk

    What I'd really like to find is a COMPLETE list of all the software
released for the Apple III. I can't imagine there were more than a
few dozens titles released. All these years later I'm still curious if
anyone wrote any music/sound software (it did have a 5-bit DAC)
or III-specific games or any kind.
 
>If you compare an Apple /// running SOS with an Apple ][ running ProDOS,
>they differ in areas such as the structure of the system software on
>disk, entry points in the operating system and firmware, memory layout,
>interface to the hardware and screen memory, etc. A SOS application
>cannot run on an Apple ][ (or on ProDOS), and a ProDOS application
>cannot run on an Apple /// in SOS (but might work on an Apple /// in
>Apple ][ emulation mode, if you were running ProDOS 1.0.)

    It's worth mention the Titan "///+//" and "///+//e" plug-in cards 
that allowed the Apple III to fully emulate an Apple II Plus or IIe (without
the artificial limitations normally imposed by the Apple III's hardware).
With a 65C02 plugged in, theorically you could run ProDOS-8 v2.0.3.
Of course these cards are far less common than even the Apple III itself.

>GS/OS on the IIgs has many significant improvements over ProDOS-8, which
>leapfrog the capabilities of SOS, but the structure of the operating
>system and hardware are completely different.

    On an interesting note, GS/OS did directly borrow some components or 
at least concepts from SOS.

>There is no point running /// EZ Pieces on an Apple ][, as AppleWorks
>1.0 is very similar (as far as I am aware - I haven't seen /// EZ Pieces
>since about 1984, and have barely ever used an Apple ///).

    My understanding  is ///-EZ-Pieces _IS_ AppleWorks. The menus,
the layout, the keyboard commands are virtually identical from what I
remember. In fact, you can directly load up AppleWorks data files
into ///-EZ-Pieces--no conversion or importing required.

    The Apple III application came first. It was then it was brought over 
to the Apple II side, tweaked a bit, and renamed AppleWorks. At least
this is what I recall from years ago.

>As for the others:
>
>- Don't know what the confidence tester is.

    Another hardware diagnostic tool (I think complete with digitized 
speech). I can remember it speaking "I'm okay -- system status 
normal" after running a battery of tests. :)

    I wonder if anyone out there has a functional copy of the Apple III
System Demo--mine crashes shortly after launch (most of the software
listed above probably originated from me, so maybe not).

Mitchell Spector