Re: Apple IIgs with lots of stuff and a few questions

[Mitchell Spector <mitch2gs@hotmail.com>]

"Lyman  Green" <lymang@gmail.com> wrote:

>I've come into possession of an Apple IIGS (free from a local
>Freecycler, http://www.freecycle.org )- it appears to be one of the
>batch signed by Woz.

    As mentioned, it's a machine printed copy of his signature. The 
earliest IIGS's (approximately 50,000)  have this commemorative 
marking on the lid, however they're not particularly rare. 

> It came with no monitor, but boxes of disks and
>MANY books and manuals.  I haven't yet tried to boot it yet to figure
>out what ROM revision it is 

    You can find out by popping off the case lid. At the center of the
motherboard, next to the 65C816 CPU, is the ROM chip. Look at 
the part number, it should say: 342-0077-x. If the letter suffix is a
"-A" it's the earliest firmware (ROM 00) if it's a "-B" it's the newer
firmware (ROM 01).

    Most software, including the GS/OS operating system, requires a 
ROM 01 or higher. A 1 megabyte expansion card or more is also 
preferable since there's not enough memory built-in to the original
motherboard to run IIgs software.

>because it didn't come with a monitor and I
>realized it's got the old-school Apple adapter and I don't know if I've
>got the right kind of cable.  Now I happen to have a Commodore 1080 RGB
>monitor and it appears as though that will work if I can get a cable
>that has the right bits on either end, so my quest recently has been to
>find one of those.  The faqs I've read talk a good bit about hooking a
>IIGS up to a 1084 but this is definitely not the same monitor - it
>looks like it's got a DB9 male connecter on the 1080 and that's not the
>same as what I've seen listed for the 1084.

    The 1084 and 1080 are virtually identical, the only difference I believe
is the make of the picture tube. They both support composite, s-video (in
a basic sense), digital and analog RGB at 15 kHz frequency. Some of 
them have a DE-9 connector, others a circular DIN, but the bottom line
is they'll both work fine hooked up to an Apple IIGS with the right cable.

    I happen to have a 1080 here, but no cable (same for a Sony 1302
I just picked up a week ago). The colors are washed out compared to
the AppleColor RGB but it'll should work fine otherwise. I'm currently 
using it for my Amiga's and Commodore 64's.

> I've already got a few
>questions - the IIGS has a card in it that has an external connector
>that looks similar but not the same as the ADB port - it has more pins.
> Not sure what that is - an advanced serial port maybe is what I seem
>to remember from the Macs.  They were those round DIN cable setups.
>Anyhoo I don't know what it is or why it is there. :-)

    Does the slot card say "Vitesse" on it and have a mini-DIN8 connector?
If so, it's probably the serial interface for a Quickie hand scanner. You can
actually make use of certain hand scanners from the PC world with it, once
you have the software drivers.

>I would probably be willing to send some portion of these books and
>manuals to someone who would put them to good use - documenting the
>history of the Apple 2. I doubt I need or even want all of them.

    Any inCider/A+ magazines? I have a few gaps in my collection. :) 


Mitchell Spector