Re: Apple IIGS Operating System

[scott@alfter.diespammersdie.us (Scott Alfter)]

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In article <i%v1g.4162$Lm5.2048@newssvr12.news.prodigy.com>,
Joe <joepcdr@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>O.k. here's the deal. I've acquired a Apple IIGS with no operating system or
>system disk what so ever. I've found the OS on Apples FTP server available
>to download. My problem is that I'm running a pc and found out via trial and
>error that I'm not able to write the floppies in the proper format for the
>Apple IIGS to read. Does anybody know of any way that I can write the
>floppies successful floppies on a pc or am I going to have to find myself an
>old Mac to make this work.

You'll need an old Mac (nothing newer than a beige G3, and 68K is generally
preferred over PowerPC for this purpose).  The floppy drive in your x86 box
won't write the 800K double-density format your IIGS needs.  In addition to
eBay, you might try the Low End Mac swap list (google for it); through the
latter, I recently picked up a Color Classic (ideal for this kind of use)
for the cost of shipping.  (As an added bonus, you can pop a card into the
Color Classic and run 8-bit Apple II software on it...just got one of those
today.)

What's really needed, long-term, is a way to get the IIGS system software
onto floppies with just a null-modem cable and any computer (or at least
something running Windows, Linux, or Mac OS X).  IIRC, there's a setup that
transfers a DOS 3.3 boot floppy to a II with a serial port and no boot disk. 
It seems to me that this could be adapted to use the GS's serial port (I
think it normally requires an SSC, but I could be wrong) and to send an
arbitrary 3.5" disk image.

  _/_
 / v \ Scott Alfter (remove the obvious to send mail)
(IIGS( http://alfter.us/            Top-posting!
 \_^_/ rm -rf /bin/laden            >What's the most annoying thing on Usenet?

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