Need help building Apple IIgs system dedicated to "Elite"

["mjenison" <jenison@enteract.com>]

Hi all,

Looking for some advice from this group about an Apple IIgs project.

I saw in an earlier post that one of my favorite games from my Apple II
youth had been released to public domain: "Elite".  I'd like to build a
IIgs system for the dedicated purpose of playing Apple II "Elite".

Basically, I'm looking to have an arcade-like feel to this system,
since I'll be building a dedicated arcade cabinet for the system.  This
means the game should be "instant on" (the game should come up as fast
as possible when the cabinet is turned on).  The system needs to be
able to have power completely removed and boot when power is restored.
The cabinet power is controlled by switching a circuit breaker on or
off.

So the basic problems I need your help in solving are:

1) Looking for the fastest way to boot the disk image.  I saw a post
that said a ROMdisk is the fastest way to boot, but is that Prodos /
GSOS only, or could I boot the elite disk image this way?  And which
product is best?

2) The image needs to be able to boot upon power up, and not be lost on
powering down (ie if the solution to #1 is a RAMDisk, it
would need to have a battery backup feature).  In fact, it should be
able to survive immediate power loss.

3) How to get the disk image on device from problem #1 & #2 considering
I currently have no Apple IIgs, and what would be the minimum
hardware/software needed to get it there (I do have a ROM burner,
though, if there is some sort of custom ROM drive product).

4) Haven't played Elite forever, but I remember you could save the
game, so I'll probably need a separate drive for this.  Could be used
in solving problem #3 above.

Elite on Apple IIgs is the speed I want to run at, so no transwarp or
whatever is needed.  I have a monitor and joystick, but looking to
purchase the other parts for this project if you have them for sale
(apple IIgs, keyboard, drive for problem #4, parts for solutions #1 and
#2)

Thanks for any help you can provide!

-- 
Mark Jenison