Re: Downloading software for Apple II?

[Mike Maginnis <maginnis@tarnover.org>]

On Thu, 02 Dec 2004 23:41:14 GMT, Charles <spammeister12345@aol.com>
wrote:

>In article <MPG.1c1855aea5a2f0eb989693@news.giganews.com>, 
>alpuzz@comcast.net says...

---<snip>---

> 
>I don't want to dissuade you from this adventure, but please note right 
>now that this path (getting free software from online sources back into 
>GS readable format) is more than a little challenging for a beginner (or 
>even  an experienced PC user who used to use Apple's - including the 
>GS).
>
>I've got a fully tricked out GS system sitting in my home office unused 
>because I can't find the time to hook it all up and get it all working 
>and downloading software from the net via pc and null modem (yuk!), or 
>thru the gee whiz LanceGS card, or using the 3.5" Superdrive to read PC 
>3.5" disks.
>
>Most of that hardware came to me after trying the  null modem methods 
>and suffering through defeat after defeat on that front and finally 
>giving up and solving the problem by throwing hardware at it.
>
>I started getting re-interested in Apple computing as I came to realize 
>that all the advances we've made in the last 20 years is to make the 
>screen prettier and work faster.  The things we do today are things I 
>could have done with my Apple IIgs 20 years ago.  That got me interested 
>in doing just that..
>
>So here I sit waiting for enough time to make this all work together.
>
>It's not easy but I'm going to do it :)   Someday.
>
>Charles

What do you mean by "tricked out"?  If you have a hard drive and a
SCSI card in your IIgs, and a couple of Zip Drives (available cheap
these days), making usable disks from images should be fairly
straightforward.

1. Download the image to the PC

2. Transfer the image to an HFS formatted zip disk on the PC (I use
TransMac,  $64.00 from www.asy.com.)

3. Copy the image from the Zip disk on the IIgs (I have my Zip Drive
connected to an Apple High-Speed SCSI card) to the hard drive.

4. Expand the image to a floppy (I get mine from eBay - I'm sure there
are other sources as well) using a compatible compression program
(such as ShrinkitGS).

- Mike
maginnis@tarnover.org