Armitage Posted May 24, 2020 Share Posted May 24, 2020 Hey all, I recently picked up a IIgs on eBay but it didn't come with any software. I quickly learned about ADTPro and how it can be used to bootstrap the machine when you don't own any other Apple systems or drives and I made a short video about on my brand new youtube channel. Since I'm new to both vintage Apples and youtube, I would appreciate your constructive criticism and support. Thanks and enjoy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Byte Knight Posted May 24, 2020 Share Posted May 24, 2020 Nice job! A more expensive but easier way to get things from a modern computer to your IIgs is by using the Floppy Emu from BMOW which can emulate both a 3.5" disk drive and a HD. You can also use a HD emulator like the Booti, and even copy individual files by mounting the HD image in an emulator like Sweet16 on a modern Mac. And if you really want to get into it, get an Uthernet II card and set up A2SERVER on a Raspberry Pi (or get on my server below) which the Apple IIgs and modern computers can connect to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Armitage Posted May 24, 2020 Author Share Posted May 24, 2020 Awesome, glad you enjoyed it and thanks for the tips! I just learned about the Booti the other day from a Reddit post, but they were out of stock I am definitely looking at upgrade paths for the machine. So far, I've replaced the factory 1MB card with a 4MB card from GGlabs and got the original RLL hard drive up and running again. Many of my other machines have some form of modern sdcard or usb-based storage solutions so I definitely want to do the same for the IIgs. BTW: I have all my vintage machines connected to a switched WiModem232 and I see you run a board so I'd like to give it a ring. Is there a particular terminal program you would recommend? I used to use one called Talk is Cheap on my //c back in the day, but I imagine there must be more advanced options available the the gs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Byte Knight Posted May 24, 2020 Share Posted May 24, 2020 2 minutes ago, Armitage said: BTW: I have all my vintage machines connected to a switched WiModem232 and I see you run a board so I'd like to give it a ring. Is there a particular terminal program you would recommend? I used to use one called Talk is Cheap on my //c back in the day, but I imagine there must be more advanced options available the the gs. ProTerm 3.1 is the way to go. You'll have to hit Option-T to get into the terminal where you can enter AT commands. And make sure your terminal and modem are set to the same baud rate under the options. Spectrum is another option but it's slow if you don't have an accelerator. Hope to see you on CQ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee Adamson Posted May 25, 2020 Share Posted May 25, 2020 Cool hard drive. Is it SmartPort or SCSI? IMO, you definitely want a FloppyEmu (along with the DaisyChainer), especially if you want to fool with the extensive library of IIe/IIc software. Best piece of kit available for the II enthusiast! Can you tell us more about your 1084 to analog-RGB adapter? I'd thought it was possible to just wire straight through to the DB9 connector without the middle board you have, and the 1084 would autosense between analog and digital RGB, but it looks like I am wrong about that? =:3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Armitage Posted May 25, 2020 Author Share Posted May 25, 2020 4 hours ago, Byte Knight said: ProTerm 3.1 is the way to go. You'll have to hit Option-T to get into the terminal where you can enter AT commands. And make sure your terminal and modem are set to the same baud rate under the options. Spectrum is another option but it's slow if you don't have an accelerator. Hope to see you on CQ! Sweet, thanks for the pointers. I'll look into it! No accelerator yet, they seem quite rare and expensive! 50 minutes ago, Lee Adamson said: Cool hard drive. Is it SmartPort or SCSI? IMO, you definitely want a FloppyEmu (along with the DaisyChainer), especially if you want to fool with the extensive library of IIe/IIc software. Best piece of kit available for the II enthusiast! Can you tell us more about your 1084 to analog-RGB adapter? I'd thought it was possible to just wire straight through to the DB9 connector without the middle board you have, and the 1084 would autosense between analog and digital RGB, but it looks like I am wrong about that? =:3 The enclosure is made by Western Digital and is connected to an Apple SCSI card (not the high-speed one though) but the drive inside is a 20MB RLL. The FloppyEmu looks really good, but when I looked at it, it seems like it can only emulate a single device at a time. Is that correct? You're correct, the Philips 1084 models auto-switch between RGB inputs. My adapter isn't anything special. It just maps the pinouts from the Apple and Atari ST to both DB9 and DIN used by the different models of Commodore RGB monitors. It takes the composite sync on pin 3, attenuates the signal with a resistor, and passes it to the Hsync input on the 1084. I haven't determined yet if this is some kind of fluke that it syncs perfectly or if the 1084 is smart enough to decode composite sync when no RGBHV source is available, but all Commodore RGB monitors I've come across specify RGBHV input. My 2002 definitely does *not* work properly with the IIgs only providing composite sync, but it's an older model and less advanced by a good bit. I'm looking at something like a SCART cable and SyncSlayer to convert the IIgs signal and output the correct sync for all types of monitors and simultaneously feed it into my video capture device via HD15. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee Adamson Posted May 25, 2020 Share Posted May 25, 2020 19 hours ago, Armitage said: The FloppyEmu looks really good, but when I looked at it, it seems like it can only emulate a single device at a time. Is that correct? You're correct, the Philips 1084 models auto-switch between RGB inputs. ... Yeah, unfortunately the FloppyEmu can only act as one device at a time. For me, though, this ceases to be quite as annoying once you have GSOS set up on a hard drive and don't need to use the 3.5 drives much. Then the FloppyEmu for me just turns into the first 5.25 drive and gets used for running IIe stuff. I think my 1084 is the Daewoo version, with the single RGB connector that is supposed to autosense between TTL and analog RGB. I've only ever used it with the composite input, though, although I am sure that will change once I get around to fixing up my 128DCR. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GameGeezer Posted May 28, 2020 Share Posted May 28, 2020 (edited) I personally use the Floppy Emu to create new physical diskettes. Disk access in 800K mode is slightly faster than real media, and sector or bit reads in 160K mode is notably faster, but protected software tends to eat up that performance gain. Still, nothing quite compares to flipping through a disk file, pulling what you want, and inserting it. Edited May 28, 2020 by GameGeezer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.