What is it exactly about the Apple IIGS?

[eightbit]

I don't know what it is, but I just love this machine. I've had them for years but am still not as fluent as I am with computers like the Amiga or C64, but I still love it regardless.

 

Funny story:

 

I picked up my Amiga 500 brand new somewhere between 1987-1988 from "The Program Store" in Willowbrook Mall  in Wayne, NJ (maybe somebody else here remembers this place? It would be great to see a picture of the place, but I haven't found anything over the years). When I was leaving with my new Amiga 500, I peeked into the window of the Apple store that was situated across from the Program Store...or at least as memory serves me it was there.

 

I saw somebody playing "Sword Of Sodan" on the IIGS and it just looked so good on that little RGB monitor. My parents were like "keep walking" and that was the extent of my IIGS exposure. I loved my Amiga, don't get me wrong. I had YEARS of enjoyment out of that computer. I still have that very computer actually, right next to me as I type.

 

But, I never forgot that glimpse of the IIGS. For decades I thought about it. What could it do? What else came out for it? And so on...

 

In my adult years I ended up obtaining one. The default box is not as impressive as I thought. Very slow, although nice graphics and sound. I think I would have been disappointed honestly with the out of the box experience as a kid as I was not an Apple II person and didn't have any of those computers or legacy software. I would have simply judged the IIGS against the Amiga which some friends had, and it would not have compared in its out of the box state. So in that regard I am glad I did go the route of the Amiga 500 back then.

 

But, nowadays, I can bring that IIGS to a new level, and that is what I did.

 

Here are pictures of my IIGS with the hood open. Here's what it has:

 

Transwarp GS UM Clone running at 16MHz

A2FPGA HDMI Out

8MB Byteboosters Darkram

CFFA3000

Stereo sound card by JCM

UM new power supply

Battery removed and CR2032 holder added (mounted to the case under the PSU)

 

And, that's about it

 

I just recently received the A2FPGA and it was cool to see that it functions while the legacy RGB does too...so dual displays. 

 

 

I'd love to see other people's IIGS rigs. Post some pictures!

 

[+eebuckeye]

That is awesome!  Can you still get the Transwarp clone?

[eightbit]

4 hours ago, eebuckeye said:

That is awesome!  Can you still get the Transwarp clone?

 

It's not available at this point in time unfortunately. I picked this up around five years ago. They are working on a new V2 model that will run cooler and will not require the fan, but I don't know when that will be available to be honest.

[nick3092]

There is a TWGS modern alternative called the Apple Squeezer that not only accelerates, but provides ram and HDMI out. It's not as compatible as the TWGS. It doesn't support DMA, and while it generally handles production/retail software fine, it can't handle some software that really pushes the hardware (ie demos).

 

I don't have one (have an original TWGS), this is just what I've read about it. But there was a lot of excitement around it when announced and seemed to sell well. Henry has been teasing the TWGS 2.0 clone for at least 4-5 years, so who knows if/when it will come out.

Edited December 1 by nick3092

[eightbit]

The Apple Squeezer is actually available for purchase for a bit over $300 USD:

 

https://www.applesqueezer.com/product-page/applesqueezer-gs-v2

 

This very much reminds me of the Vampire for the Amiga.

Edited December 1 by eightbit

[tuf]

6 hours ago, eightbit said:

The Apple Squeezer is actually available for purchase for a bit over $300 USD:

 

https://www.applesqueezer.com/product-page/applesqueezer-gs-v2

 

This very much reminds me of the Vampire for the Amiga.

 

That can be a good thing or a bad thing

 

There's too many compromises with the Squeezer.  I retired and sold my original TWGS for the repro a couple of years ago.

 

 

[eightbit]

On 12/1/2024 at 3:33 AM, tuf said:

 

That can be a good thing or a bad thing

 

There's too many compromises with the Squeezer.  I retired and sold my original TWGS for the repro a couple of years ago.

 

 

 

Well, its a give and take really. It is offering HDMI out, 14MB of RAM, a large RAM disk, microSD card..... 

 

But, no DMA support, and it blocks all of the slots for the most part from using any card that long. 

 

I mean, it is an option for people sick of the slow stock computer and wanting the speed. Options are better to have than to not.

 

We are just fortunate to have TWGS cards (good call to sell the OG for the repro BTW, that's what I did) but there is a good majority of people with IIgs systems that just can't get them either because of cost or simply because they can't find one. 

 

On a different note, that A2FPGA is incredibly awesome! I have one for my IIe as well. It's the only HDMI card (to my knowledge) that works in a IIGS and works in all IIGS graphic modes. Really nice piece of hardware. I did have to install the "Video only" firmware however for the IIgs. The reason being is that this card can do a lot of things such as emulating the Mockingboard (which works great in my IIe) but it needs to use slot #4. On the IIgs, slot #4 is the mouse. So I wasn't about to disable my mouse for that sound support. Not a very good tradeoff

Edited December 3 by eightbit

[potatohead]

I have one that does all the GS modes, and will even offer them up when installed in an Apple //e.

 

VidHD is the name of the card.  It works well, but only does full HD 1080i output.  However, it also makes all the GS modes available on an Apple //e.

 

The Total Replay distribution supports it and will display box art and such using the GS modes.

 

It also has a very high density text mode, 80x50 and one higher than that!  Those can be fun to tinker with.

[eightbit]

5 minutes ago, potatohead said:

I have one that does all the GS modes, and will even offer them up when installed in an Apple //e.

 

VidHD is the name of the card.  It works well, but only does full HD 1080i output.  However, it also makes all the GS modes available on an Apple //e.

 

The Total Replay distribution supports it and will display box art and such using the GS modes.

 

It also has a very high density text mode, 80x50 and one higher than that!  Those can be fun to tinker with.

 

I actually emailed bitpair about this first. I was going to bite the bullet on it.... but they never responded to email. That said, not sure if it is obtainable anymore.

[nick3092]

Pretty sure VidHD is no longer in production, and hasn't been for a while (at least 2 years, maybe longer). For a while one of the chips was unobtainable. I thought I heard it is obtainable now, but at a stupid high price that might as well make it unobtainable. 

 

Also, on the off chance you have a rom 3 gs, you can disable slot 4 ("my card") to use that slot and still use your mouse (with 16bit software anyway, 8bit software always requires it to be set to mouse - even on a rom 3).

[khaibitgfx]

Reactivemicro sells TWGS clones.

[eightbit]

On 12/4/2024 at 4:37 PM, khaibitgfx said:

Reactivemicro sells TWGS clones.

 

Well, its in *presale* (backorder). It's been in that status for years. It's not like you can order and just get it. 

[eightbit]

On 12/2/2024 at 11:52 PM, nick3092 said:

Pretty sure VidHD is no longer in production, and hasn't been for a while (at least 2 years, maybe longer). For a while one of the chips was unobtainable. I thought I heard it is obtainable now, but at a stupid high price that might as well make it unobtainable. 

 

Also, on the off chance you have a rom 3 gs, you can disable slot 4 ("my card") to use that slot and still use your mouse (with 16bit software anyway, 8bit software always requires it to be set to mouse - even on a rom 3).

 

Yeah, I have a ROM1 machine now. There has been a lot of talk about ROM3 board being better for the fact that they have more onboard RAM and they have a removable battery. But both are really not relevant...because who cares. You can cut off the battery on a ROM1 board and easily add a battery holder, and the onboard RAM doesn't matter because you can max out either a ROM1 or ROM3 with 8MB with now pretty inexpensive RAM boards.

 

But, the ROM3 does have something that ROM1 board do not have. And that is that pin 35 is connected in slots 1-6 on a ROM 3. It is only connected on slot 3 on a ROM1 board. Pin 35 connected is necessary for either of these HDMI out boards. You can run a jumper wire on a ROM1 board from pin 35 to pin 35 on another slot in order to use the boards in a different slot on that board revision, but I am not doing that. So, ROM1 board, I am just using slot #3 for the video output, because by default with no modification, that is what needs to be used for it to function.

 

But, to get back to what you said, yeah, ROM1 board, can't disable slot #4 without losing the mouse

Edited Friday at 04:41 AM by eightbit

[khaibitgfx]

11 hours ago, eightbit said:

 

Well, its in *presale* (backorder). It's been in that status for years. It's not like you can order and just get it. 

I sent an email to the powers that be to see what's the deal.