Disk Images, IIe card, &c.
Douglas Taylor
When I find a spare minute, I'm going to get a IIe card up and running
in an old LC II (no manuals, but who reads those?). Some questons I
have:
1. How does one move DOS 3.3 disk images (ie: the ones you might use
with STM or other emulators) into whatever media the IIe card uses
(presumably a ProDos partition)?
2. I have the cable that splits into a two plugs -- a joystick and a
floppy drive plug. The drive plug is a DB-19, just like a Mac. What do
I need to hook a 5.25" drive to this?
3. Where might I find a Joystick to plug into the joystick port (DB-9)?
If anyone can answer these questions, or can direct me to a FAQ that
can, I'd be delighted.
Thanks,
Doug
--
remove the ".spamstopper" from my address to reply
Randy Shackelford
: When I find a spare minute, I'm going to get a IIe card up and running
: in an old LC II (no manuals, but who reads those?). Some questons I
: have:
: 1. How does one move DOS 3.3 disk images (ie: the ones you might use
: with STM or other emulators) into whatever media the IIe card uses
: (presumably a ProDos partition)?
Media? A IIe card uses the same media as a real //e.
: 2. I have the cable that splits into a two plugs -- a joystick and a
: floppy drive plug. The drive plug is a DB-19, just like a Mac. What do
: I need to hook a 5.25" drive to this?
It is said that only the grey 5.25s work, but I can't imagine what's different
about them from the beige unidisk or even a disk II. You just plug it in and
it works. The manual also says that a unidisk 3.5 will work. No other drive
types will work.
: 3. Where might I find a Joystick to plug into the joystick port (DB-9)?
Same place you'd get one for a real II these days, probably in the forsale
groups or a used computer store.
--
Offsite mail to this host gets nuked.
Douglas Taylor
Thanks for the info. I was a bit vague with question #1, so I'll
rephrase:
I plan to make a ProDOS partition on my LC's hard drive, and I'll use
that for storage. Is there a way to get the IIe card to recognise DOS
3.3 or ProDOS disk images? How does one move files from the images to
the ProDOS partition?
tia,
Doug
Randy Shackelford <sh...@onyx.southwind.net> wrote:
> Douglas Taylor <enoc...@sgci.com.spamstopper> wrote:
>
> : When I find a spare minute, I'm going to get a IIe card up and running
> : in an old LC II (no manuals, but who reads those?). Some questons I
> : have:
>
> : 1. How does one move DOS 3.3 disk images (ie: the ones you might use
> : with STM or other emulators) into whatever media the IIe card uses
> : (presumably a ProDos partition)?
>
> Media? A IIe card uses the same media as a real //e.
<snip>
Randy Shackelford
: Thanks for the info. I was a bit vague with question #1, so I'll
: rephrase:
: I plan to make a ProDOS partition on my LC's hard drive, and I'll use
: that for storage. Is there a way to get the IIe card to recognise DOS
: 3.3 or ProDOS disk images? How does one move files from the images to
: the ProDOS partition?
The IIe card is a real //e; calling it an emulator is a misnomer. If you
connect up a 5.25, it works exactly like a 5.25 equipped //e. So you handle
image files as well as any other files the same as on a more typical //e.
If you want to access a ProDOS volume on your hard disk, make sure that
the hard disk option is installed in a slot in the //e option panel. Then
it should show up as a hard disk in that slot when you're running //e
software. Once you have that, you access the 5.25 and the hard disk in
exactly the same way as on a //e equipped with a 5.25 drive and a hard disk.
Ditto the 3.5 drive even.
Questions about manipulating image files and their contents will get better
answers over in comp.emulators.apple2.
Labelas Enoreth
Use the newest version of the Apple IIe software you can find, but not the
beta version on Apple's FTP. It may have improvements, but it screws up
all sorts of things like reporting the 5.25 and Superdrive as read only.
As for disk images, grab a copy of DSK2FILE and Catakig. Catakig is an
emulator for the Mac, but it comes with a small disk image converter app.
Convert the files you want to use to standard DSK files, and then use
DSK2FILE within the IIe enviroment (you can easily boot it by copying it
to the ProDos partition and then double-clicking it) to write the image
back to a disk. Be wary though, some disk images will _not_ convert back
to a disk properly. At least, several of the ones that I've tried. I'm
attributing it to people having slightly hacked images to get them to work
in emulators (like CP on games and such).
Plus, bootable disks don't seem to want to be bootable afterwards in some cases.
Oh yeah, and don't try to multipartition a Zip disk into ProDos...it's a
pain in the ass. I figured it would be nice to have a ProDos zip to store
stuff on, so I figured 30MB PD, 6xMB MacOS...harder than it sounds, you
have to use other programs like Silverlining (even HDT wouldn't do it for
me) and if you _dare_ insert that disk into the zip drive while the Iomega
driver is loaded, it corrupts the driver somehow requiring a repartition.
Mitchell Spector
>Douglas Taylor <enoc...@sgci.com.spamstopper> wrote:
>
>: Thanks for the info. I was a bit vague with question #1, so I'll
>: rephrase:
>
>: I plan to make a ProDOS partition on my LC's hard drive, and I'll use
>: that for storage. Is there a way to get the IIe card to recognise DOS
>: 3.3 or ProDOS disk images? How does one move files from the images to
>: the ProDOS partition?
>
>The IIe card is a real //e; calling it an emulator is a misnomer. If you
>connect up a 5.25, it works exactly like a 5.25 equipped //e. So you handle
>image files as well as any other files the same as on a more typical //e.
Well the IIe card is (mostly) a hardware based IIe, but there
is some software emulation going on which causes some speed hits
and incompatibilities. First off there is no ROM firmware on the
card, it has to load an image of the "CF-ROM" off the Macintosh's
hardrive. Next, there is no hardware video support--it all has to
be emulated using QuickDraw on the Mac side (even at 2 MHz, text
scrolling is going to be slower than a real Apple IIe). I recall
some copy protected software not liking the IIe card either.
The Apple IIgs also has to emulate the Apple IIe, but this is
all done through hardware (65C816, Mega II, VGC, Slow RAM bank,
etc). Ditto for the Apple III for emulating a stock Apple II Plus,
except like the IIe card, it too has to load an image of the ROM
firmware from software.
Still I agree, it is more or less a real Apple IIe. You can
boot off a *real* Apple 5.25 drive, not too mention use any DB9
Apple II joysticks (try that with any software emulator). :)
Mitchell Spector
sp...@vax2.concordia.ca
Randy Shackelford
:>The IIe card is a real //e; calling it an emulator is a misnomer. If you
:>connect up a 5.25, it works exactly like a 5.25 equipped //e. So you handle
:>image files as well as any other files the same as on a more typical //e.
: Well the IIe card is (mostly) a hardware based IIe, but there
: is some software emulation going on which causes some speed hits
: and incompatibilities. First off there is no ROM firmware on the
: card, it has to load an image of the "CF-ROM" off the Macintosh's
: hardrive. Next, there is no hardware video support--it all has to
: be emulated using QuickDraw on the Mac side (even at 2 MHz, text
: scrolling is going to be slower than a real Apple IIe). I recall
: some copy protected software not liking the IIe card either.
Even if the Mac does some of the work, there's still a real 6502, IWM, ports
for //e peripherals, and dedicated memory in there. And as for the speed,
read my article elsewhere about how swapping an LC520 logic board into my
Color Classic improved the IIe card's performance. It runs software nearly
as fast as an unaccelerated IIgs by my estimate, whereas on the CC logic
board the card could barely keep up with a //e.
: The Apple IIgs also has to emulate the Apple IIe, but this is
: all done through hardware (65C816, Mega II, VGC, Slow RAM bank,
: etc). Ditto for the Apple III for emulating a stock Apple II Plus,
: except like the IIe card, it too has to load an image of the ROM
: firmware from software.
Well no one claims that there's a whole Apple II in a Mac with IIe card,
or Apple III for that matter.
: Still I agree, it is more or less a real Apple IIe. You can
: boot off a *real* Apple 5.25 drive, not too mention use any DB9
: Apple II joysticks (try that with any software emulator). :)
Yepper
Vincent Quinn
In article <718vpp$9l2$1...@opal.southwind.net>,
Randy Shackelford <sh...@onyx.southwind.net> wrote:
>It is said that only the grey 5.25s work, but I can't imagine what's different
>about them from the beige unidisk or even a disk II. You just plug it in and
>it works. The manual also says that a unidisk 3.5 will work. No other drive
>types will work.
This is what I've found with the //e card in a Mac LC:
Unidisk 5.25" (grey drive) - works
External Drive //c - works
Disk ][ with 19-pin adapter cable - doesn't work
Apple 3.5" - doesn't work
Unidisk 3.5" - works.
As far as the Disk ][ is concerned, it will spin up but all accesses fail.
I believe that the Mac LC series doesn't supply one of the voltages the
drive needs (-12V???).
I have a converted PC Strike analogue joystick plugged into the other side
of the cable (converted using the info in the FAQ) - it works perfectly
(and it also works perfectly on my //c and IIGS).
Vincent Quinn
From Ferret on the Dartboard
Shankill, Dun Laoghaire
Ireland