Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!purdue!haven!adm!smoke!gwyn
From: gwyn@smoke.BRL.MIL (Doug Gwyn)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Re: Is there life after II+?
Message-ID: <12453@smoke.BRL.MIL>
Date: 28 Mar 90 22:14:39 GMT
References: <13304@burdvax.PRC.Unisys.COM>
Reply-To: gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn)
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab (BRL), APG, MD.
Lines: 69

In article <13304@burdvax.PRC.Unisys.COM> dave@PRC.Unisys.COM (David Lee Matuszek) writes:
>1.  I have an old but still very nice composite color monitor.  Can I
>use it with the IIGS?  Would I be sorry if I did?

While you can still use an NTSC monitor with the IIGS, for use with
the new super-hires graphics modes that virtually all GS-specific
software uses you really ought to use an analog RGB monitor.  Note that
you can buy suitable analog RGB monitors from sources other than Apple
and save quite a bit of money.  (I think the current issue of Nibble
mentioned one such monitor.)

>2.  My family and I have gotten very used to the convenience of having
>everything readily available on the hard disk (of our Mac+).  The lack
>of same on the Apple II+ greatly reduces the amount it is used.  Is
>there a way to put our assorted games onto a hard disk, instead of
>having to turn off the machine and reboot every time?

Hard disks are available for the entire Apple II family.  The best way
to add a hard disk is to obtain an Apple SCSI card (the new DMA SCSI
card would be best; if you get the old version make sure it has Rev. C
firmware) and add an external SCSI hard disk drive.  While Apple sells
HD20SC and HD40SC drives, they're rather expensive and if you feel up
to it you can build your own and save big bucks, as I recently posted.

My feeling is that the IIGS really requires a hard disk, even though
you can struggle along with only a couple of Apple Disk 3.5s.  However,
note that a lot of game software is copy-protected in such a way that
it is extraordinarily difficult to get it to run from hard disk, and
probably a lot of your older games are DOS 3.3 based, which is not
really viable for hard disks (despite special kludgery some vendors
provide to support hard disk access from DOS 3.3).  The positive side
of this is that most recent IIGS games seem to be hard-disk installable
as they are shipped.  (Copy protection takes the form of some document
or code wheel shipped in the product carton.)

>3.  If the answer to #2 is Yes, then I have an Apple HD20 hard drive
>on my Mac+ that I can donate; is there any way to use it?  My local
>Apple dealers both said Yes, just buy a SCSI card.  When I pointed out
>to the dealers that the HD20 is not a SCSI device (the Mac+ treats it
>like a floppy), one of them had no idea what to do, and the other
>thought the SCSI card would do the job anyway (!).

I'm not familiar with non-SCSI versions of Apple disks.  I do have an
HD20SC and it works fine with the Apple SCSI card.  If indeed your
disk does not come with a built-in SCSI controller, you'll be better
off getting a new high-capacity SCSI drive instead of trying to adapt
a non-SCSI drive to work with the IIGS.

>4.  If it is possible to copy old software onto a hard drive, can I
>plug my Apple II+ 5.25" floppy drives into the IIGS?  (These are the
>original Apple floppy drives--single sided, I think they hold about
>140K--anyway, that's the format all my old games are in.)  If not, how
>much for a drive that can plug into the IIGS and read these disks?

The old Apple Disk II works fine with the IIGS (of course you need to
install the controller interface card in a slot, e.g. slot 6, in the GS).

>5.  Is there good software available to deprotect some of my copy
>protected games?  (I used to have Nibbles Away, but the disk got
>trashed.)  No flames, please, I am NOT a software pirate--but having
>gotten used to a hard disk, I no longer buy (and hardly ever use)
>software that I can't put on the hard disk.

Copy II+ can automatically deprotect some games, but there is no
universal algorithm for automatically deprotecting all copy-protected
games.  There is a hacker periodical that concentrates mainly on Apple II
software deprotection: Computist.  Back issues are available, and there
is an index published in each issue so you can see what back issues you
want.