01tracker

The MHEC came up in another conversation and google led me to your post. What does that entail, modding it to work on a //e?

I know your issue was something else, but just an FYI, the vidhd is only supported in a ROM 01 in slot 3 (i know you moved it back but just for future reference). I put my slotted accelerators in slot 2 usually (though i'm guessing it depends on if your cpu cable will agree with that, but theres always replacement ones...). I don!t know that the twgs needs to be installed in slot 3, it's just that it's easiest to reach the cpu socket there. It should work in any slot (and doesn't need "Your Card" so in say slot 2 you can still use your serial port).

I'm trying to mimic some of the "physics" (I know, loosely speaking, given the era the game is from) of Triple Action's Biplanes. But having a little trouble. Can anyone describe how they think (or know) the game actually works? I was thinking something like a "forward speed" variable that increases over time to a maximum when flying level, but increases to a limit when diving, decreases to up until 0 then goes negative (in a stall) when falling... But not sure how to implement that regarding the horizontal and vertical velocity of the plane. Or if anyone can direct me to a more general "theory" of how it works somewhere that would be great too. Thanks!

Swords & Serpents Night Stalker Tron: Deadly Discs Triple Action (Biplanes) AD&D Tarmin AD&D Cloudy Mountain Microsurgeon Utopia B-17 Bomber Poker & Blackjack

Obviously the IIgs is the "best", in terms of power, Apple II. So that clearly isn't what you're asking. But even used as an 8 bit machine, the IIgs really shines in terms of "creature comforts". They're certainly convenient even if you're just using it as a //e. Audio output jack? √ Software volume control/mute? √ built in RGB (convertable to vga, hdmi inexpensively)? √ external keyboard? √ built in mouse (doesn't use a slot)? √ built in disk smartport (doesn't use a slot)? √ built in (modest) accelerator? √ built in twin serial ports (doesn't use two slots)? √ built in clock? √ change default boot slot? √ better machine language monitor? √ If it's more important the machine be a "classic 8 bit apple II with all of its charm" keep the //e. Otherwise you're getting most of two computer worlds in one box with the GS.

It's not fast, but not particularly slow for what it is. It's not as if Apple II storage isn't already working on a 1 mhz bus. As for manipulating the disk images, I was actually referring to playing around with it in a modern sense- as in picking up an old computer (Apple IIGS) on ebay with another old computer (PCT) inside of it. Included in that is that modern storage is cheap and plentiful, and "anyone" could dedicate a couple of 32 meg chunks to it. As for "beyond tedius", I'm not sure moving a USB stick from a IIGS card to a mac or pc and extracting an image is that bad. But most of us don't play with 35 year old computers because everything is easy

A few minor clarifications... 1)The PCT is limited to 768k of memory (which adds up to 128k used for "ROM", and 640k available to the PC). If there are empty sockets on a PCT I imagine you could still get the old chips somewhere... The few I've seen in the wild were already fully populated. 2)The CPU is actually an NEC V30, which is an accelerated 80186 clone. Some very old games actually run too fast on it But, the fact that it's a 186 means that it can actually run some software intended for a 286- I guess these programs happen to use some instructions actually available on a 186, but since those weren't popular in mainstream PCs, it was easier to just say a program requires a 286. 3) Yes, alas, no ISA expansion... 4) Right, no joystick support... But there are actually "keyboard" game pads that can work with it- and pretty much every old DOS game supports the keyboard. The things are hard to find though. 5) Yes, the graphics are just plain CGA. I've messed with one of those CGA to VGA converters that tries to simulate composite CGA artifact color, but it doesn't seem to work with the PCT's output. The PCT's included composite output seems locked to monochrome (the first place I looked to see if you could get artifact color). 6) You can actually use "standard" PC floppy drives with some minor modifications. But it will work with the Apple IIGS standard 3.5" drive if you have 720k disks. 7) It absolutely has HDD support in the form of native Apple II compatible hard disks. Whatever mass storage you have on the Apple II side, you can use for "virtual hard disks" (by way of hard disk files) on the PC Transporter. So, a total of two 32 meg "hard drives" are possible (since that's the amount of storage available on a ProDOS disk). Unless you mean directly connecting an IDE drive or something, which of course it can't do. But what it does support is pretty convenient, it's not too difficult to copy the hard disk images to a modern machine and add/remove files.

GS/OS 6 was a pretty complex OS for its day, and more advanced in some ways (due to being developed later) than System 6 on the Mac. It's also the most complex OS written for a 65816 based machine.

Not sure why software older than the Apple IIgs should support any of the enhanced hardware of a computer that came after it... The exact implementation details seem irrelevant to this. Bonus points for including the "s" in IIgs in the "underpowered" statement ?

I think you'll just get the keyboard support and enhanced music with the ECS but it'll still be fully playable without.