Polymorph

This is the Superdrive controller I was referring to (officially named the "Apple II 3.5 Disk Controller"): They tend to fetch a pretty penny these days as they were released very late in the Apple II's lifespan and I don't think that many were sold (i.e. think @Jobs @Woz ultra rare, etc, etc. ). They allow you to use HD disks (1.44Mb) and can even read MSDOS disks directly. I actually have a Superdrive (i.e. a 1.44Mb drive) but do not own a Superdrive controller, so it only operates as an 800kb drive. But with all the modern disk emulators these days (Floppy Emu, WDrive, etc), the importance of such a card has been greatly reduced. That said, modern storage devices don't seem to have had much impact on the price of Superdrive controllers though. Reactive Micro have released a clone of the original Apple-branded card too: https://www.reactivemicro.com/product/apple-ii-3-5-drive-controller-card/

Whilst I haven't tried it myself, I'm pretty certain that the mechanisms are interchangeable. The drive will still act as a 800K drive unless you have a Superdrive controller though.

The IIgs clock is a dedicated chip on the IIgs motherboard. The chip is not far from the battery and is labelled "SER CLOCK" on the motherboard silkscreen. IIRC the same chip is also responsible for saving the control panel settings (it has a RAM component as well).

Probably the closest thing I know of to an online Apple II software database is Virtual Apple ][. Whilst the emulation side of things hasn't managed to keep step with modern browsers (this site has been around for ages), the database is still quite large and is searchable.

I think I read on his Facebook page somewhere that the reason he has things listed as out of stock is due to restrictions being imposed (by his country) on shipping due to Covid...

These are compressed Stuffit archives. You will need a program to decompress these before you will be able to do anything with them. Read more about this Apple II filetype (and many others) here.

I've got a couple of Taiwanese Softcard clones, plus a couple of PCPI Applicard's (one's a clone I think). I don't recall which version of CP/M each uses. For the Applicard(s), I generally use the official CP/M version released with the card. The CP/M bug hasn't really bitten me yet. For me, CP/M is a solution begging for a problem I've yet to find. ? I've made a few attempts to "get into" CP/M, but I find my enthusiasm quickly fades and I move onto something else.

It could be a bus timing issue. I've heard that the original Softcard design was very tightly coupled to the original Apple II (and II+) bus timing. Starting with the //e design, the bus timing changed a little bit (so small most cards don't care), but the CP/M card you have may have fallen victim to this. FYI: Microsoft actually released a CP/M card (the Softcard //e) specifically for the Apple //e.

Actually, Ciderpress can save/load CFFA partitions to/from a CF card via the Volume Copier. I've been backing up my original CFFA partitions for well over 10 years using this feature (it probably works for CFFA3000 images too if you use raw partitions (I use disk images on my CFFA3000 however)). But yes, I too open multiple Ciderpress windows to copy paste between images. Whilst Ciderpress is a bit odd at first in the way you need to do things, once you get the hang of it, it's a very powerful tool (I actually paid for it back before it became freeware).

I can attest to this because I had a similar problem just in the last week. I have a clone //e as well and I had previously enhanced it by burning my own ROMs and upgrading the processor and it had been happily running everything I had thrown at it. However, when testing a new aux RAM card I tried running ProTerm (and PublishIt!) and got errors stating my machine wasn't enhanced. After much swearing and gnashing of teeth, I discovered that the cheap 65C02 that I had purchased off eBay was a fake - most probably a 6502 sanded and relabelled. After swapping in a genuine 65C02 both apps were happy. So both of these apps must look at the processor level (opcode tests) to determine whether you have a 65C02 or not.

The original Apple ][ and ][+ machines had the defacto rule that slot 3 (50 pin) was for an 80 column card. The Apple //e was designed with a special slot (the Aux slot - 60 pin) which provided both an additional 64Kb and 80 columns. The //e was designed such that it was backwards compatible (as was Apple's way) to mimic the earlier machines - so PR#3 does indeed activate the 80 column card in the //e. As another poster mentioned, the *real* slot 3 was usually left empty.

No, no, no! Do *not* attempt to put the 80 column card anywhere but in the aux memory slot. It will not work anywhere else as the aux slot has a very different pin assignment. Try removing the disk interface card and retest the 80 columns and try and isolate which card might have the fault. If the 80 column mode is still flakey after removing the disk interface, try spraying some contact cleaner into the aux slot (with the computer turned off!). Also try cleaning the fingers on both the 80 col card and the disk interface card with a pencil eraser to make sure that there is good contact between the card and the slot. Also inspect the slots for any debris, or bent slot contacts. Let us know how you get on. Hopefully you will be able to identify which card causes the instability. Cheers, Mike

Just a heads-up, I'm pretty sure all Apple II and II+ machines were painted that colour which is why you don't see them yellowed. Even the real early //e machines were painted, but they switched at some point fairly early on in the //e life cycle to using coloured moulded plastic which *does* yellow (as we all know too well!).

Speedway Classic was another racing game I used to enjoy playing back in the day too. Not first person though.

Glad to hear you got the display working. With regards to the keyboard, sometimes you can get the keys working again by applying a little contact cleaner down the key stem and working the key up and down for many repetitions (like a hundred or so). Other times you have to fully desolder the key switch and open it up to adjust/clean. If the key is not working at all, like in the case of your 'T' key, I suspect you are going to have to resort to the latter option and open up the key switch. Upon opening the key switch, you may need to gently bend some of the metal contacts such that they make contact again. Good luck, and let us know how you get on.

Yeah I agree. If you look really closely you will see what appears to be part of a Videx 80 column card (or clone) in the bottom left of the bottom picture which lends weight to the unknown card not being an 80 column card (why would you have 2?). It might be an RGB card, but it is unlike any I've seen. It almost looks home-brew except its so well laid out.

The original poster mentioned that this is an Apple II+ and this is also clear by looking at the keyboard and case slot access cutouts. There is no 80 column expansion slot in an Apple II+ either. As for identifying those cards - no idea sorry, there's an awful lot of 7400 series logic chips on there though...

I would dispute this due to all my Apple's having their original RAM - with the exception of my 1981 Apple II+ which had one bad DRAM chip. In fact of all the vintage machines I own, the Apple II's are generally the best built and need the least repairs.

Sounds like you have a marginal component somewhere on your motherboard that fails when it gets hot (which is pretty common). To find the culprit I would suggest using freeze spray in isolated areas of the board until the problem goes away. Then you can "hone" in further to find the faulty part. I would suggest starting with the RAM as that looks to be the most likely cause of failure.

Yes, in fact System Software 6.0.4 has been out for nearly 2 years now: https://a2central.com/7396/the-source-is-strong-with-this-one-system-6-0-4/

Yeah, I'm pretty sure the ebay auction said that it had been stored outside in a shed for many years; and it really showed. Even the box it arrived in had bits falling out everywhere. I was actually reluctant at first to put my hand inside it for fear of what I might find. Thankfully it was pretty much just dirt/debris and some remains left by spiders.

Hi All, I videoed my "adventures" restoring an old Redstone Apple //e clone in October 2017 (!) and finally got around to finishing editing it for general consumption. Strap yourselves in, it's a bit of a long one... The video can be seen on my (new) channel here: https://youtu.be/m_-eu9YHbsk I know some of you will cringe at some of my restoration techniques, but please be nice as this machine was in a pretty bad state when I received it. Some of the techniques I used were new to me, so it was a bit of a learning experience as well. Cheers, Mike

To be fair, this is *not* running on the 6502 - it's running on the ARM inside the Raspberry Pi. While it's very cool technology, for me it kind of loses the real essence of vintage computing. But each to their own.

Erm, Linux on an Apple //e?!? All I can say is - good luck with that! The only practical way of running linux in an Apple //e case is to replace the motherboard with a Raspberry Pi (or similar)... no way will you ever get Linux running on an 8 bit 6502.

That is good news. I was beginning to suspect your ADB chip might have been dead (which would essentially mean getting a new motherboard). Now that you have a working keyboard, have you tried running the self-test? With the extra RAM and the CFFA3000, you will be a very happy camper. You should be able to run pretty much anything, although a few software titles pretty much require an accelerator (e.g. Wolfenstein 3D, some demo's) to play properly. Keep your eyes open though, as Plamen of http://www.a2heaven.com/ is in the process of developing a new accelerator for the IIgs. Enjoy playing with your new machine! :-)