Keatah

Is anyone even interested in such stuff? I mean it seems so small and trivial and just about anything else is more EXCITING and REAL!

ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.net/pub/apple_II/images/disk_utils/DISK-SUM_f.dsk Can someone test this disk image on REAL HARDWARE, just run it through and see if it can generate checksums for all tracks? It is failing in AppleWin like so.. I do not have my real hardware set-up at the moment.

Likely the DOS on the disk is looking for "HELLO CBMEEKS", or some other program whose name doesn't exist. It's easy to fix. Here are two methods. You can either erase and reformat the disk with "INIT HELLO" (or whatever boot program name you want.) You can also use Copy II+ to just change the boot program without reformatting. ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.net/pub/apple_II/images/disk_utils/copy_ii/Copy ][+ 5.5.dsk

I used to be like that.

Well just take Classic99 wherever you want. Add the features you want. Fix the bugs you want. It's your gig! Keep a TODO list of feature requests and bugs. You never know when something will give you inspiration for a weekend.

A 100% faulty chip may take a few moments to heat up. It fails on power up and never works.

Ebay sellers know you want authenticity. And they will sell you that authenticity for a high price.

My first exposure to the IIgs was about4-6 months after it hit the stores. 1986/1987 or so. My then buddy (whom I had been running a BBS with) had gotten one and transferred his BBS over to it. It worked just as on the //e. I remember going over there and asking what was so special about the machine. There wasn't really any software available for it yet. Not much. So I just saw it as another II series machine. I didn't want to get involved with another waiting game like with the Amiga so I didn't develop an interest in it. To be honest I did want one, a 16-bit machine of some sort. But the IIgs was too expensive. And my head spun around the IIgs, the Amiga 500, and the Atari ST. Forgetting for the moment I just got rid of the Amiga 1000 - Thankfully the store bought it back for about what I paid for it. Good move. I hated having to load that kickstarter disk prior to loading workbench. Ugh.. Well, fast forward to the times of ebay. I picked up a full & complete IIgs outfit sometime between 1997 - 2002. Accelerator and extra memory and all. From 2002 - 2009 I would spottily accumulate and round out with accessories and more cards and stuff. But I never really got into it. I was getting heavily into emulators and PC and the IIgs stuff just collected dust. And it still sits around doing nothing today. I don't even know if I took the batteries out or left them in to corrode the boards. I didn't actively hate on the machine like I did with the Amiga. It was just kinda "there".. Like the /// and ///+, I read about the IIgs and internally fantasized what it could have become. Fantasized I owned one and enjoyed all pictures of the circuits and stuff. Maybe someday I'll set it up. Maybe not. Right now I have more important things to do like accumulate parts for a 486/66 DOS machine.

I remember going to MSI in Chicago in the 70's and they had a camera set up that took your pic, and printed it 80-column ASCII text. ASCII art today.. And it was like $45. So I got one. Still have it.

When I see "flooz" I think of something else than the Arabic word for money.

Some of the stuff is so damn heavy shipping would be prohibitive. Wouldn't it?

I believe there was a short period of time when the Virge's 3D rendering was slower than the faster processors (of the same timeframe). Giving rise to the moniker, 3D-Decelerator. Another thing, though Microsoft's FlightSimulator had 3D graphics, they were fairly simplistic in versions 4 and earlier. If there was a 3D card at FS's inception it wouldn't have made any difference. The display was just a few polygons and lines. Focus was on flight model accuracy and such. And I understood the wireframe models used here. But when Doom came out I could've sworn a standard 2D graphics chip had its internals rewired as a 3D chip. It was genuine advanced magic because it was beyond my pitiful understanding how it was done.

I enjoyed the Vectrex while I had it BITD. I just wish it were of better quality. Actually I wish most consoles were of better quality. Minus the VCS of course, took me a long while to break mine. I suppose the remaining TRS-80 Model II and Apple ///+ (qty 2). The Model II is really the wife's gig. It's a loud whiny industrial-sounding computer. I keep asking her to let me gut the fucker and put in a proper x86 board or R-Pi. But it has sentimental value because of the early accounting and COBOL stuff. And that external floppy cage is some bastardized monstrosity 2x the size of a microwave. I had come close to getting rid of it early. But, alas, my decision was reversed. And while the Apple /// is different and symbolic in its own way. It means little or nothing to me. I was heavily into the Apple II as a kid, and always read about the /// in the Apple-In-Depth catalogs among other brochures. You could say I enjoyed the system virtually or vicariously. I have more sentiment toward the printed material than I do the actual hardware sitting here staring me in the face. If it were to magically disappear via 1-800-GOT-JUNK I wouldn't shed a tear. Going further, the same might apply to the //c for similar reasons. And the IIgs, too, because it's not really an Apple II at heart. I got that way with a lot of Apple II stuff and what did I end up with? An ever-growing pile of crap'n'garbage. Stuff so rare and obscure the proverbial radar doesn't even pick it up.

Conversely, with the spectre of the virus and higher unemployment, there are less discretionary funds to be spent on hobbies.

With mid-1990's DOS computers making for great retro projects, what 2D video chip would you like to have in your (hypothetical or real) rig? Or what was your favorite? Back in the day I never had much of a preference till I got a handle on what was all available. Matrox, S3, Cirrus Logic, ATI, TSENG Labs, and more - were some of the well known names. So what was your favorite 2D chip of the day? Back in the day I may have wanted an ATI chip, but it was always $50 or $100 too expensive, so no go there. And anything "Matrox" was uber-elite to me. Double no-go. When setting up my 486 in 1993 I had to "downgrade" to a budget Cirrus Logic 5422, though I didn't understand these things at the time. Today however, I find it to be competent and compatible, stable and no nonsense. Back then it worked well enough in Windows 3.1, and played Doom sufficiently. It. Just. Worked. In these last years I was surprised to find it was the most popular OEM on-board chip of its time. And I also loved the brochures they published. Nice foldout full-size pamphlets or folders.

Not sure how else to word the title, but it should be like - Which emulator(s) have you enjoyed following throughout the years - decades? Like which ones have evolved in a way that excited you with each new release. Like which ones continue to add new features that make you go YYYEESSSSSS!! I have a rather limited list. MAME Altirra Stella AppleWin ..in no particular order. I wanted to include DOSbox, but it only sees a release every couple of years. PCem and WinUAE, Higan/BSNES, and VICE are close, too, but don't make the grade for various other reasons.

Anyone know where I can get a list of Device IDs? For example, Device ID = 97 85. Who makes it and what is it? TI 27C512 15JL. Or is this information generally mfg specific and too arbitrary to include in a comprehensive list?

If a mac subforum happens then I would expect a PC subforum to also happen.

Reminds me of the time I blew-up my Apple //e. I had gotten a //e upgrade to move on from the II+. And some months into owning it I pulled out the Apple-Cat II modem card with the power on. First time I really destroyed a computer. It just shut down and would not power-up past a screen full of white/inverted "@" characters. All 960 of them. The sinking feeling was overwhelming especially to a kid. Sucked royally because I had just gotten the system not even 6 months ago. And I was religious about anti-static discharge by touching the power supply first. And even more religious about checking for the red power-on LED. Missed it this one time and poooff! I had to save up about $150 for a motherboard replacement. Thankfully the modem card was fine. I've unplugged cards with the power on before, though not the safest action I suppose. If you pull them straight out you won't short anything. But some cards are wedged in good, and they're long. So it's all to easy to rock them back and forth thus crossing contacts - especially 12v power contacts with 5v logic. Boom! First and only time I accidentally did something like that.

Regardless of what my loser parents thought about "baby games", I got blindsided by the computer revolution. It started as early as the Apple II. But didn't go anywhere seriously till the PC came out. I saw cartridge systems as being extremely limited, even though they usually surpassed any action game on the Apple II and even early PC.