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[nd2003grad]

Hi, I'm trying to learn a little about the Apple II systems. I remember being in school and we always had II varieties. How does GS differ from II/c for example? What games do you all recommend for both II and GS?

 

Thanks!

[Tonyvdb]

I just got myself an Apple IIGS for the same reason as yourself. It is fairly much 100% backwards compatible to the older IIE IIC computer games and gives you the ability to play the better GS games written for 16 bit. Its also expandable to include a hard drive and you can run an OS that looks very similar to the first Mac's.

[nd2003grad]

What would you consider to be some really good games for these systems? That was the way I remember it on compat, but it's been since I was in grade school since I've seen one...

[david__schmidt]

There are lots of good games, even iconic games, in lots of different genres. What someone considers "really good" depends a lot on what kinds of games that person likes - or maybe even what games he or she had fun with back in the day, and wants to relive. What can you tell us about the kinds of games you like?

[Bill Loguidice]

The IIGS is completely different from the earlier Apple II systems. The IIGS is similar to an Atari ST or Amiga, while the earlier Apple II's are obviously audio-visually challenged.

 

The easiest Apple II to get into would be a IIe. You can do a lot just with a bare bones 64K system and a 3.5mm audio cable. Plus, you don't need a special monitor for non-IIGS Apple II's. For the IIGS, you really need its original RGB monitor, although there are some promising adapters starting to become available that allow it to work well on other displays.

 

For this IIGS/II question, and your Amiga question in the other topic, I recommend you read up. There's probably a lot more to it all than you realize. Even Wikipedia would be a good start. (There's also my own book which should arm you with the info you'd need on these and other platforms)

Edited March 17, 2016 by Bill Loguidice

[nd2003grad]

Well, I like both arcade style (like Centipede and such) and also RPG's. I've heard Ultima is a big one for Apple. I'm more into that style of games though. I'm open to all kinds though. I loved Lode Runner as a kid and that's the one I tested on emu.

[nd2003grad]

Thanks again Bill. Yeah, I'm still pretty new and it's all foggy memories on Apple. Amiga was always just abstract to me as a Montana kid as I never saw one (I still haven't). I've always wondered about the monitor issue with legacy equipment. I have enough issues with an old '98 computer I was trying to use as a standalone emulator.

 

I honestly think the IIGS is more interesting to me, but I think I need to pick and I'm inclined to pick Amiga over everything (with the HUGE price caveat).

[Bill Loguidice]

Thanks again Bill. Yeah, I'm still pretty new and it's all foggy memories on Apple. Amiga was always just abstract to me as a Montana kid as I never saw one (I still haven't). I've always wondered about the monitor issue with legacy equipment. I have enough issues with an old '98 computer I was trying to use as a standalone emulator.

 

I honestly think the IIGS is more interesting to me, but I think I need to pick and I'm inclined to pick Amiga over everything (with the HUGE price caveat).

 

Honestly, neither the Amiga or IIGS will be a cheap investment starting from scratch. Both have proprietary monitors, both have specific operating requirements, both really need a certain minimum of memory, etc.

 

The IIGS is nice and is good for backwards compatibility with the older II stuff (as long as you have a 5.25" disk drive or compact flash adapter), but its volume of native IIGS software pales in comparison to the Amiga stuff.

 

I personally have a 4GB Apple IIGS (many IIGS games won't play without some type of memory expansion) with two 3.5" disk drives, two 5.25" disk drives, CFFA 3000, and a IIGS monitor as one of my two main Apple IIs. The other is a IIe Platinum with two 5.25" disk drives and some flash adapters of its own. I would say the IIe Platinum is a bit more enjoyable because it's rather more straightforward to use. Your idea about a IIC is not a bad one either because of the built-in disk drive. You'd really just need that as non IIGS Apples work fine on just about any composite display (and you can still bootstrap the IIC even without a built-in cassette port).

 

On the Amiga side, I almost exclusively stick with the aforementioned Amiga 1200 these days, because since that's fully decked out, it plays everything all of my other Amigas and Amiga-based consoles play and then some.

[david__schmidt]

Well, I like both arcade style (like Centipede and such) and also RPG's. I've heard Ultima is a big one for Apple.

 

You mention Ultima - and there is a really excellent blog by the Digital Antiquarian (Jimmy Maher) that does a fantastic job of diving deep into the history and reviews aspects of the whole series. I highly recommend having a read. The Ultima series starts here:

http://www.filfre.net/2012/02/ultima-part-1/

He also does lots of research into other historical games of great import - you can view the table of contents here:

http://www.filfre.net/sitemap/

 

Those should give you some interesting pointers to important games as well as their histories... which definitely enriches the experience beyond the "pew pew pew."

[Tonyvdb]

Personally I like games like Hard Hat Mack, Cannonball blitz, Beyond castle wolfinstine, Dino eggs, Santapravia, Ultima, lemonade stand and Super bunny just to name a few.

Edited March 17, 2016 by Tonyvdb

[Keatah]

As much as I like the Apple 2 series above all else, I think you'll find the Amiga a more interesting system.

 

The IIgs is essentially 2 distinct computers sharing the same motherboard. And there is little to no interoperability between the IIgs side of things and the //e side of things. One side can't really utilize the best of the other side. But you can share cards. But why would you want to cripple the IIgs with 10yr old peripherals?

 

You can't mod an AppleSoft Apple //e program to use the 3200 color palette of the gs, for example. And it's a 8/16 bit hybrid. So you see, the IIgs is a very transitional computer, whereas the Amiga is more a single personality.

 

In any case, you'll need to spend extra to get either config up to spec. With an Amiga you will want a 2nd floppy, some memory expansion, an HDD, and something to get you to 16MHz speed at minimum.

 

When it comes to emulation I always find myself doing the Amiga and //e, rarely the IIgs. Hope that all makes sense!

[nd2003grad]

AHHHHH I forgot about Lemonade Stand until just now!

[Tonyvdb]

My kids love playing it

[Osgeld]

Ultima

Might and Magic

Wizardry

BattleTech

 

lots of RPG and adventure games on the apple II

 

tons of arcade games, and while they are great for what they are, the 8 bit one's are rather primitive compared to their console and toys-r-us computer counterparts

[sonnik]

I always was a fan of Epyx's Impossible Mission II on the Apple IIGS (16-bit). I believe there was an 8-bit version for the Apple II as well. IM2 offered dynamically rendered towers (levels) - check out the Wikipedia article for more info and Google Images for screenshots.

 

Note, you'll want a working joystick for many of these games. You can find a "RetroConnector Joystick" on Tindie, which I use to make present-day generic USB joypads/joysticks compatible with Apple IIs. I own one of these, it's saving me wear and tear on the older authenic Apple II joystick that seems to work better with older Apple II Games.

 

As Bill references, there are a couple of compact Flash adapters available for the Apple IIGS which act as virtual floppy drives or hard drives. I own a "CFFA3000" (which is not currently in stock or in production, but you can contact Rick - the producer of this item to express interest in another manufacturing run). I also own a "Floppy EMU" - this is also a nice option, but I prefer the CFFA3000 for a few reasons.

 

http://gglabs.us/- produces some memory and video products for the Apple IIGS. I picked up both the 4Meg RAM option (pretty substantial for an Apple IIGS), and the RGB / Component video adapter.

 

I also built my own GBS-82x0 (GBS-8200/GBS-8220) video adapter to make the Apple IIGS work with present day LCD flat screens. This is my preferred video option currently.

 

Check out http://apple2online.com/index.php?p=1_70_inCider-Magazine- to read through some old InCider magazines if you'd like to get an idea of games of the day. Most Apple IIGS coverage didn't pick up until late 1986 or 1987.

 

If you'd like to invest a little more, I encourage spending $100 in the entire run of Nibble magazine on DVD ROM.

Edited March 18, 2016 by sonnik