Apple ii GS computer

mjnurney

we live as we dream. Alone.
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Ive always had my eye on the Apple ii GS as its the best of the line and almost Amiga like in some ways.
The Apple ii GS was probably a result of the Amiga 1000 being launched which pretty much made every other computer look hopeless in its price range, so Apple quickly responded with the GS and promptly under clocked it so it could not compete with new mac.


WDC 65C816 running at 2.8 MHz or 1mhz for Apple II compatibility
24 bit addressing, using a 16-bit address bus & a multiplexed bank address
Memory
1.125 MB RAM built-in (256 KB in original) (expandable to 8.125 MB)
256 KB ROM built-in (128 KB in original)

Faults / Problems

The Apple Uni disk drive flashes the LED but doesnt spin so ive popped the Apple ii disk ii interface card and used my old disk ii to test the machine.

I have no disks for the GS but thats a project for later today..

mike
 

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The Apple II GS is what we had in my high school. They were all networked to a Mac that was used as an OS and Data drive for all the systems. Booting up all of them at the same time took forever. :)

I picked up a II GS from another AmiBayer a while back, but I decided I needed to clean out space and focus on a smaller amount of systems, so the Commodore computers won and all the Apple computers have been sold.

I hope you get everything working! I've heard that the CFFA3000 is the ultimate modern day Apple II hardware add-on. I had actually bought one but, by the time I received it, I had already decided to sell all my retro Apple gear so I sold it without even trying it.

Heather
 
I once found one in the garbage in front of my faculty of medicine, circa 1999-2000. It seems it was used in a science lab of the faculty and it was fitted with several special controller cards used to monitor some other devices. I was about 20 meters from it but i recognized the multicolor apple.
They showed no mercy to it.
 
Nice find, Mike! :)
I'd love to get an Apple IIGS but especially the European versions seem to be very hard to come by.

I'm curious why Apple didn't put an in-built floppy disk drive into the case. It would've fit there nicely.
 
Thanks all, I. Like the Apple GS it's kind of odd and I like that. One big problem I have iis the floppy , most images seem to be for 3.5 inch not 5.25 inch (as per Apple ii )

So I need a 3.5 inch drive and they seem very expensive sadly and mostly in the US and postage is a killer!

By the way the area at the front that looks empty (above the psu) seems to be where the scsi hdds were fitted - hence why no internal floppy I guess?
 
the GS will (mostly) run 'normal' apple ii software, you can use those 5.25" images intended for normal apples....
 
Yep it's happily playing Elite at 2.8mhz at the moment ...
 
and some ADTpro fun via usb
 

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Would an old Mac 3,5" drive work with GS?

Or how about HxC floppy emulator?
 
Nice find, Mike! :)
I'd love to get an Apple IIGS but especially the European versions seem to be very hard to come by.

I'm curious why Apple didn't put an in-built floppy disk drive into the case. It would've fit there nicely.

Wikipedia said:
Like the Apple IIe and Apple IIc built-in keyboards before it, the detached Apple IIGS keyboard differed depending on what region of the world it was sold in, with extra local language characters and symbols printed on certain keycaps (e.g. French accented characters on Canadian IIGS keyboard such as "à", "é", "ç", etc., or the British Pound "£" symbol on the UK IIGS keyboard). Unlike previous Apple II models, however, the layout and shape of keys were the same standard for all countries, and the ROMs inside the computer were also the same for all countries, including support for all the different international keyboards. In order to access the local character set layout and display, users would change settings in the built-in software-based Control Panel, which also provides a method of toggling between 50/60 Hz video screen refresh. The composite video output was NTSC only on all IIGS; users in PAL countries were expected to use an RGB monitor. This selectable internationalization made it quick and simple to "localize" any given machine. Also present in the settings was a QWERTY/DVORAK keyboard toggle for all countries, much like that of the Apple IIc. Outside North America, the Apple IIGS shipped with a different 220 V clip-in power supply, making this and the plastic keycaps the only physical difference (and also very modular, in the sense of converting a non-localized machine to a local one).

There was no "European" Apple//GS
 
but an 'international' one that output PAL.

http://support.apple.com/kb/TA37973?viewlocale=en_US

tho i think the real differences were just a 220v PS and different keyboard.

as per:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_IIGS#International_versions

(i can't recall if my GSs are switchable between 50/60hz in setup...i don't recall seeing the option however)

heh...because it's not in the Control Panel its on the screen you select the control panel, 50/60 hz operation or restart....

so basically a PS, a different keyboard and thats it...

________________________________________________________________________

Apparently Wolfenstein 3D is freeware on the GS

http://www.sheppyware.net/apple-ii-software/wolfenstein-3d-for-the.html
 
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There is also no PAL/NTSC timing differences with Apple IIgs software. The 50/60hz option strictly changes the refresh rate of the video output, CPU speed remains fixed. Best to just run it at 60hz. This machine was popular in France, so there is quite a bit of French language software and demos available for it. The situation is the exact opposite of the Amiga and Atari ST. While those machines are common in Europe, the IIgs is quite rare, but easily found in the USA.

Peripherals and expansions are hard to come by even in the USA. The CFFA3000 was a much needed expansion since SCSI and IDE cards have been scare and out of production for quite a while. For those in Europe, ///SHH Systeme in Germany may still have some hardware available like their MicroDrive IDE cards. The last URL I had for them appears to be dead though.
 
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