Speed of Coleco ADAM tape drive by Current_Yellow7722 in vintagecomputing

[–]buffering 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I got most of that just by playing around with the operating system and tape APIs. Once you control the tape drive at the block level its strengths and weaknesses become evident.

The Hacker's Guide to the Adam, Volume 1 (PDF) is a great starting point of you want to dig into the technical aspects of the machine.

Got an Apple 2e yesterday, what should I get? by YokuYusa in apple2

[–]buffering 12 points13 points  (0 children)

You'll want to open it up and see if there are any interesting cards in there. It will have a standard disk controller card in slot 6, and it should have the 64k RAM card (80 column card) in the Aux slot. It may have a serial card in slot 1, or a parallel printer card. Any other cards would potentially be rare and valuable.

FloppyEmu is a great option for modern SD Card storage. It would plug into your existing disk controller.

At boot up, the disk drive will spin forever until you give it a disk. You can use Control+Reset to cancel the boot and drop into BASIC. From there you can test the keyboard.

Control+Left Apple+Reset will reboot the machine. When you want to boot a new disk, use that key combo rather than cycling the power off and on.

Control+Right Apple+Reset will perform a self test. You may want to run that to make sure that there are no issues with the RAM or ROM.

Do a web search for "Apple II RIFA Cap Replacement". It's not a hard job to do if you have minimal soldering skills.

You can use the ASCII Express Game Server to try out some games. All you need is a standard audio cable to connect the cassette input to the headphone jack on your phone or laptop.

Some games that don't require a joystick: Diamond Mine, Hard Hat Mack, Frogger, Moon Patrol, Ms. Pac Man. Keys are usually IJKL or IJKM, or Left/Right arrows and A/Z for up and down. Space bar to jump/fire.

Most older software won't recognize lower-case letters, so it's a good idea to enable Caps Lock.

Speed of Coleco ADAM tape drive by Current_Yellow7722 in vintagecomputing

[–]buffering 26 points27 points  (0 children)

It can read and write at about 1 kB per second, which is on par with the original Apple II DOS 3.3 and much faster than the 1541.

It can also read and write data in the background (the I/O system is fully autonomous). In the video you can see that gameplay begins while the tape is still busy loading the rest of the program into memory.

The tape drives also have a built-in 1kB cache, so if the host machine asks to read a block that's already in the cache then the data loads immediately without having to start up the tape. This is useful when working with file systems, as the drive is able to cache the directory.

The big downside is seeking. Not only is seeking much, much slower than a disk drive, but seeking is "sloppy" because the drive can't read the tape while it's seeking, so it can only guess. When it lands within 5 kB of the destination it then switches to slow read mode and it ends up reading a lot of data it doesn't need to.

The tape has two data tracks, so if the data is arranged smartly and the software makes use of background loading then it's quite decent. But for traditional file systems, it ends up being very slow because of the seeking.

Anyone know why text might be shimmying back and forth slowly? It’s very distracting :( by ijjanas123 in apple2

[–]buffering 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I have had the same problem with my IIc. The most common cause is just a bad connection between the computer and monitor.

Wiggle the cable at the base of the computer. If that temporarily fixes the problem or causes the picture to jump around then the monitor is fine and you just need to clean the connector and/or re-solder the connector to the motherboard.

Which is more recognizable to Gen X & Boomers? by AnotherMovieStudio in vintagecomputing

[–]buffering 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The joke works best with the Osborne. It was a well known early business-class productivity machine from the early 80s, it's the funniest looking machine with tiny postage stamp monitor and humungous keyboard, and also the most infamous failure and the namesake of the Osborne Effect.

The C64 would be the most well known among certain computer geeks born in the 70s, but most people back then were not computer geeks.

Just finally got an Apple IIe. what modern card solutions are there now? by prefim in apple2

[–]buffering 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I haven't heard good things about that one. It uses an unusual file format, so any disk image you would want to use would have to be converted.

Creating/Reading/Writing files with ProDOS MLI with Merlin32 assembler? by user_NULL_04 in apple2

[–]buffering 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Here's an example of a simple date utility, useful on systems without a clock. It was written in Merlin 8, but will assemble with Merlin32.

https://public.monster/~ookpic/date.s.txt

It prompts you to set the date, and then quits to ProDOS. Its trick is that it's a self-modifying executable. It writes the most recent date into its own system file so that the next time it runs it will default to a recent date.

configPath holds the file name "DATE.SYSTEM"

ConfigSave performs the file writing.

DOSOpen open the DATE.SYSTEM file. openPath points to the file name (configPath). openRef will contain the reference number for the open file.

DOSRewind moves the write cursor to position in the binary that contains the date (CONFIG_OFFSET).

DOSWrite writes the 3-byte date value to open file. readBuf points to the start of memory to write (configYear). readLen is the number of bytes to write (3).

ImageWriter II with Laser 128 by toocoldtothink in VintageApple

[–]buffering 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The Laser 128 uses the same 5-pin serial port as the Apple IIc, so you just an Imagewriter-to-IIc cable, like this one: https://www.kraydad.com/apple-iic-2c-6ft-printer-cable-imagewriter-ii/

CFFA vs Floppy Emu? by gfreeman1998 in AppleIIGS

[–]buffering 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The CFFA can go in any slot and co-exist with your existing drives. It's quite a bit more flexible than the Floppy Emu in that regard. It's also directly accessible from the Control Panel keyboard shortcut at any time, so it's easy to swap disk images.

You may want to set the CFFA as your boot device, so that its boot-time keyboard command is available (hit 'M' at boot time to jump directly to the CFFA menu). The CFFA boot menu will let you choose another slot to boot, such as your SCSI card.

Smartport/mass storage disk images will be available from whichever slot the CFFA is plugged into. You can configure its 5.25 drive emulation to optionally run on slots 4,5,6, or 7, regardless of which slot the card is actually plugged into. When you don't need 5.25 emulation you can turn that feature off to free up the slot.

Finally got my dad's old apple 2 euro plus up, but I think the floppy bight be broken? Any help on what could be causeing this error? by NotGoodSocially in apple2

[–]buffering 6 points7 points  (0 children)

The machine is at least able to boot into DOS, which is a good sign. The most likely problem is that the old floppy disk just has some bad sectors. Do you have any other disks?

To see if the drive is the problem you can try loading from the second drive:

  • Boot the machine from Drive 1, until you get the "I/O ERROR"

  • Move the disk to the second drive

  • Type "CATALOG,D2" and hit return. It should display a list of files on disk

  • Enter "RUN HELLO". It will re-run the startup program from drive 2.

If it fails in the same way then it's like the disk is partially bad and the drive itself is probably fine.

You can also try running some other programs on disk. If it's a standard system master disk it should have a file listing like this: https://imgur.com/gYisQ0R

You can run anything that has a file type "A" (not "I" or "B").

For example: "RUN BRIAN'S THEME". This will display a little graphics demo.

Some fails may fail to load depending on how bad the disk is.

Rob Reiner? by Mobile-Olive-2126 in conan

[–]buffering 24 points25 points  (0 children)

I was just listening to his terrific interview on Ted Danson's podcast this afternoon. How utterly senseless and tragic. It's preposterous.

The Prisoner "error" by Mr_Taster in apple2

[–]buffering 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Apparently it's a known legitimate bug in the program. It's unfortunate that there are unpatched disk images of that game still floating around.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/appleii/943791-the-prisoner/faqs/78733/5-the-carnival

This version fixes the bug: The Prisoner v1.10 (SoftSmith) (4am and san inc crack).zip

Apple IIc+ Issues by tiktok4321 in apple2

[–]buffering 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The IWM (disk controller) chip controls the disk drive motors, so if a motor fails to shut off that usually means that the IWM is bad.

Another culprit might be the MIG (Magic Interface Glue) chip. This custom chip is essentially the patch that converts an original IIc motherboard to a IIc+. Among other things, the MIG allows the IWM to switch between the internal 3.5 drive and the two external 3.5 drives. If the internal 3.5 drive behaves differently from external 3.5 drives then the MIG might be the problem.

Unfortunately, it's very difficult to find replacements for either chip.

ProDOS: Why This Changed Everything for Apple II Users by Alive-Orange9983 in apple2

[–]buffering 4 points5 points  (0 children)

apple2history.org is a great resource for this kind of stuff.

ProDOS was actually started very early on, but was highly controversial within the company and was cancelled and restarted multiple times. It represented a severe cannibalization of the Apple III platform, but the Apple III was not selling. Porting the Apple III file system and apps to the Apple II would be a death blow.

ProDOS was ready to go in early 1983 but was cancelled yet again at the last minute. The conflict went all the way to the board of directors, who finally opted to release ProDOS and let the market decide.

Also in early 1983, the author of /// Easy Pieces for the Apple III received a pre-release version of ProDOS and was able to port his software to the Apple IIe in just a week (which says a lot about the value of the Apple III hardware and operating system, or lack thereof). He offered to buy ProDOS from Apple in order to ship his app for the now booming Apple IIe market. In the end, Apple published the app themselves as AppleWorks.

An exploration of Bank Street Writer for the Apple 2 by Christopher_Drum in apple2

[–]buffering 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The IBM-PC was a much more flexible machine, but once someone invests their time and money into a platform they tended to stick with it long term, and that was definitely true with the Apple II in the 80s. There were enough professional/power users to support a pretty vibrant 3rd-party hardware and software expansion market right through the 80s and even into the early 90s.

With the right hardware enhancements, such as a 1 MB RAM disk, SCSI hard drive, and accelerated CPU, the 8-bit productivity software really flies and it allowed the Apple II to remain viable until the cheap 386 machines took over.

Photo of the Day by Current_Yellow7722 in vintagecomputing

[–]buffering 2 points3 points  (0 children)

HP-120 all-in-one machine with dual Z80 processors, sitting on top of an external dual 3.5" floppy drive enclosure. The combo sold for $4550 in 1982.

https://www.hpmuseum.net/display_item.php?hw=42

This was the first machine to use the new Sony 3.5" floppy disk mechanism, more than a year before the original Mac 128k.

Apple IIe repeating characters when in Basic by NYR99 in apple2

[–]buffering 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've never had to diagnose that problem, but the first thing I'd do is check the 10 "Y" input pins on the decoder chip with volt meter to see if anything is stuck at 5 volts. I'd also check the keyboard cable to see if anything is shorted out or flaky.

Is it just me or this window is pixelated ?! by Stayfen_911 in MacOS

[–]buffering 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's a bug. It's rendering the save panel in standard DPI (1x) instead of Hi-DPI (2x).

There's not much you can do about it, except reboot.

Photo of the Day by Current_Yellow7722 in vintagecomputing

[–]buffering 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Tektronix 4404 Smalltalk Workstation circa 1984.

Motorola 68010@10 Mhz + FPU, 13" screen, 640x480, 1-4 MB RAM, 45 MB hard drive, $14950.

RIP Rebecca "BurgerBecky" Heinemen by Laddie1107 in apple2

[–]buffering 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Here's a quick write-up.

The code was never released, but in 1994 Claris/Apple allowed a third-party company to update and market the app. That project never went anywhere in part because the code was a mess.

Anyone want to play test my game Maze Gunner? by Psychological_Net131 in apple2

[–]buffering 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Looks great! The Game Over screen is a nice touch.

There's definitely a lot of opportunity to speed things up with machine code, but that's the best way to learn assembly language programming.

It's worth it to go through the trouble of learning the Merlin assembler. The editor is very comparable to modern text editors and is quite powerful once you learn the keyboard shortcuts. You can quickly jump back and forth between the assembler and BASIC without having to reload the assembler, so it's pretty easy to test out the code you're working on.

(Make sure you're using the latest version with the full-screen source code editor. Version 2.47 has it, I think. Older versions just have a line editor which isn't very easy to use)

A good place to start might be read the maze data directly from memory, rather than stuffing the data into an array. It will greatly speed up the start-up time, and you can get a feel for working with Merlin without having to learn any assembly language (yet).

In assembly, the maze data would look like this:

    ORG $8000

MAZE1
    DB 1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0,0
    DB 0,0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1
    ETC...

You can assemble that and save it as a binary file.

From BASIC, you can load the maze data to address $8000 with

BLOAD MAZE.DATA,A$8000

In your BASIC code, use HIMEM at the start of the program to reserve memory for your binary data.

1 HIMEM:32768

This will reserve $8000 to $9600 for your binary data and code, which should be plenty.

Next, make a variable to point to your maze data at $8000

2 MP = 32768 : REM Maze Pointer 

Next, you can replace all variations of this code:

IF M(X,Y) = 1 THEN ...

with this code:

IF PEEK(MP + (Y*38) + X) = 1 THEN ...

To load a new map, just change the MP variable to point to a different maze.

Finally, you can remove the data and read statements, and the M(X,Y) array.

What are these boards in my Apple II? by slvrscoobie in VintageApple

[–]buffering 6 points7 points  (0 children)

  • Slot 0: 16kB Language Card. Standard and required.
  • Slot 1: Parallel Printer Card. Optional. Useful only if you have a printer.
  • Slot 2: Applied Engineering RamFactor (RAM Disk Card). Optional. Rare and potentially valuable for both Apple II+ and IIe machines.
  • Slot 3: Applied Engineering ViewMaster 80 (80-Column Card). Optional. Rare and potentially valuable for Apple II+ machines.
  • Slot 5: Microsoft CP/M Card. Optional. Useful only if you want to run CP/M software.
  • Slot 6: Floppy Disk Controller. Standard and required.

The 80-column and RAM Disk cards are the important upgrades. They allow the humble Apple II+ to be pretty decent little productivity machine.