IIgs - Where Do I Start? — #3

Post #3 by magnusfalkirk

Source Forum	68kMLA
Category	Peripherals
Post Date	Sun, 27 Apr 2008 - 20:19
Original URL	https://68kmla.org/bb/threads/iigs-where-do-i-start.12981/

Post

My IIgs turned up yesterday and it's...interesting.
Sold as 'untested', this thing came with an Apple graphics tablet, twin 5.25" drives (incl. interface card), an external 3.5" drive, gamepads (plugged directly into the motherboard), the iigs RAM/expansion card, and an Orange Micro card with a cable attached that looks like it's for hooking up to a printer. That's the good news. The bad news...I'm stuck.

Got it all hooked up to my TV (none of my monitors wanted to know), got a picture on the screen and plugged in an ADB keyboard. So far so good but then I hit problems. With the 5.25" drives attached I get 'Apple ][gs' onscreen and the drive 1 spins...and spins...and spins (in fact it never stops spinning and the machine doesn't get any further).

Without the drives attached (i.e. the whole interface card removed) I still get the 'Apple ][gs' message but I also get an Apple logo bouncing back and forth and a message saying that the startup device couldn't be found. I also get this if I have the 3.5" drive hooked up and the 5.25" drives not connected.

As I've never had an Apple ][ before I haven't got the faintest idea what the hell I'm doing. So...anybody got any bright ideas?

Since you obviously have either a PC or Mac, to be able to post here, go to:

http://adtpro.sourceforge.net/

and download a copy of ADTPro. Be sure to read the section of the website on 'Boot strapping' a bare metal Apple II. With this program, and the correct cables to hook the PC/Mac to the GS, you'll be able to transfer Apple II/IIGS disk images that you can download from the web to your GS via your PC/Mac.

If you have a Mac, and it's an old enough model, you can format 3.5 disks on it that the GS can read, making it even easier to transfer GS software to the GS.

Dean