Thread
IIgs Display
Hi,
I just received a II gs I ordered, and I plugged it to a Mac II era Apple display I have. The II gs does not look to be able to display images correctly on this display.
Is there any specific display requirement for the IIgs?
Thanks
I just received a II gs I ordered, and I plugged it to a Mac II era Apple display I have. The II gs does not look to be able to display images correctly on this display.
Is there any specific display requirement for the IIgs?
Thanks
It runs at NTSC frequencies, so no Mac monitor will work. Try using the composite for now, until you can find a real monitor for the IIgs. I use the Commodore 1084s, and I think there is an AppleColor RGB (not the High Resolution one).
The old standby Commodore monitor. I have one and use it with one of my Atari's. Commodore made the best color monitors of the time for most 8 bit machines.
Another good choice is Amdek.
Another good choice is Amdek.
Oh, thanks. I was not aware of this. I'll see to connect it to my TV for now, as it is the only place I have an NTSC signal available.
Thanks
My first computer was a Commodore with a display, and it was a very nice one.
By the way, to install system 6 for the IIgs, I suppose I need an HD. The guy who sold it to me included an Apple CD 300 and a small SCSI drive, but there no SCSI port on the IIgs, so how could I find a SCSI card for the IIgs?
Thanks
Thanks
You could just use any TV with composite in for the display.
You get a SCSI card for the IIgs by sacrificing your first born to the eBay gods, then giving all of your money to the seller. 
GS/OS will run from floppies. It ain't convenient, and you need two 3.5" drives if you want the desktop, but it will work.
GS/OS will run from floppies. It ain't convenient, and you need two 3.5" drives if you want the desktop, but it will work.
The most common is the RAMFAST SCSI. Apple made one but it is more expensive and not as easy to come by. I just got a IIGS myself, but there is a problem with the RAMFAST SCSI card in it. I think I have a bad cache memory chip on it, so I'm reduced to using it as a floppy only system until I can get the chips to fix it.
I think I saw what you mean hereYou get a SCSI card for the IIgs by sacrificing your first born to the eBay gods, then giving all of your money to the seller.
GS/OS will run from floppies. It ain't convenient, and you need two 3.5" drives if you want the desktop, but it will work.
Is it that rare or just artificial inflation?
I have a 5" and one 3" floppy disk.
Hum, they've gone down in price ...
Luckily for me
I find it very expensive, it is almost what I pay for the IIgs all in all, including the shipping, that is!So, what's missing for me is the original IIgs keyboard and mouse (for the time I use a Mac keyboard) and a display.
The SCSI card would be one of my next shopping item too...
If anyone have this, let me know
Another option is the CFFA or MicroDrive IDE card... both of which can be had for about $100. Pros and cons either way... Personally I prefer the MicroDrive with a 3.5" HDD mounted internally.
OTOH, you can get by quite well with just the 3.5" floppies... all depends on what software you're hoping to run.
OTOH, you can get by quite well with just the 3.5" floppies... all depends on what software you're hoping to run.
Apple made 2 SCSI cards, the Highspeed one you listed that goes for $100-200 each depending on the day of the week, and a normal one (no cache) that goes for $50+ (and you have to have the C revision ROM for it to work on the IIgs).
I have the normal one, works fine considering the machine its connected to. On mine I can turn the external drives off and boot directly to floppy to play games (they are all floppy based and not HD installable anyway). With the HS you need to do some things on boot or you get errors.
Any SCSI card and 4MB make the IIgs a nice machine, if you just want to play games a stock IIgs with the 1MB RAM card will do nicely.
I have the normal one, works fine considering the machine its connected to. On mine I can turn the external drives off and boot directly to floppy to play games (they are all floppy based and not HD installable anyway). With the HS you need to do some things on boot or you get errors.
Any SCSI card and 4MB make the IIgs a nice machine, if you just want to play games a stock IIgs with the 1MB RAM card will do nicely.
My IIgs have a ROM 03, I suppose that is what you're talking about? From what I saw, the SCSI card has to be plugged into the leftmost slot. I suppose there is no differences between the 2 cards you mention in term of performance, considering the age the the IIgs.
So finally the HS one is not really the choice considering this boot error. Why there is that error? Strange that Apple make a card that generate error on boot...
Mine have a full memory card install, but I think it has only 1 meg on it. When I go to the control panel, in the RAM disk config, it tell me that the memory looks like 2048K. I suppose one can find chips to install in place of the one already installed and upgrade the memory card.
Another question, I plugged the IIgs with the composite output to my TV. But all display looks white on gray, even if the color mode is selected. And when I change the color it only goes from one gray to another. Any idea?
Well, Apple claims that the HS SCSI card is about 2 or 3 times faster than their old SCSI card for some applications. Though I have never tested the original card to see how credible that claim is.
The error that Unknown_K is talking about is trivial, and I don't understand why he makes a huge fuss about it. But he does. } Simply put, if the HS SCSI card does not find a bootable device it will display an error message. You just break out of that error message and type PR#5 to boot from the 3.5" drive or PR#6 to boot from the 5.25" drive, and floppy based software will boot. If you think that is crude, you can use the Taifun boot manager (if you like keeping the hard drive powered up) or simply ensure that the GS searches the SCSI card for bootable devices after it checks the floppy drives for bootable diskettes.
As per memory, the ROM03 has 1 MB onboard and the memory card supports a maximum of 1 MB. So 2 MB sounds right. A 4 MB card will get you further, but will cost more money. A 8 MB card is almost pointless. They were never that common so most software just doesn't need it. (I was told that they are uncommon because they were hard to design, and of course more RAM means more $$$.)
The composite may be greyscale only. I don't know, as I've never had to use it.
The error that Unknown_K is talking about is trivial, and I don't understand why he makes a huge fuss about it. But he does. }
Simply put, if the HS SCSI card does not find a bootable device it will display an error message. You just break out of that error message and type PR#5 to boot from the 3.5" drive or PR#6 to boot from the 5.25" drive, and floppy based software will boot. If you think that is crude, you can use the Taifun boot manager (if you like keeping the hard drive powered up) or simply ensure that the GS searches the SCSI card for bootable devices after it checks the floppy drives for bootable diskettes.As per memory, the ROM03 has 1 MB onboard and the memory card supports a maximum of 1 MB. So 2 MB sounds right. A 4 MB card will get you further, but will cost more money. A 8 MB card is almost pointless. They were never that common so most software just doesn't need it. (I was told that they are uncommon because they were hard to design, and of course more RAM means more $$$.)
The composite may be greyscale only. I don't know, as I've never had to use it.
Out of curiousity, the TV you plugged it into, was it a PAL TV? Because i think the IIGS only supports NTSC, and therefore will only display colour of the TV is capable of accepting NTSC signals (some TVs, like our Sanyo allow you to switch between NTSC, PAL and AUTO, but others don't). Check the OSD menu, or failing that, the documentation that came with the telly.
I think alot of modern TV's will support NTSC and PAL as pretty much all of them are manufactured in the same place and then shipped worldwide.
You can make an RGB to SCART ADAPTER for the IIGS
http://vintageware.orcon.net.nz/apple2/scart.html
Holding down "option" key during start you can choose between 50 (PAL SECAM) and 60 hz (NTSC) refresh.
Hope this helps.
http://vintageware.orcon.net.nz/apple2/scart.html
Holding down "option" key during start you can choose between 50 (PAL SECAM) and 60 hz (NTSC) refresh.
Hope this helps.
Most modern tellies can accept NTSC and PAL signals, but they may need to be set to accept those signals. For example, when our Sanyo was new, it was set up to only accept PAL signals, i set it to AUTO myself.
I choose both options, and both have the same results... Black and white text. But on the page you sent me, i is noted that the composite port was intended to be B&W only. Maybe that's the explanation, except if anyone can see colors there.
When I plugged it to the Mac II display, I could see the white on blue screen, sure the display was not in correct sync (flashing) but the colors were there.
by the way, my TV has composite, component and HDMI inputs, no SCART.
I suppose my TV is NTCS compliant as I live in Canada, not in Europe.
Is there a site or some-places we can find all those information on special keys or hint that can be used on the IIgs?
Yes, ROM 03 is 1 meg, but I thought that the memory card could be upgraded by changing the chips on it for higher capacity?
Is there a model number associated with this?
According to the link posted by another member, yes, it sounds like B&W only, which may be normal... Too bad for playing lemmings in color
Look for the comp.sys.apple2 FAQs, Rubywand edition
Apple's card, no. If you do hear about these cards being upgraded, it is because most of them shipped with 256 kB and people are adding another 768 kB after the fact.
These cards were made by several different companies. Other than that, I cannot really help you. Though I think that Bill Garber was selling a card that took 4x1 MB 32 pin SIMMs.
But you will still get to play lemmings with the best sound chip of the era.According to the link posted by another member, yes, it sounds like B&W only, which may be normal... Too bad for playing lemmings in color
If you're trying to tell me I forgot about the "s" in IIgs, you are completely rightBut you will still get to play lemmings with the best sound chip of the era.
By the way, is the cable that fit on a Mac RGB digital color display is the same as the IIgs analog display?
Thanks
Thanks
If I remember well, I have upgraded my IIsi to 65 meg by removing 4 32 pins of one meg each. So that kind of card, if easy to find, can give me a good IIgs computer.
Do you know where those can be found?
I don't know about that. The Commodore Amiga had a damn good sound processor.
I'd pull out my IIgs and Amiga to compare, but my ears aren't even made of tin. (Paper-mache is more like it.)
Hi,
I received a new IIgs today with a display. But the monitor does not display any image. Grrrr!
Any suggestion on how to find the problem?
Thanks
I received a new IIgs today with a display. But the monitor does not display any image. Grrrr!
Any suggestion on how to find the problem?
Thanks