II ALIVE Vol 4 No 03 Autumn 1996

Hacking the Disk II pax: Hackable by Stephen Buggie Last issue we added flexible 3-way control of Disk II's Write-Protect function. This time we'll move speed adjust- ment from the drives dark interior to a handy front-panel location and “tune” Disk II for optimal performance Appine Speed Knos One drive-test software vendor states that Disk II is good for about 500 hours of normal use between speed adjust- ments— not exactly a strong argument for placing the control on the front panel! On the other hand many of today’s Disk Il owners are interested in applications which go beyond “normal use” Some utilities (e.g. DiversiCopy ID report rotational speed during ongoing applications; so, relocating the speed adjuster to the front panel is especially helpful. Similarly, users who ted wares know that want to back up their old, copy-protet ly access to speed control is essential Finally, there is no question that, whatever your appli tions, periodic speed trimming will be required. When it is, CELEBRATING THE APP e AUTUMN 1996 you'll be very glad _your_ Disk II h: Knob! To install Speed Knob you will need some wires, a knob and a ten-turn 5k Ohm potentiometer (e.g. Digi-Key 73JB series 5k pot). the drive and drilling a hole. There is no need to disconnect the drive from the controller card. 1. Remove the 4 bottom bolts and slip off the case. Unscrew the 4 bottom bolts holding the drive to the case bottom, and unplug the main ribbon cable. The drive can sa front panel Speed Most of the work, really, consists of opening now be moved to your work area. 2. Drill a hole properly sized and centered for mounting your 5k Ohm pot in the upper right front panel. 3. Place the drive on its face and unscrew the 2 bolts which hold the small daughter board to the drive. (Be ready to catch loose spacers, washers, etc..) 4. Turn the small board over to the bottom side. As per the Speed Knob pic cut the traces going to the mini-pot speed adjuster. 5. Cut three wires, White, Gray, Black, long enough to reach from the board to the front panel. Connect these to your 5k Ohm pot and small circuit board as shown in the pic. 6. Re-mount the daughter board. Mount the 5k Ohm pot. Install knob. 7. Bring the drive back to the computer. Slide it onto the case bot- tom plate, reconnect main ribbon cable, replace bottom bolts, and re-fasten case top. You can use Copy II Plus, XPS, APEX, or one of several other uti ties to set speed (see below). A good starting adjustment will be near the center of Speed Knob’s range. I've done the mod; and ended up replacing the single turn pot. A multi-turn pot makes a big differ- ence in stability and ease of adjust- ment while preserving the full adjustment range. Many of our experimenter readers will have multi-turn pots in their parts bi For others, it’s worth the extra cost (about $11 vs. $3) to have good per- formance after investing so much time and effort in the project. iS. Tunine THE Disk Il ‘The typical Disk I will run for months with no need for mainte- nance save an occasional dusting or on with a head-cleaner se When adjustment is required, it will usually be to fine-tune Speed or, less often, to set track centering. If a Disk II has difficulty reading diskette and head-cleaning does not help, then, the odds are it’s time to adjust speed. If your drive does not have an external ‘Speed Knob’, you can remove the cover to access the , including those it created, speed-adjust mini-pot. It is located continued... on the lower right side. The most popular speed adjust- ment utility is, probably, dear old Copy II Plus. From the menu, just select “Verify”, then “Drive Speed”. Put a diskette into the drive you want to adjust and, turning the Speed Knob (or min-pot shaft) use Copy II’s numeric speed display to zero-in on the ‘magic’ 200ms. num- ber. (Standard Disk II rotation speed is 300 rpm, which comes out to be 0.2 seconds per revolution.) Other speed adjustment utilities show an rpm number or a hires pointer. Whatever, all speed check routines need to read AND write; so, you will usually need a “scratch diskette” which you do not mind having over-written. ‘Track-center realignment is need- ed when a Disk II writes and reads its own disks fine, but does not ‘communicate’ with many other Apple II 5.25” drives. It generates disk errors when reading disks writ- ten by other drives and other drives have the same problem with its diskettes. CALL A.P.P.L.E’s APTEST, now in the public domain, tests track-center alignment. With this software, the user checks the alignment of the drive with aligned — such as Apple diskware supplied with the computer or some unprotected, original, commercial software diskette. (In a pinch, a kette formatted by any drive that no problem reading most other s should be okay.) regarded as well clisk Il SPEED KNOB Ht ALIVE ‘Auturrn 1996 + Volume 4 Number 3 ‘A Scantron Quality Computers Publication Publisher ‘Scantron Quality Computers ‘Managing Editor Steve Giroux Editor Jeff Huriburt Contributing Editors Steve Buggie Gareth Jones Robert H. Rankin Mitchell Spector ‘Charles T. Turley Review Editor Jeff Hurlburt Art & Design ‘Steve Giroux ‘Our Address: | Aive, PO Box 349, St. Cia Shores, Mi ‘48080 USA. (shipping by UPS or some other camer requir. ing a steet address, use 20200 Nine Mile Ad., St. Gar ‘Shores, Mi 48080 USA) Also check our Voioe Mal, Fax, and ee Or Phe Rei Steet only can Sues Dopeincrt 160.177 9500 oF (210) 774-720, Wo ember el cero ctr ‘nauiies; we prefer to receive those by mal or fax. ‘Our Fax: We accept corespondence via fax. The fax num- boris 810-774-2698. ‘Voice Mail | etirs to the Ector only may be let on our Voice ‘Mal system. Dil 1-800-777-9642 (US and Canada; other ‘counties dial +1-319-774-7200), When our phone droid _ansiners, dial 839 on your Touch-Tone phone, or wait for an ‘operator and ask to be transfered to extension 839. All voice ‘mall messages become the property of Alive. Electronic Mail: Wo accept electronic correspondence via AES ‘or via one of the following es services: Ginie (QUALITY), America Online (QualtyCom), CompuServe (73477,3364), or the Iniemet (Galest@sqc.com). Disclaimer: Sony, but due to the volume of mall we recaive, Publication Schedule: ff Aivo is published on a quarterly schedule, wh issues appearing in Spring, Summer, Fall and ‘Winter. Please allow untl the 15th of the cover month for delivery (nterational subscribers allow slightly longer). ‘Subscription Information: U.S. subsonptions cost $19.95, subsoiption ‘by credit cad by caling our Sales Department al the phone number above, Ree ee ee eee Expiration Dates: Your: ‘expiration date is printed (on your maiing label. This date incScates the fast issue you wil receive, Renew at least a month bolore this date to ensure unntemupled serve, ‘Change of Address: Please mall a copy of your current mei ing labo, along with your new address, to | Alve--Suibscriber ‘Services al the address above Il Alive (ISSN 1085-2050) is published quarterly by Scantron Quality Computers, 20200 Nine Mile Road, St. Clair Shores, MI 48080. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to II Alive, P.O. Box 349, St. Clair Shores, MI 48080. Second Class postage paid at St. Clair Shores, MI. ut ALIVE Basically, a track-centering test tries to step your head between two tracks of the ‘standard’ diskette and read the tracks on either side. If the number of successful reads from each track is about equal, the head is “centered and your drive is well-aligned with the standard diskette. The test may indicate serious mis- alignment. (“Aha! That explains why my IIgs and I+ have problems reading each other's diskettes!”) Centering adjustment is done by slightly reposi- tioning the stepper motor (mounted on the underside of the drive). This requires loosening the two bolts holding the stepper-motor, rotating it clockwise or counter: lockwise, and retightening. ‘The adjustment/test process may require several repetitions. Each time, the program will tell you which way to rotate the stepper-motor until your drive ANCIENT Did you know that there is a way to double the normal DTP LILLUL is back ‘on track’! For more information on this project, please contact Stephen Buggie. A set of disks is available with utili- , track-center ties to handle speed adjus alignment, and other maintenance tasks. Send $3.00 to cover disks and postage to: Stephen Buggie, Univ. of New Mexico-Gallup, 200 College Rd., Gallup NM 87301 (email buggie@unm.edu). C1O/I resolution of the Apple II hires screen? It’s an ancient trick dating back to very old programs such as the Applevision dancing man demo bundled with the Apple I[+; and, yes, it really works! There are some limitations, naturally, but, the trick is good for every Apple II except the earliest 4-color models. How’s it done? Simple. There are 2 colors, 3 and 7, that all charts show 1s “white”; but, they display differ ently on the screen. Essentially, color 7 displays as slightly to the right of color 3. This ‘half-pixel’ offset mounts to 560-dot resolution. So, for example, when you want to use a white diagonal line in a figure, you can make it look far smoother than 280-dot hires should allow! To see this effect, type in and run the following program from Applesoft BASIC: 10 S= 20: HGR 20 FOR I= 1 TO 30: FOR J= 1 TO 2 30 HCOLOR= 4*J-1: HPLOT LI+I+J TO 1+1,1+I+J 40 HCOLOR= 3: HPLOT I+S,1+I+J TO 1+8+1,141 50 HCOLOR= 7; HPLOT 1+2*S.1+I+J TO 1+2*S+1,1+ 60 NEXT J; NEXT I 70 VTAB 23 Since the color white is generated by two adjacent pixels, each part of each line is generated by drawing two pixels as Yet others because HCOLOR= such. the left line definitely looks smoother than the 4*J-1 in Line 30 sets the color to 3 or 7 depending on whether it will be drawn at an even or odd positi Using just White 3 or White 7 to respectively draw a line does not take advantage of the ‘half-pixel’ offset and the result is much blockier So there’s gotta be a catch? Unfortunately yes; but, nothing worse than hires artists have had to live with since the beginning. Mainly, if you want to include the colors green, vio- let, red, and blue in your display then you will have to deal with arcane hires restrictions on dot place ment. Just placing black & white shapes close together takes some care to avoid distortion If you'll notice, in my demo program, I sneakily avoided any such problems by spacing the lines nearly 20 pixels apart (S= 20 in Line 10). They could be closer and still look fine; but, try plugging in a very small separation (e.g. $= 5) and see what happens! Despite such concerns, there's no denying the benefits of ext ra resolution. As the dancer in Bob Bishop’s Applevision demonstrates, hires figures can have surprisingly good detail You just need to use a trick or two from the masters of ancient animation! FALL 1996 Apple I Software... Forever?! saving stuff e time. fk of a disk-eating eneral agreement that, _no_ diskette was to tr ed for very long. Since my own per- sonal aim with the Apple II is to see how far down the road it will still be cranking, I de tion elsewhere. What I came up with is CDR! Compact disk recording opens up many possibili software is one of them. Another is ste ded to look for a solu- 's. Obviously, archiving being able to record audio. In my stu- dio, I've placed a lot of important material on analog tape; and, unlike the diskette situation, there is no doubt of the imminent danger of degradation. Burning the audio to CD would main- tain the original quality, with the added bonus of random access. CDR also opens up business oppor- tuni Archiving data for businesses and spinning off audio ma mixes for bands and clubs are just two ters and good prospects. All of which more By Matt Portune than justified the cost of a CD Recorder. First priority, of course, was pre: ing my precious Il goodies! I began the whole process on a Wednesday after- noon, and worked non-stop through Sunday. Step One was to archive programs and their support files into compressed SHK files. Not only does this help keep “rv everything organized, but it also pre- vents loss of resource fork data when files are moved to the PC for process- ing T archived the data from every floppy from each hard drive Ihave plus fil partition. A few items were archived twice; but, this way, I can choose from a ‘raw’ original or ‘set up’ version. (Besides , Separating out duplicates would have taken an extra day!) Anyway, the entire backup only reached about 105 megs. There would be plenty of breathing room on a 650 meg CD. > all 10 of my hard disk parti- tions are ProDOS, I settled for transfer- ring data to the PC in 32MB chunks. This was done using a home brew null- Sin modem cable to connect the serial ports of both machines. It's surprising that so many computer users go to the trouble of using diskettes for machine-to-machine trans- Ht ALIVE fers. Null-modem is so easy! I attached my cable, launched Spectrum v2.0 on the GS and Hyperterminal on the PC, and, then, told Spectrum to Zmodem- upload everything on the transfer stuff partition to the PC ‘The machines held a steady tra rate of about 4500 CPS. Since I had a few 32-meg partitions to upload it was sfer a good excuse for leaving the computers to their work and indulging in Babylon 5 re-runs! Finally, on Sunday afternoon, the uploading was com- plete. On the PC, everything wound up in a folder called “GS Backup”. Inside this folder, I created other folders (Games, aphics, etc.). All in all, 100+ floppi a 340 meg hard drive s and had been turned into a nice, organized 105 meg archive After double check- ing the archive, I slapped a blank CD into the recorder, started EZ-CD Pro, and selected “New” from the file menu. I scanned the displayed listing of burn formats for “HFS” because it is recognized by both GS System 6 and Mac Unfortunately, HFS was not in EZ-CD Pro’s list; so, I select- ed ISO-9660, which System 6 can han dle via the HS.FST. Actually, the whole process went very smoothly, I chose the “ Backup” folder as the data to burn to the disc, and, after about 7 minutes. the CD recorder spit out a shiny new GS archive! FALL 1996 surprising that so many computer users go to the trouble of using diskettes for machine-to- machine transfers. Null-modem is so easy!’ Or, so I thought... I put the CD in the GS drive. It mounted fine, but upon opening the CD, I found that EVERY file was placed in the root directory, instead of in it’s proper folder, Also, every filename had “31” after it?! It turns out that the is an end- of-filename character (the *;”) fol lowed by aan ISO-9660 version number. Versions of ISO-9660 which “Tp. Tt’s do not support the Apple Extensions require such a suf- fix for non-directo- ry files. The cure is to find a CD burn- er program which supports either High Sierra Group format or a more up-to-date version of ISO-9660, The directory problem was _my_ fault. 1 was still learning the soft- ware’s “parenting” feature, and had mistakenly told D to make the disc with every file in the root directo- ry! Anticipating some such screw- up, [had made sure to not select “close disc” on the first burn. This makes a disc “multi- session”, which means you can do later burns (“sessions”) and write new stuff until the disc is full, or until you “close” it. (You cannot, however, erase anything.) So, I told the software to make the first ses- sion inactive, and burn a second session which would have the files in their directories. After another 7 minutes, out popped attempt #2. Sure enough, in the PC’s CD-ROM drive the first ses- sion showed as ignored, and the new, Version 2, session was active! Alas, on the GS, the situation was reversed. Version 2 was ignored. I found out later (by asking someone) that HS.FST does not, currently, sup- port multisession discs! As Poor Richard once observed in his Almanac: “Experience keeps a dear school Despite a few tribulations, I’m pleased to report that my first CD was not a waste. If you have the Balloon NDA installed and double- click a file, it s recognized as an SHK archive and is opened accord- ingly. Opening the files from GSHK worked fine, as well. It ‘ain’t pretty’; but, the archives are all intact, and perfectly readable on the GS. Since I have more things to add to a future CD (like GNO v2.0.6), I'll soon be ready to pull all the data off “disc 0” and burn a fresh one, doing it right this time. At least, for now, I have everything backed up on a safe, long-lasting medium, thus tam- ing my dying-floppy paranoia. Now if | could somehow archive the II hardware . Everything you need APPLEWORKS 5.1 * System Requirements: 3.5” drive, 256 K enhanced Ile (65002 and Mouse Text) We've put together two amazing bundles featuring AppleWorks—the best selling integrated software for the Apple II family of computers. Each bundle comes with AppleWorks 5.1 (or version 4.3 for 5.25” disk users) and a collection TimeOut enhancements to make AppleWorks even more powerful! APPLEWORKS SINGLE-USER BUNDLE You'll receive AppleWorks 5.1 (for hard drive and 3.5” drives) and single pre-installed copies of... + TimeOut Grammar for built-in proofreading + TimeOut SuperFonts for fancy fonts in your documents + TimeOut DeskTools IV for greater productivity * TimeOut Thesaurus which gives you a built-in thesaurus + TimeOut SideSpread to let you print long spreadsheets out sideways on a 9 pin dot matrix printer + TimeOut ReportWriter which is a flexible report cards attendance records, lesson plans, forms, and more. 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It allows you to add aliases to set up your desktop like a push-button menu selector and there's a Magic System Folder that knows just where to stash your fonts and DAs. Boot ProDos 8 quickly, read IBM files directly into your IIGS and there’s also over 100 bug fixes. Plus you'll get the System 6.0.1 disks, our ‘own System 6 book and a free program to customize the Finder. VALUE PACKED BUNDLES Features over 100 clip art images, over 50 clip sounds, over 50 icons, over 30 fonts, and more. You'll also get the Apple Il Enhancement Guide, Flashboot & the System 6 Video. GS/OS System 6.0.1 with QC Bundle ... GS/OS System 6.0.1 with QC Manual only . System 6.0.1 & Addendum only System 6.0.1 Video SIX PACK * System Requirements: Apple IGS, 2MB RAM, System 6, hard drive Six Pack, the first collection of System 6 Finder Extensions, lets you add new features to System 6. With Six Pack you can add dozens of functions to your function keys, find out visually how much of your computer's resources are being used at one time and preview the contents of graphics, text, and sound files. Six Pack V.1.1 Apple lIGS . $29.95 Six Pack V.1.1 upgrade (disk and addendum) ... $14.95 Six Pack Unlimited Site License $149.95 SIX PACK & SIGNATURE GS BUNDLE Now for a limited time you can purchase both Six Pack and Signature GS for one low price. Save over $20. Six Pack is the first collection of System 6 Finder Extensions. Signature GS offers you the ability to create a unique computing environment on your Il GS. See description below. Bundle. Unlimited Site License SIGNATURE GS * System Requirements: Apple IIGS, 1.25MB of RAM, hard drive Signature GS is the program that allows you to create a computing environment that is uniquely your own. Choose form colorful desktop patterns to fun and entertaining sounds. Phantasm offers a solution to screen damage with a variety of fun and attractive screen activities. Graffiti gives you a variety of colorful desktop patterns to choose from or allows you to create your own with the built-in desktop painter. Customize your IIGS with Sonics by assigning fun and entertaining sounds to specific functions. Imagine your IIGS actually “belching” out a floppy disk. Sonics is easy to use so you can add or change sounds on a whim. And with Boot-Master, you can put all your IIGS drivers, CDAs and NDSs on one master control panel. Signature GS v.1.01 .. + G29.95 SCANTRON quality Computers 20200 Nine Mile Fax 810+ 3. Clair Shores, MI 48080 + http://www.sqc.com 12698 » Email Sales: sales@sqc.com for your Apple il TIMEOUT GRAMMAR * System Requirements: 128K: AppleWorks 3.0 or higher Add built-in grammar checking to your AppleWorks word process- ing. No matter what you write, TimeOut Grammar will make it stronger, clearer, and more concise. 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Q-MODEM It features auto-answer and auto-dial for performing phone tasks, and it has a programmable volume speaker for monitoring call progress. Operates asynchronously at 300, 600, 1200, and 2400 baud. Q-Modem $74.95 For orders or inquiries, call 1-800-777-3642 e= som ra © ill 30-day money back guarantee a, \est D Zip Drive 100s kkk 00; for 128K Apple He or Ilgs from Iomega Requires SCSI interface by Eric Dietrich If you have a hard disk on your Apple Il, then, most likely. it’s stuffed to the gills. You have to delete or compress files in order to install new programs; and, if you spend much time online, then you know what its like to start downloading a hot new file, only to discover there’s nowhere to put it! For a while, my solution was to con- nect my IIgs to a PowerBook and use the ‘Book’s hard drive. Its a bother, though, to have to lug around pro- grams which are useless to me on the road. Besides, while LocalTalk is great for file transfers, it’s too slow for launching programs. I had considered a few options: a bigger hard disk, Syquest drives, Apple SuperDrive, Flopticals, ... but, with cost and portability factored in, none seemed ‘just right’. Then, lomega came out with their Zip drive. I checked it out and was pleasantly surprised! The Zip is a 100MB removable media system. Cobalt blue in color, the drive is compact and light— about the same size as the newer external modems. There are two models, The 100p “Parallel Zip” connects to PC’s through the parallel printer port. The 100s “SCSI Zip” is the one I got. It connects to any computer with a SCSI port Zip drive disks are just a bit larger r 3.5” flop- py diskette. They have a smaller shut- and thicker than the familia ter and no physical write-protect mechanism. The 100MB disk has become the standard. (There's also a 25MB disk; but, you will seldom see these advertised.) On average, the 100MB disks go for $20 each. Some companies sell them as low as $15 in quantity Zip’s disks are amazingly rugged Recently, my boss was toting a disk home from work on the New York City subway. He was hurrying to catch a train that was on the verge of enter- ing the station, and in his haste, fum- bled while moving the disk to a differ- ent pocket. (As everyone knows, Zip users are supposed to carry disks in their pockets— it’s a status thing.) Much to his horror, the disk ended up going over the edge of the plat- form and ending up between the tracks, directly in the path of the oncoming train! Ten cars and twenty large 600 volt motors later, he jumped down onto the tracks and retrieved his disk (which, rives Edited by Jeff Hurlburt mind you, is rather unwise in the sub- way system). The disk later mounted in the Finder with no help and even checked out fine with The Norton Utilities. Zip also scores high on “compatibili- ty”. Thanks to portability, low cost of the drive and media, and reliability, Zip is a good seller with an expanding base of home and business users. Power Computing, a maker of Macintosh compatible computers, is building-in Zip drives, making them standard equipment. Many corpora- tions keep a Zip next to their PC’s to. accommodate visiting executive All of my Mac using friends, and a growing number of the PC-ers have ‘gone Zip’, too. They've discovered that there is nothing like being able to swap 100mb chunks of data at a time. In order to use a Zip drive on an Apple I, you will need a SCSI inter- face, which means there has to be a Slot to plug in one of the popular interface cards. If you're using an Apple He, it will need to be the “enhanced” version — enhanced Ile’s display “Apple //e” at the top of the screen when they start. If you need a SCSI inter- face, there are three ‘popular’ options: The Apple Revision C, ‘The Apple High Speed, and the RamFAST. The Revision C is older, and a bit slower becau: does not utilize direct memory a (DMA), a feature that the High Speed and RamFAST have. The Apple cards are no longer made or supported; but, you may be able to buy one at a swap meet. The Sequential Systems RamFAST has DMA plus an on-board cache of either 256kB or 1MB, making it the fastest interface available. RamFAST has: a full set of utilities in ROM, so, it’s easy to set up, too. The only drawback is that Sequential’s card is slightly less likely than the Apple cards to be com- patible with some older hard disks. Both Sequential and Alltech sell RamFAST and can answer user ques- tions. The main Zip installation ‘step’ is plugging it in. The drive uses DB-25 connectors and, so, most likely, the cable will plug directly into your inter- face card with no need for an adapter. (One complaint: Zip’s cable is stiff. It actually lifts my drive a bit off of whatever surface I put it on.) If you already have other SCSI devices, the one currently plugged into the interface can plug into the Zip. Multi-device SCSI users who want to be able to quickly disconnect their Zip and pop it into a suitcase should check with Tony Diaz at Alltech for an adapter cable. This will let you plug the Zip Drive into a hard disk or other SCSI device. Every hard disk, CD-ROM drive, etc. on your SCSI chain needs its own ID number (0-7). While most devices are flexible and will allow you to choose ather any available ID, Zip gives you a choice of two: 5 or 6. If you are using an Apple High Speed card and you already have a hard disk, you'll have to set the Zip to 5 in order to continue to boot off of your hard disk (which needs to be 6). The RamFAST is some- FALL 1996 what more flexible in that it doesn’t take ID 7 for itself and will allow you to boot from any SCSI device. Another consideration is termination. If all you have connected to your SCSI card is the Zip drive, then you should set the switch on the back to turn ON the termination. If you have other devices that come after the Zip, then you should leave it off. For instance: Thave three devices on my SCSI chain; a Q-Drive, a Floptical, and the Zip. ‘The Zip comes first, and is not termi- nated. The Floptical comes after that, and is also not terminated. The hard disk, which is last, IS terminated. Hardware-wise, that’s it. In all likeli- hood, your setup will work fine. If not, you can get help from experts at Sequential or Alltech, post a question on comp.sys.apple2, or, even, read the documentation that came with your SCSI card (when all else fails ...). Once your drive is connected, its time to start your machine and prepare a Zip disk for use. The Advanced Disk Utility (on a IIgs) or the utility that came with your SCSI card can do the necessary formatting and set up parti- tions (ie. named “Volumes”). Each 100MB disk can hold three max-size (32MB) ProDOS partitions. As you'll discover, Zip and work like large floppies. They will mount and unmount properly in the GS Finder, can be booted, etc.. Mainly, you'll find loads of easy-to-access space for your Appleworks data, Sound files, adventures, and whatever you want to download. Zip is fast, too. lomega claims 29ms average access time, which is a bit slower than most hard disks but, still, very speedy. For some II users, Zip_is_ their ‘hard disk’. Naturally, Zip is ideal for backing up your critical hard disk boot volume— isks look you know, the one you have old .SHK file pieces of ... somewhere. It’s also the perfect cure for piles of diskettes which often seem to hide as much stuff as they “archive”. A couple 100MB Zip disks can free-up lots of shelf space and make it much easier to find that favorite game, utility, or data file when you need it. Once the Iomega Zip drive is installed on your Apple I, you'll won- der how you got along without one. Whether it’s files from the net, files you want to carry, or files that just need to be saved ‘somewhere’, the question is the same: “What do I do with my stuff?” ‘The answer is Zip! ProTERM 3.1 kkk $80.00; for 128K Apple Ile/c/gs from Intrec Software at least 256k RAM and 3.5” disk drive recommended by Dan Brown ‘Telecommunications has long been regarded as somewhat of a black art, even among otherwise experienced and knowledgeable computer users. There are so many setup options, both for hardware and software, that just getting your computer, modem, and ( am © o< software talking can be difficult. And, then, you need to worry about con- necting to somebody else. A number of products have tried to smooth-out the bumps along the telecomm highway. One of the fewto succeed is InTrec’s ProTERM. Always a powerful, flexible piece of software, with version 3.1 Proterm sets new stan- dards for ease of use as well. User-friendliness starts with installation: you simply copy all the files on the disk to a hard drive folder. If you don’t have a hard disk, you make a backup copy of whichever disk you prefer to use— ProTERM includes both 3.5” and a 5.25” diskettes— and start your computer from that copy. You'll soon be greet- ed with a setup win- dow, which prompts you for the kind of modem you have, the interface you're using for it, and other system information. If you’re a true “newbie”; don’t worry. The menus guide your responses and everything is matically. The s very clearly explained in the manual Once the software is configured, sion (collecting m¢ 10 you automate a complete GEnie st there are two ways to connect to another computer via the phone lines. The simplest is “Quick Dial”: you type- in the phone number, and your com- puter dials it. The other option is to vate an entry in your own “phone book”. This takes only a littke more effort, and is much more convenient for systems you'll be calling regularly. The manual contains a thor- ough, step-by- step guide. Such a quick, easy route to getting on-line is it’s just the beginning. ProTERM sup- ports ‘smart commands’ called “macros” which can han- dle all sorts of chores. For example, when logging into a favorite BBS, you can tell ProTERM to “learn” what to do so that, in the future, a single keypress will take care of the whole process auto- me scheme can let ages, posting replies, etc.) and, thus, save quite a nice chunk of net time. ProTERM includes a powerful text editor. In fact, for many II users, it’s their only word processor! However, it’s still limited to 45kB files; so, you'll still need Appleworks to read or edit very large text blocks. While there are many features which may deserve a mention, ProTerm’s scrollback buffer is sure to be of spe- cial interest. Once and for all, it saves you from the annoyance of seeing some important or interesting message slide up the screen, with no easy way to retrieve it. ProTERM always saves your online history to the limits of your Apple II's memory. If you want to ‘see it again’, just scroll back! Of course, you will find support for all popular protocols (including Z- modem and kermit), a mini-BBS “unat- tended” mode, a mouse/no-mouse option, emulation of VT-100, ANSI- BBS, etc. terminals, and support for direct computer-to-computer NULL modem transfers. ProTerm can use popular memory expansions (such as RamFactor and Q-Card) and works with virtually all modems. Basically, with baud rate selection spanning 110- 38400, Proterm 3.1 lets you connect with anyone at the best speed your II’ 1/O interface can handle. Despite an impressive array of soft- ware features, many telecom veterans will insist that the real ‘clincher’ is ProTerm’s 430-page manual. Illustrated and thoroughly indexed, it is packed with well-written passages covering every facet of Apple II “modemming”. Suffice it to say that Intrec’s ProTERM 3.1 is the premiere Apple II communications program. Many IIgs users prefer its speedy, crisp text dis- plays and unmatched flexibility. For //e and //c users, it is the clear power + versatility choice. If you would like to order PRO- TERM, contact InTrec Software at 602-992-5515. ll Ht ALIVE Check Points>>>> Music Composer Uppare Even the developer, Clayburn Juniel, calls it a “vapor alert’; but, he has placed a demo for his Music Composer 4.0.0 with Sheet Music interface on popular ftp sites and says final debug- ging is in progress. Based upon a try- out of version 3.2.1, the new Essential Software Solutions release will be a solid contender for top honors in GS music composition. (GUPP) includes the earlier Font Manager fix plus zaps for bugs in GS/OS Device Dispatcher and Window GNO/ME and NiftyList are among popular wares which, if Manager. installed, get some de-bugging, as well GUPP is freeware. You can find GUPP details the world wide web at http: and the latest version on www. ugcs.caltech.edu/~nathan/ Tastruments Blook® 7 ESN ten saute Music Composer is a IIgs program which lets you create, edit, and play music sequence files (i.e. songs). Note entry is via a user-friendly spreadsheet entry format. You may also enter notes using a piano-style keyboard display and/or import standard MIDI files, as well a Studio, songs from Musi SynthLAB, or Sound Smith. A sheet music interface will be the ‘finishing touch’ for an already powerful, versa- tile, well-documented music creation utility. Music Composer is shareware ($15). To download the MC package and obtain information on other ESS releas- es, check your favorite Apple II ftp source or Clay’s own site (ftp.primenet. com/users/c/clay1). You can contact Clay at clay1@primenet.com or, via phone, at 602-274-6905. More 6.0.1 Bucs Spritzep Comp.sys.apple2’s relentless bug hunter has done it again! Nathan Mates’s Grand Unified Patch Program FALL 1996 SuperQuest //c For years, would-be //c players of this SoftSide maze adventure have complained about the way game dis- plays get shifted around and, generally, messed up. The problem stems from the extra Text Page series machines like to use for system parms. Some of these get over-written during SQ’s intro. Try this: Load the SQ Introduction program. In the line which executes the RUN for the main program— prob- ably, it will be Line 105— insert the instruction POKE 1275,255 just before the RUN instruction and save the creen holes” //c changed program. This will get rid of the shifting and, once you exit the Bazaar or a Hospice, inverse text will cease flashing. Uttima WeIRDNESS Maybe you've ‘gotten into’ one of the early versions of Ultima (1) on your enhanced Ile or some other post-II+ Apple. Mark Percival did and discov- ered that, when it was time to qualify as a Space Ace, the game’s pesky aliens seemed un-hittable. In fact, they are! Mark zeroed-in on Ultima’s ‘space combat’ routine as the likely culprit and posted it to comp.sys.apple2. where the bug was quickly nailed in the hit-detect code AD 0274 LDA $7402 4CD- C9 39 CMP #$39 4CF- 90 0C BCC $74DD 74D1- 47 2? 74D2- 43 2? 74D3- BO 08 BCS $74DD 74D5- AOFF LDA #$FF 74D7- 8D0574 STA $7405 The code at $74D1-$ to be an instance of the 6502's infa- 4D2 turns out mous “undocumented opcodes” which Bob Ryan described in a 1985 inCider article. On a II+ or older, un-enhanced, Ile, the 6502 will execute an LSR $43 DR $43. This clears Carry, execution continues at $74D5, followed by and you get credit for a Hit. No prob- lem at all! But, the enhanced Ie and later Apple II’s employ a 65C02 (or 65C816) which will treat the weird instruction as two NOPs. Carry will always be set, the branch at $74D3 is taken, and you will never score a Hit! The best fix was posted by program- ming guru David Empson. Noting that the routine seems to be trying to define a ‘hit rectangle’ (i.e. a screen region where you score a hit), he rea- soned that $47 43 should be $C9 43, compare Accum value to #843 Mark tried the fix and, viola! the Aliens are no longer invincible. (The new code works on a II+, too; though scoring hits will be a bit tougher because an open side of the hit rectan- gle is now closed.) So, if your Ultima version allows BLOADing the FGT3 file, Mark sug- gests going to the monitor, entering 7AD1: C9, exiting to BASIC and doing a BSAVE FGT3,$A7400,L$120. Becoming an Ace will be a challenge; but, no longer, an impossible dream FREE! Contacts GS Uppate Joe Kohn of Shareware Solutions TI has announced the discovery of z buglette in Contacts GS he problem only surfaces if/when you cut/paste or continued... copy/paste information from the AppleWorks GS Database directly into the S NDA.” Bill Heineman quickly Contacts C produced a v1.03 update which fixes the bug. (No other changes are imple- mented.) SS-II is offering the update file via email free to registered owners who request it by sending an email to joko@crl.com. Brack ALERT at Gonzo Station Set in the post-Desert Storm Persian Gulf, Julian Hudson's yarn of high: tech weaponry, high-risk missions, and intrigue is sure to provoke com- puter user nightmares. One moment the U.S. “Group Six” fleet is alert and on patrol, the next ... CLIC) a disorganized collection of “holes in the water”. Suddenly, nothing works. No one is harmed; but, a frantic check reveals that every computer circuit board has been zapped, even replacement ones. The explanation is EMP, a high level electro-magnetic pulse usually associated with an atomic explosion. That EMP can knock out semi-con- ductor circuits is well established. Black Alert’s special treat is to eliminate any need for the messy A- bombs which make EMP seem only a distant threat. Hudson suggests that, just maybe, someone is developing no- boom refrigerator-size EMP generators which can wipe ever computer within miles of a discharge. Imagine, one day a non-descript van rolls into your town. You've just installed the latest speed upgrade. Your system is purring like a champ, then CL authentic read and a new computer- nightmare, check out Black Alert at Gonzo Station. cK, zapsville! For an entertaining, stul To purchase, call 541-858-9542, or try your local book store (Common wealth Publications, $6.99) il What! You wanted to BUY one of the nifty items mentioned in Summer's Test Drives? Here's the info you need: Apple Il Power Supply Stephen Buggie 200 College Rd. Gallup, NM 87301 505-863-2390 buggie@unm.edu Orca Languages ByteWorks 8000 Wagon Mound Dr. NW Albuquerque, NM 87120 505-898-8183 mikew50@aol.com 12 ProSel-16 Disk Utility Charlie's ApplSeeds 9081 Hadley Place San Diego, CA 92126 619-566-1297 chucknewby@aol.com Graphic Writer Ill v2.0 Seven Hills Software 1254 Ocala Road Tallahassee, FL32304 904-575-0566 sevenhills@genie.com The Oracle of Man Queensland Network Services: GPO Box 2259 Brisbane QLD 4001 Australia phone: 07-405-5011 Golden Orchard Jim Maricondo P.O. Box 11005 Stanford, CA 94309-1005, digisoft@hypermall.com ALIVE Fo-tor-the Gold! Improve ZipGS and TransWarp Reliability The ZipGS and TransWarpGS accel. erator cards greatly improve IIgs per- formance; but, they have a common weak link. Both employ large ribbon cables for connecting to the mother: board’s 40-pin CPU socket. The cables generally work fin especially if they are not stressed and the board is not moved around once installed. Unfortunately, there are quite a few exceptions; and, when an accel- erator cable fails, the results can be very disruptive: Intermittent crashing or failure to boot Opp CHaracters ON THE SCREEN Other weird problems that some- times go away for a while when the card, ribbon, or CPU plug is moved or pressed upon (or when the computer just warms up or cools down!) Tracing such symptoms to the source can be difficult because, really, no one expects a cable to fail! Users suspect bad RAM chips, buggy soft- ware, over-heating, etc.. They do not suspect corrosion of the pins plugged into the CPU socket or breakage of cable wires at the point where they are pinched by the metal forks in the sol- derless connectors. The cure is a new cable. A duplicate cable can be made fairly inexpensively but, it is far better to make a replace: ment with highest quality GOLD-fin- ished connectors! For my cable, I chose connectors which also have longer, wider, sturdier pins. These fea- tures and the gold finish on metal components guarantee a very long-last- ing, reliable, connection both within the cable itself and at the CPU and card connections. 5 feet is the minimum length of rib- bon cable sold; but, the same length of 10-conductor ¢: ble costing far le FALL 1996 could be substituted. Four pieces of that cable placed side by side will work quite well in place of a single length of 40-wire cable The main trick in making a cable is to apply even force when pressing the ribbon into the solderless fork connec- tors. For this, you will need some sort of vise and a small block of wood. The block needs to just fit between the two rows of pins and be deep enough to keep the pins from being bent as the vise is tightened. Even better is a block which has been drilled or slotted to match the pins. The first construction step is to cut a piece of ribbon cable to the desired length. Normally, this will be just a lit- tle longer than your original or about 2 1/4”. You can go for a bit more length in order to have more Slot placement options— add about 3, per Slot away from Slot 3. (Note: I have no idea how runs much above 3” might affect performance, especially for high- er speed accelerators.) Place one end of the ribbon into the CPU connector with a bit hanging out of the opposite end of the connector. by William Shuff connector onto the cable. (If you are making a Zip cable, skip the next para- graph.) ‘TransWarp cables require t at one pair of leads going to the small con- nector be reversed. Use your original cable as a guide to select the wires. Slit the cable and twist the pair. In the next step you will need to be careful that these leads are centered over their connector forks. Nov over the , place the smaller connector ‘able with the holes facing, away from the direction the pins on the CPU connector are pointing. (Use your old cable as a guide for how this should look.) As before, there should hang. Be sure that this connector is centered on the cable and be a bit of ove: parallel to the CPU connector. Press the small connector into place just as you did the other. Trim the excess cable close to the connector edges with a razor blade or sharp knife and you're done! If you have an Ohm meter, you can confirm that every pin on the CPU connector connects to one on the smaller connector and no pin is short- Part numbers and prices are from Digi-Key (800-344-4539): 40 Pin Gold DIP Connector 40 Pin Gold Socket Connector 40 Conductor 3M Color Ribbon Cab Don’t worry about the numbering of pir symmetric, and flipping them end for and holes. The connector are end has no effect on the final wiring. Be sure the cable is centered in the width of the connector. Each lead in the ribbon should be centered above a fork connector gap. Lock the cable in place by pressing the connector halves with finger pressure until it latches and captures the cable. Use the wood ing the block and vise to finish pre ed to another. However, except for the need to flip a pair of leads on a TransWarp cable, the process is, with a fairly foolproof little If your cable ‘looks good’, it should work fine. More to the point, if your computing has been plagued by bad- cable gremlins, the new accelerator cable will have your GS running ‘good as Gold’! Contact: The author invites questions, comments at bill2060@cris.com. Okay; it’s not alphabetized or categorized. Some of the places may no longer exist; and, the others ...2- There’s a brief de: be accurate! Dead end or gold mine, trash or treasure; but, for sure, no guarantees. That's why this list of mainly Apple Il stuff net sites is called a “grab bag”! Apple2 support http://www.support.apple.com Apple3 info gopher://gopher.ed.gov/11/software/APPLE. Edu wares http://www.interealm.com/megamall Apple2 history hutp://www.hypermall.com/History/ hitp://www.laughton.com/Apple/Apple.html System software fip://ftp.support.apple.com Shareware, freeware ftp://fip.hypermall.com/pub/apple2 ftp://ftp.ncu.edu.tw/pub2/os/apple2/ Apple technotes ftp://ftp.apple.com/dts/aii/tn Apple support, Hypercard ftp://ftptoo.support.apple.com Satellite pics http://thunder.atms.purdue.edu/gopher-data/satellite/ Basic Software http://spacelink.msfc.nasa.gov/Instructional. Material: Ultima info http://spoiler.et.ce/RF Used computers http://www.usedcomputer.com GS, Mac software ftware/ Origin /ultima.5.1.txt http://www. crl.com/~mpearce/GSAUG/Apple.html cription for each; and, who knows, some may even ERNET Grab Bag By Jeff Hurlburt Games http://www. pacificone.com/sean/ http://www.cc.utah.edu/~krw8466/ hitp://jones.netplace.de/apple/ ftp://ftp.armory.com/pub/user/ace/ http://www. ksk.sala.se/~sp93rob/dungeon/ ftp://ftp.gmd.de Shareware http://www.shareware.com/ A2 emulation wares ftp://ftp.asimov.net/pub/apple_Il/ A2 emulators fip://ftp.uni-kl.de/pub/apple2/emulators/ hitp://members.aol.com/chrissalo/emul.htm Forth language http://www. forth.org/fig_home.html A2 general hup://www.globaldialog.com/~pliethen/apple2 Search engines http://www.lycos.com Weather http://thunder.atms.purdue.edu/gopher-data Auction surface/ http://www.ebay.com/aw Apple2 measurement interfaces http://www.teleport.com/~vernier/cats.html Mapper & Nulib fep://ftp.uni-kl.de Happy Birthday Apple lIGS! yite? Believe it or not, on September 15, 1996, the Apple IIGS has turned 10 years old. KANSASTFEST By Stephen Buggie or some, a religious pilgrim- age is said to become an obsession. Often, a notable expense and much inconve- nience is involved; yet, there is the promise that one’s life will be changed thereafter So it is for Apple II loyalists who squir- rel away funds, rearrange vacation schedules, and make the trek to KansasFest It all began seven summers ago AppleFest had become a large com- mercially-oriented exhibition dominat- ed by Mac vendors and Mac topics With the Apple II being elbowed to the sidelines, Tom Weishaar of “DOS Talk” fame organized F driving range of his home in Overland al Apple ‘stival” in Kansas City, within e< sy Park. As a grassroots gathering of Apple IT programmers, hardware hack- ers, and other enthusiasts, KansasFest proved an instant success. The ‘Fest has been the central annu- al event of Apple II computing for some time. I'd long planned to attend; but, each year, something seemed to interfere. got to buy more hardware. got to work, don’t have enough time dates are wrong, etc.. This summer was not especially convenient, either; but with Joe Kohn’s prodding, I decid- ed to take the plunge; no further delays! KansasFest is like an intensive, extended users’ group meeting. Spread FALL 1996 around the comfortable Avila College campus, it manages to occupy nearly every hour from Wednesday through Saturday. I soon discovered that, with 90 dorm, each day’s scheduled events sters occupying two floors of a were sure to be followed by all-night conversation and computing sessions. In fact, chronic sleepiness seems to be a tradition— you're out of form if you are fully rested! The eight-page program stated that the conference is oriented toward Apple II, Mac, and Newton. However, the emphasis was overwhelmingly on the Apple II. Formal sessions, most lasting 90 minutes, spanned the full range of computing interests. Since presenters and many of the attendees are knowledgeable about computers, the si ssions were a valuable opportu- nity to get ‘up to speed’ entations were Nearly half the pres on hardware-related topics — mainly on customizing and repairs. Just a sam- pling includes Repairing the Ilgs key- board, Customizing the Zip-GS acceler- ator, Hacking the Disk II drive(!), and Robotics A Monitor Repair session was most impressive. Five or six dead IIgs moni- tors were brought to the hardware- hacking room, and expert solder: slingers Doug Pendleton and Dave Ciotti restored each to life! Users were cautioned about monitor hacking because dangerous high voltages lurk near the picture tube and other cir- cuil ; however, the monitor wizards let everyone watch as repairs were done. Thanks to Alltech’s Tony Diaz, “Mark Twain” showed up, too. Everyone was interested in checking out the never- released prototype for a new GS. Many ‘Festers are programmers; so, sions highlighted software. Presentations looked at Diagnostics, the IIgs Toolbox, Appleworks Ultramacros, Applesoft BASIC, Spectrum, Wolfenstein 3-D, Hypercard, several ses: and lots more. Possibly the most interesting soft- ware presentation was given by Cindy They served as beta-testers for Gus, a soft- Adams and David Kerwood. "Emotiona aad buy and sell Apple II software, hard- ware, and literature. Most vendors were the authors, inventors, or builders of the products they sold. Informal sessions, of course, went on throughout the day and night— at meals, in hallways, and especially in the dorm rooms. About half the atten- dees, mostly those who arrived by car, brought computers and related acces- sories. (And, yes, I brought along five of my “Buggie Power Supplies”) KansasFest etiquette allows one to wander the hallways and peer into rooms. (So, as II Alive’s intrepid reporter, I did.) No one seemed to mind having a fellow user barge in to sce and discuss the setups being used. On the other hand, such visiting is a it Was Uplif many fel Aanté lLetfthu ware IIgs emulator for the Mac Power- PC. Incredibly, once loaded, Gus does seem to come close to turning the Mac into a Ilgs! The demos, as well as the distributed docs, were really impre: sive. All of this provoked a good deal of discussion. Some felt that Gus may provide a viable pathway to IIgs porta- bility— you just pop Gus into your Power-PC laptop. Others expressed serious concern that Gus could lure Ilgs users to a different platform. Large swap meet style sessions were held on Friday and Saturday mornings to demonstrate the latest Mac products and to give participants the chance to good way to develop an inferiority complex. Some IIgs systems were so absolutely loaded with prestige equip- ment and wares that, during boots, the init icons totally filled the screen! As the Apple II world’s premier 'sFest is an opportunity to meet many II computing leaders and event, Kans celebrities. Besides those already men- tioned, you could compare notes with Ego System's Steve Disbrow, ORCA author Mike Westerfield, Max Jones (publisher of Juiced.GS), and games programmer Bill Heineman Hyperstudio developer Roger Wagner missed the event, but made amends by arranging for free pizzas for Kansas night owls as he’d done in earlier ye Following the banquet dinner on Friday night, Joe Kohn, publisher of Shareware Solutions II, was publicly “roasted” by his friends, each of whom spoke a few minutes about Joe’ comings and eccentric fun, good-natured way to honor Joe for his many contributions to II com- short- s. Iwas a puting Comptaints? WELL, NOT MANY. Cafeteria meals were okay, but not outstanding. (Kansas City’s renowned steaks were sorely missed.) Also, per- hap: a bit too much atten- tion given Mac and not enough for 8- bit Apple I’s. Still, the: Avila College was there wa no question: a fine host and orga- 's Cindy Adams, Steve Gozdziewski, and Tim Kellers did an outstanding job of putting together a great ‘Fest 1996! My Kansa satisfying, enlightening experience. I learned much in face to face ex- changes with Apple II gurus, experi- menters, and other users. Emotionally, 'sFest pilgrimage was a very it was uplifting to meet so many fellow Apple II enthusiasts; and, it will be fun, from now on, to be able to match faces and voices to all those internet signatures. Possibly, the “pilgrimage” metaphor is faulty. Supposedly, one feels no compulsion to repeat such a journey; yet, KansasFest is surely different. Having attended once has recharged my interest in Il computing and stirred a resolve to return in 1997 and again and again thereafter! Ill The author's email address is buggie @ unm.edu. Ht ALIVE Too Much Fun by Jeff Hurlburt Unscramble each six-letter Apple II computing word. Use the letters in the boxes to form the answer. YOMMER = FIEEND DOORPS SCAPAL __ SWUUMP [_] | WU How the net newbie always managed to dish out sizzling retorts ... She Answers i3YVM 3Wv14 G3sn ous sndwnm ‘Teosed ‘SOdOd ‘auyeq “oweyy FALL 1996 Y., Laetters Dear Il Alive, It’s now October and I seem to get my Il Alive summer issue somewhat late and am wondering if you will ever learn what season it is? Thomas Harding New Canaan, CT We plead circumstances beyond our control. Not only did AppleWorks 5 take longer to bring to market than we expected, but we also sent out the issue during the busiest mailing sea- son of the year. One consolation: if you're upset about getting the issues late, imagine how our advertisers feel. We are sorry for the delay and hope to be on track for the Winter issue, Dear II Alive, My AppleWorks 4 uses little tiny subscript and superscript numbers which are hard to read. How can I get them to be the same size as the regular text, like AppleWorks 3.0? AppleWorks 3.0superscripts2 AppleWorks 4.0 superscripts? Michelle Coyle Lincoln, NE Michelle: You've got your AppleWorks 3.0 set up to use an ImageWriter, while your AppleWorks 4 is set up to use an ImageWriter II. The Image Writer IT has the ability to print the small numerals, whereas the original ImageWriter does not. The original ImageWriter driver will work with an ImageWriter I] printer, but it won't use any ImageWriter II special features. So, to print big superscripts, simply tell AppleWorks 4 you have an ImageWriter, not an ImageWriter IT The ImageWriter If way is the “cor- rect” way of printing subscripts and 123 superscripts. The numbers are sup- posed to be smaller. Your point about them being harder to read is a good one, though. Luckily, you have a choice! You should also consider upgrad- ing to a newer, more powerful ver- sion—Apple Works 5.0. Dear Il Alive, I've used Apple II computers for well over ten years. I currently own an Apple IIGS with a hard drive, 4 MB of RAM, and an Apple Dot Matrix Printer, which has worked like a horse since I got it. The Apple DMP works perfectly with most software which is compat- ible with the ImageWriter, including AppleWorks 5.0 and Managing Your Money, both of which I use almost daily. Recently, I have run into two exceptions: AppleWorks GS and HyperCard GS. What's the deal? Are there any drivers I can get to remedy the situation? Joseph Conklin Emerald Hills, FL Joseph: The Apple IGS System Software does not support the Apple Dot Matrix Printer. With GS/OS, the System Software, not the individual application program is responsible for talking to your printer. Unfortunately, the ImageWriter and the DMP are not really all that compatible, except at a very superficial level. that is, they use the same codes for some func- tions, but completely different codes for other functions. For this reason, the IIGS ImageWriter driver doesn't work with the DMP. And I don't know of any DMP driver for the IIGS— Apple didn't provide one, there prob- ably aren’ a lot of people using Responses by SQC staff DMPs on the IIGS’s. You might at this point, consider a new printer. A dot-matrix printer really doesn’t do justice to the IGS; you might investigate the Hewlett- Packard Deskjet 500 or better. With Vitesse’s Harmonie Driver package, this printer will provide near-laser quality printouts from your IGS applications. And the best news is, you can often find it for under $300 Keep DMP—it ll still be useful for printing on labels and other pin-feed forms. (You can connect the Deskjet to the printer port, leave your current parallel card in slot 1, and use the IGS Control Panel to switch between the two.) Dear Il Alive, I purchased an Apple IIGS at a garage sale a few years ago and love it. I recently was told I could upgrade the existing System software from 6.0 to 6.0.1, and I am totally lost. When I created the new System Disk, I also installed Pointless and a driver for my printer on the disk. Now when I use AppleWorks, | am unable to type special characters, like umlauts (option-U) any more What went wrong? Sharon Weiss Paris, TX Sharon: The general Control Panel in System 6.0.1 contains an option called “Translation.” This option allows you to disable the keyboard translations that let you type special characters such as the umlaut. (Why would you want to do this? Some pro- grams use the option key for their own purposes and can get mighty confused if the computer starts switching around what character codes are produced by which keys. HW ALIVE Dear ll Alive. For example, macro programs are often triggered using the option key plus a letter.) The choices on this menu are “none” and “standard.” Setting Translation to setting it to standard will allow the keyboard to work the way it used to. Unfortunately, when installing System 6.0.1 for the first time, the default Translation is none. To set translation back to standard, first pull down the Apple menu and select Control Panels, Then find the general control panel and double click it. The translation option will be at the very bottom; set it to standard. This will save your setting in the IIGS’s Battery RAM, so the translation will stay set to Standard even after you turn the power off and on again. Dear Il Alive, I have been a loyal subscriber since day one—I think I still have the very first issue of II Alive. I was concerned, when inCider/A+ went down and was left wondering whether there was anything out there that would fill the gap. Iam writing just to add my voice to those who already have and want to say how great your magazine is. IT Alive seems to be a dying breed of people that have been pushed out of the way for the Macintosh consumer. Lam glad to see an Apple II publica- tion is still hanging around. Long live the Apple II! Roy Sheparski Tustin, CA Dear Il Alive, My IIGS has been crashing alot. I suspect I might be running up against the limits of the stock of the power supply, since I’ve added a fan FALL 1996 and it didn’t seem to help. Can you tell me my diagnosis might be right before I buy a heavy duty power supply? I have an Apple IIGS, a 4 MB RAM expansion card, a Ramfast/SCSI card, a Syquest 40 MV, hard drive, an AE 3.5” drive, an Apple 5.25” drive, a Super Serial Card, a Zip GS accelerator and a Quickie scanner. William Potten Deerfield, IL William: With that list of equip- ment, power supply strain is a defi- nite possibility. The problem may be compounded by the Zip accelerator— faster microprocessor chips tend to be more susceptible to heat and power supply problems than the normal 2.8 MHz chip. Even if the problem goes away when you take out the Zip, though, that doesn't mean the Zip is the problem. I believe your diagnosis is right-on. Dear Il Alive T own an Apple IGS and am experiencing a recurring and extremely frustrating problem—the computer just stops. In a variety of programs (PrintShop, AppleWorks, Writers’ Choice Elite and various games) the computer will, for no apparent rhyme or reason, freeze up. The only solution is rebooting, and sometimes this is necessary two, three, or more times. After that, the programs will run just fine—for a while. I've been on tech support phone lines forever and a local com- puter fix-it store, and no one can help. Is it time to purchase a Macintosh? Holly Lancaster Eugene, OR Holly: You don’t mention which if any, cards you have in your comput- er. It’s possible that the problem you are experiencing is related to over- heating or an overstressed power sup- ply, due to too many cards inside the computer. Apple recommends a fan when you have more than two cards in the computer and I'd suggest a heavy-duty power supply when you exceed four cards. So, if you have several cards inside the computer, I'd suggest removing some of them for a while and see if the problem decreases or goes away entirely—this will pinpoint a power supply deficiency. Try removing the top from the computer for a while as well—with all the cards in—to help determine whether the problem is overheating. Other things you could try: Check all cables to make sure that none of the pins are bent and that all con- nectors are firmly in place. Check all socketed chips in the computer to make sure that they're will seated and visually ensure that all the pins on each chip actually go into the socket and are not bent under the chip. Remove each card and inspect the gold fingers for corrosion or dirt, then reinstall the cards making sure they're firmly seat If none of th you can try te rized Apple to run diagnostic Jind the pro in Arbue dl PERIPHERALS UPGRADES - Scuoo. & New Arie 1 Propucts Comine! UNiversity P.0.s Accepten! - Scuoor Qty. Discounts Avaiasie* RAM Cuirs PERIPHERAL CARDS App.e Cuirs & ROMs. Call for Chips Not Listed! //e & //c Related IOU/MMU_344-0020/0010. bear Apple //e or Il+ an /4116.50¢ Expanding your ein ligs Memory Cakd 41 CORAM, A’RAMWorks, Super Expander & Compatibles 768K Exp. Set (24 41256 41256... Expanding Your GS Juice+, 5 RAM + / IL, CV Tech or Chinook 4000 41024 (1 Meg) «. IIgs M/B Exch $99. ROM3... $149. 00 //e Keyboard. IIgs Keyboard Exchang IIgs Keyboard. /}e, /1e./ lige Case” $10./515.00 igs baie (ROM 01 or 03)....$6.95 Power Supplies 35. ip GS. 7Mhz / 32K Cache. 62256 -20ns ((32K x 8)).. Zip Chip 8 Mhz (//e, //c Super Serial Card IW-II 32K Buffer 20 Pin 5.25" Disk Cont. 19 Pin 5.25" Disk Cont. I[+ 80 Column Card..... Ilgs,e,c to ImageWriter I/II. Laser 128 Parallel Cable... {fe Serial > Parallel Converter 9 00 Fullnet Connector 4.95 Switch Boxes. ADB Replacement cable SCSI Cable, 25-50 or 50~ 4464 Zi 8087-2 16 Pin Joystick Il+,// 9 Pin Joystick, IIgs. Apple elas System 60.1 & Man636.00 ‘Mouse Exch $39.00 .Refurb$49.00 i $2: Refurbished Printers 101 Keyboard for PCT......... PCT IBM Keyboard Cable 3.5" 720K At 5.25” Transdrive. /PCT Mem. Ex] ath Co.) -on Drive $9.95 $12.95 ROM 342-0303 or 0304... ROM 322-0134 or 013 ROM 342-0133 or 02 Keyboard ROM 342-0132. HAL 342-0170 $14. KYBD Encoder AY3600PRO $9: 00 Bank ofS GrafStar II Graphic Parallel $35.00 Expanding Your Graphic Parallel (Grappler)....$45.00 _ ImageWriter I $79.00 PCE : CMS SCSI Card & Dis 39.00 ImageWriter I (Wide). c dines Gaes) 16K Language Card (JI+) ImageWriter II. Kee NIMU 344-0021 /0011 a Bankaee. NO SLOT CLOCK... IW-I/II Ribbons. ROM aS 57.00 Expanding Your OctoRAM, G IWII Color Ribboi TMG or GLU... Q-RAM GS, Pacemark 4 Meg RAM Card fi @e:1e) Comcato yp ua scar) Print Heads 6551. 1 Meg SIMM .. $14.00 METAL, GBS Sysops, HS Iw. 00 IWM 344-0041 Garvie hardware hndshk cables! “$14. IW-IL 00 Igs Related Motherboards/Service Parts iSwanen Replacement Cable. S19. 09 63C816 (Dip) ... $19.00 “7/¢ or //¢ MLB $49.00 19 Pin Drive Converter PC Transporter VGC 34480046-C (Upgrade) oy 4 344-0077-B (ROM 01). Other IIgs Chips ‘avaliable. Il+ Related ROM Set (C0-F8} $29.01 Other II+Chips..$3.00 to $71 jocal” SoundMeister! $29.00 $7.00 “....S is for Sound!” i Bring out the sound in your IIgs! It,//e .. 20 Meg Hard Di Alltech Electronics now has the IIgs Exch / No Exe $99.00 SoundMeister Stereo/ Digitizer /7/¢ Replacement Ext P/S . card, Unleash those hidden sounds //c External Power Supply . Works in the Apple //e or IIgs. in your Iigs today! Includes 2 disks of sounds/music! 69.00 Modems 100% Compatible with ProDOS & CS/OS FOCUS SoundMeister & Speakers....$84.95 2400 External 7 A naffordable alternative to networking, F Omron 20/5 i AS 20 Mag Intemal FOCUS Drive $9940 Apple / Hi e& Ee or at Eco — iniDin 8 cable. (Ilgs/Te+ 120 Meg Intemal FOCUS Drive ...$1591 rnal Hard Disk } 3 . Habe 332 BidleghtenalFOCUSDiven.siu00 FE 35 BED Da) B38 es i 5.25" Disk pest 100 i $3.00 Ask for our Mac & IBM Product Lists All h El e Cc 2618 Temple Heights Oceanside, CA 92056 tec ectronics Go. 9-5:30 PM Mon.-Fri 619/724-2404 @ School & Govt POs All other Inquiries: & Tech oh Fax (School PO's, Quotes, Info World Wide Web Http://www.allelec.com _stouenrial systems aa Q:Talk LTO (AppleTalk & 32K for IW-ID....$69.00 tzing software i eae grabs | bit Mouse card $49.00 ....with m fromany video _ | SuperCOMM $54.00. uperCOMM ec. sas 00 source. des | DiscQUEST. $79. 00 RAM //c_ w/1024K Installed $119.00 available. DiscQuest: CD ROM for your IIgs! RAM Cards VisionPlusEnhanced Ics $149.00 Sequential Systems DiscPassage CD ROM Software Apple //e, //c & lcs RAM Card Available .Call Extended 80 Column Card... 19.00 DiscQuest (Incl. Family Doctor) $49.00 Apple Ilcs RAM Expansion (4 &8 Meg. See Above) DiscQuest & 2x CD (Refurb) --$ 99.00, DiscQuest, 2x CD & RAMFast...............-$ 219.00 2x NEC SCSI CD-ROM. $69.00 Hard Disks & Acessories (CMS SCSI Card w/3-1-90 ROM & Di: AEC FOCUS Hard Disk 20 Meg... Cables & Cases 25/25, 25/50 or 50/50 SCSI Cabl SCSI Single Ended 50 pin terminator .. SCSI Passthrough 50 pin terminator SCSI Case & P/S for 3.5" or 5.25" HH $29.00 CA Residents please add 7.75% Sales Tax * COD Orders, Cash/C warranty. # New products are covered by a one year warranty. All R Please call before shipping anything back to us. » A 20% Restocking, Ics Compatible RGB Monitor AppleColor RGB, Ics (Refurb) IIgs Compatible RGB Monitor & Cable... $129.00 Apple Monitor I[,_/£/' (Refurb)..$49.00/ oy 00 Apple Monitor //c (Refurb) ... Apple Color Composite (Refurb) . Si70 00 /¢ RGB Monitor (CGA Conversion)......9129.00 //¢ RGB Converter Box (Uses Ct $39.00 //c RGB Converter, Video 7, DB1. Composite Green (Refurb) Color Composite (Not for 619/724-2404 619/724-8808 Refurbished Apple Disk Drives: 5.25" Generic Full Height (Refurb)..........$39.00 5.25” Generic Full Height w/19 Pin........§49.00 Apple DuoDisk 5.25" Exch. $99.00 Apple Disk //¢ Assy $45.00 AppleDisk 3.5” (Refurb)... $139.00 Apple UniDisk 3.5” (Refurb, Limited Sth).....$139.00 AppleDisk 5.25" (Refurb) .. $129.00 Apple 3.5” 800K Drive Service Exchange: UniDisk, AppleDisk(Platinum), Mac $85.00 ed Funds Only * Minimum Shipping & Handling Charge $6.50 + Some products are refurbished products and carry a 120 day ranted for 120 days. « Some RAM Chips may be new but pulled, all RAM has a one year warranty. » NO Returns without an RMA number, is applied to all returns due to incompatibility or unneeded product or Products purchased in error. Please be sure what computer you have before placing an order. * Educational PO.s Accepted, Others on AOC only. * Prices and availability subject to change at any time without any notification whatsoever. “Discounts on certain merchandise only and min. Qty Applies.