Hi All,
Just manged to find a good condition //e with almost everything I'd need....with one exception. A couple of questions:
1. The exception is no joystick. I don't recall the Apple joystick as being all that great...but I also don't recall being able to use a non-Apple joystick either. I saw what appears to be a USB converter on RetroConnector/Tindie but they are out of stock, and I don't really feel like paying $100 on eBay for something that even if it does work, won't last long. Any ideas on how to get a joystick that will work on the //e?
2. Also realizing I'm going to need floppy disks. Should I be looking for double density? I seem to recall that HD doesn't work consistently with the Apple drives, just confirming that.
Thanks for any help, so glad I have found this community!
I preferred using Gravis joysticks. I never thought Apple joysticks were better than any other.
5.25” HD floppies don’t work on an Apple II, you need the Double Density floppies. HD 3.5” floppies work on an 800k drive but aren’t reliable and best to be avoided unless you’re really stuck.
Several of the Kraft and CH joysticks have the IIe connector (a male 9-pin D-Sub) or the original Apple ][ gameport (a rather fragile 16-pin DIP plug). The Apple joystick was based on the Kraft design with some changes; because of the collector market, the unit with an Apple logo costs much more.
What about something like the SNES MAX ? Anyone use this (either the wireless or wired)?
This from that link...
"Let's be clear. The SNES MAX is not an Apple II joystick replacement. It does not operate via the Game Port. The SNES MAX uses the SNES controller protocol which reads the controllers serially just like how it's done on an SNES Console."
What that means is that this will only work with newly written or modified software. It will not work with ANY classic Apple II games. I would assume that the OP is looking for a joystick that plugs into the game port and can be used to play vintage 1980s games.
But... that project IS super cool.
That's something that didn't occur to me. Being new to all of this, it didn't click with me that it was not compatible with most old software. Thanks for the clarification. It would certainly make Petscii Robots a lot more enjoyable, though ;-)
A recently released game like that has a lot more chance of having an update to support something like this than a vintage game to which the source code is probably long gone, and in sadly too many cases, the authors may not even be alive anymore.
There is a SNES/Genesis/2600 adaptor that works with regular software. It obviously drops the analog and only supports 2 buttons. But that's all you need for 99% of the games out there.
You can also make an adapter that allows you to plug PC joysticks into Apple computers.
http://www.apple2faq.com/knowledgebase/pc-apple-ii-joystick-adapter/
(Don't skimp on the optonal trimmers. You'll need them)
This was my first solution
You can also DIY your own joystick. This is the path I ended up taking.
Quinn "Blondihacks" Dunki has the best documentation on this: http://quinndunki.com/blondihacks/?p=2225
(I thought I'd done a writeup on it. It's here at the bottom! https://ilike8bits.com/2021/03/01/unbreaking-things/)
Hope these options help.
Chesh