Hello all - considering the AppleSqueezer GS accelerator for my ROM01 IIGS (Woz edition, ROM00 upgraded to 01 back in '86). Niek mentioned to me that he hasn't tested the 5.25" Disk ][ drives with controller card - can anyone confirm if they work? I still have two 3.5" drives and two Disk ]['s and would like to use them.
I'm suspecting mine is an early production IIGS, purchased in June '86, and might be affected by some of the sound issues mentioned by other folks. I'll be forwarding pics of my motherboard to him to see if it's one of those.
Thanks in advance!
You mean Disk ][ drives with the IDC-20 cable or Apple 5.25" Drives (aka UniDisk 5.25) with the DB19 connector and daisy chain pass-through? The latter are normally what would be recommended with a IIgs. The older style Disk ][ drives require either a DB19 cable adapter or use of a Disk ][ Controller Card and slot 6 set to "my card" on the IIgs. Neither of those are really great options.
Old school Disk ][ drives with the Disk ][ controller card. Vintage 1982-1983. They worked fine back in the day - no issues. Used them originally with my Apple ][ Plus from 12/82 and moved them to the IIGS. Yes, slot 6 set to "my card".
I don't see any reason why those wouldn't work the same with or without the accellerator since the slots always run at 1MHz even in a IIgs. Most people back in the day got the newer style 5.25" drives so they could daisy chain them with 3.5" drives. That's probably why the AppleSqueezer developer never bothered to test with the older style drives and controller.
Thanks for reply - yes, the slots run at 1 MHz - forgot about that. The Apple 5.25" drive is specifically called out as incompatible by the developer - through the built-in connector. He didn't test the Disk ][ and controller because no hardware on hand. I'll likely serve as the guinea pig for this one.
Back in '86 most of us didn't bother buying newer 5.25" drives since we already had Disk ]['s from our ][ Plus and //e machines. 3.5" disks were all the rage - that's what everyone bought. Very few folks I knew had Unidisks or Duodisks.
Most people I know bought at least one Unidrisk 5.25 if they didn't already have one with their IIgs because they wanted to use some non-IIgs specific software, most of which came on 5.25" floppies. The Doudisk required a hardware mod to be safe to use on a IIgs if I remember right, although I knew of a few people who had them left over from a previous //e. I don't remember very many people using Disk ][ drives on a IIgs because they wanted to daisy chain in 3.5" disk because like you say that was the rage at the time, and also what most IIgs specific software shipped on. I personally never had a IIgs until wayyy after the Apple II era... I never had the money. My $$$ were into a fully decked out //e system and a couple of ][+ I still had. I went from the //e to a Mac Plus, then Mac II, then IIfx then to Linux on x86. I bought a IIgs in the 2000s when they were cheap. When I got it I was able to buy a pretty complete system including the IIgs color monitor, two 3.5" drive and two Apple 5.25 drives. About the only thing I added to it was a MicroDrive Turbo and a Manilla Gear stereo card.
I am curious about why the 5.25 drives don't work with the AppleSqueezer. I'd been considering getting one, but that would be a big negative if there isn't a way around it. Maybe not the end of the world. I know the MicroDrive Turbo has to have DMA turned off to work with the AppleSqueezer, which is a bummer too, not not necessarily a deal breaker.