Hello! I hope I have the right forum!
Recently I purchased an Apple IIgs disk called "Paper Models: The Christmas Kit" by Activision. I don't have a IIgs, and I'm very excited to use the disk, but I'm not sure how to go about accessing it with an emulator.
It's a typical 3.5" floppy that fits in a PC's 'A' drive. I'm using Windows XP, and I'm hoping there's an emulator that can access the disk right from the PC's drive. Or I perhaps there's a way to make a disk image? I tried using Omniflop (which I believe can read other MFM formatted disks) but it doesn't recognize this one. (I do have a Mac, but it doesn't have a floppy drive.)
I'm familiar with transferring data between a Commodore and a PC for use with a Commodore emulator, so hopefully I just need to be pointed in the right direction. Any advice is greatly appreciated!
Michael
You certainly have.
Well, hmmm. The way you would use it with an emulator would be to have the disk imaged or find an image of it already online. Like a .d64 for the Commodore, you need to get it in electronic form first.
No, there's no software that can make your PC's MFM floppy drive capable of reading the Apple's GCR-encoded disk. The only hardware solution that exists is a Catweasel card (a floppy drive controller).
Yes. With real Apple II hardware or some really old Mac hardware, you could read and image this disk. But that's about the only way.
Alas, that's not going to work. MFM can't read GCR. And even with the Mac, unless it's a beige G3 or older, it's not capable of driving the variable-speed disk mechanism needed for 800k Apple disks. Hardware is incompatible on two fronts: the encoding method and the drive speed variability!
Hmmm. Apples and... oranges.
Harsh... Hopes dashed... happiness faultering... I kind of suspected as much, but wanted to be hopeful. Mostly I bought the package to get the manual, etc. because when I (rarely) see it for other computers, it's missing everything. Well, maybe one day I'll pick up a IIgs for fun! Thank you anyway for your informative response!
PS. With Omniflop, I was thinking of the fact that Commodores used GCR formatted disks similar to Apple, but I forgot that when Commodore released their 3.5" floppy drive they switched to MFM.
A bit late, but I thought I'd update this post! I've found a disk image and have captured all the model parts from the IIgs version of The Christmas Kit. I've posted them on this page:
christmaskit.wordpress.com
There's also a link for the Commodore version of The Toy Shop, another paper modeling program.
Michael