looking for: Option Board, Trackstar, Turnover Card or similars

From: Don Maslin <donm_at_cts.com>
Date: Sun Dec 21 00:44:31 2003

On Sat, 20 Dec 2003, Fred Cisin wrote:

> > > > I would like to read/write apple II disks directly
> > > > from my PC. Searching the web I read about the
> > > > following hardware cards for PC:
> > > > -Option Boards (made by CentralPoint);
> > On Sat, 20 Dec 2003, Fred Cisin wrote:
> > > You need the "DELUXE" Option Board.
>
> On Sat, 20 Dec 2003, Don Maslin wrote:
> > Fred, to my knowledge either version of the Option Board will do
> > no more than extract a pure binary copy of the disk and present
> > that in hex form. No translation into text or other.
> That's right. IIRC, the Deluxe included some software for transferring
> files to/from Mac 400k/800K

That is true, but solves only a part of the problem. The bigger
half is getting the content of the Apple II disks onto the PC. TC
or TCM will write an image file to the hard disk (or another
floppy) but it is still a big lump of GCR and not individual
files.

Now, if these were Apple II CP/M disks and he had the appropriate
Uniform and MatchPoint software he could extract the individual
files readily and use them directly without the bother of the Mac
disk intermediary.

I just have not found a way to accomplish this end on AppleDOS or
ProDOS disks.

                                                - don

> > Have I missed something?
> YES:
> > On Sat, 20 Dec 2003, Fred Cisin wrote:
> > > Or consider the Catweasel as an alternative.
> > > Are you ready and willing to write your own software for the task?
>
> If he is not ready and willing to write a file system handler
> (or complete OS), then a working used Apple, the Apple Turnover
> (name changed to "Turnover" when Apple's lawyers contacted Vertex)
> or the MicroSolutions board ("Matchpoint"?? NOT "Compaticard!)
> would probably be the only options that would actually work for him.
>
> --
> Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin_at_xenosoft.com
>
Received on Sun Dec 21 2003 - 00:44:31 GMT