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Silvereel

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 19, 2010
349
1
I've been wanting an old computer for a long time, to play my favorite games on (like Ultima and Zork!) so I picked up an Apple IIGS from ebay. I've never used anything beyond game consoles this old, and I found a manual. Believe it or not Apple is still hosting manuals for these old products on their website!
I was just wondering if there was anything I should know before using it? How do I take care of it and ensure a long life, and what about taking care of or possibly copying my floppies (I picked up one that is very rare, but it's also in pretty bad shape but still working).
 
I've been wanting an old computer for a long time, to play my favorite games on (like Ultima and Zork!) so I picked up an Apple IIGS from ebay. I've never used anything beyond game consoles this old, and I found a manual. Believe it or not Apple is still hosting manuals for these old products on their website!
I was just wondering if there was anything I should know before using it? How do I take care of it and ensure a long life, and what about taking care of or possibly copying my floppies (I picked up one that is very rare, but it's also in pretty bad shape but still working).

nice find, you will want to backup the floppies although i don't know how to back them up
 
nice find, you will want to backup the floppies although i don't know how to back them up

I know, I was hoping someone might be able to let me know. Sadly I don't expect them to be nearly as durable as say, a cartridge, and probably not even as much as a CD ROM, but I don't have much experience with floppies.
 
I have a bunch of 5.25" and 3.5" (and even a couple 8") floppies that I haven't touched in years. No idea if they are still any good either...you need to keep them in a cool, dry environment.

More importantly, once you get your IIgs running, get a box of new floppies and back up every disk you own.
 
Don't bend the floppy disk or anything, even if it looks like fun. Keep floppies away from televisions and other static or magnetic appliances.
 
I remember them actually being pretty resilient when I used them. Now that was in the 80's, but if they've been kept somewhere safe they should last. I know CD's start to degrade after 7 years or so. I haven't heard of floppies breaking down. Congratulations on your purpose!
 
I remember them actually being pretty resilient when I used them. Now that was in the 80's, but if they've been kept somewhere safe they should last. I know CD's start to degrade after 7 years or so. I haven't heard of floppies breaking down. Congratulations on your purpose!

i have my dads mac plus and i have only found about 5 failed disks out of the 150 - 200 disks i have
 
How do I take care of it and ensure a long life, and what about taking care of or possibly copying my floppies (I picked up one that is very rare, but it's also in pretty bad shape but still working).
Keeping it clean, and under good climate-control, will help a lot. Vintage electronics can hold up remarkably well when there isn't anything to speed up corrosion or component failure. I have Apple systems over 30 years old that haven't required any fixes beyond cosmetic ones, though some of that is surely luck.

If you're really into preventive maintenance, then open up your Apple IIGS and clean the heck out of it. Dust it, get rid of any bugs or bug byproducts. You may want to remove the power supply to get at everything. Check for corrosion or other buildup on the DIPs (socketed ICs) and reseat them (very carefully!) if needed. Ensure the contacts on any interface cards are clean.

As for floppy disks, you can use a wonderful program called ADTPro to rip images from your disks, as well as transfer them back. It makes use of the IIGS's built-in modem port, and you may have to acquire a cable or two.

Finally, I'll mention a couple of excellent resources:

1. The Asimov archive. It's an enormous repository of Apple II disk images, documentation, and emulators; it exists entirely through user contributions and is the single best resource around for Apple II materials.

2. comp.sys.apple2, a vibrant community of Apple II fanatics with an outstanding level of technical expertise. Some of them have been using Apple II computers since before the term "personal computer" was even common. They're very helpful and friendly and I encourage you to poke your head in if you have questions - or even if you don't! :)

Apple II Forever!
 
Dude, you could just like use an amulator

One Day I came across an Apple iigs emulator. I thought it was risky, but i decided to download it. It turns out, it doesn't slow down your pc, or do anything bad to it. Activegs can run disk images from iigs floppies to iigs programs posted on the internet. I'm not sure if it's for mac or not. It works fine on my windows pc(I'm getting a mac soon).
 
One Day I came across an Apple iigs emulator. I thought it was risky, but i decided to download it. It turns out, it doesn't slow down your pc, or do anything bad to it. Activegs can run disk images from iigs floppies to iigs programs posted on the internet. I'm not sure if it's for mac or not. It works fine on my windows pc(I'm getting a mac soon).

ActiveGS is pretty neat, but sometimes it's more fun to run it on the machine itself, for that extra vintage feeling.

I personally don't care what machine I run things on if I can emulate it inside of an emulator or have it inside of a VM.
 
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