I'm looking to use an Apple IIe with 'Total Replay' but my financial situation rules out a modern mass-storage solution (e.g. Floppy Emu,
CFFA). So instead thinking about using vintage-era options I already
have on the shelf: a SCSI controller and external 52x CD-ROM drive.
So, I have a pair of RamFAST Rev C SCSI boards, but the ROM
firmware isn't the latest. One has version 2.01 (in both U15/U16)
while the other has 3.01e *but* 2.01 in U16. Will this combination
work, and support removable storage? (it's been so long I cannot
remember the specific differences between ROM revisions).
I'm almost a bit hesitant to use a RamFAST in a IIe, but I'm
guessing its fast ProDOS-8 performance should be comparable to
what I've experienced with my IIGS's. If not, would I be better off
using one of my Apple High-Speed SCSI controllers to operate a
CD-ROM instead?
And on a side-note, what is the best way to create a bootable
ProDOS CD for Total Replay? Anything on the Windows side,
or will I have better luck using software on my beige G3 Mac?
We support SCSI drives in Total Replay, at least, so if you can hook up a
CD you should be able to run but not save high-scores.
I don't know anything about the ROM revisions, so I can't answer that part.
I also don't know if you'll be able to boot it directly from CD because I don't
know what the boot-sector looks like. If it presents like a hard disk then okay.
If not, then not. However, if you boot from a floppy into BitsyBye or similar, then
you can select the CD drive and run the LAUNCHER.SYSTEM from it.
Let me know if you get it mostly running but some games fail. I can fix the failures.
It has been a long time since I played with my SCSI hardware. I have a >couple CFFAs now. What's worse is I hardly ever turn on the hardware >anymore. Finding time to do all the things I want is always a problem.
I believe at one point I was using a RamFAST with v3.01ez firmware (I
think v3.01f was the latest)
that I had connected to a 1.2 GB SCSI hard drive. I had an Apple High
Speed SCSI card connected to a CD-ROM drive.
I'm pretty sure the RamFAST did work with the CD-ROM drive but because
I had such a large hard drive with 11 ProDOS and 1 HFS partitions, that
used up all 12 partitions the RamFAST firmware could handle so I put the >CD-ROM on a separate controller.
Also, if I recall correctly, the RamFAST couldn't detect when you changed >disks in the CD-ROM drive but the AHS card could.
As you are planning on just hooking up the CD-ROM drive, I don't think
it really matters which card you use as you would be rebooting all the
time anyway so being able to detect a disc change isn't important.
However, with the RamFAST, I think you would have to access the firmware
(I believe it was hold down the zero key when booting) and map any
partitions on the CD to get them to show up properly.
I'm 99.9% sure that you can boot CD-ROMs on the Apple II but I couldn't
tell you how to set one up or even if both types of SCSI card support
it. I think that some of the CD-ROMs that exist for the Apple II are >bootable. I'd have to pull out my collection or do some online research
to find out and see if there are any details on how it was accomplished.
The only issue is it's a faulty Zip drive I retired from my IIGS, and keeps clicking at random (yeah, that fun click-of-death issue). Good
enough for testing purposes for now, until if/when I can repair it.
I DID find a fix for recovering Zip cartridges that were corrupted
by the clicking drive. Couldn't get those disks to format on my Macs
or PCs, but the RamFAST's built-in utility was able to low-level
format and resurrect the disks!
On 6/15/22 12:10 AM, Mitchell Spector wrote:
[...]
The only issue is it's a faulty Zip drive I retired from my IIGS, and >> keeps clicking at random (yeah, that fun click-of-death issue). Good
enough for testing purposes for now, until if/when I can repair it.
I don't think "repair" and "Zip drive" generally appear in the same
sentence, except in the negative. Do please let us know if you find
such a thing to be possible - I go through them with some regularity.
Still actively using a SCSI Jaz and Zip drive on my IIGS (most of my
SCSI hardisks have failed or too noisy), but not sure I'd be able to
ever switch to a CFFA after being spoiled by the speed of the
RamFAST.
I still need to sort through my Apple II stuff. I really should get
stuff that I'm not using and am just storing into the hands of people
who will actually use it.
So, I have a pair of RamFAST Rev C SCSI boards, but the ROM
firmware isn't the latest. One has version 2.01 (in both U15/U16)
while the other has 3.01e *but* 2.01 in U16. Will this combination
work, and support removable storage? (it's been so long I cannot
remember the specific differences between ROM revisions).
I'm almost a bit hesitant to use a RamFAST in a IIe, but I'm
guessing its fast ProDOS-8 performance should be comparable to
what I've experienced with my IIGS's. If not, would I be better off
using one of my Apple High-Speed SCSI controllers to operate a
CD-ROM instead?
And on a side-note, what is the best way to create a bootable
ProDOS CD for Total Replay? Anything on the Windows side,
or will I have better luck using software on my beige G3 Mac?
Mitchell Spector <mitch2gs@hotmail.com> wrote:
So, I have a pair of RamFAST Rev C SCSI boards, but the ROM
firmware isn't the latest. One has version 2.01 (in both U15/U16)
while the other has 3.01e *but* 2.01 in U16. Will this combination
work, and support removable storage? (it's been so long I cannot
remember the specific differences between ROM revisions).
I'm not sure what firmware version I have, but I can't even get a CD-ROM >drive working with it in a IIGS, let alone a IIe. I ended up swapping in an >Apple DMA SCSI card, which does work.
I'm almost a bit hesitant to use a RamFAST in a IIe, but I'm
guessing its fast ProDOS-8 performance should be comparable to
what I've experienced with my IIGS's. If not, would I be better off
using one of my Apple High-Speed SCSI controllers to operate a
CD-ROM instead?
In a IIe, ISTR the RamFAST being a good bit quicker. Even with DMA disabled >so an accelerator can be used, it was faster.
And on a side-note, what is the best way to create a bootable
ProDOS CD for Total Replay? Anything on the Windows side,
or will I have better luck using software on my beige G3 Mac?
You could just burn a hard-disk image (with partition table) to a CD. If
you don't have such an image to burn, you could (if I remember right) use >something like CiderPress to populate a ProDOS filesystem image with files, >and then prepend a partition table. As long as the first partition has a >file named PRODOS, it'll boot.
To create a partition table, I knocked together a little tool a while back: >[snip]
The use of the ProDOS file-system allows us to maintain compatibility with external ProDOS media (or to be launched via someone running ProDOS first).
Ah, that's Cadius. We ask it to create the folders for us. I wonder if it's uninitialised something being written out. I will check on this.
On Friday, June 17, 2022 at 12:10:37 PM UTC-7, qkumba wrote:
The use of the ProDOS file-system allows us to maintain compatibilitywith external ProDOS media (or to be launched via someone running ProDOS >first).
One minor compatibility point: the GS/OS lower-case flags are stored in
the version/min_version fields in the directory entry, but not for the >redundant filename entry in the directory header. Whatever is creating
the Total Replay images is sticking nonzero values into the header's >min_version field, which could potentially break something. (CiderPress >stores version=5, min_version=0 to mimic GS/OS.)
This appears to be the case in TR v4.0.1 and v5.0. Of course, if you
haven't seen something break by now, it's probably fine. :-)
cf. http://www.1000bit.it/support/manuali/apple/technotes/gsos/tn.gsos.08.html
In my opinion, that technote is a bit unclear on how this should work.
I guess you've looked at GS/OS images, and subdirectory headers should not change: $1c,$1d should be VERSION and MIN_VERSION, and there are no lower_case flags, right (they DO NOT move to $16,$17 like the volume header)?
On a totally unrelated note, ProDOS 8 tech note #30 reveals something >interesting. It suggests the following P8 BASIC.System command for
creating a massively sparse file:
BSAVE SPARSE.FILE,A$300,L$1,B$FFFFFF
Of course, if you write 1 byte to $ffffff, you create a file whose EOF
should be $1000000, which is impossible. However, the write succeeds
and you can even read it back, because it's actually storing the last
byte at the end of the block. The GS/OS FST doesn't seem to allow this.
One minor thing to note is that Total Replay does not use ProDOS
in any form. We use a custom bootsector to locate and load our
system file within the ProDOS file-system.The use of the ProDOS
file-system allows us to maintain compatibility with external ProDOS
media (or to be launched via someone running ProDOS first).
So, to make a CD that can boot Total Replay directly, you'd need
a way to copy our boot sector rather than the usual ProDOS one.
Otherwise, you can put the regular ProDOS boot-sector on there,
and your ProDOS system file, so that ProDOS boots first.
qkumba <peter.ferrie@gmail.com> wrote:
One minor thing to note is that Total Replay does not use ProDOS
in any form. We use a custom bootsector to locate and load our
system file within the ProDOS file-system.The use of the ProDOS
file-system allows us to maintain compatibility with external ProDOS
media (or to be launched via someone running ProDOS first).
So, to make a CD that can boot Total Replay directly, you'd need
a way to copy our boot sector rather than the usual ProDOS one.
Otherwise, you can put the regular ProDOS boot-sector on there,
and your ProDOS system file, so that ProDOS boots first.
Interesting, did not know that! On a side note, I found an old
Quantum ProDrive LPS 105 in storage and installed that in an
external SCSI enclosure. I created 3 x 32 MB partitions and a
small 4 MB partition, and hooked it up to the Apple IIe with
RamFAST.
I just dragged all the Total Replay files onto the first partition
and to my surprise, it automatically boots up on the IIe and gets
directly to the Total Replay title screen/menu!
I'm actually impressed by the speed, it boots up instantly
once the RamFAST detects the drive, and I can zip right
through the game selection list holding down the left/right
arrow keys. Games load nearly instantly too--almost as
efficiently as Total Replay on my IIGS with RamFAST D.
I may eventually still try the CD-ROM option just to see
if it can't be done, but this hardisk solution is far better,
and a noticeable improvement over the Zip drive too!
I've actually had a pair of RamFAST Rev C boards
for over 20 years, but had little to no incentive to add
mass storage to my 8-bit II's. That is, until Total Replay!
Mitchell Spector
To create a partition table, I knocked together a little tool a while back:
https://alfter.us/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/prodos-parttbl-gen.tar.gz
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