Hello! This is my first post on this forum, and after doing a lot of scouring around for info about the Apple IIe I ordered off of ebay and about some related modern solutions for software, I thought I'd sign up here to share my experience so far and ask some (hopefully educated) questions to shore up what I'm still unsure of. I dug up an old Apple iPod Touch (felt poetic, also I misplaced my usb-c to 3.5mm adapter for my phone) in order to convey MECC-Computer Inspector onto a disk via a .wav "cassette" to run some checks and confirm what I have.
What I'm working with:
- Enhanced Apple //e with 128k of memory
- Installed cards:
- Slot 1 - Super Serial
- Slot 2 - (Empty)
- Slot 3 - (Empty)
- Auxiliary Slot - Extended 80 Column card
- Slot 4 - Mouse "or similar device"
- Slot 5 - Memory expansion with 512k
- Slot 6 - Disk II card (DuoDisk, so just one connector ribbon leading to the 19-pin D-shell port for the cable)
- Slot 7 - (Empty)
- RAM: Main, Auxiliary, and Memory expansion all test as Ok/Pass.
- Power supply opened and briefly inspected - appears to have WIFA capacitors, no RIFA capacitors found.
- Installed cards:
- DuoDisk Drive - Both drives appear to function fine, only makes audible noise for the boot-up and when formatting a disk (assuming it's due to the read/write head resetting its position).
- Apple ColorMonitor IIe - considerable cracks in the left side of the bezel, but otherwise seems to function fine, possibly some slight inward symmetrical warping on the lower left and right sides.
Additionally: Mouse, Joystick (effectively non-functional, will need repair), and a slew of software disks including AppleWorks and Printshop (haven't even looked into those yet and I don't have a printer for PrintShop anyway), various games both commercial and copied, and data disks with what appear to be the seller's childhood homework files.
Questions:
- Power supply - I didn't notice any obvious signs of damaged components or leaks, and instead of the yellow, paper-covered RIFA caps prone to pungent/smokey failure, this one appears to have the red, hard-plastic WIFA caps which from what I understand are "safer" and serve a different purpose. Anything else to look out for in terms of failing components acting as a ticking-time-bomb if not replaced?
- Data Storage - For the sake of nostalgia/the experience, I'd like to continue using the disks and the DuoDisk while they still function, but I'm leaning towards the BOMW Floppy Emu and "Yellowstone Card" as both a fall-back in the event they begin to fail and as a means to back up the previous owner's data (maybe I'm weird, but preserving someone's old data gives me a warm fuzzy feeling) before repurposing the writable disks. I've been reading that people typically say to put the Yellowstone card in Slot 5, but since I have that 512k expansion card in that slot, can I instead move the DuoDisk to Slot 7 to keep priority and put the Yellowstone card in Slot 6 without causing issues, or can the 512k card go somewhere else?
The case/shell is a bit grungy, but I've spotted a similar thread/question here about cleaning with lots of helpful info to work with. Hoping I can get that joystick working again (for choplifter!) and I've already been having a blast with Lode Runner, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, and Ultima! My apologies if I asked anything super redundant; I'm willing to simply click a link and read for myself if I've overlooked these answers elsewhere.
Thanks for reading!
The different numbered slots in an Apple use different address ranges in the I/O space ($C0##) so they are not interchangeable. Most software expects 5.25" drives to be in Slot 6 and 3.5" drives in Slot 5.
A Saturn memory card can be in any slot, but you would want to choose a slot that isn't required by another card. For example, Slot 3 is special because it is associated with the 80-column feature, but a memory card may be able to coexist in that slot.
I have never encountered an Apple II program or game that would not run from any slot, so I don't think the statement that most software expects the drive to be in one of those two slots is at all accurate. The only exception is software written in UCSD Pascal when residing in a ProDOS volume needs to boot from slot 4, 5 or 6, however that is a very rare case.
It is true. A lot of custom loaders expect the drive to be S6D1 and just quit/hang/get an error. Standard DOS or PRODOS, no problem, but many games with a custom loader will fail.
Can you provide at least one title that fails? I want to give it a try. I had my CFFA3000 emulate Disk II controller in slot 7 for years and never saw something that fails.
Thanks for the info, along with the other replies so far!
I'm not positive, but one of the chips has an Apple copyright on it so I'm assuming it's an Apple II Memory Expansion Card configured with 512k. I found what appears to be a manual or documentation for it with an image that seems to match the card, and it does state it can't go in the Auxiliary slot, or Slot 3 if something is in the Auxiliary slot. I did some card swapping, and landed with the Memory card in Slot 1 and the Serial card moved to Slot 2 and (hopefully) reconfigured for modem/communication, as I'm hoping to utilize a wimodem232 pro with the Apple IIe eventually (very eventually!). I've noted it seems AppleWorks is likely the software the last owner would have utilized the Memory card with, but I've barely dabbled with it so I can't confirm whether this move makes the Memory inaccessible or not, only that the diagnostic software could still read it, for what that's worth anyway. I may try swapping the Memory card back to Slot 5 and see if I notice a difference in Available Memory for AppleWorks when loading files into the desktop.
I did try temporarily moving the DuoDisk to slot 7, and again for whatever it may be worth, it still booted the same as if it were in Slot 6, with a couple of non-DOS/non-ProDOS programs booting just fine from Drive 1. Not exactly the scientific method, but I'm learning as I go!
Many disk utility programs like Locksmith and EDD expect the Disk II controller to be in slot 6.
No, I am not going to go through and test disk images for you. If you don't want to believe it or don't care, I don't either. Do whatever you want!
Both of these will work from any slot. EDD Plus 4.9 has the default slot number in the menu preset to 6, but this is just for convenience and you can change it within the program.
Don't bother, there are very few. Almost all of the Apple II software runs from any slot.