Apple II Support

[Verault]

I dont think your going to get any replies for that in the apple II firmware thread.

[Jeff]

It looks like the bootloader executable works under Wine, unfortunately it appears my GoTek may be dead. Nothing lights up on it even if I plug power directly into the power connector.

With boot0 in place, nothing will be displayed on the gotek.
please have a look to this :
https://hxc2001.com/docs/gotek-floppy-e ... ation.html

(you don't need to use the STM32_SerialBridge)

https://hxc2001.com/docs/gotek-floppy-e ... usb-method

have a look to the email you received with the license.

[Verault]

A few more folks have built a gotek with apple II firmware. Someone has even made a better PCB so you no longer have to make the cable!
https://www.applefritter.com/comment/10 ... ent-106638

[nerydf]

I've been following this as well, here and on AppleFritter, and to a lesser extent the FaceBook group. I've got a GoTek, I've got adapter boards ordered, and I'm eager to try it all out. Without having all the parts here to hook it up and try it yet, I'm confused about some of the operations:
1) With the Apple II firmware, is it possible to simply drag and drop disk images to the USB thumb drive? Or will we still have to convert all the images to .hfe?
Thank you!

[Jeff]

I've been following this as well, here and on AppleFritter, and to a lesser extent the FaceBook group. I've got a GoTek, I've got adapter boards ordered, and I'm eager to try it all out. Without having all the parts here to hook it up and try it yet, I'm confused about some of the operations:
1) With the Apple II firmware, is it possible to simply drag and drop disk images to the USB thumb drive? Or will we still have to convert all the images to .hfe?
Thank you!

Convert them to HFEv3

[nerydf]

Thanks Jeff! In the future will it ever be possible to use the native image files, or will it always be required to convert them?

[Jeff]

Thanks Jeff! In the future will it ever be possible to use the native image files, or will it always be required to convert them?

This will depend on my motivation and interest, the gotek version you use and the general interest on this (which is currently rather low.)

Personally i am fine with the current conversion : i batch convert the images, and the drag and drop feature on the batch convert window make it mostly transparent.

[nerydf]

I completely understand. I know you made this work for the Apple II years ago, and it seems like there may not have been much interest since then, but there seems to be a new surge of interest since "AnotherMaker" made the PCB adapter to make it easy to plug the GoTek into Disk II interface card. It appears there would be a lot more people who would like to use it than there are tinkerers that can make it work right now. With easy to get adapter boards, and native image format support I believe this could be a great product. The Apple people love throwing money at gadgets that make things easier (or shinier) for them.

Of course that all depends on what would make it worth it for you? Serious question. What would you need to get out of it to pursue it?

Thanks!

[Verault]

The apple community needs to show Jeff they are interested. So far they haven't done that. All he has seen is a bunch of them complain and whine about nonsense rather than build, help, or contribute to any of this.

This project needs people to build them and contribute. Contribute to decoding how the disk ii and smartport drives communicate to see if we can get 3.5" and smartport access. Asking for Jeff to just do it without a community helping out will lead to nothing......

And "Native image support".... This too is nonsense. Jeff recently added WOZ support to the HXC program. Have any of you tried the HXC program out?! Its amazing.. I myself deal in MANY MANY types of 3.5", 5.25", and 8" floppy disks and manipulating disk images and writing to old drives would be impossible without the HXC program. It can convert all the Apple II disk images over to HXC format with the push of one button, why complain about it? The truth is the Apple community needs to join the rest of the retro computing community and contribute and stop asking for things to be handed to them.

Go give the HXC software a try. Its practically automated batch converting a whole usb stick. If you add more files, just batch convert the whole usb stick AGAIN! it only takes a few seconds and its the push of one button!

[nerydf]

Hi @verault, I agree that applefritter.com is not a great place to introduce new ideas. It seems to be a smaller group of older users. But there are several other forums/groups that are much more active and accepting (FB Apple II Enthusiasts is one). But that's why I came here directly to show great interest and enthusiasm for what Jeff has accomplished so far. The HXC program is great, though I was hoping for native image support like what Amiga and others already have. It's not nonsense, just convenience.

I don't know if I can attach files here, but I have raw 80 track dumps of both the DOS 3.3 and ProDOS disks in .SCP format that I'd like to submit for Jeff to look at. If he's not interested, then so be it. But that's why I asked what would make it worth it to him, to see if I have anything to offer.

Thanks

[Jeff]

I don't know if I can attach files here, but I have raw 80 track dumps of both the DOS 3.3 and ProDOS disks in .SCP format that I'd like to submit for Jeff to look at. If he's not interested, then so be it. But that's why I asked what would make it worth it to him, to see if I have anything to offer.

Thanks

You can send me some download link to hxc2001 at hxc2001 . com
if you prefer i can also provide you an ftp access.

[Jeff]

About the direct image support : There are currently different formats for apple II : .do / .po / .dsk / .nib / .woz ... (anything else btw ?) .

Which one is preferred ? (i really don't know how are used all these available A2 floppy emulators today...)

I often see that the woz format is the "must to support" one. Is it true ?

[nerydf]

Hi Jeff,

I will send the file dumps shortly.

I just saw the updates on the Apple II page about the SFRKC30.AT2 Goteks with the small QFN32 AT32F415. This is exactly the model I got and was tearing my hair out trying to figure out why it would start to load a disk image and then loop until it took me to a settings page. Great catch regarding disabling the Extra Select Button. It now works as expected with the custom firmware!


Disk images of particular interest would seem to be:

• .dsk/.do 16 sector DOS 3.3 files (http://fileformats.archiveteam.org/wiki ... ector_disk)
  .po 16 sector ProDOS files (http://www.easy68k.com/paulrsm/6502/PDOS8TRM.HTM)
  .woz flux level files (https://applesaucefdc.com/woz/)
  .nib
  .2mg files are mainly 3.5" disks for the Apple II GS crowd.

.dsk/.do (they are the same "DOS Order" and the .dsk/.do extensions are interchangeable, though the .dsk seems to have won out over the years).
.po (ProDOS Order)

.nib files were popular up to about 2002, but everything is .dsk, .po these days.

.woz is the new kid on the block and was originally for preservationists to make exact flux level copies of disks. Though this makes it nice to run original copy protected software without any hacks/cracks, so it is gaining favor.

Here is another discussion about the formats:
https://retrocomputing.stackexchange.co ... -disk-driv
And a good one here: https://gswv.apple2.org.za/a2zine/faqs/ ... S.html#006

THANK YOU

[Jeff]

I just saw the updates on the Apple II page about the SFRKC30.AT2 Goteks with the small QFN32 AT32F415. This is exactly the model I got and was tearing my hair out trying to figure out why it would start to load a disk image and then loop until it took me to a settings page. Great catch regarding disabling the Extra Select Button. It now works as expected with the custom firmware!

i will probably add this specific firmware build into the firmware archive to avoid this step.

about the image support i will consider the po/do dsk images first.

[nerydf]

i will probably add this specific firmware build into the firmware archive to avoid this step.

about the image support i will consider the po/do dsk images first.

A question - with the Extra Select Button disabled, does that mean if we do add a rotary encoder using the KC30 Rotary Header (JK & J8), that the push button selector won't work?

Thank you!