What's the current state of Apple II support?

HxC Floppy emulator support for all others computers...
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cjs
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Joined: Sun Sep 08, 2019 8:34 am

What's the current state of Apple II support?

Post by cjs »

I have an Apple IIc along with various other 80s microcomputers, and it would be nice to be able to use one floppy drive emulator for all of them rather than buying a custom one for for the Apple IIc.

So what's the current state of HxC support for Apple II? I know that people have gotten it to work (as early as 2013, in this YouTube video), but I don't see any instructions or support material related to this, nor is Apple II listed in any lists of supported computers that I can find. I tried to load the Apple DOS 3.3 Master Disk image (the .DSK file) into HxCFloppyEmulator v2.1.24.1 on Windows, but it claimed that the disk had "56 track(s) 1 side(s)," which is clearly not correct. (The disk has 35 tracks.)

Also, is Apple II support limited to some platforms, or is it available on all hardware that runs HxC (including e.g. Gotek)?

I understand that the Apple II floppy interface is quite different from the standard Shugart SA 400 interface, and I don't mind doing minor amounts of hardware hacking if that's what it takes to get things working. I expect to handle building internal and/or external cables for my Apple IIc myself, and building up small circuits on breadboard or protoboard isn't an issue, if that's also needed.

Also, if any work on the host software side is required, I mainly use Linux. I've got plenty of experience with writing and building software on that platform.

Jeff
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Re: What's the current state of Apple II support?

Post by Jeff »

Current state :

HxC software :

Import .do and .nib files. (your ".dsk" are a ".do" file. just change the extension).
Export to normal hfe (for Apple HxC custom firmware) or to HDDD A2 hfe (for normal HxC or Gotek HxC with HDDD A2.)

Firmware:

Custom firmware for Slim HxC done, read only mode. You need to do a custom cable...

All others HxC firmware should works out the box if you have the HDDD A2.

General issue with direct A2 support (without the HDDD A2) : The motor head step command need 4 wires instead of 2 for normal shugart : There is 2 more inputs to found on the current hardware (HxC & Gotek) to make a full R/W support.

More at : viewtopic.php?f=19&t=1177

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